Mekelle University

Ethiopian Institute of Technology-Mekelle

Distribution Engineering (ECEg

By Solomon Kiros
MSc in Electrical Power Engineering

11/20/2023 1
Substation schemes, location and subsystem rating

 Bus bar arrangements

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 Bus bar arrangements
A bus-bar is a common connection point or a node for multiple
incoming and outgoing circuits such as power lines or feeders.
There are many different electrical bus schemes
 Its selection depends on system voltage, Cost, position and
flexibility
 Criteria for selection of bus bar arrangement
1. Simplicity
2. Easy maintenance of different equipment
3. Minimizing the outage during maintenance
4. Future provision of extension with growth of demand
5. Optimizing the selection of the bus bar arrangement
scheme

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Bus bar arrangements

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 Bus (Cont’d)
Commonly used bus bar arrangement schemes
are:
1. Single bus system
2. Single bus system with bus sectionalizer
3. Main and transfer bus system
4. Double bus system
5. Double breaker bus system
6. One and a half breaker bus system
7. Double bus system with bypass isolators
8. Ring bus system
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 Bus (Cont’d)
1. Single bus system
 It is simplest and cheapest one
 All feeders and transformer bay are connected
to only one bus

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 Bus (Cont’d)
Single bus system
Advantages
 Simple in design
 Small land area required
 Easily expandable
 Very cost effective scheme
 Very convenient to operate
Disadvantages
 Lowest reliability
 Failure of a circuit breaker causes loss of the entire
substation
 Maintenance is not possible without interrupting the
power supply

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 Bus (Cont’d)
2. Single bus system with bus sectionalizer
 It can be used for more than one incoming lines
 The incoming lines and outgoing feeders are evenly
distributed
 The buses are tied together with bus sectionalizer

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 Bus (Cont’d)
Single bus system with bus sectionalizer
advantages
 Flexible operation
 Reliable (all loads can get supply from one source by
switching on the sectional CB or bus coupler breaker)
 Maintenance is possible with partial interruption of
power
Disadvantages
 Maintenance of equipment of any bay is not possible
without interrupting the feeder or transformer
 The isolator have to be operated off circuit which is not
possible without total interruption of bus bar.
 It needs investment for bus coupler breaker
 Its cost is higher than single bus scheme
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 Bus (Cont’d)
3. Double bus system
 Two identical bus bar system are used
 Any outgoing or incoming feeder can be taken from any of the
bus
 Every feeder is connected to both of the buses in parallel via
individual isolator

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 Bus (Cont’d)
Double bus system
Advantages
 Increases flexibility of system
Disadvantages
 It does not allow breaker maintenance without
interruption

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 Bus (Cont’d)
4. Main and Transfer bus system
 An alternative of double bus system
 Every feeder is connected through an isolator(bypass isolator) to
the transfer bus
 The bus coupler bay couples transfer bus with the main bus via
CB

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 Bus (Cont’d)
Main and Transfer bus system

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 Bus (Cont’d)
Main and Transfer bus system
Advantages
 Maintenance of circuit breaker is possible
without any interruption of power.
 Is popular for 33kV systems
Disadvantages
 Additional cost of bus coupler bay, transfer bus
and isolators

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 Bus (Cont’d)
5. Double breaker bus system
 Two identical bus bar system are used
 Any outgoing or incoming feeder can be taken from any of the
bus
 Every feeder is connected to both of the buses in parallel via
individual breaker
 It can be put to respective bus by
closing the breaker and isolator
 Both buses are energized
 Total feeders are divided in to two
 No need for bus coupler because
operation is done by breakers
instead of isolators
 For transfer first close isolator then
breaker
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 Bus (Cont’d)
Double breaker bus system

Double breaker bus system with sectionalizer

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 Bus (Cont’d)
Double breaker bus system
Advantages
 Flexible operation
 Very high reliability
 Double feed to each circuit.
 Isolation of either main bus for maintenance without
disrupting service.
 Isolation of any circuit breaker for maintenance without
disrupting service.
 The fault in one bus can be cleared instantly without
interrupting any feeders in the system.
Disadvantages
 High cost
 Two circuit breakers are required for each circuit
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 Bus (Cont’d)
6. One and a half breaker bus system
 An improvement for double circuit breaker scheme
 Reduces number of circuit breakers
 It is not much popular due to cost
 It is a simple design
 The third breaker is named as tie
breaker and acts as a coupler fro the
two feeders.
 Power is fed to both the circuits
from two bus bars which are
operated in parallel
 Each breaker has to be rated to feed
both the feeders.
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 Bus (Cont’d)
One and a half breaker bus system

