DISTRIBUTION SUBSTATIONS

Atif Mahmood
Lecturer CIIT Sahiwal
 SUBSTATION & FEEDER
Substations transform the electrical energy to a
different voltage and transfer electrical energy from
one line to another.
Usually planners try to locate a substation near the
center of load.
A feeder is an electrical distribution circuit fed from a
single source point: through a breaker or a fuse at
the substation.
It operates at the primary distribution voltage and
delivers power to an assigned area.
 SUBSTATION & FEEDER
Together, the feeders emanating from a
substation serve all the loads and cover all
the areas assigned to that particular
substation.
This area should be an approximate circle,
polygon or hexagon and the substation
should be located approximately at the
central point in cases where the load is more
or less uniform.
 SUBSTATION & FEEDER
Some times there are constraints of geography –
river, canal, forest etc. or just poor planning in the
past which can cause an exception to this rule.
A feeder consists of a single route, leaving the
substation which branches with spurs.
Feeders are planned by starting from the
substation with the main trunk portion of the
largest economical conductor and generally follow
streets, roads, highways and property boundaries.
 DISTRIBUTION SUBSTATION
The distribution substation is the convenient point for the
control and protection of the distribution network. A typical
substation may have the following equipment:

1. Power Transformer(s)
2. Circuit Breakers
3. Disconnecting Switches And Isolators
4. Station Buses
5. Current Limiting Reactors
6. Shunt Reactors
7. Current Transformers
8. Potential Transformers
9. Capacitor Voltage Transformers.
10.Coupling Capacitors
11.Series Capacitors
12.Shunt Capacitors
13.Grounding System
14.Lightning Arresters And/Or Gaps
15.Line Traps
16.Protective Relays
17.Station Batteries
18. And Other Apparatus
 SUBSTATION BUS SCHEMES
The electrical and physical arrangements of the switching and busing at
the sub-transmission voltage level are determined by the selected
substation scheme (or diagram).
On the other hand, the selection of a particular substation scheme is
based upon safety, reliability, economy, simplicity, and other
considerations.
The most commonly used substation bus schemes are:

1. Single bus scheme

2. Double bus – double breaker (or double main) scheme
3. Main – and – transfer bus scheme
4. Double bus – single breaker scheme
5. Ring bus scheme
6. Breaker – and – a half scheme
 Single Bus Scheme

Advantage:
Lowest cost.

Disadvantages:
Failure of bus or any circuit breaker
results in shutdown of entire
substation.
Difficult to do any maintenance.
Bus cannot be extended without
completely de energizing substation.
Can be used only where loads can be
interrupted or have other supply
arrangements.
 Double Bus – Double Breaker

Advantages:
Each circuit has two dedicated
breakers.
Has flexibility in permitting
feeder circuits to be connected
to either bus.
Any breaker can be taken out
of service for maintenance.
High reliability.

Disadvantages:
Most expensive.
Would lose half the circuits for
breaker failure if circuits are
not connected to both buses.
 Main – And – Transfer

Advantages:
Low initial cost and ultimate
cost.
Any breaker can be taken out for
service or maintenance.
Potential devices may be used on
the main bus for relaying.

Disadvantages:
Requires one extra breaker for
the bus tie.
Switching is somewhat
complicated when maintaining a
breaker.
Failure of bus or any circuit
breaker results in shutdown of
entire substation.
 Double Bus – Single Breaker

Advantages:
Permits some flexibility with two
operating buses.
Either main bus may be isolated for
maintenance.
Circuit can be transferred readily from
one bus to the other by use of bus –tie
breaker and bus selector disconnect
switches.

Disadvantages:
One extra breaker is required for the bus tie.
Four switches are required per circuit.
Bus protection scheme may cause loss of substation when it operates if all circuits
are connected to that bus.
High exposure to bus faults.
Line breaker failure takes all circuits connected to that bus out of service.
Bus – tie breaker failure takes entire substation out of service.
 Ring Bus Scheme
Advantages:
Low initial and ultimate cost.
Flexible operation for breaker
maintenance without interrupting
load.
Requires only one breaker per circuit.
Does not use main bus.
Each circuit is fed by two breakers.
All switching is done with breakers.

Disadvantages:
If a fault occurs during a breaker maintenance period, the ring can be separated into
two sections.
Automatic reclosing and protective relaying circuitry rather complex.
If a single set of relays is used, the circuit must be taken out of service to maintain
the relays. (common to all schemes.)
Requires potential device on all circuits since there is no definite potential reference
point. These devices may be required in all cases for synchronizing, live line, or
voltage indication.
Breaker failure during a fault on one of the circuits causes loss of one additional
circuit owing to operation of breaker – failure relaying.
 Breaker – And – a Half Scheme

Advantages:
Most flexible operation.
High reliability.
Breaker failure of bus side breaker removes
only one circuit from service.
All switching is done with breakers.
Simple operation; no disconnect switching
required for normal operation.
Either main bus can be taken out of service
at any time for maintenance.
Bus failure does not remove any feeder
circuits from service.

Disadvantages:
1½ breaker per circuit.
Relaying and automatic reclosing are
somewhat involved since the middle breaker
must be responsive to either of its
associated circuits.
 Substation Location
&
The Rating of a Distribution
Substation
 SUBSTATION LOCATION

The location of substation is dictated by the following factors:

 Voltage level

 Voltage regulation

 Subtransmission costs

 Substation costs

 Costs of primary feeders, mains, & distribution T/F

etc.
[ Which may not be technical in nature]
 Rules to Select an Ideal Location for a Substation
1. Locate the substation as much as feasible close to the load
center of its service area, so that the addition of load times
distance from the substation is a minimum. [load moment]
2. Locate the substation such that proper voltage regulation can
be obtainable without taking extensive measures.
3. Select the substation location such that it provides proper
access for incoming sub-transmission lines and outgoing
primary feeders and also allows for future growth.
4. The selected substation location should not be opposed by
land use regulations, local ordinances, and neighbors.
5. The selected substation location should provide enough space
for the future substation expansion.
6. The selected substation location should help to minimize the
number of customers affected by any service discontinuity.
7. Other considerations, such as adaptability emergency, etc.
 THE RATING OF A DISTRIBUTION SUBSTATION
The additional capacity requirements of a system with increasing load
density can be met by:

1. Either holding the service area of given substation constant

and increasing its capacity.
2. Or developing new substations and thereby holding the rating
of a given substation constant.

It is helpful to assume that the system changes;

A. At constant load density for short – term distribution planning
&

B. At increasing load density for long – term distribution planning.

Further, it is also customary and helpful to employ geometric
figures to represent substation service area.
[as suggested by Van Wormer & Denton and Reps].
It simplifies greatly the comparison of alternative plans which may
require different sizes of distribution substation, different numbers
of primary feeders, and different primary – feeder voltages.
A square shaped service area representing a part of, or the entire service
area of a distribution substation. It is assumed that the square area is
served by 4 primary feeders from a central feed point, as shown in the
figure.

Fig:01

Each feeder and its laterals are of 3 – phase. Dots represents

balanced 3– phase loads lumped at that location and fed by
distribution transformer.