Introduction to Distribution Systems

1.0 Introduction

Power systems are comprised of 3 basic

electrical subsystems.
 Generation subsystem
 Transmission subsystem
 Distribution subsystem

The subtransmission system is also

sometimes designated to indicate the portion
of the overall system that interconnects the
EHV and HV transmission system to the
distribution system.

We distinguish between these various

portions of the power system by voltage
levels as follows:
 Generation: 1kV-30 kV
 EHV Transmission: 500kV-765kV
 HV Transmission: 230kV-345kV
 Subtransmission system: 69kV-169kV
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 Distribution system: 120V-35kV

Our focus in this course is on the distribution

system. About 40% of power system
investment is in the distribution system
equipment (40% in generation, 20% in
transmission).

The distribution system may also be divided

into three distinct subsystems.
 Distribution substation
 Primary distribution system
 Secondary distribution system

The remainder of this introduction will focus

on each of these three subsystems.

1.1 Distribution substations

The distribution substation receives power

from one or more transmission or
subtransmission lines at the corresponding
transmission or subtransmission voltage level
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and provides that power to one or more
distribution feeders that originate in the
substation and comprise the primary
network. Most feeders emanate radially from
the substation to supply the load.

There are five main functions of the

distribution substation:

1.Voltage transformation: One or more

transformers will always be located within
the substation to step down the voltage to
the primary distribution voltage level.
These transformers will always be three-
phase banks, or they will be three single-
phase banks connected in a three-phase
configuration. The standard primary
distribution voltage levels include 4.16kV,
7.2kV, 12.47kV, 13.2kV, 14.4kV, 23.9kV,
and 34.5kV.
2.Switching and protection: Different kinds
of switchgear will be located at the
substation, including the following:

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a. Switches: devices that can carry and
interrupt normal load current and thus
disconnect portions of the network.
b.Circuit breakers: devices that can carry
and interrupt normal load current, like
switches; in addition, they interrupt short-
circuit (fault) current. Circuit breakers are
always paired with a relay which senses
short-circuit condition using potential
transformers (PTs) and current
transformers (CTs).
c. Reclosers: devices similar in function to
circuit breakers, except they also have the
ability to reclose after opening, open
again, and reclose again, repeating this
cycle a predetermined number of times
until they lockout.
d.Fuses: devices that can carry a defined
load current without deterioration and
interrupt a defined short-circuit current.
Circuit breakers, reclosers, and fuses are
protection devices. Often, switches are
used on the high side of the transformer,

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and protection devices are used on the low
side, but substations supplying large
amounts of load may have protection
devices on both sides of the transformer.
Special substation designs to achieve high
reliability may utilize multiple circuit
breakers, as shown in Fig. 1. Less
expensive designs may use protection only
in series with the feeders, as shown in Fig.
2. In these figures, switches and circuit
breakers are normally closed unless there is
a “N.O.” (normally open) indicated beside
it. The Fig. 1 design provides that all
feeders can remain supplied for a
transformer outage (caused by maintenance
or fault) or a subtransmission line outage.
The low voltage breaker scheme of Fig. 1 is
called “breaker and a half” because it
requires 3 breakers to protect 2 feeders.

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 N.O.

fuse

N.O.

N.O.

Fig. 2: A lower-reliability design

Fig. 1: A high-reliability design

3.Voltage regulation: Because current I flows

from source to load along the length of the
feeder, and because the feeder has some
amount of impedance per unit length Z, the
feeder will cause a voltage drop IZ volts per
unit length. Thus, loads connected along
the length of the feeder will see different
voltage levels with the load at the far-end
of the feeder seeing the lowest voltage of
all. This is illustrated by the solid line in
Fig. 3. Note that this line indicates the
voltage at the substation end of the feeder
is 1.02pu. However, the voltage at feeder
far-end is about 0.97pu (residential
customers would be seeing about 116 volts
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 instead of 120). If the load were to increase,
the far-end voltage would drop to an even
lower value. As a result, we must regulate
the voltage along the feeder as the load
varies. Ways to do this include substation
load tap-changing transformers (LTCs),
substation feeder or bus voltage regulators
(employed in Fig. 3), line voltage
regulators, and fixed or switched shunt
capacitors.
Regulator
Feeder

Load 1 Load 2 Load 3

substation
Dotted line is high load period.
1.04 Solid line is light load period.
Voltage (pu)

1.02
1.00
0.98
0.96
0.94
Distance from substation

Fig. 3: Illustration of feeder load variation

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4.Metering: Most substations do have some
sort of metering device that records, at a
minimum, existing current and current max
and min that have occurred in the last time
period (e.g., 1 hour). Digital recording is
also heavily used and capable of recording
a large amount of substation operational
information.

