Seismic Assessment of Electrical Equipment in Power Substations: A Case Study for Circuit Breakers

Abstract

Electric power is essential in post-earthquake periods for the continuous functionality of disaster management and emergency services. In addition, interruption of electric power can cause significant economic losses due to downtime of critical facilities. Therefore, it is very important to maintain seismic safety of electric power systems and components. There are existing seismic regulations and standards regarding electric power systems, especially in the United States of America (USA) and Europe. A similar regulation has been prepared recently in Türkiye, which is a country in a seismically active region. This study focuses on the current state of practice regarding the seismic assessment of electrical equipment in power stations and implementation of the regulations on seismic qualification of these systems. Among many electrical equipment, circuit breakers have been selected for case study. The seismic assessment of the selected high voltage equipment has been performed according to the new regulation under the seismic hazard specifically defined for Türkiye. The case study experiment presents the new methodology in evaluating and classifying the seismic response of high voltage electrical equipment and provides insight to the expected behaviour of circuit breakers under earthquake induced action.