Autodesk® Revit® MEP in High-Voltage Power

Substation Design
Roy Qian
Senior Revit MEP Specialist, Beca Group

© 2012 Autodesk
Class Summary
A real-life case study of a successful power substation design project using
Autodesk Revit MEP software. It not only covers normal mechanical, lighting,
power, security, hydraulic, and fire protection design, modeling, and documentation,
but also introduces innovative ways of designing high-voltage cables in tight 3D
building and tunnel spaces to meet the strict bending radius requirements. The
solution provided some unprecedented methodology for high-voltage substation
designers to resolve coordinated multidisciplinary 3D design issues. The
methodology readily takes into account bending radius, electrical clearance, cable
joints, site work, high-voltage cable position alternating and penetration in tunnels,
high-voltage cable connections to GIS and transformers through conduits and cable
trays, lighting, and ventilation design.

© 2012 Autodesk
Learning Objectives

At the end of this class, you will be able to:

 Use Revit MEP as the core of an integrated approach for designing high-
voltage substations
 Use flexible pipes to simulate high-voltage cables
 Overcome the documentation constraints of Revit MEP
 List things to consider carefully when doing multidisciplinary coordination

© 2012 Autodesk
1. Power Substation Design – Integrated
in Revit MEP

© 2012 Autodesk
Integrated Substation Design with Revit MEP
• Lighting fixtures – fluorescents and
flood lights etc
• Light switches, comms and security
devices
• Power outlets, switchboard, panels
• Mechanical ducts, plant room, and
air conditioning units
• Fire extinguishing equipment, pipes
and hydraulic pipes
• Cables ladders for HV and LV
systems
• HV cables through tunnels and
buildings, connecting to GIS and
transformers.

© 2012 Autodesk
LV Power Reticulation (auxiliary power)
Place the panels and connect the circuits
using Revit MEP’s automatic circuiting

© 2012 Autodesk
Cable Ladder Design
Design cable ladders not
just for building services
(auxiliary power), but also
for the HV systems.

Color Code Cable Ladders

(by Filter):

LVAC power cable ladder

Protection 1 cable ladder
Protection 2 cable ladder
Fibre/Comms cable ladder

© 2012 Autodesk
Cable Ladder Design
Use detail views to document
electrically sensitive area.

Use detail lines/components

when necessary.

© 2012 Autodesk
Lighting
• Design lighting above the minimum required
height in the GIS room.
• Coordinate with other equipment during the
lighting design.
• Design lighting suitable for the tunnels.
• Pay attention to the switching logic.
• Pay attention to egress/exit plan for the
emergency lights.
• Pay attention to the stair lighting and
switching.

© 2012 Autodesk
Mechanical – GIS Building

• Running ducts against the walls.

• Exhaust grilles from low level
• Always be mindful of substation equipment
• Design risers and penetrations with full coordination with structure design

© 2012 Autodesk
Substation Mechanical Plant Room
• Plant room space can be very tight
• There can be many alternative solution
for tight plant rooms, such as split
system and fan exhausts.
• Coordinate with structure design closely.

© 2012 Autodesk
Hydraulic
1. Hydraulic services in substation is minimal
2. Remember to keep the 3D model with the
schematic changes.

© 2012 Autodesk
Fire and Security
• Model foam generator (for transformer fire) in correct
size and location.
• Security device follow the egress route design changes.
• 2D drawing is more important for security device
placement.

© 2012 Autodesk
2. High Voltage Cables in 3D – Bending
Radius and Electrical Clearance

© 2012 Autodesk
High Voltage Engineers’ Cable Design – Tunnels,
GIS Cable Basement and Transformers
Design issues:
• Cables to go through tunnels
and GIS basement to connect
between transformers and GISs
• Limited space in the tunnel,
frequent “cross over”.
• Walk way, lighting, fire
protection, cable tray allowance
in the tunnel.
• Tunnel opening/branching to
buildings and to other tunnels.
• Horizontal and vertical bending
radius limits.
• Normal radius limits and “under
tension” radius limits.
• Structure penetrations.

© 2012 Autodesk
High Voltage Engineers’ Cable Design – GIS
Connection
Cables to precisely connect to the
GIS connectors

© 2012 Autodesk
High Voltage Engineers’ Design – Structural
Penetration
• Penetration is needed for cables to go
to transformers and different links of
the city.

• Cable cross overs need to be

carefully designed to meet both
structure penetration and cable
bending radius limits.

© 2012 Autodesk
High Voltage Engineers’ Cable Design – Vertical
Bending Radius
Vertical bending radius is critical
for cable cross over and
penetrations.

© 2012 Autodesk
High Voltage Cables in 2D AutoCAD Design
• Early attempt of using AutoCAD
design in 2D proved to be
insufficient for this tight space.

