Unit 2 Substation components & layout(6 marks)

• The electricity substation is a network of electrical equipment which is connected in

a structured way in order to supply electricity to end consumers. There is
numerous electrical substation components like outgoing and incoming circuitry
each of which having its circuit breakers, isolators, transformers, and busbar system
etc for the smooth functioning of the system.
• The choice of the substation equipment depends on the technical considerations,
rated voltage, rated MVA and the type of substation.

Fig:Typical substation Layout

Components of substation, their functions and symbols

1. Busbars

• Busbars are conducting bars to which number of circuit connections is connected. Bus-bars
are copper or aluminium bars (generally of rectangular x-section) and operate at constant
voltage. The incoming and outgoing lines in a sub-station are connected to the bus-bars
• The main functional requirements of busbar system is:
1. To provide low resistance path for current flow.
2. To withstand normal system voltage; specified transient overvoltage without
flashover.
3. To carry normal currents and overload currents continuously with
temperature rise within specified limits.

2. Insulators
 • The insulators serve two purposes. They support the conductors (or bus-bars) and
confine the current to the conductors. The most commonly used material for the
manufacture of insulators is porcelain.
• There are several types of insulators (e.g. pin type, suspension type, post insulator
etc.) and their use in the sub-station will depend upon the service requirement. For
example, post insulator is used for bus-bars.
• A post insulator consists of a porcelain body, cast iron cap and flanged cast iron
base. The hole in the cap is threaded so that bus-bars can be directly bolted to the
cap.
3. Circuit Breakers

• A circuit breaker is an equipment which can open or close a circuit under normal as
well as fault conditions.
• It is so designed that it can be operated manually (or by remote control) under
normal conditions and automatically under fault conditions. For the latter operation,
a relay circuit is used with a circuit breaker.
• Generally, bulk oil circuit breakers are used for voltages upto 66kV while for high
(>66 kV) voltages, low oil circuit breakers are used. For still higher voltages, air-blast,
vacuum or SF6 circuit breakers are used.
4. Isolators

• In sub-stations, it is often desired to disconnect a part of the system for general

maintenance and repairs. This is accomplished by an isolating switch or isolator.
• An isolator is essentially a knife switch and is designed to open a circuit under no load. In
other words, isolator switches are operated only when the lines in which they are connected
carry no current.
 • The entire sub-station has been divided into V sections. Each section can be
disconnected with the help of isolators for repair and maintenance. For instance, if it is
desired to repair section No. II, the procedure of disconnecting this section will be as
follows. First of all, open the circuit breaker in this section and then open the isolators 1
and 2. This procedure will disconnect section II for repairs. After the repair has been
done, close the isolators 1 and 2 first and then the circuit breaker.

5. Earthing switch

• It is a switch which connects a conductor to the earth so as to discharge the

charges on the conductor to the earth.
• Normally it is open. When the line is disconnected, the earthing switch is closed
so as to discharge the voltage trapped on the line capacitance to the earth.
• Though the line is disconnected, there is some voltage on the line to which the
capacitance between the line and earth is charged. This voltage is significant in
high voltage system. So before proceeding with the maintenance work the
voltage is discharged to earth, by closing the earthing switch.
• Normally earthing switch is mounted on the frame of an isolators.

6. Instrument Transformer
• The lines in sub-stations operate at high voltages and carry current of thousands of
amperes. The measuring instruments and protective devices are designed for low
voltages (generally 110 V) and currents (about 5 A). Therefore, they will not work
satisfactorily if mounted directly on the power lines.
• This difficulty is overcome by installing instrument trans-formers on the power lines. The
function of these instrument transformers is to transfer voltages or currents in the
power lines to values which are convenient for the operation of measuring instruments
and relays.
• There are two types of instrument transformers viz. (a) Current transformer (C.T.) (b)
Potential transformer (P.T.)

a) Current transformer

• A current transformer in essentially a step-up transformer which steps

down the current to a known ratio.
• The primary of this transformer consists of one or more turns of thick wire
connected in series with the line. The secondary consists of a large number
of turns of fine wire and provides for the measuring instruments and relays
a current which is a constant fraction of the current in the line.
 • Suppose a current transformer rated at 100/5 A is connected in the line to
measure current. If the current in the line is 100 A, then current in the
secondary will be 5A. Similarly, if current in the line is 50A, then secondary
of C.T. will have a current of 2·5 A. Thus the C.T. under consideration will
step down the line current by a factor of 20.
b) Potential transformer

• It is essentially a step down transformer and steps down the voltage to a

known ratio. The primary of this transformer consists of a large number of
turns of fine wire connected across the line.
• The secondary winding consists of a few turns and provides for measuring
instruments and relays a voltage which is a known fraction of the line
voltage.
• Suppose a potential transformer rated at 66kV/110V is connected to a
power line. If line voltage is 66kV, then voltage across the secondary will be
110 V.

