intelligent substation design
TRANSCRIPT
Industry Survey Confirms Efficiency Advantages of Intelligent Substation Design
Newton-Evans
Research Co. Inc.
Sponsored by
Bentley Systems, Inc.
June 2012
2
Table of Contents
3 Abstract
3 What is Intelligent Substation Design?
4 Industry Survey Description
5 Generic CAD Applications Remain in Predominant Use
6 Results Confirm the Need for a More Versatile Substation Design Solution
9 Intelligent Substation Design in Practice
11 Conclusions
12 About Bentley
12 About Newton-Evans Research Company
3
Abstract For many utilities and their engineering contractors, the substation design process has
remained virtually unchanged since Computer-Aided Drafting (CAD) replaced manual 2D
drawing methods. This CAD-centric approach has over time proven to be manually intensive
and prone to error. In recent years new intelligent substation design technology has been
introduced to modernize substation design and enable a significant increase in engineering
efficiency. This white paper presents the results of an extensive industry survey that explores
and ultimately confirms the benefits of intelligent substation design.
What is Intelligent Substation Design? Intelligent substation design is a model-centric approach that unites physical and electrical
design disciplines while providing productivity tools specifically for electric substation design.
There are many standard drawings involved in substation design including single-line, physical
layout, schematics, panel layout, and wiring diagrams. Traditional CAD-centric design is focused
on creating the set of standard design drawings through independent drafting efforts. This
wastes significant time and introduces errors as engineers must manually translate drawings,
establish consistency, and manage changes across multiple drawings.
In contrast, intelligent substation design focuses on the assembly of an intelligent substation
model that is an integrated representation of all design disciplines. The model is built through
the creation of 3D substation layouts, which support the development of 2D drawings that are
linked and cross referenced. As the model is completed it automatically seeds related drawings
eliminating the need to manually replicate common design elements across physical and
electrical disciplines. All drawings are associative to the intelligent model allowing changes in
one drawing to be automatically propagated across disciplines and related drawings.
The intelligent substation model also enables tools that improve design productivity. Unlike the
graphics-only drawings created with traditional CAD-centric design, intelligent substation model
drawings are comprised of objects that possess properties of the equipment they represent,
the wiring connections they support, and the engineering principles that govern design. Wires
are treated as wires rather than as graphical lines; they break and heal automatically as symbols
are placed or removed. Hook points connect related objects, so they automatically snap
together. Every object is linked to a parts database, enabling the automatic and accurate
generation of the bill of material and other documents. Built-in error checking report conditions
including short circuits, duplicate wire numbers, and missing part numbers.
Collectively, these advantages enable a significant step forward in substation design efficiency.
4
Industry Survey Description Research conducted by Newton-Evans Research Company between April 12th and May 30th
2012 produced findings from eighty-six respondents which included seventy-seven utilities
(fifty-five North American utilities and twenty-two international utilities). Responses from nine
consulting engineers/EPCs provided an insight into their substation software design needs.
Respondents to the utility survey included management decision makers (directors and
managers), supervisors, lead engineers, engineers, etc. About half of all responses to the survey
included feedback from managers or directors.
A further breakdown of survey participation is shown in the table below. The size of utilities
(measured by number of customers served) ranged from 12,000 to more than 10 million. About
one-third of utilities in the sample serve over 500,000 customers, another third have between
150,000 and 500,000 customers, and the remaining third have fewer than 150,000 customers.
Investor-Owned 15 17% Participating Utilities by Number of Customers
Public Power 12 14%
Cooperative 15 17%
Canada 13 15%
Europe 9 10%
Latin America 3 3%
Asia Pacific 8 9%
Middle East/Africa 2 2%
TOTAL Utilities 77 90%
Consulting Engineers 9 10%
GRAND TOTAL 86 100%
<150,000, 27, 35%
150k-500k, 22, 29%
>500,000, 28, 36%
5
Generic CAD Applications Remain in Predominant Use Utility officials were asked whether they perform their own substation design work in-house
using a generic CAD application, a substation-specific design application, or whether they
outsource this work to a third party. An overwhelming majority (73%) of the utilities that
perform all or some of this work in-house indicated they use a generic CAD application. This
includes utilities that use both types of software (5%) and utilities that use generic CAD and also
outsource (10%).