• Attempt to use Revit Structure in-

place families also proved to be
too costly and incapable of
frequent design changes.

© 2012 Autodesk
Revit MEP 3D Design – Tunnel and GIS Cable
Basement
• 3D Design using “flexible
pipes” to simulate HV cables.

• You will only see “symbol line”

for flexible pipes in 2D, add a
1mm insulation then you can
see it look like a cable in 2D.

• No problem for 3D either way.

• Add a shared parameter or

simply use the “comment” to
identify and filter different
circuits.

© 2012 Autodesk
Cable Cross-over in the Tunnels
• Cable cross over can be
designed with sufficient
accuracy.
• Cut sections and details
to verity and limit the
bending radius.
• “Grip points” of the flexible
cable are perfect for fine
adjustment.
• Additionally check walk
way, lighting, cable tray
and fire requirement.

© 2012 Autodesk
Revit MEP Cables to Coordinate with Structural
Penetration
Requirement for bending
radius must be satisfied
before the structure decides
the location and size of the
penetrations.

© 2012 Autodesk
High Voltage Cables Connecting Transformers

• Cut sections and details to measure and

document the electrical clearance
requirements.
• Cables are modelled to the locations of
connection but may not necessarily “hard
connect”
• Check the cable bending radius in adjacent
areas – tunnels, buildings, penetrations.
© 2012 Autodesk
High Voltage Cables – Going Through Structural
Piles
• Aim the conduits straight to
avoid clashing with the
structural piles.
• Use Revit MEP “conduit”
system family to model
conduits.
• The bending radius of the
conduit (fittings) can be
explicitly set and they should
meet the cable “under
tension” bending radius
limits.
• Run “flexible pipes” through
the conduits, as cables.

© 2012 Autodesk
High Voltage Cables – In Shaft and Tunnel
• There are vertical and horizontal
bending at the same time for the
HV cable in the cable shaft.

• Cables are designed for optimal

bending and access for
maintenance work.

© 2012 Autodesk
High Voltage Cables – In Shaft and Tunnel
• For transition from the
shaft to the tunnel,
cable supports families
are to be created and
modelled correctly.

• Adjacent buildings and

penetrations to be
coordinated.

© 2012 Autodesk
High Voltage Cables – Cable Joints Design
• Cable joints to be designed
and documented in details.
• Allow straight portion of the
cables for joints and fire
devices.
• Use “conduits” to simulate
“joints”.
• Three phases are rotated
after the joints.

© 2012 Autodesk
Overview of all the HV Cables – With Cable
Schedule

© 2012 Autodesk
3. Documenting the 3D Power Substation
Designs

© 2012 Autodesk
Drawing – Drawings with Mixed Levels
• Power substation has many mixed levels or half levels.
• Use “Plan Region” to adjust heights.
• Use sections to document items in the half level area.
• Stair lights are tricky, use 3D to place the “face based” lighting fixtures in the
stairs and then annotate on the 2D drawings.

© 2012 Autodesk
Drawing Settings – Colors for HV Cables,
Mechanical Ducts and Cable Ladders
• Use filters extensively to control
colors in a logical and intuitive
way.
• Color drawings saves time, which
is money too.
• Use 3D views in the drawings
extensively, to improve
communication.

© 2012 Autodesk
4. Multi-disciplinary Design – What to
Consider ?

© 2012 Autodesk
Frequently Required Cross Discipline
Coordination
• Cable ladders vs. mechanical ducts, substation equipment.
• Lighting fixtures vs. substation equipment, fire egress route.
• Mechanical ducts and louvres vs. structure beams, penetrations, wall openings, substation
equipment.
• Security devices vs. fire egress routes.
• HV cables and conduits vs. structural penetrations, piles, cable ladders, walk (cart) ways.

© 2012 Autodesk
Navisworks and Coordination Communication
• Navisworks is the focal point of all the coordination.
• Engineers of all the disciplines should be able to use Navisworks – HV and LV electrical
engineers, lighting engineers, mechanical engineers etc.
• Open and timely communication is required.
• Dedicated “3D View: $NAVIS EXPORT” should be setup in every model for frequent and quality
export.

© 2012 Autodesk
Autodesk, AutoCAD* [*if/when mentioned in the pertinent material, followed by an alphabetical list of all other trademarks mentioned in the material] are registered trademarks or trademarks of Autodesk, Inc., and/or its subsidiaries and/or affiliates in the USA and/or other countries. All other brand names, product names, or trademarks belong to their respective holders. Autodesk reserves the right to alter product and
services offerings, and specifications and pricing at any time without notice, and is not responsible for typographical or graphical errors that may appear in this document. © 2012 Autodesk, Inc. All rights reserved.
© 2012 Autodesk