Future Developments in Substation Design

54
Mark Osborne

Contents
54.1 Evolution of Substations to Date . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1068
54.1.1 Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1068
54.1.2 Looking Ahead . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1068
54.2 Digital Substations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1070
54.2.1 Automated System Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1071
54.2.2 Asset Awareness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1071
54.2.3 Commissioning and Testing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1071
54.3 Novel Materials and Technologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1073
54.3.1 Drivers for New Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1073
54.3.2 Generic Issues to Consider . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1073
54.3.3 Commissioning and Testing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1074
54.3.4 Roles for New Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1074
54.4 Designing for Modularity and Flexibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1075
54.4.1 New Installation Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1076
54.4.2 Changing Attitudes to Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1077
54.5 DC Substations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1077
54.5.1 Design Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1078
54.5.2 Standards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1078
54.6 Chapter Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1078
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1079

The previous chapters have established the principles which underpin substation
design and management. This chapter will highlight some of the medium- and long-
term factors that could influence the direction of future substation design. It will
focus on changes in the energy landscape and new developments in technology that
may challenge the designer in their traditional way of thinking and consequently
affect the design process and asset management strategy.

M. Osborne (*)
Asset Policy, Engineering and Asset Management, National Grid, Warwick, UK
e-mail: mark.osborne@nationalgrid.com

# Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2019 1067

T. Krieg, J. Finn (eds.), Substations, CIGRE Green Books,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-49574-3_54
1068 M. Osborne

The role of the substation is likely to be affected in the coming decades as the
nature of generation and demand changes require society to adapt to sustainable and
renewable energy sources.

54.1 Evolution of Substations to Date

54.1.1 Background

The background for change has been discussed in many papers (Technical Brochure
380 2009; Technical Brochure 483 2011) and around the need to decarbonize the
electricity industry. Alternative sources of generation and uptake in demand side
energy management will impose new challenges and characteristics on the substa-
tion, whether it is a generator, transmission, or grid supply point.
In the 1996 CIGRE Paris session, a paper was published (The Future Substation
1996) entitled “The Future Substation: a Reflective Approach” (23-207) on behalf of
the Substation study committee. The position paper provided an excellent assess-
ment of the substation community’s thinking at the time on issues which would
challenge substation design and operation in the future. It refined the decision-
making criteria down to four elements:

• Functionality – what is necessary

• Technology – what is feasible
• Economics – what is affordable
• Environment – what is acceptable

The chapter highlighted that the role of the substation is an enduring one, but it
will need to adapt in response to many changes. These include the external impact of
new generation patterns coming about from renewables and demand side manage-
ment making the network more complex. Changing aspects of society and stake-
holder expectations will also be influential in the need case for new substations. The
economics associated with new build especially where space is limited will influence
the choice of technology. The uptake of optimized configurations is anticipated
based on improved availability and faster replacement rather than duplication.
The capability and performance of modern equipment will influence the config-
uration and operational philosophy employed in new substations. Better reliability
and increasing automation along with new methods of monitoring and asset man-
agement may prioritize design away from routine maintainability to risk and reli-
ability focused intervention.

54.1.2 Looking Ahead

The issues back in 1996 are still very relevant; however, there have been some
additional changes since then which may reprioritize the thinking. As we look
54 Future Developments in Substation Design 1069

towards 2050 from a substation design and operation perspective, utilities

need to adopt philosophies which, to a greater extent, consider the following
scenarios:

• Rising temperatures, rising sea level, and increasing occurrence of extreme

weather conditions will affect the substation physical environment.
• The impact of substation and energy infrastructure on the environment.
• Increasing role of external “stakeholders” in decision making that will affect the
substation lifetime.
• Existing substation assets will be driven harder and under different network
conditions from those perceived decades ago when they were specified,
manufactured, and tested.
• The role of energy storage in the balancing of society’s energy needs.
• New operating environments will emerge offshore, possibly submarine and in
time outer-space.

