Substations That Will

Pass the Test of Time

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This image shows the extent of flooding directly outside of Con Edison’s East River Plant during Hurricane Sandy.
The waters receded in four hours, leaving a swath of destruction.

Con Ed Nearing Completion of $1B

Post-Sandy Fortification Effort
New flood walls, gates, and pumps; submersible transformers and network
protectors; and smart switches are among upgrades to avoid future outages
By Karen Field

Utility personnel at Con Edison’s East River sub- the four-year, $1B “Fortifying the Future” Storm
station in lower Manhattan remember vividly how Hardening Program. Involving 21 generating sta-
quickly water from Hurricane Sandy’s storm surge tions and substations, the company-wide initiative
rose, prompting a speedy retreat to the upper floors extends to electric, gas, and steam.
of the facility’s offices. The project is now nearing completion, with final
Four hours later the water had receded, leaving approvals for the last phase expected in June 2018.
behind a wide swath of destruction —a total of 1.1 In December 2016, T&D World reported on the
million customer outages; the loss of 4K MW of gen- details of the East 13th substation improvements,
eration, five transmission substations, and 60% of which included a new elevated control room, a
Con Edison’s 345 kV feeders. Steam and gas services new fiber optics backbone network, perimeter wall
were also impacted. and doors gates hardened for storms, new 345 KV
The devastation caused by Hurricane Sandy led to breakers and disconnect switches, and a new digital
the biggest single initiative in Con Edison’s history, control system.

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 Con Ed Post-Sandy Fortification Effort

A Five-Year Plan for Storm Resiliency Level 2: High-capacity Pumps

Kevin Davis, Lead Project Engineer for the initia- Level two protection includes diesel-driven and
tive for substations and generating stations, recalled electric high-capacity pumps with redundant features.
the utility’s immediate response in the aftermath of
Sandy: “Obviously restoration of service was the first Level 3: Interior Protection
priority, followed by the repair of any damaged equip- Level three interior protection includes moats
ment. What we did next was to send multi-disciplinary and compartments and elevated platforms (or plat-
teams to all of our impacted stations to identify criti-
forms that can be elevated in the event of flooding).
cally impacted equipment and water damage.”
Conduit seals, normally used for fire protection but
The big difference was in what came next: The
which can also withstand water, were installed to
formation of a collaborative that included Con Edi-
protect pipes located at flood-level height.
son and its regulators, the New York attorney general
and the mayor’s office, and environmental groups,
brought together to provide input and assist in de- “Prior to Sandy, we were purely reactive
veloping a long-term storm resiliency plan. Work
to events, but that only works for so long.
ranged from studies on the expectations for sea level
rise to risk prioritization and project justification.
You know of the top 10 storms, half have
“Prior to Sandy, we were purely reactive to events, occurred in the last decade. What we did
but that only works for so long. You know of the top with this project is to come up with a final
10 storms, half have occurred in the last decade,” design that meets new, FEMA 100-year
said Davis. “What we did with this project is to come flood level + 3 ft predictions.”
up with a final design that meets new, FEMA 100-
—Kevin Davis, Lead Project Engineer,
year flood level + 3 ft predictions.”
Electro-mechanical relays in the control system
Con Edison.
show unexpectedly severe corrosion after the flood-
ing of Con Edison’s East River Plant. Engineers Level 4: Deployable Measures
suspect the accelerated corrosion was due to the Level four protection includes deployable mea-
combination of high electrical currents and the sures such as HESCO barriers, mobile diesel pumps,
brackish river water. and shrink wrap covers to protect equipment and
That design incorporates what Con Edison calls electrical panels that cannot be elevated.
“Defense in Depth,” essentially four levels of flood As the initiative edges toward completion, Davis
protection defined as: notes that other organizations, including the New
York MTA and the Brooklyn Navy Yard, are using
Level 1: Perimeter Protection
Con Edison to benchmark their own storm readiness
Level one perimeter protection was installed and/
efforts.
or reinforced at 14 stations, consisting of reinforced
Not a bad strategy, given how Davis summed
concrete, sheet steel, and flood barriers. Aluminum
things up: “It’s our belief that in the future if Sandy
doors were also installed, fabricated of individual
or something even bigger than Sandy comes [up to
slats that come apart and are light and easy to deploy.
the FEMA 100-year flood level + 3 ft predictions],
Some doors are made of Kevlar with a pocket at the
we’re ready.”
bottom, containing lead shot for weighting. Should
the site flood, the weight of the water will create the
seal and ultimately provide a protective barrier.

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ComEd Updates Substation Design
Alternative switchgear arrangements are compared in
medium-voltage substations to improve grid hardening.
By Peter Tyschenko, Vincent Westfallen and Laura Garcia Garcia, Commonwealth Edison Co.

