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 secondary-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.

• Design of high- and medium-voltage substations, including single-line diagrams, layout planning and equipment selection.
• Shielding design against direct lightning strokes for HV substations and photovoltaic plants (rolling-sphere method per IEC 62305).
• Grounding-system design for substations and PV plants by the finite-element method in XGSLAB, including touch- and step-voltage verification.
• Insulation coordination and overvoltage studies via EMT simulation (MATLAB / EMTP), ensuring correct BIL selection for equipment.
• Surge-arrester selection based on the probability of energy dissipation under contingency simulations in EMTP.
• Power-system analysis in NEPLAN; review and validation of CAD drawings for substation layouts, grounding systems and cable routing.
• 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 secondary-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.