Substation Design Manual

15. SECONDARY SYSTEMS

15.1 Protection and Control Panels
Standard cubicles are available as period contract items through the Ergon Energy store and must
be used for all new greenfield projects, and wherever possible retro-fitted into existing substations.
These cubicles have a maximum 48U of mounting space and consist of two types being either rear
entry or swing frame. Refer to:
 EESS-10240-01: 48RU Front Access Cubicle Layout
 EESS-10241-01: 45/48RU Rear Access Cubicle Layout
When designing the layout of panels the following guidelines should be adopted:
 Protection cubicles must have the X (or Main) protection mounted in the top of the panel and
the Y (or Backup) protection in the bottom of the panel. Switchgear control and indications must
be mounted in the centre of the panel.
 The Designer must ensure each of the segregated protection functions includes all components,
e.g. fuses, links, relays, test facilities, and terminals in order to facilitate maintenance and future
upgrading of the panel. Spare blanking plates to a maximum of 5U (including the relay) should
be allowed above the protection relays to allow for future upgrades.
 Protection signalling relays, if used, should be mounted adjacent to the protection relay they are
associated with.
 It is preferable that 4U at the bottom of the panel be a blanking plate to allow more convenient
safe access to panel equipment for wiring and maintenance.
 It is required that no relays with interface screens (i.e. LCDs) be mounted higher than 2000 mm
(preferably 1800 mm) from the bottom of the panel. This implies that there is a minimum of 5U
between any smart relay and the top of the panel. If required, auxiliary relays or relays with little
operator interface should be mounted above the smart relays to achieve this.
 Panel mounted white NS links, orientated vertically, should be used for trip isolation links. The
intention is that all CB fail initiate or protection signalling functions that leave or enter a panel
have separate isolation (this is not required on every panel they pass through i.e. one only
isolation per function). Panel mounted black fuses should be used for DC supply isolation and
VT secondary circuit isolation (where required).
 The Substation Standards philosophy is to provide facility on the protection panels for
emergency control in the event of RTU/SCADA failure. Protection relays should not be used for
circuit breaker control functions (excluding auto-reclose). In order to provide a common operator
interface that will provide control in the event of SCADA failure, equipment control (e.g. CB
trip/close, SEF enable/disable, auto-reclose enable/disable, work clearance on/off) must be
provided by discrete control switches mounted on a panel in between the Main and Backup
sections. There is no requirement for Transformer tapchanger controls (such as master/follower,
auto/manual) to be included on the control and protection panels, with these functions being
performed in the RTU/SCADA only.
 When positioning panels in the control building, the clearance to the rear of the panel is
preferred to be 1200 mm, (minimum 1000 mm), and the clearance to the front of the panel is
preferred to be 1500 mm, (minimum 1200 mm).
In accordance with AS2067, “aisles shall be at least 750mm wide”, and “space for evacuation
shall always be at least 600mm, even when removable parts or open doors, which are blocked
in the direction of escape, intrude into the escape routes”. “So as not to hinder escape, the
doors of switchgear cubicles or bays should where possible close in the direction of egress”.

Page 56 of 120 Reference NI000401R121 Ver 2

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