Power Delivery System

The primary mission of Power Delivery System is to deliver

power to electrical consumers at their place of consumption
and in ready to use form. That means, It must;
Place of consumption
Be dispersed throughout the service territory in rough
proportion to customer location.
Have sufficient capacity to meet the customer peak
demand and energy demand.
provide highly reliable delivery to its customer
ready to use form
Deliver the power at the utilization voltage required for
electrical appliances and equipment.
provide stable voltage quality to its customer

And of course to meet the above missions at least possible

cost.
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As the power is moved from generation (large bulk source) to customer

(small demand amounts) it is first moved in bulk quantity at high
voltage and as power is dispersed throughout the service territory, it is
gradually moved down to lower voltage levels. See fig. 1.

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Natural question is why so?

It is more economical to move power at high voltage.

The high voltage lines, while potentially economical, cost a

great deal more than low voltage lines, but have a much
greater capacity. They are only economical if one truly
needs the giant size.

Utilization voltage is useless for the transmission of power.

The application of these lower voltages for anything more
than very local distribution at the neighborhood level
results in unacceptably
high electrical losses, severe
voltage drops, and sky-high equipment cost.

It is costly to change the voltage level which does nothing

to move the power any distance in and of itself.
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While each level varies in the types of equipment

it has, its characteristics, mission, and manner of
design and planning all share several common
characteristics:

Each level is fed power by the one above it.

Both the nominal voltage level and the average capacity of
equipment drops from level to level, as one move from
generation to customer.
Each level has many more pieces of equipment in it than
the above.
As a result, the net capacity of each level (No. of units
times average size) increases as one moves towards the
customers. (Greater capacity at every level is required for
both for reliability & to accommodate coincidence of the
load.)
Reliability drops as one moves closer to the consumer.

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In essence there are only two types of

equipment that perform the power delivery
function.

Transmission & distribution lines

(Transmission lines, sub transmission lines, feeders, laterals
secondary and service drops ie. Conductors)
Transformers
(Grid substations, area substations, service transformers etc.)

Added to these basic equipment types;

Protective equipment
( Provide safety, reliability and fail safe operation)
Voltage regulation equipment
(maintain the voltage within the acceptable range as the load
changes for both safety and economic reason)
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What is Transmission And What is Distribution?

By voltage Class:

Transmission: 66 kV -1100kV
Distribution: 33kV and below (some country up to 132 kV
is categorized as distribution.)

By Function:

Transmission: Transmission of bulk power

Distribution:
includes utilization voltage and sources for

these including transformer & their source.

By Configuration:

Transmission: often designed and operates in network

Distribution:
often designed and operates radially.
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The Distribution System Equipments & Terminology:

Service Wire (Or Secondary Distribution):

The conductor which route power at utilization voltage within very close
proximity to customers.
Service Transformer (Distribution Transformer Also Called
Distribution Substation):
The transformer which lowers the voltage at utilization voltage level.
Load Center:
Area served by a particular service transformer.
Primary Distribution (Feeder):
The line (conductor) which feds power at to the primary of service
transformer.
Substation( Area Substation):
Meeting point between transmission & distribution the primary
distribution lines receives power at this juncture.
Service Area:
Service area of a particular substation or feeder is the area served by
that particular substation or feeder
Sub-transmission Line:
The line (conductor) which feds power to the primary of transformer at
substations.
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Feeder Layout Types

There are three fundamentally

different ways
Radial,
Loops
Network

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Radial System

The biggest advantage of the radial system

configuration, in addition to its lower cost, is the
simplicity of analysis.

On debt side, radial feeder systems are less

reliable than loop or network systems because
there is only one path between the substation and
the customer. Thus if any elements along the path
fails, a loss of power delivery results.

But a cleaver design

distribution system can
reliability even without
(discus later).
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and planning of radial

achieve a fair degree of
much addition of cost

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Loop system

loop system consists of a distribution design with

two paths between the sources (substations,
service transformer) and customer.
This layout is often called European because this
configuration is preferred in Europe.
Equipment is sized and each loop is designed so
that service can be maintained regardless of
where an open point is on the loop.
In terms of complexity, a loop feeder system is
only slightly more complicated than a radial
system
The major disadvantage of loop systems is
capacity and cost. A loop must be able to meet all
power and voltage drop requirements when fed
from only one end, not both.
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NETWORK

The distribution network involves multiple paths between all

points in the network. Power flow between any two points
is usually split among several paths, and if a failure occurs
it instantly and automatically re-routes itself.
Rarely does a distribution network involve primary voltage
level network design, in which all or most of the switches
between feeders are closed so that the feeder system is
connected between substations.
They are much more complicated, than other forms of
distribution, and thus more difficult to analyze. Loadings
and power flow, fault currents and protection, must be
determined by network techniques such as those used by
transmission planners.
In densely populated area networks are not inherently
expensive the radial system designed to serve the same
loads. It only increases the complexity of the design. But in
other areas a network configuration has definite increment
to meet the excess capacity cost. The excess capacity cost
has to be justifiable on the basis of reliability.
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The alternative to this in urban area is several loop crossing each

other as shown in fig. below.

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Urban Vs Rural Electrification

The special characteristics of the urban distribution

system are;

Capacity limits design: Voltage drop & losses costs are seldom a
major concern requiring large no. of feeders.
Loads are large & often 3-phases
Reliability requirements are above average
Route are restricted ie. land problem

For these reasons following there are some common

adaptations to work within these design constraints.

UG practice:
Maximum size cable is often installed:
Very grid like planning:

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And reinforcing is often done by:

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Rural Distribution
The special characteristics of the Rural
distribution system are;

Sparse load
Loads vary from small single phase to medium
sized three phase.
Distances are tremendous
Losses are high
Voltage drop limits design
Reliabilty requirements below average
Often not profitable
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For these reasons following there are some common

adaptations to work within these design
constraints.

Application of higher voltage than its typically used

in urban or sub urban distribution to meet higher
load reach.
Use of single phase feeders
Extreme and innovative measures are some time
need to apply eg. Use of very high voltage with
earth return.
No provision for contingency back up of feeders
Radial feeders layouts are normally the rule.

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