Development of Evaluation Model for Substation Damage

Society's demand for power is constantly increasing. To overcome the strains, substations are more commonly being built within urban areas. This has its shortcomings, since a substation poses a level of risk. For the first time, the development of an evaluation model for costs associated with substation incidents in urban areas was achieved by Toshiba with the cooperation of the Chalmers University of Technology. This paper discusses an evaluation model for quantifying damages in comparison between a gas-insulated transformer (GIT) and an oil-immersed transformer (OIT) in urban areas. The related damage costs associated with transformer failure during its operation are studied within this paper. The findings from the case study, utilizing a hypothetical scenario setting, were that the damage cost of OIT is in the range of U.S.$1M-$4M and that of the GIT is about U.S.$0.5M-$1.2M.