Energy will become more dispersed across different technologies and applica-
tions requiring greater coordination of many sources to provide safe, reliable, and
efficient energy services. Success will be measured in the effectiveness and resil-
ience of a substation to address elements of the scenarios described above. The
following four design aspects are likely to be key factors which will influence future
substation construction, operation, and management.

1. There will need to be higher energy density solutions driven by

(a) Smaller and compact installations
(b) Increasing urban energy demand
(c) Constrained space limitations
2. Progressive move towards low carbon footprint solutions in order to
(a) Improve efficiency
(b) Decrease substation emissions (or possibly replace SF6) and
(c) Minimize the use of natural resources and carbon intensive materials such as
concrete
3. Substations need to become more “modular” such that they will be
(a) Quicker and simpler to install
(b) Flexible configurable designs to meet different applications
(c) Secure and robust as energy becomes more integrated into communities
4. Substations will require telematics to
(a) Better utilize these information rich sources to improve network operation
(b) Monitor system performance and asset health
(c) Develop prognostic tools to optimize system accessibility and downtime

These additional influences introduce the need to consider different strategies

and technologies to manage the impact relative to the utility. However, these
will introduce different risks, maintenance, and certification requirements
which will significantly impact upon the design and operation of the substation
itself.
1070 M. Osborne

The adoption of new technologies will require utilities and solution providers to
establish new skills and disciplines. This may become burdensome for utilities to
retain a larger range of skills to cater for the broad scope of asset types across their
network from electro-mechanical systems, solid state microprocessor, numerical
algorithms, Ethernet services, communication protocols to new cyber security
functions.
Utilities need to derive value from their business. Therefore, the asset manage-
ment strategy (Institute of Asset Management) needs to be foremost at the design
concept stage, rather than an afterthought. This may drive the concept of service
provision and the need for performance metrics much as other public sector services
have experienced. This in turn may support the case for faster installation and
modular solutions requiring an alternative approach to fault management and per-
formance monitoring.

54.2 Digital Substations

There is no doubt that digital solutions are available and will proliferate in future
substation build. The challenge is how to harness this economically and effectively
while retaining the dependability and reliability required for a substation.
There is a vast potential to be realized from the latent capability within digital
substation automation. This can be loosely apportioned into two areas:

• Automated system operation. Using functions such as wide area monitoring to

inform regional and network level control and protection
• Asset diagnostics and prognosis. Utilizing data within the relays to provide better
knowledge of plant status, ability to employ remote servicing, etc.

IEC 61850 will drive the deployment of microprocessor technology into the
substation environment. This is possibly the most significant shift that will be seen
in substation technology since the replacement of air blast and oil-based insulation
with SF6.
In addition to the deployment of IEC 61850, the development of a common
information model (CIM) along with object orientated messaging will enable new
systems to communicate between different manufacturer solutions. These applica-
tions rely on the integrity of communication systems and data management to ensure
reliable and secure operation. These issues are being addressed through various
smartgrid initiatives and trials. This is demonstrating an issue that utilities have
traditionally avoided which is heavy reliance on external services and systems to
assure substation operability.
“SmartGrid” has been a very over-used word. However, at its heart is the ethos of
making the network more effective, whether through better awareness or better
decision making tools.
This does not necessarily require high tech solutions, but access to and the
utilization of information on which decisions can be made. The key role of the
54 Future Developments in Substation Design 1071

substation in the delivery of smartgrids will center on the enabling information

technology infrastructure and implementing the security necessary for the appropri-
ate level of data access and management.

54.2.1 Automated System Operation

Substation automation is well established and discussed in the previous chapters.

The future will be about expanding this capability beyond the substation perimeter
and coordinating multiple substations and regions of the power system.
Careful thought will be required to establish and implement the appropriate control
hierarchy and resilience to manage risks around asset unreliability, such as failure to
function or inadvertent operation. As these systems grow in size and criticality, the
impact of mal operation becomes much more significant, so safeguards must be
established to limit the effect of any un-intended operation at a regional level.
This complexity is a key risk factor which needs to be evaluated and understood
at the design stage where simpler or socially undesirable options are not chosen on
economic merit alone. This is likely to drive the development of better modelling
and testing solutions.

