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B3B204B

CIGRE 2010

Application of technologies for uprating and upgrading of substations in Japan H. IMAGAWA T. KOBAYASHI T. SATO Chubu Electric Power Co. Tokyo Electric Power Co. Kansai Electric Power Co. K. UEHARA K. SASAMORI A. OKADA Toshiba Corp. Mitsubishi Electric Corp. Japan AE Power Systems Corp. Japan

SUMMARY
Though recent electric power demand has been saturating in Japan, electric power network is still expanding for connecting new power sources and improving reliable linkage capacity. In addition to this, power system equipment, which was installed during the high economic growth period, has already reached 30 - 35 years of age due to investment reduction and need to be replaced on a massive scale in the near future. Meanwhile, land is becoming harder to acquire for new transmission lines and substations with cities overcrowding and local residents becoming more aware of their rights. Against these backgrounds, existing substations are increasingly required to uprate and upgrade. Thus, "Uprating of substations and existing equipment to increase network capacity" has become one of the preferential subjects of CIGRE SC B3. This paper shall present such technologies as are useful for uprating and upgrading of substations around the world with their practical application examples in Japan. As an example of uprating of substation, increasing short-circuit current from 50kA to 63kA at 500kV air insulated substation is mainly introduced. When designing substation equipment for improving its functions, mechanical strength of main equipment such as circuit breakers and transformers need to be checked as well as their electrical capacities including rated breaking current and rated current. Also, all specifications of entire facilities including related equipment (disconnecting switches, earthing switches, busbars, instrumental transformers, supporting structures, etc.), protection relay settings and low voltage DC circuits need to be checked. Further, still more important is total optimization of substations as an entire system in addition to individual consideration for each equipment. Uprating and upgrading of existing substations require advancement in analysis technologies as well as flexible ideas based on close cooperation between power utilities and equipment manufacturers, some examples of which are presented in this paper.

KEYWORDS
Uprating - Upgrading - Existing substation - Short-circuit current - Current carrying capacity

Imagawa.Hiroshi@chuden.co.jp

1. Introduction
Though recent electric power demand has been saturating in Japan, electric power network is still expanding for connecting new power sources and improving reliable linkage capacity. In addition to this, power system equipment, which was installed during the high economic growth period, has already reached 30 - 35 years of age due to investment reduction and need to be replaced on a massive scale in the near future. Meanwhile, land is becoming harder to acquire for new transmission lines and substations, and thus it is becoming more and more important to consider how existing substations can be uprated and upgraded within the same area under maintaining the orientation of the existing transmission lines for obtaining the optimum approach to several needs in Figure 1[1]. This paper shall present such technologies as are useful for uprating and upgrading of substations around the world with their practical application examples in Japan. Also the points of needs for those introduced actual examples are summarized in the parentheses in Figure 1. Wide Area Impact (Society, Power System) New Regulations Standards and Regulations (Seismic reinforcement / Oil leakage and fire prevention / Safety enhancement) Power System Requirements Short-Circuit Capacity (Exceeding 50kA) Control Functionality Operating Requirements

Uncontrollable

Customer Requirements New Connections Power Supply Capacity (Connection of newly developed large capacity power generation)

O&M Requirements Major Repair (Utilization of existing parts) Equipment Condition O&M Cost (Minimization) Spare Parts Procurement Availability Skills

Controllable

Narrow Area Impact (Substation, Equipment) Figure 1. Background of increasing necessity of uprating and upgrading of substations

2. Basic policies
On equipment designing for improving substation functions, mechanical strengths of main equipment such as circuit breakers and transformers need to be checked as well as their electrical capacities including rated breaking current and rated current. Also, all specifications of entire facilities including related equipment (disconnecting switches, earthing switches, busbars, instrumental transformers, supporting structures, etc.), protection relay settings and low voltage DC circuits need to be checked. As an example, a matrix of items to be considered when increasing short-circuit current is shown in Table 1. Further, still more important is total optimization of substations as an entire system in addition to individual consideration for each equipment.

Table 1. Matrix of items to be considered when increasing short-circuit current XX: Dominant factor X : Related factor Mechanical Insulation Mechanical Interrupting Current strength against strength at the strength of capacity for carrying electro-magnetic time of internal secondary fault current capacity circuit and touch (ampacity) for force due to fault fault & step voltage current fault current Circuit breaker Disconnecting switch Earthing switch Transformer Current transformer Capacitive voltage transformer Aluminum pipe bus Tensioned wire bus Insulator strings Surge arrester Structure GIS for tertiary circuit Grounding mesh Grounding resistance XX XX XX XX XX X X X X XX XX XX X XX XX X XX XX X XX XX X X X X X X X XX

3. Measures against growth in short circuit and grounding fault currents

(1) Examples of AIS At 500kV "W" substation, as the short-circuit current of the 500kV bus was expected to exceed 50kA due to expansion of 500kV trunk lines and connection of newly-developed large-capacity power generation, its short-circuit current capacity was increased to 63kA. Outlines of engineering work for each category of equipment were as follows.

Figure 2. Overview of 500kV "W" air insulated substation

(a) Circuit breaker: Circuit breakers were uprated from 50kA to 63kA. Based on the results of the research on reuse of hollow porcelain insulator, existing bushings of circuit breaker were reused for cost reduction. Regarding newly installed 300kV circuit breakers, gas pressure, capacitance of capacitor between contacts and switching speed were increased and nozzle shape was changed in order to improve interrupting performance. (b) Disconnecting switch: In this substation, pantograph-type disconnecting switch and vertical-type disconnecting switch are applied. For each type of disconnecting switch, only conducting parts whose current carrying capacity is below 63kA were replaced with uprated ones, instead of replacing entire equipment as shown in Figure 3. The number of contacts and contact pressure at contacts were increased. Taking this opportunity, supporting insulators were replaced to thicker ones for the sake of seismic reinforcement as a countermeasure after the Great Hanshin Awaji Earthquake.

