Design of Electrical Substation with Revit

Autodesk

Panama, April of 2018

 Design of Electrical Substation with Revit Autodesk

Introduction:
This document allows to describe the benefits of Autodesk Revit program in the
elaboration of an Electric Substation either under new or existing design of any power
and voltage level. The objective of the BIM for the construction of an Electric Substation
is initially to have a roadmap defined from the beginning of the basic engineering for the
tender or bidding process, anticipate the quantities necessary for the procurement of
civil and electromechanical works.

In addition to what has been described above, the BIM developed under Autodesk's
Revit program is perfectly compliant, allowing to work collaboratively, easily,
dynamically and an important point is that having the model allows transparency in any
audit process from the beginning of the elaboration process from the same to the
construction and delivery of the project, in a short time and simple computational
resources. Facilitating an integrated design process that allows multiple disciplines to
work in parallel, avoiding collisions and saving time and costs.

Benefits of the BIM for an Electric Sub-Station:

The BIM is the present and future for any infrastructure work, in the case of electrical
substations the BIM allows to develop an exact calculation of everything that involves
the project, starting from the basic engineering, achieving in this way to have a route in
all aspects defined before the call for the delivery of the economic offer for a bidding
process.

It allows to have a real and visible model for the request of economic-financial resources
of the project, to know the execution time of the work based on the magnitude thereof,
optimization of land use, for the purchase of the necessary land for the execution of the
work, to be able to carry out the environmental impact studies with a real model,
consult cost of materials and everything that involves the construction of the work.

Another benefit of the BIM is that it can be used in existing electrical substations for
future extensions, develop asset control, visualization of all the infrastructure and
equipment in a dynamic model which will allow to develop an exact record of these. It
works as a basis for the development of applications to obtain real-time access to model
information, minimizing communication time between project stakeholders to comply
with the project schedule.
 Design of Electrical Substation with Revit Autodesk

Basic Plans for Tender, Initial Offer.

During the initial bidding process through public or private bidding, the development of
a model prior to carrying out this act allows for a real estimate of the cost of materials
and equipment, and the preparation of a real model for permitting, land purchase and
presentation processes. of the project to obtain funding sources for it.

In addition to the BIM model, Revit allows to export the model to a 2D CAD file, for any
manipulation of the model for any other use.
You can also do the BIM in Revit Autodesk from the template in AutoCAD or 2D floor
model and in this way develop a modern and friendly model that can be used for
extensions of the existing Substation, cases of studies as reference elements, control of
inventories, exportable model for application of Virtual and Augmented Reality, among
others.
As well as any 2D plant view, you can also have the vertical views of any cut and detail
of any general and point of the project, saving time and total precision in the actual
result of the product.
 Design of Electrical Substation with Revit Autodesk

Calculation of Materials and Volumetry for Civil Works.

An important point in the execution of a project of Electrical Substation that involves
civil works is the calculation of the materials and volumes, as it is the case of concrete,
aggregates, the calculation of the meters of any infrastructure, as well as finishes of
floors and its particular characteristics. Likewise, with the development of the BIM
through Revit Autodesk one can have the amount of structural steel and all those
necessary calculations, obtained in a fast and safe way through the calculation report
made by the program.

As well as the report of the

foundations, you can also
obtain the report of quantities
of walls, floors, perimeter fence
meters, bearing edge, number
of cables, cable trays, cable
channels, cable channel covers,
equipment major and minor,
lamps, metal structures,
connections, mounting
hardware steel, insulators,

Calculation of Major Teams and Location.

One of the advantages of the development of the BIM is the location of major and
minor equipment allowing the location within the final design obtaining control of the
amount of these, location and arrangement of the substation, as well as the calculation
of the minimum distances to ground and separations of these inside the patio, available
for your location. The necessary foundations and to estimate the calculation of cables
and conductors to be used both power and control.

If you do not have a parameterized model of the equipment by the manufacturer, you
can perfectly model it in the Revit program of Autodesk and give it a place within the
 Design of Electrical Substation with Revit Autodesk

design, creating a parametric family of the same or a particular design that could be
developed in Inventor Autodesk and import it. to the model.

An important advantage in
the use of the Revit tool for
the preparation of the BIM
is the placement of the
equipment and its planning
of procurement and
transfer, as well as the
rational use of the available
spaces for the construction
of the work and allow the
optimization of the land for
future extensions.