Among the seventy-seven
participating utilities, only two
utilities in Europe currently use a
substation specific design application
exclusively. Three other utilities use
both generic CAD and substation-
specific applications. Eight of the nine
consulting engineers (88%) only use a
generic CAD application. The other
one uses both types.
Five of twenty-four utility
directors/managers (21%) currently
using a generic CAD application
indicated an interest in purchasing a
substation-specific design application
in the future.
59%
2%
5%
12%
12%
10%
Generic CAD application
Substation-specific design application
Both Types
Not using either of these.
We outsource this work to a third party
Generic CAD & Outsource
% of respondents
Generic CAD Application:
a non industry-specific drafting tool that
lacks specific design aids or productivity
tools for electric substation engineering.
Substation-Specific Design
Application:
a software application expressly developed
to facilitate the physical and electrical design
of electric substations through the
employment of some or all of the elements of
intelligent substation design.
6
Results Confirm the Need for a More Versatile Substation Design Solution In the next two sections of this whitepaper it will be clear that utilities, consulting engineers,
and EPC’s that took part in the survey clearly recognize the need for a specific substation design
tool that:
Integrates physical design with electrical design
Uses intelligent information models
Incorporates a 3D physical model
Facilitates collaborative work flows
Integrated Physical and Electric Design
Performing both physical and electrical design in a single application establishes a common
information model of the substation that is shared across disciplines to speed work sharing
and improve consistency in designs.
While 78% of this survey group does not now use an application that allows design data to be
shared between physical and electrical design disciplines, 64% believe this would eliminate the
need to manually re-enter design data to maintain consistency (Figure 1), and 71% indicated it
would reduce manual consistency checks and help eliminate errors (Figure 2).
By having these capabilities, over two-thirds of respondents thought it would accelerate the
overall substation design process (22% - significantly, 47% - somewhat). Thirty-one percent
thought there would be little or no difference (Figure 3).
Eliminate Need to Re-enter
Design Data Figure 1
Reduce Manual Consistency
Checks Figure 2
Accelerate the Design
Process Figure 3
No 36%
Yes 64%
Would/does this eliminate the need to manually re-enter design
data to maintain consistency?
No 29%
Yes 71%
Would/does this reduce manual consistency checks and help
eliminate errors?
Little/No difference
31%
Some difference
47%
Significant difference
22%
7
Integration with Supporting Business Processes and Applications
A design tool that uses intelligent drawings to directly support cost estimating, equipment
ordering, and asset management can eliminate manual preparation and improve the accuracy
of reports such as bill of material, cost estimates, terminal plans, cable schedules, etc.
The majority (90%) of utilities and consultants indicated their current design tool does not
generate reports for cost estimating, equipment ordering, and asset management. However,
when asked if they had access to a tool with this capability, about 75% of respondents indicated
that it would produce significant project cost savings by reducing the time spent creating
reports (Figure 4), reducing the time to update reports when design changes occur (Figure 5),
and improving report accuracy (Figure 6).
Reducing Time
Creating Reports Figure 4
Reducing Time
Updating Reports Figure 5
Improve Accuracy
of Reports Figure 6
3D Substation Model
A detailed 3D physical model of the entire substation that can be newly designed or derived
from existing drawings using 3D substation objects can improve the efficiency and quality of
substation design and construction.
Thirty-three percent of respondents indicated their design application provided 3D modeling
and visualization capability. This was heavily influenced by the consulting engineers (80% of
whom use a 3D-capable design application), while only 25% of utilities agreed (see Figure 7).
