Test Requirements for Seismic Qualification of Substation High-Voltage Equipment and Recommendations for New Edition of IEEE693 Standard

摘要

In the past and recent earthquakes, high voltage substation components have suffered damage and this damage has led to disruption in power distribution. As a result, electrical utilities have suffered financial losses and the lag in restoring power, has caused delays in restoring essential services and in post-earthquake recovery. The IEEE693 (Recommended Practice for Seismic Design of Substations) Working Group was formed in part to address the seismic vulnerability of high voltage equipment and to formulate procedures for seismic qualification of such equipment. The standard requires shake table testing for large substation equipment of higher voltage classes. As currently written, the standard provides significant latitude to users (utilities, manufacturers, and researchers) with respect to the conduct of certain aspects of the test program. This choice was motivated in part to allow testing at as many facilities as possible, given the limitations of such facilities at the time of development of the standard. Although applicable at the time of its inception, many shake tables have been constructed in recent years that would now allow for tighter test requirements. For example, many more facilities are now able to test to the High Performance Level, conduct triaxial testing, and use more sophisticated arrays of instruments for data collection. A review of the current test methodology was conducted and shortcomings were identified. Multiple test programs conducted at PEER, UC Berkeley dealing with seismic qualification of disconnect switches were considered as examples for this purpose. The recommendations follow the main idea of the IEEE693 standard aiming at ensuring acceptable seismic performance of substation equipment by including utilities, manufacturers, researchers and practicing engineers in the development of the standard. Recommendations for development of a more robust experimental procedure were formulated. Examples of the application of such revisions to the test standard were then evaluated and found to provide a more comprehensive mean of characterizing the equipment response.