54.2.2 Asset Awareness

The capacity for monitoring and sensing within the substation has come on leaps and
bounds. This will grow exponentially as utilities try to improve reliability and
availability of the system through better informed decision making based on the
increased extent of data available from the substation.
This enhanced capability needs to be tempered with the fact that in order to take
more risk, the engineer needs to be more knowledgeable and confident in the validity
and integrity of their data and decisions. Poorly informed decision making could result
in more unreliability or, even worse, danger to personnel or possibly the public.
The tools need to be robust and reliable as they increasingly are used to underpin
business decisions.

54.2.3 Commissioning and Testing

Most legacy control and protection systems have some form of proprietary-based
communication and data structure. These systems will continue to operate for many
years and may not necessarily be replaced to make way for new IEC 61850 platform
technology. As such, solution integrators will need to develop interface protocol
converters to enable new and old to work together.
Modern telemetry will need to be interfaced with old legacy solid-state control
systems developed decades ago. Utilities need reliable, tried, and tested systems.
Moving to a new platform is inherently fraught with risk. Generally, this requires
1072 M. Osborne

new skills, equipment settings, spares, and methodologies. These systems need to
have good change management processes, and the energy industry should look to the
financial and telecoms sectors for examples of good practice.
Consequently, gradual migration tends to be favored which inherently prevents
achieving the most from the new technology. Timescale is very much a driver, where
a utility is constrained by the two paradigms:

• Establishing confidence in a new technology or platform takes time.

• Networks cannot be “just” replaced without impacting on security, safety, and
reliability.

The increasing use of power electronic and digital systems introduces a further
challenge in that the protection is integrated into the control of the power electronic
devices. This raises the question that utilities will need to think through their
commissioning program, i.e., the proving tests before the equipment is made live
onto the system. This will be particularly relevant for wide area automation where an
inadvertent operation may have a large network impact, since it will be impossible to
isolate a substation bar or similar onto which the application can be commissioned
with minimal impact.
The use of Hardware in the Loop testing (HIL) will go a long way to prove the
performance and integrity of these applications; however, further work is necessary
to ensure that the final installation and integration to the utility has been performed
correctly.
It will also be necessary to make these solutions easily extendable or modified as
system conditions change and more so, how to replace them when the hardware
either malfunctions or requires replacement due to obsolescence. This is a particu-
larly strong driver for interoperability and common communication protocols.
The maintenance, performance testing, and monitoring of smartgrid systems will
become a more automated process, utilizing the on-line connectivity of these
systems, to carry out regular polling and reports, which only highlight by exception.
These solutions will need to incorporate intelligent applications and decision support
tools capable of informing the utility when issues arise and any specific actions
which are necessary. This would seem to be a natural progression if we look at how
other industries have changed the nature of maintenance and services provision, e.g.,
car, photocopiers, and mobile phones.
This will further support asset management practices, which value the ability to
predict and establish the least regret option with respect to either the business climate
(regulatory) or societal climate and provide a robust mechanism to deliver the
services required of a substation. A successful implementation will center on the
ability to provide the following:

• Self-supervisory systems
• Self-initiating with fall back safety modes
• Structured testing regimes with appropriate levels of automation to fully evaluate
the capability of applications
54 Future Developments in Substation Design 1073

54.3 Novel Materials and Technologies

While there have been significant step changes in the substation automation and
communication sectors, the pace of change on the primary equipment side is much
more conservative.
This section highlights the opportunities and blockers for new materials and
technologies which could provide new applications or benefits to the energy systems
and their impact on the substation.
Study committee D1 “Materials” is responsible for many of these topics; how-
ever, their application and impact on the substation environment is the role for B3.