Distribution system planners live in a weather-nor- History and Reality

malized Brigadoon sort of world that exists in reality A design standard was needed that would satisfy
only once every 10 years or so. However, on a daily both Ohm and Murphy. Before delving into the
basis, they work with a couple of immutable laws, methodology used to compare several possible sub-
namely Ohm’s Law and Murphy’s Law. station bus designs and select one as a new standard,
Faced recently with a portfolio of substation-hard- it is important to understand some things about
ening and capacity-expansion projects, distribution ComEd and its 34.5-kV distribution system.
capacity planners from Commonwealth Edison For more than 100 years, ComEd has been power-
(ComEd) introduced an engineering effort to study ing the lives of 3.9 million customers spread across
existing 138/34.5-kV substation designs — with a northern Illinois, U.S. Like other major utilities,
specific focus on the 34.5-kV bus arrangement — to ComEd has a large inventory of substations that sup-
identify ways in which to integrate resiliency, reliabil- ply distribution feeders by way of an assortment of
ity and operational improvements into an updated medium-voltage bus arrangements. Roughly 20% of
design. This study brought together experts from ComEd’s system load and 15% of its customers are
ComEd’s substation design, maintenance, protec- served from 34.5-kV feeders out of these substations.
tion and other groups. Much of this equipment was installed between the
post-World War II era and the early 1970s.

Typical outdoor 34.5-kV substation equipment at ComEd includes a straight bus arrangement (shown behind the bus capacitor
banks on the left) and a 34.5-kV circuit breaker with bus disconnects (right).

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 ComEd Updates Substation Design

After decades of successful service, upgrades to In the early 2000s, ComEd began installing mod-
these substations as well as additions to the sub- ular sheltered-aisle 34.5-kV switchgear at new sub-
station fleet are now taking place to continue to stations. ComEd had been using similar gear on its
meet the reliability expectations of the 21st century. 12.5-kV system for more than a decade, and the ap-
Based on the magnitude of these capital investments plication of this equipment on the 34.5-kV system
and the number of customers who count on these brought not only the obvious reduction in medi-
assets for service, it is critical that design decisions um-voltage equipment exposure but also proven
are made wisely. 12.5-kV design benefits like fewer feeders per bus
ComEd is providing record reliability, enhanced section, buses configured in a ring to provide two-di-
customer care and innovative savings programs, rection sourcing for each bus section and the abil-
and seeing record customer satisfaction as a result. ity to continue parallel operation of transformers
Strategic partnerships with state and regional de- during equipment outages.
velopment stakeholders to expand Illinois’ diverse A fully developed 138/34.5-kV substation at
business base have been successful, and Illinois’ ComEd employs four transformers serving as
economic growth depends on the utility continuing many as 16 34.5-kV feeders. ComEd’s distribu-
to deliver safe and reliable power. ComEd’s service tion system is generally planned and forecast-
territory is now one of the most active markets for ed with the goal of serving all customer elec-
new data center development. The suburban Chi- tric load under system normal (N-0) and first
cago, Illinois, data center market is seeing an influx transformer contingency (N-1) conditions. In
of new providers, many of whom take service at 34.5 some cases, second transformer contingency
kV, thereby increasing the need for dependable (N-2) conditions also are considered.
138/34.5-kV substations built on a solid design. During this study, ComEd gave considerable

More Than Just Amps

Low-side buses at ComEd’s legacy
138/34.5-kV substations are construct-
ed with outdoor open-air buses, discon-
Straight bus
nects, circuit breakers and other equip-
Ring bus
ment. Although it was state of the art
when originally designed and installed,
this type of equipment has always been
inherently vulnerable to wildlife, weath-
er and other exposure-related outages. Double ring bus

The legacy ComEd system includes

three basic 34.5-kV bus designs: the
straight bus, the ring bus and the dou- The remaining two
transformers and
eight feeders are
The remaining two
transformers and
eight feeders are

ble ring bus. Each of these designs the mirror image

of what is shown.
the mirror image
of what is shown.

allows for 138/34.5-kV transformers

to be operated in parallel in normal
configuration, and variations exist on Breaker and a half Double bus double breaker

all three designs. A comparison of bus designs includes the legacy configurations — straight, ring
and double ring — as well as the additional configurations considered — breaker
and a half and double bus double breaker.
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ComEd Updates Substation Design

attention to the 34.5-kV bus configuration at these rations. The transmission study from which these
substations, analyzing and comparing five potential indices were adapted — “SCECO-East Experience
bus designs: straight bus, ring bus, double ring bus, with Switchgear Arrangement of Transmission Sub-
breaker and a half, and double bus double breaker. stations” by Zafar Choudhry, 1995 — essentially
In comparing these different bus designs, the engi- assigned a relative value to a design based on the
neering team applied five guiding principles: number of its elements subject to outage for various
• Reliability for isolating faults while minimizing fault modes, accounting for all possible instances of
impacts to healthy equipment each mode. The analysis considered strictly feeder
• Operability for reconfiguring under contin- outages because they represent direct customer im-
gencies to match available transformer capac- pact. ComEd also considered physical metrics and
ity with connected load cost, calculated simply as a square foot and dollar
• Feasibility to be scalable as well as built in a multiple of the number of circuit breakers required
variety of physical locations on the system for each configuration.
• Interchangeability to leverage existing mainte-
nance and operating methods and expertise Survive or Recover
• Cost for balancing sound economic responsi- If reliability were the only consideration, the
bility with the other four guiding principles. double bus double breaker would have been the
clear champion for initial impact to feeders under
Evaluation Indices every type of fault. However, a deeper review of what
One of the greatest challenges the team encoun- these fault situations would look like in real life led
tered was creating a quantifiable methodology for ComEd to further assess the impact to feeders to
comparing the different bus designs. Discussions make repairs to faulted equipment. Enlightening
sometimes became clouded by opinions about the conversations with switchgear vendors and ComEd’s
importance of cost versus reliability, for instance, or own substation maintenance experts revealed some
what exactly flexible operability looks like, or how important facts.
important it is to have a scalable design, or one that Because of the complexity of the designs and
can be built in stages and in many places on the sys- compact nature of the buildings, one significant
tem. Engineers are passionate people, and it usually drawback of the breaker and a half as well as the
takes sound logic to influence their thinking. double bus double breaker in a modular switchgear
ComEd developed a reliability index approach lineup is the amount of equipment that would have
to compare the five possible 34.5-kV bus configu- to be taken out of service to provide the necessary

