Power Systems - 2

5. Substation 11 Marks

At many places of the transmission lines it Is desirable and necessary to change some
characteristics (e.g. Voltage, A.C to D.C conversion, frequency. power factor etc..) of electric supply. It
can be achieved by suitable apparatus called "Substation"

Need for Substations:

As we know that, there is no storage device for electric power, hence the generated power must be
conveyed to the consumer premises with less transmission and distribution losses. In order to fulfill the
above conditions, we need a special apparatus system which changes the characteristics of electric supply
from one to another is called "Sub-Station"

Substations: It ls defined as an assembly of apparatus which change the characteristics of electric supply
from one form to another, say for example from alternating current to direct current (or) from one voltage
level to another level.

Functions of Sub-Stations:
The electrical power substations will perform the following functions, namely

 To convert A.C. into D.C or vice-versa, known as Power Converting Operation

 To convert frequency from higher to lower or vice-versa known as frequency converting operation

 To improve the power factor by installing synchronous condensers at the end of the line, known as
Power Factor Correction Operation

 To switch ON and OFF the power lies, known as Switching Operation

 To transform voltage from higher to lower or vice-versa known as Voltage Transformation

Operation

Classification of Substations:
The substations may be classified into different types according to

Type of Service: (a). Static (b). Converting (A.C. to D.C.)

Type of Function: (a). Distribution (b). Power Factor (c). Frequency Changer

(d). Extra High Voltage Transmission (e). Industrial

Type of Control: (a). Manual (b). Automatic (c). Supervisory (or) Remote

Type of Design/ Location: (a). Indoor (b). Outdoor (c). Underground

Type of Equipment: (a). Transformer (b). Rotary Converter (c). Rectifier

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(d). Motor-Generator (e). Frequency Changer

On the basis of operating voltage:

(a). High Voltage Substations (H.V Substations) Between 11 kV & 66 kV.

(b). Extra High Voltage Substations (EHV Substation) between 132 kV and 400 kV.

(c). Ultra High Voltage Substations Operating Voltage above 400 kV.

Types of Substations:

Static Substation: These substations are those which transforms power from one voltage to another
(A.C to A.C.). These are

(i). Transmission (or) Primary Substations: which receive power from generating station and step up
its voltage for primary transmission.

(ii). Secondary Substation: which receive power from primary substations through primary transmission
lines at voltages above 66 kV and stepdown its voltage to 33 kV or 11 kV for secondary transmission or
primary distribution.

(iii). Distribution Substation: When the voltages are transformed to low values for use of household
consumers and other small power consumers, such transforming stations are called distribution
substations. The distribution system is generally carried by means of 3 phase four wire with a 400V
between the outers and 230V per phase.

Converting Substation: The substations converting A.C power into D.C. power are called
converting substations. These are mainly used for special applications such as Electric Traction, Electric
Welding, Battery Charging etc.

Industrial Substations: For big industrial consumers, who need bulk, it is always advisable to install
an individual substation such substations are called as Industrial Substations.

Power Factor Correction Substation (or) Synchronous Substation: Due to the presence of
inductance and capacitance in the transmission lines a large variation in voltage and power factor will
occur. Hence for controlling the receiving end voltage and power factor it becomes necessary to install
synchronous condensers at the end of line. Such stations are called as synchronous Substations.

Frequency Changer Substation: Sometimes in Industries for utilization purpose different-

frequencies are to be used. Hence the normal frequency is convert into other frequencies. The substations
which convert the normal frequency into other are called Frequency Changer Substations.

Indoor Substations: When the atmosphere is contaminated with impurities such as gases, fumes and
dust particles etc., the apparatus of the substation is installed within building. Such substations are known
as Indoor Substations. This type of substations is economical for voltages up to 66 kV.

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Outdoor Substations:
 The substations equipment is installed on H-pole (or) 4-pole structure with suitable platforms in
outdoor. This type of substations is called "Pole Mounted Substations". These are very economical
for voltage levels upto 11 kV and are mainly used for distribution purpose.

