Is the future underground?

ABB has announced its underground substation concept for the efficient and safe delivery of energy for Australian urban areas.

This substation concept enables up to 98% of the installation’s volume to be hidden underground and has already been embraced by city planners globally, allowing precious above-ground space to be used for public amenity. In addition, by having substations fully integrated into urban environments, they enable high voltages close to consumers in the city centres, which helps reduce electrical losses.

“Substations are a necessary, albeit unsightly, part of a power infrastructure critical to growing cities,” said David Baker, head of Power Systems for ABB in Australia. “The best way for us to meet the rising demand for energy is to bring high-voltage electricity directly into the city and to build the substation underground to ensure safe and highly reliable power supplies at an affordable cost.”

The deployment of the latest gas insulated switchgear (GIS) technology ensures high efficiency and reliability, while its extremely compact design reduces the stations’ footprint. Substations can now cleverly blend into the surrounding landscape and, owing to their subterranean design, they are almost invisible to the public.

While the substations are almost unnoticeable above-ground and have none of the planning problems encountered by surface built solutions, the more important feature is safety. Above the substation, unlike open-air stations, any potential hazards have been confined underground and transformer-related noise is kept to a minimum. The requirements for safety, ventilation, transport of equipment and maintenance access are all satisfied.

The underground substations contain all the essential equipment such as transformers, gas-insulated high-voltage switchgear and medium-voltage switchgear. They also house the latest automation, protection and controls systems, auxiliary equipment for station services, AC and DC distribution boards, batteries, ventilation and air-conditioning systems as well as fire protection systems. Underground substation solutions enable the most stringent requirements for power supply within urban areas to be fully met - compactness, economy, reliability and safety.