Reliability in modern power systems is essential in everyday life. Your customers need the right amount of power at the right time and you need to be able to withstand disturbances in the power supply to be reliable. Mobile substations can be an effective asset in providing reliable and resilient power for your customers. From planned outages to emergency disruptions, mobile substations can support the power grid during these times. Faster restoration times, flexibility, and lower expenses are some advantages of using portable substations, which can be further adjusted to suit your needs.
Emergency Disruptions
Disruptions can be caused by anything from a squirrel jumping into a transformer to a major weather event, and people want their lives to get back to normal as soon as possible when these incidents occur. Portable substations can be customized for your utility’s requirements so you can have power restored to your customers faster and more reliably. Your first concern after any crisis is generally going to be the restoration of power to essential services and facilities crucial for public health and safety.
Strategic positioning of portable substations for the fastest restoration of power to the most customers can be determined while power stations and transmission lines are being assessed for damage and have the necessary repairs. As each electrical substation is repaired the mobile substations can be relocated to support the power grid in other areas. You can additionally supplement your emergency plan with drills and strategy meetings before a disruption ever occurs, and this can help your team run like a well-oiled machine during a real crisis.
Planned Disruptions
Your customers don’t have to be impacted by a planned disruption whatsoever if you employ a strategic deployment strategy for your substations. Mobile substations used during full-on planned outages can also support the grid and minimize a lack of service for customers. New construction projects, improving capacity, supporting future growth, maintaining electrical systems, and relocating electrical systems for public improvement are all reasons for planned outages that are likely to occur at some point. Mobile substation — which often can serve as a mobile transformer — can be designed or retrofitted to your needs for any situation using your preferred switchgear brands. These substations are available with tolerances up to 230 kV and 65 MVA, and should ideally be in compliance with the latest published standards of ANSI, IEEE, NEMA, NESC, and ASTM.
Overall Flexibility
The primary benefit of mobile substations is how flexibly you can use them. Even if you have a power boiler from Granite Mechanical, Inc., for example, who are experts in a thermal expansion that provide boiler and mechanical services to a broad range of facilities, you might still find a mobile substation useful if you want to supply power. While you are upgrading your current power supply, keep an expert on hand in case of emergency, or even if you expect a local event to temporarily consume more power than what the current electrical infrastructure can handle. Mobile substations are not supposed to be long-term solutions, as they cause more wear on the system as a whole, but if you need a short-term solution you will have a hard time finding a better one.
You should not plan for failure, but making a backup plan is still a good idea even if you find it extremely unlikely that it will ever get used. Investing in a high-quality primary power station is extremely important, but knowing when and how to use substations is critical as well. It doesn’t hurt that mobile substations can occasionally be used in creative ways by professionals as the situation demands either, and this highlights the importance of smart power usage.