 For voltage beyond 66 kV, the clearance between conductors and the space required for switches,
circuit breakers and other equipments becomes so high, hence it is not economical to install the
equipments in Indoor. Therefore, for above 66 kV the substation equipment is placed in outdoor
with suitable platforms such types of substations are called "Outdoor Substations ''

Underground Substations: In thickly populated areas, the space available for equipment and
building is limited and the cost of land is high. Under such situations, the substations are placed in
underground hence it is called Underground Substations.

Relative Merits of Indoor, Outdoor Substations & Gas Insulated Substations:

Advantages of Outdoor Substations over Indoor Substations:

 The construction work required is much smaller.

 All the equipments are visible and hence it is easy for fault identification

 As no building is necessary, hence less quantity of building material is needed.

 Erection can be completed with lesser time.

 The possibility of fault is less because the spacing between two adjacent equipments is more.

 The extension of the scheme is easier.

 Installation cost of switch gear is low.

Disadvantages of Outdoor Substations over Indoor Substations:

 The switching and maintenance of equipment becomes difficult during rainy season.

 More space is required for the substation.

 The maintenance cost is more because dust and dirt deposition is more in outdoor substation
apparatus.

 These are prone to lightning strokes.

 As the outdoor substation equipments are exposed to sun hence specially designed apparatus is
needed to withstand higher temperatures.

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Merits of Gas insulated Substation, Over Conventional Substations:

 Operating person are protected by the earthed metal enclosures hence the safety is more.

 Reliability is more as the all live parts protected with high insulation system.

 It requires only 10% of the space for construction of the substation compared to conventional
substation.

 It requires no maintenance as because these are designed and quality of the equipment used are at
high standard

 It requires less cost for building and foundations because all enclosures are with aluminium.

 It requires less time for assembly of parts.

Demerits of Gas Insulated Substations over Conventional Substations:

 Procurement of SF6 gas and supply of gas to the site is problematic

 Cost is higher compared to other.

 These requires separate building

 Maintaining cleanliness is very important. Otherwise due to dust (or) moisture inside the
compartment causes flash over.

 If any faults occur Internally, the outage period is very long.

 The damage effects will be severe as compared to other substations.

Comparison Between Outdoor and Indoor Substations:

Si.No Particular Outdoor Indoor Substations Gas insulated
Substations Substations

1 Space required More Less Only 10% of space

required as compared to
conventional substation

2 Errection time Less More Less

3 Future Expansion Easy Difficult Easy

4 Identification of fault Easy Difficult Difficult

5 Operation Difficult Easier Costly

6 Maintenance cost More Less Les

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7 Possibility of fault Less More Less

8 Possibility of Lightning More Free from lightning Less

strokes strokes

9 Possibility of formation More Less Less

of dust and dirt

Equipments Used in Substations:

However, in general a substation has the following main equipments.

(i), Bus-bars (ii). Insulators (iii). Transformer (iv). Switch gear

(v). Indicating and Metering equipment (vi). Protective relays (vii). lightning Arrestors

(viii). Cables (ix). Firefighting equipment etc.

Purpose of Each Equipment in Substation:

Bus-Bars: Bus-bars terms is used for a bar (or) conductor carrying an electric current to which many
connections may be made.

When a number of lines operating at the same voltage have to be directly connected electrically,
bus-bars are used as the common electrical component.

Fig. shows the bus-bar arrangement in substation. The incoming and outgoing lines in a substation
are connected to the bus-bars.

The bus-bars used in substations are usually copper or aluminium bars (generally of rectangular
X-section) and operate at constant voltage.

The bus-bars are of 5 to 6 metres of length and most common sizes of bus-bars used in substations are

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40 x 4 mm (160 mm2) 40 x 5 mm (200 mm2) 50 x 5 mm (250 mm2)

60 X 5 mm (300 mm2) 60 x 8 mm (480 mm2) 80 x 8 mm (640 mm2)

100 x 10 mm (1000 mm2)

Insulators: The insulators serve two purposes. They support the conductors and confine the current to the
conductors.

