Mobile substations hold an important place in meeting emergency energy needs. They have frequently been used by various sectors in recent times due to their portability and easy start-up.
Mobile substations hold an important place in meeting emergency energy needs. They have frequently been used by various sectors in recent times due to their portability and easy start-up. These sectors, which are mainly electricity distribution companies as well as institutions such as military bases, industrial facilities, city networks, etc., prefer mobile substations to meet emergency energy needs. Furthermore, the importance of mobile substations is significant in meeting the energy needs of newly established facilities, and as a quick solution to power failures and for sudden interventions.
In accordance with the requests and recommendations of institutions, mobile substations can easily be built in or on equipment used in transportation such as trailers, containers, and platforms. The manufacturing of mobile substations can change depending on the substation’s power, land conditions, transport type and the desired auxiliary materials in the substation. Typically, a substation contains air insulated switchgear or gas insulated switchgear, metal clad, LV distribution and control panels, battery packs, cabling for transformer-switchgear connections and for field connections, reel systems with wrapped cables and an internal needs transformer. All these products’ connections in the mobile substation are available ready-made as connections on the devise. They can be used directly by making field connections according to necessity.
When considering these factors, a substation provides great advantages with its easy portability, high-level safety, production on portable vehicle equipment such as trailers and containers, suitability in terms of special projects and requirements, and quick solutions to emergency and additional temporary power requirements.
Since mobile substations are usually included in special production steps, they are subject to special permits in Turkey for transportation on highways. Notwithstanding the great importance held by electrical materials, custom production is necessary for trailers and other products which are used in transportation. These products vary according to the weight and size of the substation and customer specific requirements.
All issues covered in the bidding for mobile substation manufacturing and assembly processes have not been evaluated in detail. At Ulusoy Electric, we begin with an evaluation of all the subjects such as the project specification of our production stages, special customer requests, the transformer’s power, gas insulated, air insulated or metal clad cell properties, energy cable diameters and rollers, internal requirement trays, AG-DC panels, battery groups. A determination of the dimensions and carrying capacity of the trailer, etc., transport equipment is made after these evaluations. Since this process is laborious and difficult, it requires disciplined and planned work, especially because having a substation completely ready means 5-months of disciplined work. For example, one transformers of 20 MVA alone comes to 31 tons. When preparing a 20,000 kVA power transformer as a full system mobile substation, it becomes a gigantic 65 ton, 18-meter walking facility. Since it is mounted on top of the system at a height of 4300 mm and a width of 3500 mm, the trailer features produced should be suitable. As a surface area, the system is equivalent to a house of 63 m². For these measurements and weight, a trailer has a total lifting capacity of 48 tons at a pressure of 8 bars, with 16 wheels, 4 axles and 12 tons for each axle. Each reel, which is mounted on it, is specially manufactured to be strong enough to wrap the 4500 kg cable system around it. When the system is completed, 480-horsepower is needed for safe transportation and travel. In light of this information, it is understood that quite a lot of mobile substation production steps are very detailed and difficult. In order to achieve success, it is necessary to have knowledge in many engineering fields such as material information, mechanical design, fasteners as well as disciplined project management and coordination.
To summarise, it can be said that mobile substations have started to be used frequently in the continually growing energy sector. In the coming years, the importance of mobile substations will increase in terms of increased need, quick solutions to problems and serviceability.