(a) Pantograph-type disconnecting switch

(b) Vertical-type disconnecting switch : Replacement of conducting parts

: Seismic reinforcement (Replacement of insulators) Figure 3.Measures for disconnecting switch (c) Transformers: Explosion-proof performance at the time of internal fault, mechanical strength of windings when short circuit current is passing through, and short circuit current of tertiary circuit were reviewed. As a result, transformers were reinforced so that the tank shall endure against the internal pressure rise at 63kA - 2sec. Consolidation materials were welded to the main bodies while C-clamps as well were added to LVRs. (See Table 2) Table 2. Measures for transformer Basic policy Main body LVR Reinforcement so that the tank shall endure against the internal pressure rise at 63kA - 2sec Countermeasures Welding of consolidation parts Welding of consolidation parts, attachment of C-clamp Tank strength 0.35MPa0.5MPa 0.25MPa0.5MPa

(d) Aluminum pipe bus: Mechanical strengths of aluminum pipe bus, which is used for both main bus and branch bus in this substation, were analyzed against the increased electromagnetic force due to the increased short-circuit current. It concluded that there would be no problem for the bus strengths even if electromagnetic force due to short-circuit current of 63kA and wind pressure at wind speed of 40 m/s are applied simultaneously.

(e) Tensioned wire bus: As for tensioned wire bus, which is used for branch bus, two - four bundle conductors were used in this substation. Tensile forces on wire-suspending insulators were reduced through inserting additional conductor spacers based on strength analyses as shown in Figures 4 and 5. Conductor Spacer Maximum tension during short-circuit Conductor (Conductor attraction due to fault current)

Permissible load of insulator strings

Span between spacers Figure 4. Relation between the maximum tension during short-circuit and span between spacers [2] : Addition of spacers

Figure 5. Measures for tensioned wire bus (f) Insulator strings: Current carrying capacity for fault current of the existing insulator strings was '50kA - 3sec'. In order to continue to use the existing insulator strings, fault removal time was changed from 0.20sec to 0.18sec because arc energy of '63kA - 0.18sec' is smaller than that of '50kA - 0.30sec'. However, since those insulator strings had been aged nearly 30 years, it was necessary to prove that deterioration of mechanical strength and current carrying capacity was still acceptable through the research with insulator strings removed from other substation. (g) Surge arresters: By reviewing explosion-proof performance at the time of internal pressure rise of existing surge arresters, there found a possibility of bursting into fragments due to fault current below 63kA. Therefore, surge arresters uprated to 63kA were newly installed. (2) Examples of GIS At 275kV "H" substation, a preliminary study revealed that the grounding fault current would exceed 50kA due to an expected delay of 275kV "H-S" transmission line, which would link "H" substation with 275kV "S" substation, after a scheduled commencement of operation of added generators at adjacent "H" thermal power plant. However, the grounding fault current would significantly decrease on commencement of operation of "H-S" transmission line, dismissing the necessity of measures against the expected fault current rise. Thus, the actual equipment capacities were assessed and analyzed for studying effective measures.

Figure 6. Overview of 275kV "H" Gas Inslated Substation As a result, it was revealed that such types of circuit breakers as had 63kA capacity neither for short line fault (SLF) nor for breaker terminal fault (BTF) had been used for several bays at "H" substation. The interrupting capacity is determined by the ability of circuit breakers to extinguish the arc between breaker poles when interrupting fault currents, one of measures for improving which is to increase SF6 gas pressure. Hot gas flow simulation was conducted with SF6 gas pressure as a parameter, and it revealed that four circuit breakers needed pressure increase from 0.50MPa to 0.55MPa, which was implemented. This measure significantly reduces costs compared to replacing the circuit breakers.

4. Measures against growth in transmission currents

(1) Sectional design of rated bus currents For AIS, rated current for main buses usually is the same from end to end though they may be different between main buses and branch buses because there is no merit in changing the cross sections of aluminum pipes or wires along the way. On the other hand, for GIS, materials and dimensions of bus conductors and tanks vary according to different rated conducting currents, which significantly affect costs. Thus, at some substations, in addition to taking account of bay layout for future additions of transmission lines and transformers, the rated bus conducting currents were changed in stages to reduce costs. (2) Examples of measures against growth in bus currents At 220kV I switching station, rated bus-conducting currents were planned to increase from 2000A to 4000A. However, as a simple expansion of conductor diameters would cause problems in mechanical strengths of existing outdoor truss structures, the conductor material was changed from HAL to XTAL, which increased the rated conducting currents without expanding conductor diameters, thus significantly reducing costs.

5. Conclusion
Apart from the cases mentioned above, there have been a lot of experience of uprating and upgrading of 500kV and extra-high-voltage substations in Japan for more than 10 years [3]. Uprating and upgrading projects of existing substations are required to be carried out under some restricted conditions as shown below. (1) Implementation in limited site areas and layout (2) Reduction of outage time for engineering work (3) Appropriate interface with existing equipment (4) Cost reduction. In order to promote such uprating and upgrading projects smoothly, advancement in analysis technologies as well as flexible ideas based on close cooperation between power utilities and equipment manufacturers are required.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
[1] [2] [3] Working Group B3.03 CIGRE. "Guidelines to an Optimized Approach to the Renewal of Existing Air Insulated Substations" (August 2006) H. Hanamura, et al. "Mechanical Characteristics Relating to Fault Current in Bundle Conductors" (IEEJ No.112-6, 1992) T. Kawamura, et al. "Raising the Short-circuit Current at Existing 500kV Substations" (CIGRE Session 1996, 23-110)