There are several types of insulators used in substations depending upon the service requirement
namely

(i). Pin type (ii). Suspension type (or) Strain type (or) disc type

(iii). Post insulator (iv). Bushing.

In pin type insulator a groove is placed

on top side of the insulator for housing the
conductor. This type of insulators are used upto
33 kV.

For operating voltage above 33 kV the

PIN insulators are uneconomical. Hence
suspension insulators are used for above 33 kV.
It consists of a number of disc insulators
connected in series by metal links in the form of
a string. The conductor is suspended at the
bottom end of string.

A Post insulator consists of porcelain body, cast iron cap and flanged cast iron base as shown in
Fig.(c). These are directly connected to bus-bar clamp.

A Bushing insulator consists of porcelain-shell body. It mainly consists of washers at the top and
bottom for fixing the position of bus-bar (or) rod in shell and mounting flange with holes drilled for fixing
bolts and supplied with an earth bolt and is shown in Fig.(d).

Transformers:

Power Transformers: A power transformer is used in a substation to step-Up (or) step-down the voltage.
All the power transformers except at generating station are step-down transformers which reduce the
voltage rating of electric supply and finally delivers to the utilization level of the consumers.

Now-a-days at substations a 3-phase power transformer (or) 3-Single Phase bank of transformers
are using. The 3-phase transformer has two advantages as compared to single phase bank transformers,
namely

(i). Load tap changing mechanism. (ii), Installation is simpler than three single phase transformers

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Fig shows the substation transformer which is installed upon length of rails fixed a concrete slab
having foundations 1 to 1.5 m deep.

For rating upto 10 MVA, naturally cooled, oil immersed transformers are used. For higher ratings,
the transformers are air blast cooled.

Instrument transformer: The

lines in substations operate at high
voltages and carry current of
thousands of amperes. We know
that, the measuring instrument
meters are designed for low
voltages and currents and if these
are directly connected to the lines
cause these will not work
satisfactorily. Hence, to overcome
this difficulty instrument
transformers are used.

The function of Instrument

transformers is to transfer voltages
(or) currents in the power lines to
convenient values for operation of measuring Instruments and relays. These are two types of instrument
transformers namely,

Current transformer

Voltage transformer

Current Transformer (C.T.): A current transformer

is essential a step- up transformer which steps down
the current to a known value. The primary winding
consists of one or more turns of thick wire and is
directly connected in series with the power circuit (the
circuit in which current is to be measured) and the
secondary winding consists of large number of turns
and is connected to the indicating and metering
Instruments and relays.

Potential Transformers [P. T]: It is essentially a

step-down transformer and step-down the voltage in a
known ratio. The primary winding of potential transformer consists of a large number of turn and its
secondary winding has a few turns. The primary winding is connected to the main bus-bars and secondary
winding is connected to the indicating, metering instruments and relays.

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Switch Gear: Switching apparatus is required for controlling and protecting the equipments normal and
abnormal conditions. Switch gear equipments used in substations generally comprises of following,
namely

(i). Isolators (ii). Air break Switches (iii). Circuit breakers (iv). Fuses etc.

Isolators: In substations It is desired to disconnect a part of system for general maintenance and repair.
This is accomplished by using an Isolator.

An isolator is essentially a knife switch and is designed to open a circuit under NO-LOAD

Circuit Brakers: A circuit braker is a protective device which make (or) break a circuit either manually
(or) automatically under no-load, full-load and short-circuit conditions.

It performs the following

functions

 To carry full load current

continuously

 To open and close the

circuit on no-load.

 To make and break the

circuit for normal operations.

 To make and break the short-circuit currents of magnitude upto which it is designed for.

Fuses: A fuse is a short piece of metal, inserted in the circuit which melts when excessive current flows
through it and brakes the circuit.