54.3.1 Drivers for New Materials

One of the reasons that some technologies seem to take a long time to gain
acceptance in the energy industry is that of being asked to try and find applications
for new materials as opposed to new technology providing solutions to industry
problems.
The challenge that all new technologies face is why would the utility install it? It
needs to be either cheaper than the current option, remove a major safety hazard or
risk and primarily not introduce any new risks. It will be necessary to have an
attitude to innovation and entrepreneurial spirit to bridge the proof of concept and
acceptability criteria.
While there will be gradual improvements and optimization in traditional substa-
tion equipment, the key areas where development is anticipated that will affect the
substation are that of power electronic applications and energy storage solutions.
These two will introduce new and different technologies into the substation sector.

54.3.2 Generic Issues to Consider

The energy industry is conservative by nature, and as such for a technology or

application to be successful, there needs to be an evidence trail to demonstrate
confidence in the performance, longevity, and reliability. Utilities historically have
liked to be the second to adopt a technology; however, as the energy sector becomes
more competitive this may be a differentiating factor rather than a luxury.
One of the demonstrations of confidence is testing, and if a reliable and robust
regime of testing methodologies can be quickly established to allay the engineers
concerns, this will go a good way towards bringing it onto the system.
Design standards, especially internationally agreed ones, help to bring new
technology along as it enables the substation designer and their commercial coun-
terparts to be able to compare and tender competitively to get a reasonable price and
avoid having bespoke solutions which can only be procured from one supplier.
The balance between innovation and standardization is addressed in ▶ Chap. 9
and TB 389 (Technical brochure 389 2009) which considers a number of different
1074 M. Osborne

aspects. One of the key points to note is that once a new concept is developed,
proven, and rolled out, this then should become a standard or business as usual
option such that commercial, operational, and population understanding can be
established. In the meantime, the organization can be developing the next innovative
application.

54.3.3 Commissioning and Testing

The testing of new technology to older standards and processes can be restrictive and
limit the implementation, so thought needs to be applied here to be considerate of
modern technology. One of the key issues towards reducing outage times is to
minimize the amount of testing that is carried out on site. Cooperation with the
equipment suppliers is required to ensure that they carry out the relevant tests to
provide the utility with the baseline information they require when the substation is
first put into service.
Detecting condition and failure of new materials will possibly require new
monitoring systems depending on the nature of the technology; however, these
will need to be suitably robust and functional for use in a substation environment.
The use of pilots and trials is an effective method to understand the type of tests
necessary to measure performance and commission the application safely. Once
established, this would speed up the roll out process without significantly increasing
the risk.

54.3.4 Roles for New Technology

At this time, the new emerging requirements in the electricity delivery arena center
on methodologies which support or deliver remote sensing and reliability indication.
This introduces a relatively low risk in terms of new concepts for the utility while
quickly and at a relatively low cost providing benefits and improving availability and
safety.

54.3.4.1 Composites
Composites provide opportunities for light weight, stronger, and more efficient
fabrication techniques to produce solutions which can be safer and lower cost to
produce, yet offer similar performance to the “traditional” materials associated with
HV equipment.
Substation safety is a key argument behind the use of composite materials,
typically where the failure mode is less destructive or catastrophic than associated
with traditional materials such as porcelain, concrete, and steel.
A further benefit is likely to be the opportunity to speed up the replacement of
switchgear modules or structures constructed with composite material such as
support insulators, bushings, and prefabricated buildings, without the need for cranes
or long duration construction programs.
54 Future Developments in Substation Design 1075

Furthermore, it is likely that the use of composite materials will be incorporated

into the designs of future high voltage equipment, but these are out of the scope of
this book.
The impact on the substation will be around integrating these new materials and
their impact on substation wide electrical phenomena such as earthing, impressed
voltage, EMF, and EMC performance. The longer-term issues which need to be
evaluate will be around whole lifetime performance, such as losses, maintenance
burden, failure modes, and effect and compatibility with other substation materials.

54.3.4.2 Nano-materials
The opportunity to improve the performance of a material through the application or
augmentation using nano-materials may help designers to either eliminate
un-necessary equipment or reduce the risk or stress assets see in service. This
could also encourage more compact designs optimizing the asset footprint.
These technologies can enhance the material performance to distribute current
more effectively reducing the heating or profiling of the voltage grading to reduce
the electrical stress seen during operation enabling design modifications to reduce
the size, weight, or functionality of the equipment.