Most distribution substations carry between 5

and 60 MVA.

1.2 Primary Distribution

The primary distribution system consists of

the feeders emanating from the substation
and supplying power to 1 or more secondary
distribution systems. Such feeders are usually
3-phase circuits.

Feeders are almost always radial from

substation to loads (i.e., one way flow of
power) in rural areas, usually radial in

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residential neighborhoods, and they are often
radial even in urban areas. In densely
populated urban areas, particularly
commercial and business districts where
reliability is critical, feeders may be looped.
The prices to pay for such a reliability benefit
are as follows:
 Protection is more costly since a given fault
on the loop will require at least two
protective devices to operate, and to obtain
the reliability benefits, multiple switching
devices must be installed along the feeder.
 The fault currents tend to be lower, closer
to normal load currents, and therefore there
is less margin between breaker trip current
and normal load current.
 Voltage control is complex since there are
2 control points.
One way to obtain the reliability benefit of a
looped configuration while avoiding some of
the above difficulties is to operate a looped
configuration in open-loop, i.e., employ a
normally open switch mid-way in the loop.
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Then when the loop is faulted, the normally
open switch can be closed while a switch just
downstream of the fault can be opened, and
all of the de-energized loop up to the
downstream switch can be supplied. This is
illustrated in Fig. 4.

fault

N.O.

Fig. 4: Normally open looped system

As indicated previously, the standard primary

distribution voltage levels include 4.16kV,
7.2kV, 12.47kV, 13.2kV, 14.4kV, 23.9kV,
and 34.5kV.

However, equipment is specified in terms of

voltage class. Equipment of one voltage class

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may be utilized in at any operating voltage
assigned to that class. For example, an
insulator of voltage class 15 kV may utilized
in a 12.47kV, 13.2kV, and 13.8kV system.
There are four major distribution-level
voltage classes: 5kV, 15kV, 25kV, and 35kV.
The 15kV voltage class is the most prevalent.

North American utilities have been gradually

increasing the percentage of distribution
primaries at the higher voltage range, mainly
because it allows for greater power carrying
capability using less current. In addition to
the increased capacity, higher voltage also
results in
 Less voltage drop
 Decreased losses
 Ability to operate over greater distances,
thus decreasing the number of substations
required to serve a given area.
One disadvantage of the greater reach is that
it tends to result in more customer

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interruptions due to the greater number of
customers per protected circuit.

Typical feeder mains are between 1-15 miles

in length.

1.3 Secondary Distribution

Branching from the main feeder are laterals,

also referred to in the industry as taps or
branches. The laterals may be three-phase,
two-phase (two phases of the three-phase
feeder with a neutral), or single-phase (one
phase from the single phase feeder and a
neutral). The laterals are usually protected
with fuses so that faulted laterals do not cause
interruption at the feeder level.

Standard secondary voltage levels are

 120/240 single phase
 120/208 3 phase
 277/480 3 phase

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The 120/240 configuration is obtained from
the low-side of a HV/240 volt transformer,
where HV is the rated voltage on the high
voltage side, and the 240 is the rated voltage
on the low voltage side. Then a center tap is
connected to the low voltage winding and
grounded along with the low side of the
primary winding. This provides three wires
on the low voltage side. One is +120V, one is
-120V, and one (the center tap) is 0. Thus,
two are “hot,” one is ground (neutral). The
240V connection is obtained by connecting
across the two hot wires. The 120V
connection is obtained by connecting from
either hot wire to the neutral wire.

Include picture here of this.

1.4 Some other essential equipment

Some other essential equipment not yet

mentioned includes:
 Lightning arrestors
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 Insulators
 Wood poles

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