In general, fuses may be classified into two types, namely

(i). Low voltage fuse (ii). High voltage fuse

Low voltage fuse:

Rewirable fuses Upto 500 Amps, 400 Volts

HRC fuses 1600 Amp, 440 Volts

High Voltage Fuse: (i). Cartridge fuse 8700 Amps, 33 kV.

200 Amps, 11 kV.

(ii). Metal clad fuses 10000 Amps, 66 kV.

(iii). Liquid Type fuses 5000 Amps, 66 kV.

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Indicating and metering Equipment:

Ammeters, voltmeters, power

factor meters, wattmeters, kWh meters,
kVArh meters are Installed in the
substations to control and maintain a
watch over the currents flowing in the
circuits and over the power loads.

Protective Relays: A protective relay is a

device which detects the fault and Initiate
the operation of the circuit breaker to
isolate the defective element from the rest
of the system.

In substations the following

protective relays are mainly used, namely

Over Current Relays: provides

protection mainly against phase-to-phase
fault and overloading.

Earth Fault Relays: provides protection

against earth fault only

Buchholz Relay: provides protection against all kinds of incipient faults i.e., insulation failure of
windings, core heating, fall of oil level due to leaky joints etc

Differential Relays: provides protection against earth and phase faults.

Lightning Arresters: A lightning Arrester is a protective device which conducts the high voltage surge
on the power system network to the
ground.

Lightning Arrester will perform

the following functions under different
conditions,

 During normal operation

conditions, the lightning Arrester
is OFF the line, i.e., it will not
allow any current to earth.

 During the over voltage occurrence, the air insulation across the gap breaks down and an arc is
formed, providing a low resistance path for the surge to the ground. In this way excess charge on
the line due to the surge is conducted to the ground through the lightning Arrester.

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In substations the lightning Arresters are installed on both sides of the transformers i.e., on H.V and
L.V. side.

Usually the following type lightning Arresters are employed in substations, namely

1. Valve type 2. Thyrite type

Cables: In substations all the relays and measuring instruments are operated at 110 Volt (or) 220 Volt For
this purpose cables of 600 Volt insulation grade are generally used and these are layed in trenches. cable
trays and in some times in conduits. Usually P.VC. cables are used in substations

Fire Fighting Equipment: Generally, the substations are provided with an adequate capacity of
firefighting equipments. Firefighting equipment Installed are

(i). Cylinders of carbon dioxide (ii). Sand and Water buckets

All the firefighting equipments are placed conveniently and painted with Red Color paint for the
purpose of easy Identification.

Substation Auxiliary Supply: In a substation, it is used practice to connect two transformers to 11

kV main bus bars for the purpose of supplying the power to substation auxiliary equipments at a voltage
of 400 Volt and 230 Volt

The auxiliary equipments in substations mainly comprise of lighting circuits in the switching yard,
Air blast fans for cooling the power transformer, battery charging sets, compressor units, ventilating fans,
substations building, water supply schemes are heating system equipment.

Bus - Bar Arrangements: It is a very important component in a substation. The choice of bus-bar
arrangement depends upon various factors, namely

 Substation operating voltage

 Degree of reliability

 Position of substation

 Cost

By considering the above features, the bus-bar arrangements used in substations are mainly of
following types, namely

 Single bus-bar system.

 Single bus-bar system with sectionalisation

 Duplicate bus-bar system.

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Single Bus - bar System:

Fig. shows the single bus-bar system. It consists of Single bus-bar system in which all the
incoming and outgoing lines are connected to it.

Advantages:

 Low Initial cost

 Maintenance cost is low

 Simple in operation

Disadvantages: In the event of fault on bus-bar (or) failure (or) repairs on the bus bar causes there is
complete interruption of the supply.
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Applications:

 This type of arrangement is used upto 33 kV.

 This system is mainly used in 11kV indoor substations.