54.3.4.3 Superconductivity
For many decades, superconductivity has been on the verge of adoption into
mainstream electricity delivery; however, economics continues to hinder the pro-
gress due to more competitive alternatives and concerns around the reliance on
specialist auxiliary systems such as cryogenic cooling.
Developments of superconductivity in HV cables are the most advanced with a
number of demonstrations around the world. Its use in the substation would largely
be associated with transformers, energy storage, and fault current limiting applica-
tions. From the substation perspective, the interface between the superconducting
material and the HV system needs to be carefully considered, particularly around the
dielectric integrity and the current limiting features for the economic viability
especially at EHV.
There would be new risks to manage associated with personnel handling and
maintaining cryogenic material in terms of training, safety, and work processes
around handling.
Whereas various Technical Brochures and papers highlight the benefits of this
technology, it does seem to have fallen into the category of a solution looking for a
problem rather than providing a solution to an urgent problem.

54.4 Designing for Modularity and Flexibility

The introduction to this chapter highlighted the increasingly dynamic nature of the
power system becoming a key driving feature in the utility’s decision making and
equipment selection. This is the driving force behind utilities wanting to be able to
flex their networks in response to these changing circumstances.
1076 M. Osborne

There is no one solution which suits every utility on every continent; however,
there are some basic requirements which need to be addressed:

• System Access
• Service Availability
• Security of Supply.

The following are desirable techniques or technologies which can lessen the
impact on the above during construction, operation, maintenance, or intervention
which most utilities will increasingly covert, appreciate, and value:

• The pursuit of flexibility

• Faster and quicker installation methods
• Low impact substations
• Compact solutions which can fit into existing footprints without affecting existing
substation practice
• Reduced outage times
• Ease of maintenance and minimal intrusive intervention
• Functional lifetimes.

54.4.1 New Installation Techniques

As the technology becomes more versatile, utilities will focus on minimizing the
time and resource on construction and maintenance and improving safety.
Where possible, utilities and solution providers will seek to work off-line in a
nonlive environment, such that work can be carried out more quickly without the
constraints of working under utility operational safety rules. Off-site substation
assembly and prefabrication and use of modular bays are increasingly being inves-
tigated to deliver substation replacement and refurbishment in a shorter time. The
benefits include minimal outage durations, less site assembly, and testing which
typically costs much more than factory assembly and testing. The solutions produced
must optimize the use of common services and auxiliary systems, and the require-
ments of the site staff need to be fully integrated into the designs such that they are
readily accepted when delivered to site.
There is an increasing role that information systems can play in the delivery and
construction phase of substations such as Building Information Management (BIM).
The concept of BIM allows the use of modelling tools to examine and optimize the
construction design program and cost. Features can be employed such as three-
dimensional visualization and augmented reality to assess the effectiveness of access
and safety features. This can also be coupled with the program to visualize the
construction progress, particularly in proximity to energized bays. This can be
further utilized with applications like laser surveys and ground penetrating radar of
existing facilities to accurately locate underground and hidden services. This enables
the installers and utility to walk through the design and identify potential risks and
54 Future Developments in Substation Design 1077

hazards before they are constructed, resulting in an optimized lower risk and efficient
design.
This is not only limited to the construction phase, but can also be incorporated
into the operate and maintain phase to train staff, identify hazards, manage faults,
and defects plus develop new management approaches to mitigating risks. This
methodology can also be applied to developing new approaches to:

• Disaster recovery
• Fast deployment to reduce costs of emergency return to service
• Managing capability and resources more effectively

54.4.2 Changing Attitudes to Maintenance

The last few years has seen the emergence of the role of Asset Management
becoming increasingly important in the utility decision making process.
Resource and system access is driving many utilities to constantly review their
maintenance and asset intervention strategies; however, most substations will prob-
ably incorporate a number of different generation technologies, which may not
enable common maintenance strategies to be adopted.
The role of nonintrusive monitoring is likely to be expanded in order to minimize
the need for intrusive maintenance, thus ensuring outages are only required for
essential work. This will tend to move the focus on reliability and availability
from the primary assets to the monitoring systems.
Business intelligence system such as asset health indicators and substation
performance metrics will become more central to utility operating strategies, partic-
ularly as socio-economic factors such as regulation, competition, and environmental
ambitions will have to drive value for consumers and shareholders.

