4 Substation Auxiliary Power

Supplies

4.1 INTRODUCTION

All but the smallest substations include auxiliary power supplies. AC power is
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required for substation building small power, lighting, heating and ventilation,
some communications equipment, switchgear operating mechanisms, anti-
condensation heaters and motors. DC power is used to feed essential services
such as circuit breaker trip coils and associated relays, supervisory control
and data acquisition (SCADA) and communications equipment. This chapter
describes how these auxiliary supplies are derived and explains how to spe-
cify such equipment.

4.2 DC SUPPLIES

4.2.1 Battery and charger configurations

Capital cost and reliability objectives must first be considered before defining
the battery and battery charger combination to be used for a specific installa-
tion. The comparison given in Table 4.1 describes the advantages and disad-
vantages of three such combinations.
Figure 4.1 details the main electrical features associated with these battery
and charger combinations. Charger units are used to supply either just a battery
to provide an autonomous DC supply or a battery/inverter combination to pro-
vide an autonomous AC supply. The level of ‘autonomy’ is usually defined in
terms of the number of hours or minutes the equipment will enable a specified
load to function correctly after loss of input mains AC supply. The capacity of
the charger must also be such that after a severe discharge it has the capacity
to supply the full DC system load current and the full charging current
115

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 116 Substation Auxiliary Power Supplies

Table 4.1 Capital cost and reliability objectives must first be considered
before defining the battery/battery charger combination to be used for a specific
installation. The comparison given describes the advantages and disadvantages
of three such combinations

Type Advantages Disadvantages

1. Single 100% battery Low capital cost No standby DC

and 100% charger System outage for
maintenance
Need to isolate battery/
charger combination from
load under boost charge
conditions1 in order to
prevent high boost voltages
appearing on DC distribu-
tion system2

2. Semi-duplicate Medium capital cost 50% capacity on loss of

2 ⫻ 50% batteries and Standby DC provided which one battery during AC
2 ⫻ 100% chargers is 100% capacity on loss source failure
of one charger
Each battery or charger can
be maintained in turn.
Each battery can be isolated
and boost charged in turn
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without affecting DC
output voltage

3. Fully duplicate Full 100% standby DC High capital cost

2 ⫻ 100% batteries and capacity provided under all Greater space requirement
2 ⫻ 100% chargers AC source conditions and Increased maintenance
single component (charger cost
or battery) failure

Notes: 1Not all batteries have a boost facility.

2
It is possible to specify the voltage operating range of auxiliary devices to match
any possible imposed voltages.

simultaneously. The technique used for battery charging is called ‘float’ charg-
ing and involves the battery being permanently connected to the load (possibly
via an inverter) in parallel with a charger. Therefore the charger must satisfy
the requirements of both the battery and the load. The exact charger functional
requirements will depend upon the type of battery (lead acid, nickel cadmium –
NiCad, sealed recombination, etc.) being used and this is discussed in Section
4.3. In general the charger must provide a combination of constant voltage and
constant current charging profiles within close tolerances. For some battery
types it must also be able to be switched to a ‘boost’ charge function that will
apply a larger voltage to the battery in order that the charging period may be
reduced. The control unit is relatively complicated but may be seen as an ana-
logue feedback loop which samples the output voltage and current and uses
these signals to control a single or three phase thyristor bridge rectifier.
Switched mode power supplies are also employed in the smaller units and by

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 Substation Auxiliary Power Supplies 117

D.C.
distribution
Mains board
supply
Battery
charger

Battery

(a)
100% 100%
charger A charger B
50% 50%
Battery Battery
A B

Interlocks

Alarms Alarms

LV Supply 1
protection or control LV Supply 2
protection or control
230 kV or 132 kV or 33 kV 230 kV or 132 kV or 33 kV
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or 11 kV alarm supply LHS or 11 kV alarm supply RHS
11 kV protection LHS 11 kV protection RHS

(b)
Battery ‘A’ Battery ‘B’
(100%) (100%)

Float/boost Float/boost
charger ‘A’ charger ‘B’ Main
(100%) (100%) battery
A.C. fuse
Mains
supplies
Open on boost
Interlock
closed on float
(only one battery may be (normally closed
boost charged at any time) contact)

Manual
V isolator

(c)

Figure 4.1 Battery/battery charger combination: (a) Single 100% battery and 100%
charger; (b) semi-duplicate 2 ⫻ 50% batteries and 2 ⫻ 100% chargers; (c) fully duplicate
2 ⫻ 100% batteries and 2 ⫻ 100% chargers (courtesy of Balfour Beatty Projects and
Engineering Ltd)

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