The 34.5-kV bus, circuit breakers and other equipment is housed indoors in a climate-controlled building.
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 ComEd Updates Substation Design

clearance for crews to make repairs Survive Index Analysis

to a faulted bus section. To capture Bus fault Total number of feeder interruptions for failure of different bus sections
Total number of feeders × total number of bus sections
this significant aspect of the utility’s
Circuit breaker fault Total number of feeder interruptions for failure of different breakers
findings, a second reliability index Total number of feeders × total number of breakers
was added for each fault mode. Stuck circuit breaker Total number of feeder interruptions for failure of different breakers
The initial impact index was re- Total number of feeders × total number of normally closed breakers

named the “survive index” and the Recover Index Analysis

new index was called the “recover Bus out Total number of feeder interruptions for planned outage of different buses
(for maintenance) Total number of feeders × total number of buses
index.” The recover indices also Circuit breaker out Total number of feeder interruptions for planned outage of different
are useful for comparing mainte- (for maintenance) breakers
Total number of feeders × total number of breakers
nance impact for bus and circuit
breaker outages. Survive and Recover Indices
Survive Recover
These substations are planned
Bus fault Circuit Stuck Bus fault Circuit Stuck
for transformer N-1, so typical en- breaker circuit breaker circuit
fault breaker fault breaker
gineers could feel they have gone
Straight bus 0.250 0.280 0.273 0.150 0.000 0.000
the extra mile by looking beyond
Ring bus 0.100 0.150 0.134 0.100 0.139 0.132
the mere loss of a transformer, Double ring bus 0.056 0.088 0.089 0.056 0.081 0.082
studying the assorted first contin- Breaker and a half 0.028 0.042 0.043 0.059 0.042 0.043
gency survive index rankings and Double bus double breaker 0.028 0.032 0.033 0.083 0.032 0.030

stopping at the first contingency This table provides a summary of the survive and recover Indices for the different
recover indices. However, in the configurations. Lower values of these unit-less, relative indices are more favorable.
spirit of the second immutable law,
Murphy’s Law, distribution planning engineers can- Bus Out for Maintenance or Repair and Subsequent Second Bus Fault
not help but take a look under the hood of each of 0.45
Depth of
these configurations to get a feel for the depth of 0.40 resiliency
resiliency they present. Having a bus section out for 0.35
Survive
Recover
maintenance or repair, and then being forced into 0.30
a survive situation because of a second bus fault is 0.25
both the worst second contingency scenario and not 0.20
an unreasonable circumstance to expect at some 0.15
point during the life of a substation. 0.10
The graph illustrates the relative depth of resilien- 0.05
cy of the five configurations that were studied. The 0.00
first contingency survive and recover indices are Straight Ring bus Double Breaker Double bus
bus ring bus and a half double breaker
represented by the diamond markers. The box plots
show the range of survive indices for a bus fault with The relative depth of resiliency of the five configurations in
one bus initially out for maintenance. survive and recover indices.
The difference between the survive and recover repair activities. For some of these designs, the first
index values and the depth of resiliency data for each contingency maintenance outage in and of itself is
bus arrangement can be thought of as in indication an operating hardship; the impact of a second con-
of the risk that is present during bus maintenance or tingency while that work is underway is catastrophic.

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ComEd Updates Substation Design

speaks to the guiding prin-

ciple of reliability and is
demonstrated by the sur-
vive indices for this layout.
Operability also is show-
cased by this configuration.
Its two-ring design with re-
dundant ties between them
enables a great degree of
flexibility in paralleling
available transformers to
serve feeders. The rela-
An outside look at the 34.5-kV modular feeder (left) shows bus detail where feeder cables will
be landed. Inside (right), the circuit breaker has been removed, and the ground and test device
tive ease of bus and circuit
is in place. breaker maintenance il-
lustrated by the recover
Double Ring Bus Recommendation indices as well as its robust
The quest for a better substation is never end- depth of resiliency performance add operability
ing and ComEd continues to explore additional value to this design. All of these advantages remain
design features that could add resiliency, reliability during each stage of evolution as a double ring bus
and operational improvement to substation is developed from two
our substations. As a result of the to three to four transformers.
study, ComEd distribution capac- Hence, the feasibility principle
ity planning recommended the is met.
double ring bus design for new Although it is not the least-ex-
substation terminals. Because this pensive design, it also is not the
bus arrangement is constructed of most expensive. In this quest
modular sheltered-aisle switchgear, for the best medium-voltage
the 34.5-kV bus, circuit breakers substation bus design, it was not
and other equipment are housed unexpected that costs would be
within the building, away from associated with benefits. The
wildlife and weather. objective of the final principle
In addition to moving away from of cost was to ensure that dollars
The 34.5-kV modular switchgear circuit
the obvious challenges of an out- breaker presents no exposed medium- were spent in the right place.
door 34.5-kV bus, this class of voltage parts and can be removed from the By employing the study meth-
cubicle for maintenance.
medium-voltage equipment satis- odology, ComEd’s distribution
fies the guiding principle of inter- capacity planners are confident
changeability, because it is supported by more than Ohm and Murphy would have agreed with their
25 years of ComEd’s experience operating and main- decision to use the double ring bus design as the
taining similarly constructed 12.5-kV switchgear. utility’s standard.
The decision to limit the number of circuits per
bus section to just one in the new standard design