Calculation of Insulators, Mounting Hardware Steel and Connections.

The BIM for the calculation of the chains of insulators is of great benefit since it allows
to identify the minimum distances of leakage and arc taking into consideration that
these chains when modeling allow to verify the definitive lengths and distances
comparable with the calculation tables of tensioning of drivers Besides the advantages
of knowing the amount of mounting hardware steel, connections and fittings within the
development of the procurement and optimization of resources with the BIM tool is the
exact calculation of what is necessary for the construction or evaluation in this type of
works. On the other hand, it allows to see and know for people with very little
knowledge of this type of works in a friendly way the details of all the components that
constitute it.
 Design of Electrical Substation with Revit Autodesk

You can create

parametric families of
insulators of any
manufacturer,
connections for cables
and conductors of any
material and
dimensions

Length of Conductors and Cables.

After the elaboration of the tensioning table of the conductors for the electrical
substation, the length and height of the same can be traced, taking as a basis the
tensioning table perfectly capturing the parabola inside the model, in addition to this it
allows to have the real distances of the total number of drivers to be used, facilitating
the search for savings in waste and any calculation errors that occur. The model allows
to estimate the amount of cables needed by equipment, facilitating the search and
visualization of the necessary spaces for the calculation of the benches and electric
manhole.

In the case of the grounding grid, it can be added to the model taking into account the
route according to the particular calculation and verify if there is a collision or
interference with the channels, ducts, benches, tracks, foundations and others.

The BIM allows

estimating the number
of conductors and
collisions between these
and other elements of
the sub-station.
 Design of Electrical Substation with Revit Autodesk

The BIM allows the

tracing of cables
electrical the number
of trays, channels and
benches or ducts
necessary for the
route of these
allowing the
optimization of civil
works.

Forecast of minimum distances of active part to ground.

Another advantage of the BIM is to be able to make the views of the whole model
simultaneously with the floor views, achieving the identification of all the additional piece to
this as the model is completely symmetrical it is very easy to identify all the distances of each
piece, structure , equipment, height of conductors and infinities of perfectly verifiable and
measurable elements.
 Design of Electrical Substation with Revit Autodesk

The BIM can also be used with the Navisworks program of Autodesk to verify any collision that
exists and to review in a simpler way the whole project without any type of complications since
the BIM is totally parametric.

Design of steel structures.

The Revit program of Autodesk has among its versatilities the design of metallic
structures of parametric type which allows to design collaboratively in the whole
project. This option to design the structures and then place them within the model
allows to verify and verify in a visual, fast and safe way the particular characteristics of
the work.

Not only gantry and beams can be analyzed within the model, but also the structural
steels of foundations, walls, floor and ceiling tiles. Finally, the report of steel quantities
to be used is obtained. Optimizing the response time at the time of project calculation
and delivery.

The Structural BIM

allows us to capture
the smallest detail of
structures such as
screws, anchors,
among others, such as
the analysis of the
mechanical stress of
steel.
 Design of Electrical Substation with Revit Autodesk

Model for Virtual Reality (RV).

This simulation technique that allows to recreate a three-dimensional environment with a high
degree of realism makes any person move to another reality. The creation of a prototype of
each component of the substation and its construction is achieved, until the integration of all
the parts. It is a modern, efficient and economical alternative to training and coaching.
Operators and maintenance person interact from a computer as the substation will be
physically. In addition, as it is a virtual platform, distance training is totally viable, as is the case
with flight simulators, which makes it possible to understand the potential challenges to face
and the best way to solve them.
The virtual reality allows to recreate an electrical substation in its entirety, showing the routes
of access and evacuation, the protection equipment and the alternatives to respond to
contingencies.
Virtual reality allows changes and improvements in the environment, avoiding falling into
recurring costs, redesign and rework. In addition, the same virtual model can be applied in
different scenarios.
 Design of Electrical Substation with Revit Autodesk

Renders Navisworks
 Design of Electrical Substation with Revit Autodesk

View Power Switch

View of Control Panel Control of Disconnectors

 Design of Electrical Substation with Revit Autodesk
View Cable Output of Power Transformer

Command or control House

Author: Rosmer Ocando Morales

Electrical Engineer / Specialist in Electrical Power Systems.