Substation maintenance involves regular inspections, repairs, and replacements of equipment to ensure proper functioning. It is critical for preventing grid meltdowns and is performed on a weekly or quarterly basis, depending on the level of maintenance required. All maintenance work is documented for reference.
Substation maintenance is a process of periodic and planned inspection and, if necessary, repair and replacement of all switchgear, buildings and ancillary equipment in the substation facilities. Put simply, substation maintenance is a regimen of regular preventive checks and actions taken to ensure that substations are kept in good working order. This process typically consists of a series of rigorous visual and physical inspections and actions performed according to a pre-established schedule. Replacement of equipment may be a standard procedure or only upon detection of wear, damage, or poor performance. All inspections and actions during maintenance of the substation must be accurately documented and archived for further reference.
Substations are the most critical part of any electrical power network. A failure of a single piece of substation equipment can cause a total grid meltdown that can take days or even longer to rectify. For this reason, substation care is one of the most important parts of any electrical department’s preventive maintenance program. These programs generally consist of a tiered plan of minor and major maintenance events. Minor maintenance rarely requires any type of power outage, although major events typically require short intervals of power outage.
Routine or minor substation maintenance is usually performed on a weekly or bi-weekly basis. It typically consists of visual checks and only superficial cleaning. Checks would include visual confirmation of the general condition of the switchgear, grounding mechanisms, transformers, insulating liquid levels and lightning conductors. You can also perform a general check of system performance using any installed software or by reviewing incoming and outgoing meter readings. These checks are usually implemented in accordance with an established checklist and all results are noted and archived.
Major substation maintenance requires more planning and is typically handled on a quarterly basis. In the case of industrial plants, these procedures are often performed during plant maintenance shutdowns. Residential substations are a little more difficult to plan and generally require power to be switched to ancillary equipment in the process. During these maintenance events, a more detailed checklist is followed which calls for checking and testing individual substation components. This will typically require isolating individual circuit breakers and checking rack mechanisms, overcurrent and earth leakage protection, and contact integrity.
Individual attention will also be paid to ancillary equipment such as amps and voltmeters, control circuits, and transformers during this review. Insulating liquids such as transformer and switch oil are also checked for contaminants, dielectric breakdown values and dissolved gas content. In addition, cable trays and trenches as well as busbar sections of the substation are cleaned and all bolted connections are checked for correct torque setting. An insulation resistance test of 500 or 1000 volts will also be performed for all circuit breakers and wiring. All major maintenance work and inspections are recorded and archived for reference.
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