8 | TD World | tdworld.com
THE TOTAL
PACKAGE

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Bart Kers and Wim Kerstens from Stedin’s asset management deparment review documents for the project that will replace
the 10-kV switchgear, including protection, monitoring and control, in the 50/10-kV Utrecht Leidseveer substation.

Analysis Drives Future

Substation Configurations
Stedin presents a changing perspective
on medium-voltage network design and reliability.
By Edward Coster and Dirk Boender, Stedin, and Bram Staarink, Alliander

Stedin Netbeheer B.V. is a regional network Stedin’s high-voltage (HV) subtransmission net-
operator responsible for the transmission and dis- work operates at 50 kV and 25 kV, with medium-volt-
tribution of electricity in Randstad, a large urban age (MV) distribution network voltages of 23 kV (as
area in western Netherlands. More than 2 million of 1990), 13 kV and 10 kV. Apart from three 50-kV
customers are supplied by Stedin in this area, which overhead lines, the HV and MV connections consist
includes the cities of The Hague, Rotterdam and of underground cables.
Utrecht. Stedin was formed by a merger of former Aging switchgear in need of replacement pres-
municipal network operators that had different ents the utility with an opportunity to re-evaluate
design philosophies on network structures, voltage the design and configuration of its current HV and
levels and substation layouts. As a result, the layouts MV substations while simultaneously exploring
of Stedin substations commissioned between the possibilities for integrating distribution automa-
1960s and 1980s differ widely. tion into its MV network. Switchgear replacement

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 Future Substation Configurations

is linked to controlling the risk of aging Substation Building Blocks

assets no longer supported by the origi-
Primary voltages of 50 kV, 25 kV or 23 kV Primary voltages of 25 kV or 23 kV
nal equipment manufacturer, now or in
the near future. This risk involves mainly
minimum oil breakers installed in 35%
of all bays in the HV and MV substations.
Stedin has decided to pursue a two-track
Secondary voltages of 10 kV or 13 kV Secondary voltage of 10 kV
approach that involves the replacement of
Circuit breaker open Circuit breaker closed
minimum oil breakers switchgear over a
40-MVA and 22.5-MVA transformers This substation model includes four
20-year period plus conservation of switch- may be used. The third transformer is 11-MVA transformers. In the event of
gear not replaced during that time, in co- operated on hot standby to maintain a transformer outage, an automatic
the medium-voltage fault level within changeover switches the hot standby
operation with the successor to the original the fault level rating of the medium- transformer into service, to maintain
equipment manufacturer. voltage switchgear. In the event of a sufficient capacity in the substation.
transformer outage, an automatic
changeover switches the hot standby
transformer to the bus bar. The
Substation Layouts changeover takes place within 150
A substation replacement gives Stedin an msec, minimizing the interruption
time.
opportunity to re-evaluate the layout and
consider a standardized layout. To define Two standard substation building blocks for use on the Stedin system with
intended breaker operation.
standard substation layouts, a distinction
was made between the bus bar concept Bus Bar Concepts
and the maximum number of transformers to be The substation layout and bus bar configuration
installed, all of which affect substation capacity. have an important role in security of supply, opera-
The approach chosen for determining the max- tional flexibility and costs. These are the most com-
imum number of transformers and the substation mon bus bar concepts for voltages below 150 kV:
capacity is based on basic building blocks consisting • Single-section single bus bar (SBBSS) — The
of a fixed transformer capacity and a fixed short-cir- simplest and cheapest bus bar configuration
cuit current. These building blocks are specified so concept (concept 1) is SBBSS. Because of its
the nominal bus bar current and the short-circuit simplicity, errors in switching operations are
current contribution comply with the design param- minimal. An extension or repair to the bus
eters of the available MV switchgear. The acceptable bar, once commissioned, is not possible with-
fault level of the existing ring main units must be out de-energizing the complete bus bar.
considered. • Two-section SBB — A natural extension of
The building blocks for substations are as follows: the single-section bus bar concept is the
• 50-kV/10-kV or 50-kV/13-kV substations, two or two-section SBB (concept 2). A transformer
three 40-MVA transformers, 15% impedance is connected to each section, and the sections
• 25-kV/10-kV and 23-kV/10-kV substations, can be coupled by a bus bar coupler circuit
three 22.5-MVA transformers, 12% impedance breaker.
• 25-kV/10-kV and 23-kV/10-kV substations, • Single-section double bus bars (DBB) — This
four 11-MVA transformers, 10% impedance. concept (concept 3) overcomes the drawback
The limitation on the capacity per substation is of the SBBSS concept as each bus bar has two
linked to the impact a complete substation outage bus disconnectors that facilitate the connection
has on Stedin’s performance. of each feeder to either of the two bus bars.