When asked if they thought a 3D model would help accelerate design time the response was
Yes - from 38%, No – from 19% and Unsure – 43% (this is an understandable response from
organizations that do not have experience with 3D). However, 28 out of 33 respondents
familiar with this technology (85%) think a 3D model that automatically checks for physical
No 26%
Yes 74%
Would/does this reduce the time spent creating reports?
No, 21%
Yes, 79%
Would/does this reduce the time to update reports when design
changes occur?
No 28%
Yes 72%
Would/does this improve the accuracy of your reports?
8
clashes would help reduce design errors and avoid construction delays following design (see
Figure 8).
Fifty-one percent of 58 respondents thought creating a photo-realistic 3D model directly from
their design tool would reduce the time and cost of preparing site models and visualizations for
public review as part of the design approval process. Only 12% thought there would be no
savings while 37% were unsure (Figure 9).
Has 3D
Modeling/Visualization Figure 7
Would Reduce Design Errors
with Auto Physical Clash
Checking Figure 8
Site Model Preparation Using
Photo-realistic 3D Model Directly
from Design Tool Figure 9
Work Sharing and Engineering Information Management (EIM)
A substation design application that is integrated with a work sharing and engineering
information management environment can help control and track changes, manage review
cycles, and facilitate geographically distributed design teams.
When asked the question “Does your design environment include automated tracking,
notification and control of design changes?” 83% of respondents indicated they did not have
this capability, but 86 % acknowledged these features would reduce design errors and change
orders during construction (22% - significantly, 64% - little/some). See Figure 10.)
Only 3 out of 55 respondents (5%) said their design package included an automated review
cycle that captures feedback and routes it to the appropriate designer, but 75% felt this
enhancement accelerates review cycles (14% - significantly, 61% - little/some). When asked
about the ability of their design environment to provide secure and managed data exchanges
across geographically distributed project participants 63% of the respondents answering this
No, 67%
Yes, 33%
Does your physical design application provide 3D modeling
and visualization capability?
No, 15%
Yes, 85%
No, 12%
Yes, 51%
Unsure, 37%
9
question said their system did not have this capability, but a significant majority (69%) indicated
this attribute would accelerate project workload (22% - significantly, 47% - little/some. See
Figure 11.)
Auto Tracking would Reduce
Design Errors Figure 10
Would Accelerate Project Workload w/ Secure
and Managed Data Exchanges Figure 11
Intelligent Substation Design in Practice The previously described survey results indicate a broad belief that productivity and accuracy
gains are possible with intelligent substation design. Let us now examine how these benefits
have been realized in practice. This section describes the experiences of two industry members
who have implemented an intelligent substation design process with Bentley Substation.
Bentley Substation
Bentley Substation is an integrated electrical and physical design application offered by Bentley
Systems, Incorporated. Bentley Substation is an intelligent substation design application with
capabilities that include 3D physical design, electrical design, protection and control schematics,
automatic report generation, grounding grid design, lightning protection analysis, and panel
layouts. Bentley Substation also supports distributed engineering teams through integration
with ProjectWise, Bentley’s enterprise engineering information management system.
Bentley Substation was developed to accelerate the substation design process, reduce errors
and re-works, and improve the productivity of a substation engineering teams. More
information on Bentley Substation can be found at www.bentley.com/substation.
None 14%
Little/Some 64%
Significantly 22%
How much would/does this reduce design errors and change orders during construction?
None 31%
Little/Some 47%
Significantly 22%
How much would/does this accelerate project workflows?
10
Pacific Gas and Electric Company
Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) is one of the largest combination natural gas and
electric utilities in the United States. The company provides natural gas and electric service to
approximately 15 million people throughout a 70,000-square-mile service area in northern and
central California. This area includes more than 141,000 circuit miles of electric distribution
lines and over 1,000 electric substation facilities.1
In June 2011, PG&E began the process of replacing their CAD-centric design process with an
intelligent substation design based upon Bentley Substation. As of May 2012 PG&E had
successfully issued five substation projects with Bentley Substation and had another 40 projects
underway with the application.