Load shifting from bus 2 to bus 1

A fault on bus 1

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 Bus (Cont’d)
One and a half breaker bus system and
Double breaker bus system

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 Bus (Cont’d)
One and a half breaker bus system
Advantages
 Reasonable in cost
 Fairly small land area
 Easily expandable
 The fault in one bus can be cleared instantly without
interrupting any feeders in the system.
Disadvantages
 An additional breaker is required for bus tie.
 Complicated protection due to the presence of tiebreaker
 Each circuit should have its own potential source for
relaying

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 Bus (Cont’d)
7. Double bus system with bypass Isolators
 A combination of double, main and transfer bus system
 Either bus can act as main bus and second bus as transfer bus
 It requires one additional isolator (bypass isolator) for each
feeder circuit

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 Bus (Cont’d)
7. Double bus system with bypass Isolators

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 Bus (Cont’d)
Double bus system with bypass Isolators
Advantages
 Increases flexibility of system
 Maintenance of circuit breaker is possible without
any interruption of power.
 Best choice for 220kV systems
Disadvantages
 Introduces slight complication in system layout
due to the presence of additional bypass isolator.
 Shut down is required to shift the complete load on
another bus, to use as the main bus
 Fault on a bus interrupts the whole connected load

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 Bus (Cont’d)
8. Ring bus system
 It provides a double feed to each feeder circuit
 Opening one breaker under maintenance or otherwise does not
affect supply to any feeder.
 Each section should supply only one circuit for maximum
reliability
 For a line or bus fault, the two
circuit breakers on the sides of
the affected bus section open to
isolate the fault
 It is impossible to extend in the
future because it is closed
 The reliability will reduce if one
breaker is switched off.

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 Bus (Cont’d)
Ring bus system

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 Bus (Cont’d)
Ring bus system
Advantages
 Flexible operation
 High reliability
 Double feed to each circuit
 No main buses
Disadvantages
 Each should have its own potential source for
relaying
 It may be splitted in to two circuits by fault

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 Types of Substation
1. Transmission substation
 Same voltage on both sides
2. Distribution substation
 Step down
3. Collector substation
 Step up
4. Converter substation
 HVDC
5. Railway substation
 DC or AC of different frequency
6. Mobile substation
 Compact type with small capacity

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Deciding of Location and rating of substations
 Substations define the overall character of the
Transmission and Distribution system.
 Their locations define the end points of the
transmission system and the starting points for the
feeders at the distribution level.
 Poor site can increase the cost of T and D.

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 Deciding (Cont’d)
The best location of a substation can be seen in terms of
 Economy
 Performance
 Reliability
 Service
 To say optimal location in terms of cost, the following
should be taken into account:
 Cost of land
 Site preparation cost
 Cost of transmission and distribution line
 Proximity to the load (Customers)

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 Deciding (Cont’d)
A perpendicular bisector rule can be used to identify
the area coverage of a substation
 A load should be supplied from a nearby substation to
insure:
 Reduced feeder cost
 Reduced cost of electrical losses
 Reduced service interruption exposure

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 Deciding (Cont’d)
Changing the location of a substation can affect
 Sub transmission cost
 Length of feeder line and its cost
 Some of them will be closer and others will be
far from their original location
Hence planners should make some adjustments to
minimize its impact on the cost

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 Deciding (Cont’d)
Points considered for optimal substation site
 Optimal location w.r.t feeder cost (centre of feeder
cost)
 Large deviation from centre of feeder cost should be
avoided
 Planners should re-plan surface area boundaries' of
the substation for non optimal sites
 Non optimal sides near areas with bad geographical
locations should not be accepted.
 T and D systems with higher primary voltage are
less sensitive to deviations in their substation
location.
 T and D systems with higher load density are
sensitive to deviations in their substation locations.
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 Deciding (Cont’d)
Substation sizing and spacing (siting)
 Assessment of all cost impacts at the sub-transmission,
substation, and feeder levels are required.
 Major cost sensitivities that must be addressed in
considering substation site and size are

 Primary feeder impact

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Thank You

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