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Future Substation Configurations

• Two-section DBB — This concept (concept

Circuit breaker open 4) can be extended further by adding a sec-
Circuit breaker closed
Disconnector open ond section. Both sections can be coupled
Disconnector closed
by a coupling breaker between the sections,
and both buses can be coupled by a coupling
breaker between the buses.
• Four SBB — This concept (concept 5) consists
The left schematic shows a single-section single bus bar (concept 1), of four SBB that can be paired up and coupled
and the right schematic shows a two-section single bus bar (concept 2). by a coupling breaker. A maximum of two
Circuit breaker open
transformers can be applied, and two bus bar
Circuit breaker closed sections are connected to each transformer.
Disconnector open
Disconnector closed Because of the transformer division over two
SBB sections, larger transformer capacities
can be accommodated.
After a multicriteria analysis and discus-
sion on substation and bus bar concepts —
involving 20 experts from various relevant
The left schematic shows a single-section double bus bar (concept 3), technical departments — Stedin formulated
and the right schematic shows a two-section double bus bar (concept 4).
a design rule: New switchgear would be di-
vided into a two-section SBB, installed in
Circuit breaker open
Circuit breaker closed separate rooms. A reliability study of the new
Disconnector open design rule was undertaken with the
Disconnector closed
Gorinchem substation.

The Design Study

The substation configurations have been
studied for an HV/MV substation in the town of
Gorinchem, where the existing MV switchgear
The schematic illustrates four single bus bars (concept 5). needs to be replaced. The substation configu-
rations and distribution grid adap-
40
tions were evaluated by means of
LV MV HV EHV
reliability calculations.
SAIDI (minutes per year)

30 Within Stedin, the customer

interruption time and frequency
20 should be as low as possible, subject
to reasonable costs. At the substa-
10
tion level, this is done by optimiz-
ing the substation configuration
for the feeding infrastructure of
0
2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 the distribution network. Optimi-
Year zation is achieved by removing and
History of SAIDI for 10 years in the Netherlands.

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 Future Substation Configurations

0.45

0.40 Concept 1: Reference

0.35 Concept 2: RCS in open points

Concept 3: One additional RCS
0.30
SAIDI (hours per year)

Concept 3: Two additional RCS

0.25 Concept 3: All RCS

0.20

0.15

0.10

0.05

0.00
Agr1 Pub1 Pub3 Pub4 Pub5 Ind1 Ind2 Ind3 Ind4 Ind5 System
overall
Area

SAIDI predictions for the different automation concepts using modeling for the Gorinchem medium-voltage distribution network.

replacing aged satellite switching stations and trans- Substation Configuration

forming complicated meshed network structures With the aid of the distribution network model-
into radially operated ring structures. Additional ing, various substation configurations can be evalu-
reliability improvements can be achieved through ated. The proposed MV switchgear configurations
remote-controlled switches (RCS). were SBBSS, two-section SBB and two-section DBB.
Initially, the current substation configuration
Reliability Indicators and Assessment of Gorinchem had a DBB configuration with four
In this study, the system average interruption assessment cases:
frequency index (SAIFI), system average interrup- • Reference case, no changes made to both the
tion duration index (SAIDI) and customer average current substation configuration and current
interruption duration index (CAIDI) are used. The distribution network
development of SAIFI and SAIDI values in the Neth- • Substation configured as a two-section DBB
erlands over the last 10 years show the MV distribu- combined with the restructured distribu-
tion network has large contributions to both indices. tion network
The reliability assessments were done within • Substation configured as a two-section SBB
a software package. The distribution grid in the combined with the restructured distribu-
Gorinchem area was modeled to consider various tion network
MV substation configurations. • Substation configured as a SBBSS combined
To secure redundancy in the distribution net- with the restructured distribution network.
work, the distribution feeders must start from one The reliability calculations of these four cases in-
bus bar section and end at the other bus bar section. corporated various network component failure rates
Hence, as a consequence of the design rule, some dis- from experience and were focused on reliability
tribution feeders in the distribution grid of Gorinchem of the MV network; therefore, the LV network was
had to be adapted to meet this requirement. excluded from the calculations.