Based on these projects, PG&E has estimated both physical arrangement and schematic
drawing production have been accelerated by 40 percent. With an estimated 52 drawings per
project and an average of 24 hours per drawing, this represents a savings of approximately 520
labor hours on each substation project. In addition to this dramatic reduction in design time,
PG&E also cited fewer design errors, increased drawing quality, as well as faster and more
accurate generation of physical arrangement views and bills of material.
A complete discussion of PG&E’s intelligent substation design implementation can be found
online at http://connected.bentley.com/viewSeminars.aspx?BEC_SS_ID=808.
IBERDROLA Ingeniería y Construcción IBERDROLA Ingeniería y Construcción is one of the world's largest powers engineering
companies with projects in more than 30 countries and subsidiaries and branch offices in 27
countries throughout Europe, Asia, Africa and North and South America. The company’s
activities are directed toward engineering and construction, principally of electric installations
for power generation, distribution and control.2
Prior to the adoption of Bentley Substation, designs for substations were being produced as 2D
plans without any automation, built-in intelligence, or database to support. Generating bill of
material reports took hours or days as manual material off-takes were calculated from
standalone products leading to frequent errors and rework. Integration between design
disciplines was accomplished through engineers talking to one another, with coordination
relying on paper-based procedures.
1 For more on PG&E, please visit www.pge.com
2 For more on IBERDROLA Ingeniería y Construcción, please visit
http://www.iberdrolaingenieria.com/ibding/home.do.
11
With Bentley Substation, IBERDROLA Ingeniería y Construcción was able to redefine their
design management system and collaboration processes to produce electric substations designs
30 percent faster and with more accuracy. A significant portion of this savings comes directly
from the automated bill of material generation made possible with the intelligent substation
model—Bentley Substation produced accurate reports in just seconds. Additional productivity
gains were realized with the use of ProjectWise for substation engineering information
management and engineering collaboration.
A complete discussion of the IBERDROLA Ingeniería y Construcción intelligent substation design
implementation can be found online at
http://ftp2.bentley.com/dist/collateral/docs/case_studies/cs_bentley_helps_iberdrola_ingenie
ria_y_construccion.pdf.
Conclusions Our research indicates that although many utilities and engineering contractors have yet to
adopt an intelligent substation design process, the majority believe it would offer increases in
engineering productivity and design quality by reducing errors and the amount of time needed
for the design process.
Utilities and contractors who have adopted intelligent substation design have validated these
industry perceptions, citing 30 to 40 percent acceleration in design times.
With such substantial benefits available we expect intelligent substation design tools, such as
Bentley Substation, to be widely adopted and in time become the de facto industry standard.
12
About Bentley Systems, Incorporated Bentley is the global leader dedicated to providing architects, engineers, geospatial
professionals, constructors, and owner-operators with comprehensive software solutions for
sustaining infrastructure. Bentley’s mission is to empower its users to leverage information
modeling through integrated projects for high-performing intelligent infrastructure. Its
solutions encompass the MicroStation platform for infrastructure design and modeling, the
ProjectWise platform for infrastructure project team collaboration and work sharing, and the
AssetWise platform for infrastructure asset operations – all supporting a broad portfolio of
interoperable applications and complemented by worldwide professional services. Founded in
1984, Bentley has grown to nearly 3,000 colleagues in more than 45 countries and over $500
million in annual revenues. Since 2003, the company has invested more than $1 billion in
research, development, and acquisitions.
www.bentley.com
About Newton-Evans Research Company Since 1978, Newton-Evans has been conducting business-to-business survey research for both
multi-client and proprietary studies focused on energy industry automation, information
technology, and infrastructure topics such as Smart Grid. The firm also provides business
consulting services for clients in the computer, communications, control systems and
engineered products areas.
While continuing to serve a broader energy industry audience, Newton-Evans Research
Company has developed a special focus on the worldwide electric power industry. Newton-
Evans is recognized as a world leader in the technical marketing research of the electric power
delivery industry’s use of computers, communications, control systems, and technical
equipment and products.
www.newton-evans.com