54.5 DC Substations

Within the last decade, substations have been constructed for offshore applications.
Although marine power is not new, the movement of bulk power and operation at
EHV in this environment is new. The need to use insulated cables throughout
introduces a network dominated by capacitance. The traditional limitations of AC
networks begin to limit the power transfer capabilities, presenting the opportunity for
HVDC transmission which is currently being developed for offshore and the first DC
grids are likely to be offshore.
There are many switchyards incorporating DC around the world, typically this is
for a linear application between two different transmission or distribution systems.
The future challenge is the development of a DC bussing substation or multicircuit
DC solution. Initial thoughts consider the AC switchgear equivalents, however,
should we really be thinking in terms of a power electronic-based substation,
where the control, bussing, and protection is carried out in the converters or other
1078 M. Osborne

power electronic devices? Again this will be primarily assessed within Study
Committee B4, although the integration of these new solutions into the substation
will need to be addressed such as the requirements to be able to safely isolate and
work on parts of the substation while power still flows.

54.5.1 Design Issues

Many of the basic substation design fundamentals will be valid irrespective of

whether the technology is AC or DC. The safe operation of the substation will still
require methods to switch, isolate, and make equipment safe for maintenance.
However, effort will need to be focused around:

• Procedures and methodologies to manage DC currents and fields in the earthing

system, particularly associated with trapped charge.
• Protection and automation is another significant departure, as it is typically
combined into the power electronic control system. New methods and strategies
are required to detect and clear faults, since in DC the systems will need to operate
significantly faster than AC solutions to prevent large system collapse events.

54.5.2 Standards

Work is underway on establishing standard voltages and electrical and safety

distances for DC systems. This is necessary so there is some consistency between
different designs and in the longer term multivendor solutions can be safely operated
together. This will also encourage competition and reduce costs, making DC more
accessible and viable as a network choice.
This should also enable type rests to be agreed, which will reduce the necessity
for repeating type tests, thus enabling the costs to be reduced in the longer term.

54.6 Chapter Summary

The adoption of new technology into the substation is a balance of risk and
economics. The pace of change is growing, and the substation community needs
to become faster at successfully implementing change and being responsive to
external factors. While the industry needs to be aware of and consider the imple-
mentation challenges, it should avoid un-necessarily impeding the introduction of
viable new technologies through lack of awareness or fear.
The use of pilots and trials to field test these devices is an effective method to
advance the equipment, what is a more challenging request is sharing the learning so
equipment is not un-necessarily impeded through perceived negative experience. In
this regard, the active involvement of the site staff in the new developments is
absolutely essential, and this is an area where the industry has been particularly
54 Future Developments in Substation Design 1079

weak in the past. If these issues can be resolved then it is not unreasonable that new
technologies and materials could be accepted in a shorter timescale than has been
experienced in the past.
This is a role that CIGRE will actively play by encouraging utilities and engineers
to share and develop best practice with the wider community to enhance the
performance of substations.
Hopefully, the reader has found some useful advice from this book, helping to
ensure the role of the substation will continue to be an essential part of power
systems into the future.

References
Institute of Asset Management: An anatomy of asset management
Technical Brochure 380: The impact of new technology on substation functionality (2009)
Technical brochure 389: Combining innovation and standardisation (2009)
Technical Brochure 483: Guidelines for the design and construction of AC offshore substations for
wind power plants (2011)
The future substation: a reflective approach (23-207), Cigre session (1996)