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Future Substation Configurations

Distribution Automation Results of Reliability Evaluation

During the study on Gorinchem’s MV distribution The reliability evaluation showed the overall effect
grid, implementation of distribution automation of the distribution grid adaptions resulted in a 30%
was considered. A RCS contains a remote fault decrease in SAIDI. According to the design rule,
passage indicator so the control center can quickly the two-section SBB has a slightly better SAIDI (5%)
identify the location a faulted component. The than the next best option, the two-section DBB.
switch can be controlled remotely by an operator The results show restructuring the distribution
in the control center, instead of locally, reducing grid led to a SAIDI reduction overall of about 30%
travel and localization time. Hence, it has a positive (from 16 minutes per year to 11 minutes per year),
impact on CAIDI and SAIDI. but the distribution network improvements do not
have an equal effect on all areas.
Two-section bus bar configurations have lower
SAIDI values than the one-section configuration.
Reliability Indices Calculations
Based on Network Component Failure Rates In the latter case, a bus bar failure causes a total
Network component Failure rate Mean time
substation outage, because of the lack of redun-
(times per year) to repair (hours) dancy. Such bus bar failures are an event with a
HV grid 0.1 0.5 high impact and low probability. The SAIFI values
HV/MV transformer 0.02 84 for DBB and SBB configurations are lower because
MV bus bar section (SBB/ 0.0004 48 the transformers operate in parallel (in separate
DBB)
sections), while for the SBBSS, one transformer is
MV bus bar section (SBBSS) 0.0008 48
operated in a hot standby mode.
MV cross-linked polyeth- 0.015/km 48
ylene cable type* (0.024/mile) The reliability evaluation for the DBB configu-
MV paper-insulated 0.020/km 48 ration results in extra time being incorporated be-
lead-covered cable type* (0.032/mile)
cause the healthy bus bar will be visually inspected
RMU 0.0006 60
first to ensure it is not damaged by the failure of
*Including cable joints and terminations
the other bus bar. After the inspection, all feeders
will be switched over sequentially to the healthy bus
bar using the disconnectors and circuit breakers.
Results of Reliability Evaluation
For the SBB configuration, a bus bar failure needs
Index Case 1 Case 2 Case 3 Case 4
Reference DBB SBB SBBSS no visual inspection since both sections are archi-
SAIFI 0.24 0.22 0.20 0.22 tecturally divided, minimizing possible damage to
(number/
year) the second section. However, switching over the
SAIDI 0.27 0.19 0.18 0.21 involved feeders to the healthy section is done by
(hour/year) closing the normally open points in the distribution
CAIDI (hour) 1.14 0.85 0.89 0.96 network, a procedure that takes more time.

Results of Distributed Automation Concepts

Index Concept 1: Concept 2: Concept 3a: Concept 3b: Concept 3c:
Reference RCS at open points One extra RCS Two extra RCS All RCS
SAIDI 0.18 0.14 0.12 0.11 0.10
(hour/year)

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 Future Substation Configurations

Impact of Distribution Automation

The results of distribution automation are shown divided in two sections to meet the redundancy re-
by comparison of SAIDI values, because RCS only quirements. Also, the largest reduction in SAIDI is
accelerate the fault localization and decrease resto- obtained by automating the normally open points.
ration duration while the SAIFI remains unchanged. Further reduction can be achieved by automating
Comparison of the SAIDI values show the more a switch in the middle of a feeder. Automating
RCS introduced in the network, the larger the im- more switches will lead to an increase in costs, but
pact, but the additional reliability benefit per addi- the contribution to a reduction in SAIDI quickly
tional RCS is quickly saturated. For the Gorinchem declines.
distribution network, with a maximum of about 10
ring main units per open ring feeder, the highest
quantitative impact is obtained by placing a RCS at
the open points in the distribution network and,
eventually, placing one extra RCS halfway down
each feeder (concepts 2 and 3).

Impact of Substation Configurations

The impact of substation configurations has
shown it is preferable to divide the switchgear into
two redundant sections and install them in separate
rooms. Next to that, the two-section SBB concept is
rewarded slightly higher than the two-section DBB
The 13-kV cables were installed in the basement of 50/13-kV
concept. Therefore, it can be concluded the substa-
Stellendam substation.
tion configuration has little impact on the reliability
indices. Comparing the results of the SBB and DBB
configurations shows the SBB configuration per-
forms slightly better with a 5% lower SAIDI.
Therefore, in view of this small difference, the
capital and maintenance costs become important.
Taking these costs as well as the reliability indices
into account, it is cost-effective to apply the SBB
configuration. Comparing the SBBSS configura-
tion with the two-section alternative indicates the
approach of two sections positioned in separate
rooms is a valid design rule in substation planning.
Furthermore, because of the small differences in
the results, it can be concluded that the majority The 13-kV switchgear was installed in the 50/13-kV Stellendam
of the contribution to the reliability indices comes substation (one section of the two-section SBB installation).
from the distribution network. A prerequisite for
the two-section substation design, the distribution
network should be adapted such that it can be

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The Denny Substation Project, Seattle’s first new substation in 30 years, is needed to power the South Lake Union neighborhood.
Images provided courtesy of NBBJ. Renderings produced by MOTYW.

Seattle Unveils NexGen Substation

The Denny Substation Project brings power to growing downtown Seattle,
along with art, a dog park and an interpretative walking loop.
By Michael Clark and Joe Orth, Seattle City Light, and Jay Keeling, POWER Engineers

Many cities hide their urban electrical substations by. But those designs do not invite people to the
behind buildings that are works of art. However, site and offer them fun things to do. The Denny
few offer their communities the destination activ- Substation design does.
ities that will become a part of Seattle City Light’s
planned Denny Substation in Seattle, Washington, A Focal Point
U.S. Some artistically designed urban substations When the Denny Substation is energized in the
include the dynamically formed Buzzard Point spring of 2018, it is expected to become a focal
Substation proposed in Washington, D.C., the point for surrounding neighborhoods. Seattle ar-
Mondrian-inspired abstract City North Substation chitecture firm NBBJ designed the substation to
in Sydney, Australia, and the seamless black basalt include an off-leash dog park and a 0.25-mile (0.4-
substation in Innsbruck, Austria. These are pleasing, km) interpretative walking loop elevated by gentle
artsy boxes designed to hide the industrial guts of slopes that will provide unique views of Denny Way
the substation. They present pretty faces to passers- and the cityscape.

