A.

SUBSTATION DESIGN

Substation design engineers always have to consider the reliability and cost of the system. A
good design possesses a balance between these two, to maintain sufficiently high reliability and
reasonably low cost. The design should also be flexible that it allows possible necessary
expansions. So with these considerations, several factors for the substation layout must be
carefully planned. First is the selection of the substation location. It should be wide enough for
the installation of the equipment and should also contain extra space for future extension. The
place must also be close to the distribution area to be served. Environmental effects of the
substation must also be considered, such as noise and road traffic effects. Another important
consideration while designing a substation is the proper grounding (UK: earthing) to protect the
persons walking by from electrocution in cases of short circuit or fault conditions. (Wikipedia,
2011)

B. SUBSTATION LAYOUT

The reliability of a substation is measured by the way it provides security of supply. In an ideal
substation, each of the circuits and equipment should have a duplicate so that a connection is
still available even during maintenance or fault conditions. But providing a duplicate for all
equipment, from the smaller power devices up to the largest among them, will entail a very
high cost. So to be practical, methods have been adopted to provide security of supply by the
lowest possible investment cost. Substations can be categorized into four according to the way
they provide security of supply (EE35T, n.d.):

Category 1: No outage is necessary within the substation for either maintenance or fault
conditions.

Category 2: Short outage is necessary to transfer the load to an alternative circuit for
maintenance or fault conditions.

Category 3: Loss of a circuit or section of the substation due to fault or maintenance.

Category 4: Loss of the entire substation due to fault or maintenance.

In order to achieve the desired reliability, several types of substation layout were developed.
These layouts are presented in their most understandable form through one-line diagrams
showing the switching and protection arrangement, as well as the incoming supply lines and
outgoing feeders. Incoming lines will almost always have a disconnect switch and a circuit
breaker. Both serve to provide isolation of a part of the system during emergency conditions.
Furthermore, circuit breakers are especially used to automatically interrupt fault currents. The
large magnitudes of the flowing current can be detected by the aid of current transformers. The
output of these transformers trips the breaker so that the loads beyond the system will
continue to operate with minimal impact in cases of fault conditions. Layouts differ in the
arrangement of switches, circuit breakers, and buses. The decision-making about which among
the layouts will be implemented will be governed by the proper balance between cost and
reliability considerations. (Wikipedia, 2011)

For the purpose of discussion, the following substation layouts will be discussed and compared:

1. Single bus

2. Sectionalized bus

3. Main and transfer bus

4. Ring bus

5. Breaker-and-a-half

6. Double breaker-double bus

NOTE: The following section is directly quoted from Nack (2005).

B.1. SINGLE BUS

Figure 2 [labeling maintained from the reference] shows the one-line diagram of a single bus
substation configuration. This is the simplest of the configurations, but is also the least reliable.
It can be constructed in either of low profile or high-profile arrangement depending on the
amount of space available. In the arrangement shown, the circuit must be de-energized to
perform breaker maintenance, which can be overcome by the addition of breaker bypass
switches, but this may then disable protection systems.
 Single Bus Advantages:

 Lowest cost

 Small land area

 Easily expandable

 Simple in concept and operation

 Relatively simple for the application of protective relaying

Single Bus Disadvantages:

 Single bus arrangement has the lowest reliability

 Failure of a circuit breaker or a bus fault causes loss of entire substation

 Maintenance switching can complicate and disable some of the protection

B.2. SECTIONALIZED BUS

Figure 3 shows the layout of a sectionalized bus, which is merely an extension of the single bus
layout. The single bus arrangements are now connected together with a center circuit breaker
that may be normally open or closed. Now, in the event of a breaker failure or bus bar fault,
the entire station is not shut down. Breaker bypass operation can also be included in the
sectionalized bus configuration.
 Sectionalized Bus Advantages:

 Flexible operation

 Isolation of bus sections for maintenance

 Loss of only part of the substation for a breaker failure or bus fault

Sectionalized Bus Disadvantages:

 Additional circuit breakers needed for sectionalizing, thus higher cost

 Sectionalizing may cause interruption of non-faulted circuits

B.3. MAIN AND TRANSFER BUS

A main and transfer bus configuration is shown in Figure 4. There are two separate and
independent buses; a main and a transfer. Normally, all circuits, incoming and outgoing, are
connection the main bus. If maintenance or repair is required on a circuit breaker, the
associated circuit can be then fed and protected from the transfer bus, while the original
breaker is isolated from the system.
 Main and Transfer Bus Advantages:

 Maintain service and protection during circuit breaker maintenance

 Reasonable in cost

 Fairly small land area

 Easily expandable

Main and Transfer Bus Disadvantages:

 Additional circuit breaker needed for bus tie

 Protection and relaying may become complicated

 Bus fault causes loss of the entire substation

B.4 RING BUS

Figure 5 depicts the layout of a ring bus configuration, which is an extension of the sectionalized
bus. In the ring bus a sectionalizing breaker has been added between the two open bus ends.
Now there is a closed loop on the bus with each section separated by a circuit breaker. This
provides greater reliability and allows for flexible operation. The ring bus can easily be adapted
to a breaker-and-a-half scheme, which will be looked at next.
 Ring Bus Advantages:

 Flexible operation

 High reliability

 Double feed to each circuit

 No main buses

 Expandable to breaker-and-a-half configuration

 Isolation of bus sections and circuit breakers for maintenance without circuit
disruption

Ring Bus Disadvantages:

 During fault, splitting of the ring may leave undesirable circuit combinations

 Each circuit has to have its own potential source for relaying

 Usually limited to 4 circuit positions, although larger sizes up to 10 are in service.

B.5. BREAKER-AND-A-HALF

A breaker-and-a-half configuration has two buses but unlike the main and transfer scheme,
both busses are energized during normal operation. This configuration is shown in Figure 6.
For every 2 circuits there are 3 circuit breakers with each circuit sharing a common center
breaker. Any breaker can be removed for maintenance without affecting the service on the
corresponding exiting feeder, and a fault on either bus can be isolated without interrupting
service to the outgoing lines. If a center breaker should fail, this will cause the loss of 2 circuits,
while the loss of an outside breaker would disrupt only one. The breaker-and-a-half scheme is
a popular choice when upgrading a ring bus to provide more terminals.

Breaker-and-a-Half Advantages:

 Flexible operation and high reliability

 Isolation of either bus without service disruption

 Isolation of any breaker for maintenance without service disruption

 Double feed to each circuit

 Bus fault does not interrupt service to any circuits

 All switching is done with circuit breakers

Breaker-and-a-Half Disadvantages:

 One-and-a-half breakers needed for each circuit

 More complicated relaying as the center breaker has to act on faults for either of
the 2 circuits it is associated with

 Each circuit should have its own potential source for relaying

B.6. DOUBLE BREAKER-DOUBLE BUS

Double Breaker-Double Bus Advantages:

 Flexible operation and very high reliability

 Isolation of either bus, or any breaker without disrupting service

 Double feed to each circuit

 No interruption of service to any circuit from a bus fault

 Loss of one circuit per breaker failure

 All switching with circuit breakers

Double Breaker-Double Bus Disadvantages:

 Very high cost – 2 breakers per circuit

Table 1 gives a relative cost comparison of the different substation configurations discussed
above. The comparisons are done with four circuits for each configuration, but do not include
costs associated with a power transformer. Note that the cost relationships between the
configurations may change, depending on the number of circuits used and protective relaying
devices that are used.

D. REFERENCES

Wikipedia 2011. Electrical Substation. 20 Jan. 2011. (Retrieved: January 23, 2011) <
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrical_substation>

EE35T n.d. Substation Design and Layout. n.d. (Retrieved: January 23, 2011) <
http://www.eng.uwi.tt/depts/elec/staff/alvin/ee35t/notes/Substation-Design.html>

Nack, Daniel 2005. Reliability of Substation Configurations. Iowa State University.