Oman Transmission Grid Sub-Station, Ibri

Seventeen students along with two lecturers, V. Veera Nagi Reddy and N. Srinivasa Rao, from the department visited the Oman Transmission Grid Sub-Station in Ibri on Sunday, 24 November 2019. 

In this sub-station, voltage is stepped down from 400KV/ 220KV / 132KV / 33KV / 11KV. 11KV is further subdivided into 415V for substation lighting. Among other facilities, firefighting equipment guards against unforeseen fire accidents. 

Purpose of the visit:

The principal purpose of the visit was to give students hands-on experience of the working system of transmission lines, underground cables, insulators, circuit breakers, bus bars, current transformer, and potential transformer. The students who visited the site studied the aforementioned concepts as part of their course – Electrical Power Systems (Course Code: EEPW 2252).

Insights from the visit:

After reaching the substation, engineers from the Operation and Maintenance wing of the substation walked us through the safety rules observed in the substation. Mr Hamed Al Shiali, the health and safety officer, welcomed us and gave an introductory presentation regarding safety rules that should be followed during entire visit. Mr Waleed Al Kalbani, Operation and Maintenance Engineer, and Mr Mohammed Al Shabori, Protection and Metering Engineer, explained:

• the incoming and outgoing feeders;
• the control room operations and single line layout of grid; 
• the methods they adopt to control feeders, transformers, and bus bars; and
• the 500 MVA power transformer, and cooling system which is used for the transformer;

In addition to the above, the engineers in the substation also gave a demonstration of the protective and measuring equipment such as current and voltage transformers, auto-transformer, circuit breakers, lightning arrester, isolator operation. 

Furthermore, the following were also shown to the team:

• the control room (which has remote control panels for 375/500 MVA transformers, 220KV relay panels, and 220KV bus coupler);
• the battery room (which consists of battery banks of 48 volts) and eye safety measures;
• the gas-insulated substation (where SF6 gas is used for insulation); and
• 132KV power cables in the cellar.

Outcome of the visit:

The students were able to:

a) Receive practical and hands-on experience of many systems pertaining to generation, distribution, and maintenance of electricity which they earlier only studied theoretically as part of their course; and

b) Clarify doubts – pertaining to various aspects mentioned in (a) above – in discussion with the engineers of the sub-station.