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 Seattle Unveils NexGen Substation

The utility has partnered with the

Seattle Office of Arts and Culture to
integrate both permanent and tem-
porary art into the substation. The
City of Seattle designates 1% of capital
budgets for art. Permanent art will in-
clude a sculpture called “Transforest”
that blends the natural beauty of the
region with the history of power gen-
eration and transmission. Built into
two corners of the substation will be a The Denny Substation Project will include an off-leash dog park on the west side
series of switches called “Switchwall” of the site.
that move with the wind and turn col- delight for the neighborhood. The building’s met-
ored lights on and off. al-clad walls are designed to slope inward toward
Tucked into one side of the site will be an urban the substation. This will make the building look
food court for food trucks and food carts to serve less imposing to pedestrians and create a friendlier
their fare during neighborhood events. The design urban face. Translucent glass panels will emit a soft
also includes a learning center where residents can glow at night.
find out more about Seattle City Light, the Emerald However, behind Denny Substation’s pretty face
City’s publicly owned utility, and how it promotes are some tough urban and engineering design chal-
the use of renewable energy sources such as hydro- lenges. The design proposals had to make their way
electric power, wind power and other sustainability through the demanding political process known as
efforts. the Seattle Way, which values popular participation,
The substation building design continues the debate and a high level of public benefit from such
celebration of the location and will be a visual projects.

Powering Growth
Seattle City Light started on the
path to building a new substation
in 2012 to serve future growth in
the area north of downtown, from
Denny Triangle to South Lake
Union. At that point, the utility’s
planners thought they had plenty
of time to design and build a new
substation. However, six months
after the Seattle City Council gave
the utility the go-ahead for full de-
Instead of a 40-ft-high screen wall typical of some urban substations, the Denny sign, the economic development
Substation design is faceted and stepped for a lower profile, and much of the enclosure
is transparent, particularly at street level. The Brewster Apartments and the Mirabella
dam burst. Companies’ plans for
residential buildings can be seen behind the substation. new high-density residential and
commercial space started becom-

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Preparing the Denny Substation site included digging 40 ft down from the street surface to remove soil contaminated by diesel fuel
from the old Greyhound Bus maintenance facility. Photo by Jay Keeling.

ing a reality at a pace that had not been expected. Technical and Design Puzzles
Some of the best-known names in business are Seattle City Light selected 1250 Denny Way,
building high-rise office towers in the neighbor- the site of a former Greyhound Bus mainte-
hood. Amazon, the world’s largest online retailer, nance facility, as the location for its new sub-
is building a new corporate headquarters that will station. The 120,000-sq ft (11,150-sq m) area
include three 38-story office towers, two mid-rise offered several advantages:
office buildings and a meeting center, all built on • It was close to electrical load centers.
three city blocks. Vulcan, the company started by • It had an underground high-pressure, flu-
Microsoft cofounders Paul Allen and Jody Allen, is id-filled (HPFF) 115-kV line running through
putting up the Block 45 Project, a 12-story building the site.
in South Lake Union. • It had enough area for a substation.
Other nearby construction includes the Pacific • It offered the ability to disperse feeder lines
Northwest’s largest hotel, a 45-story project in the in every direction.
Denny Triangle area. A new 36-story office and Still, the site presented some demanding tech-
apartment tower is planned for just three blocks nical and design puzzles. A lot of equipment and
from the new Amazon headquarters. In all, more functions would have to go into a relatively limited
than a dozen major projects have been announced space that did not allow for an open-air insulation
or are under way. The electrical load density for substation. The diverse project team tackling those
this area is about to increase dramatically as more issues included POWER Engineers, serving as the
people and businesses come into the area. project manager and overseeing electrical design,
Adding more urgency to City Light’s plans is the and KPFF Consulting Engineers, serving as the
fact that the nearby aged Broad Street Substation has structural and civil engineer.
nearly reached its load limits. Moreover, construc- The Denny Substation and its network distribu-
tion of the Alaskan Way Viaduct replacement tunnel tion system have to be highly reliable. They are crit-
requires part of the Broad Street Substation distri- ically important to economic growth in the South
bution feeder system to be de-energized for a time. Lake Union and Denny Triangle neighborhoods.
Achieving the needed reliability in the available