7. Lightning Arrester(surge arrester)

• The equipment connected between the conductor and ground, to discharge

the excessive voltages to the earth.
• Lightning arresters or surge arresters divert the transient overvoltage surges
to the earth and protect the substation equipment from lightning and
switching over-voltage surges.
• There are two types of designs: a) valve type lightning arrester b)metal-oxide
lightning arrester

8. Line Trap
 • A line trap, also known as wave trap, or high-frequency stopper, is a
maintenance-free parallel resonant circuit, mounted in line on high-
voltage(HV) AC transmission power lines to prevent the transmission of high
frequency (40 kHz to 1000 kHz) carrier signals of power line communication to
unwanted destinations.
• Line traps are cylinder-like structures connected in series with HV transmission
lines. A line trap is also called a wave trap.
• The line trap acts as a barrier or filter to prevent signal losses. The inductive
reactance of the line trap presents a high reactance to high-frequency signals but
a low reactance to mains frequency. This prevents carrier signals from being
dissipated in the substation.

9. Power Transformer

• A power transformer is used in sub-station to step-up or step-down the

voltage. Except at the power station, all the subsequent sub-stations use
step-down transformers to gradually reduce the voltage of electric supply
and finally deliver it at utilisation voltage.
• The modern practice is to use 3-phase transformers in sub-stations ; although
3 single phase bank of transformers can also be used. The use of 3-phase
transformer (instead of 3 single phase bank of transformers) permits two
advantages. Firstly, only one 3-phase load-tap changing mechanism can be
used. Secondly, its installation is much simpler than the three single phase
transformers.
• The power transformer is generally installed upon lengths of rails fixed on
concrete slabs having foundations 1 to 1·5 m deep. For ratings upto 10 MVA,
naturally cooled, oil immersed transformers are used. For higher ratings, the
transformers are generally air blast cooled.

NOTE: For single line diagram of 11kv/440v pole mounted substation refer unit.1
notes
 PLCC (Power line carrier communication)

• Power line carrier communication(PLCC) is commonly used for voice communication,

telemetry, telecontrol, SCADA purposes. Each end of the transmission line is
provided with identical carrier current equipment.
• Carrier current are in the frequency range of 30 to 500 kc/s, are used for
communication between the two substations connected by transmission lines.
• The Power line carrier Communication (PLCC) uses the existing power infrastructure
for the transmission of data from sending to receiving end.
• PLCC system consists of three parts:
1. The terminal assemblies include the receivers transmitters and protective relays.
2. The coupling equipment is the combination of line tuner, coupling capacitor and
the wave or line trap.
3. The 50/60 Hz power transmission line serves as path for relaying data in the PLCC
bandwidth.

Block diagram of PLCC

Functions of each component:

1.Coupling capacitor
• The carrier equipment is connected to the transmission line through coupling
capacitor which is of such capacitance that it offers low reactance to the carrier
frequency but high reactance to power frequency.
• Thus coupling capacitor allows carrier frequency signals to enter the carrier
equipment but does not allow 50Hz power frequency currents to enter the carrier
equipment.
2.Line trap
• Line trap is inserted between busbar and connection of coupling capacitor to the
line. It is a parallel tuned circuit comprising L and C.
• It offers low impedance to 50Hz and high impedance to carrier frequencies. This unit
prevents the high frequency signals from entering the neighbouring line, and the
currents flow only in the protected lines.
• Line trap unit comprises of main coil, tuning unit and overvoltage arrestor.
3.Tuning unit
• Its function is to match the impedance of the PLC terminal with the power line in
order to impress the carrier frequency over the power line.
4.Transmitter/receiver units
• Transmitter unit: carrier frequencies are generated in oscillator. Oscillator can be
tuned to a particular frequency selected for the application. The output voltage of
oscillator is held constant by voltage stabilizers. Output of the oscillator is fed into
amplifier to overcome losses in the transmission path between the transmitter and
the receiver at remote end of the line.
• Receiver unit: The high frequency signal arriving from remote end is received by the
receiver. The receiver receives the signals and feeds it to the carrier relay unit.
Receiving unit comprises of:
i)an attenuator (reduces signals to a safer value)
ii)band pass filter, which restricts acceptance of unwanted signals
iii)matching transformer to match impedance of line and receiving unit.

Applications of PLCC:
1. Carrier communication
2. Carrier protective relaying
3. Carrier telemetry- indicating or recording of quantities at a location remote from the
plant.
4. Carrier supervisory control and SCADA
• Controlling operation of equipment from a central location.
• SCADA- Supervisory control and data acquisition is acquired through
transducers. It is converted into digital code and conveyed to the load control
centre through PLCC