Single Bus-bar System with Sectionalisation: In this type of arrangement, the single bus-bar is divided
in to sections and load is equally distributed on all sections. Any two sections of the bus-bar is connected
with circuit breaker and isolator.

Fig. shows the single bus-bar with sectionalisation where the bus-bar is divided into two sections.
There are two 33 kV Incoming lines connected to sections 1and 2. From the figure it can be seen that each
bus-bar section behaves as a separate bus bar.
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Advantages:

 If fault occurs on any section of the bus causes the faulty section can be isolated from the supply
without affecting other sections.

 Easily expanded.

Applications: This system is used for voltage upto 33 kV.

Duplicate Bus-bar System (Double Bus-Bar System):

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This system consists of two bus bars, namely

(i). Main bus-bar (ii). Spare bus-bar

Each bus-bar has the capacity to take up the entire substation load. The Incoming and outgoing
lines are connected to either bus-bars with the help of a busbar coupler.

Fig. shows the double bus-bar system which contains of two 66 kV Incoming lines which are
connected either bus-bar. The two 11 kV outgoing lines are connected to bus-bar through transformers
and circuit breakers.

Advantages:

 In case of repair (or) fault on main bus-bar the continuity of supply can be maintained by
transferring it to the spare busbar.

 Reliability of the system is more.

Applications:

 This system is employed up to 33 kV.

Earthing: Earthing means, the direct connection of all the metal non-current carrying parts of electrical
equipment such as metallic frame work, electrical motor body, metallic covering of cables, earth
terminals of socket outlets, transformer tank cover, substation poles, isolators, circuit breakers etc.. to the
surrounding earth.

Purpose of Earthing:

 To avoid electric shock to human body.

 To avoid risk of fire due to earth leakage current through unwanted path

 To avoid earth leakage accidents through damp situations.

 To ensure that no current carrying conductor rises to a potential with respect to earth than its
designed insulation.

Substation Earthing: The following equipments in substations must be earthed with at least two legs
preferably diagonally opposite with an earthing conductor. They are

 Lightning Arrestors

 Circuit breakers

 Power transformer

 Isolators and switches

 Fences
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 Panels (or) cubicles

 Supports

 Current transformers and potential transformer.

System of Earthing: The following methods are mainly used for earthing power system equipments
through neutrals, namely

 Earthing through a resistance.

 Earthing through a reactance.

 Earthing through a Peterson coil.

 Earthing directly (or) solid earthing.

The resistance, reactance and peterson coil methods of earthings are used for special cases. Generally
solid earthing is used.

Earth Resistances: As per the rural electrification corporation rules the earth resistance must be with in
the specified limits at various places, namely:

Si.No Place Earth Resistance

1 Power Station Less than 0.5 Ohms

2 Major Substations 1 Ohm

3 Other Substations 2 Ohm

4 Distribution transformer stations 5 Ohm

5 Places at supports, towers, Overhead lines 25 Ohm

Types of Earthings:

Generally, at Substations either pipe earthing (or) plate earthing is used and it is mainly depends
on the systems voltage.

Pipe Earthing:

For Power stations and Major Substations: cast iron pipes 15 cm in diameter, 3 meterlong and not less
than 1.25 cm thick.

For small Substations: Galvanised pipes 5 cm in diameter and 3 meter long.

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Plate Earthing:

Fig shows the plate earthing scheme.

For large Substations and Major Substations: 1.2 m X 1.2 m Cast iron plates of 1.25 cm thick.

Small Substations: 0.6 m X 0.6 m cast iron plates of 0.95 cm thick

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Structural layout of 33/11 kV Substation:

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Single Line Diagram of 66/33 – 11 kV Substation:

Single line Diagram of 132/33 – 11 kV Substation:

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Earthing Plan of Pole Mounted Substation (11 KV/ 400 V):

Earthing Plan of 33/11 kV Substation:

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Earthing Layout of 66 kV / 11 kV Substation:

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Earthing Layout of 132/33 – 11 kV Substation:

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