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 Seattle Unveils NexGen Substation

space posed numerous design difficulties. Address- Electric Power Products Inc. and ABB Group. ABB
ing these issues was often at odds with the public proposed using higher-impedance transformers
amenities portion of the design, as both processes and its Is-limiter, a fast-acting switching device, in
moved in parallel. the ring bus. This resulted in additional switchgear
In some 15-kV fault scenarios such as bus faults or cubicles but solved the high fault current issue.
breaker failure, there had to be a way to avoid loop Mitsubishi will provide the 115-kV gas-insulated
flow. All of the transformers’ secondary winding had switchgear while ABB will provide the transformers
to be connected in parallel, requiring all of the tap and 13.8-kV equipment.
changers to be in the same position. One problem An existing 115-kV HPFF line runs through the
with connecting the network distribution trans- Denny Substation site. This transmission line, which
formers’ secondary winding in parallel is it causes will be above-grade during most of construction, will
extremely high fault currents. These high fault cur- be bisected to provide separate lines from the Den-
rents can push the capability for breaker interrup- ny Substation to the East Pine Substation and Broad
tion and could exceed the capability of downstream Street Substation. The HPFF transmission line is
13.8-kV feeder equipment, rated at 25 kA. proposed to operate at 115 kV with the potential
The project team studied several potential solu- for the East Pine connection to operate at 230 kV
tions such as increasing transformer impedance, in the future. The change to 230 kV is necessary as
adding inductors and other solutions. Each possible the electrical demand increases and more areas of
fix either required equipment that would not fit in north of downtown Seattle are switched to a network
the substation’s compact space or would not meet distribution system.
performance demands. In the end, the project Around 2019, a new high-voltage transmission
team decided to write a performance specification line will connect Denny Substation to the existing
for all the substation high-voltage equipment and Massachusetts Substation in the south of downtown
allow some really talented people at the original neighborhood, or SoDo as the area just south of
equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to propose solu- Pioneer Square and the Chinatown-International
tions. This approach allowed the project to capture District is called. Denny Substation and the associat-
available technical solutions as well as competitive ed transmission circuits will also serve as backup in
pricing proposals. case of outages or loss of equipment at nearby sub-
Seattle City Light received four different propos- stations. Receiving the equipment outline drawings
als from OEMs that offered unique approaches to and finalizing the 13.8-kV bus design for the Denny
the performance requirements. The utility chose Substation allowed the final layout of the yard and
a solution that split the work between Mitsubishi detail design to move ahead.

Project Attention
Denny Substation Equipment
Nearby South Lake Union neighbors
Four bays of 115-kV gas-insulated switchgear
of the Denny Substation project include
Three 115/13.8-kV power transformers
115-kV line reactor with integrated GIS
an upscale retirement community and
13.8-kV switchgear building the Seattle Cancer Care Center. Along
13.8-kV capacitor banks with providing power for all the new con-
13.8-kV grounding banks struction underway, the substation also
One lot of 115-kV cross-linked polyethylene cable between equipment supplier equipment will support the University of Washing-
One lot of 15-kV ethylene propylene rubber cable between equipment supplier equipment ton School of Medicine’s biotechnology

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Seattle Unveils NexGen Substation

park, interpretative walking loop and many other

amenities.
The city also requires elements of sustainability
on such capital improvement projects. The substa-
tion site will include native and drought-tolerant
plants, installation of solar array panels, light-col-
ored walking surfaces to reduce heat, easy access
to mass transit, bicycle stands and other features.
Additionally, the utility performed an extensive
environmental cleanup at the site, digging 40 ft (12
m) down from the surface to remove soil contam-
inated by diesel fuel from the old Greyhound Bus
maintenance facility.
To keep the public well-informed, Seattle City
An aerial view shows Denny Substation from the northeast Light and the project team created a website to post
looking southwest from the corner of John Street and Yale updates, provided a phone hotline for messages,
Avenue North with Seattle’s cityscape in the background.
emailed interested contacts, and created Facebook
and medical research hub, the Fred Hutchinson and Twitter pages about the project. Numerous
Cancer Research Center, the Seattle Cancer Care public meetings also were held to ensure an open
Alliance, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and line of communication between the utility and the
PATH, an international health organization. public. This effort sustained an engaged public
The people of Seattle generally are well-educated constituency that will be continued throughout the
and highly involved in the community. Naturally, construction phase of the project.
the Denny Substation attracted a lot of attention.
Early public concern focused on what the substa- Approvals for the project involved
tion would look like, with the fear it meant a bunch numerous elected officials and a multitude
of open-air electrical equipment surrounded by a of city departments. The utility and its
chain-link fence or brick wall. Other questions arose project team dealt primarily with 20
about electromagnetic field and noise. But Seattle
City Light committed early to provide something
interested parties but more than 70 were
different from the usual substation. involved at one point or another.
Approvals for the project involved numerous
elected officials and a multitude of city depart- Meeting the Challenge
ments. The utility and its project team dealt pri- In August 2015, the Seattle City Council gave
marily with 20 interested parties but more than 70 final approval for Seattle City Light’s first major
were involved at one point or another. The team substation project in 30 years. Getting to that point
had extensive meetings with the Seattle Design required a lot of coordination and cooperation
Commission, which is made up of professionals among elected officials, public agencies, design
in architecture, planning, engineering and urban teams and many others, as well as input from cit-
design who advise the city on the design of capital izens. Moving the project through this process
improvement projects. proved to be the real challenge. Successfully meet-
Because the final design called for vacating Pon- ing that challenge enables the utility to achieve its
tius Avenue North between Denny Way and John mission of service to customers and gives Seattle
Street, the utility needed to provide offsetting pub- a substation design that celebrates its place in the
lic benefits. This is the reason for the off-leash dog Emerald City.
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