HV/MV Substation Design — Grounding, Shielding & Arrester Selection

Two years of substation design engineering with GERS S.A.S., a consultancy delivering high- and medium-voltage substations and PV-plant interconnections for clients in Colombia, Chile, Mexico and the United States. The work covered the full primary-design stack: grounding-system design by finite elements in XGSLAB, lightning shielding of switchyards and PV plants, insulation coordination through EMT simulation, and surge-arrester selection based on energy-dissipation probability from contingency simulations — backed by in-house MATLAB tools implementing IEEE Std 1243, IEC 62305 and IEC 60071-2.

1. 01

   Design of high- and medium-voltage substations, including single-line diagrams, layout planning and equipment selection.

2. 02

   Shielding design against direct lightning strokes for HV substations and photovoltaic plants (rolling-sphere method per IEC 62305).

3. 03

   Grounding-system design for substations and PV plants by the finite-element method in XGSLAB, including touch- and step-voltage verification.

4. 04

   Insulation coordination and overvoltage studies via EMT simulation (MATLAB / EMTP), ensuring correct BIL selection for equipment.

5. 05

   Surge-arrester selection based on the probability of energy dissipation under contingency simulations in EMTP.

6. 06

   Power-system analysis in NEPLAN; review and validation of CAD drawings for substation layouts, grounding systems and cable routing.

7. 07

   Development of standards-based MATLAB tools: line shielding-failure and flashover rates (IEEE 1243), rolling-sphere radius (IEC 62305), insulation coordination (IEC 60071-2) and CT/PT burden checks.

A complete, standards-traceable primary-design workflow — grounding, shielding, insulation coordination and arrester energy — applied consistently across projects in four jurisdictions, with reusable calculation tools that shortened design cycles and made every rating decision auditable.

• Insulation coordination All cases — Insulation coordination →
• Grounding system design All cases — Grounding system design →

Systems & technologies

• Substation design
• XGSLAB
• Lightning shielding
• Insulation coordination
• Surge arresters
• EMTP
• NEPLAN
• IEC 60071-2
• IEC 62305
• IEEE 1243
• AutoCAD