Substation landscapeing

[cranky108]

Has anyone seen papers or books on substation landscapeing possibilities?

Is there anything new in this area of thinking that we can use to better sell a substation to a community?

 

[ScottyUK]

Offer them the option of no power in return for no substation?

Slightly more seriously there have been some impressive underground transmission system substations built using GIS technology in recent years. I remember reading an article about a couple of them, might have been an ABB flyer or in the trade press. I'll have a look in the landfill site that I use as a desk (or is it vice-versa? ).

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If we learn from our mistakes I'm getting a great education!

 

[cranky108]

In the most recent case, they don't buy there power from us. I guess we could offer to cutoff there natural gas (Didn't ring with me either).

We haven't tried GIS, or undergrounding of 230KV lines.

I was thinking more of trees, or fences, or store fronts, or something like that.

 

[ScottyUK]

The grid have been using large earth berms and sometimes a couple of stands of fast-growing conifers around the transmission subs for a while, partly to diminish its presence on the landscape and partly to catch anything which explosively deconstructs itself. They also U/G'd what should have been a 400kV double circuit line for a few miles as part of the network reinforcement up in my patch. It is a nice patch of countryside but I think the landowner had somewhat more influence on the planning process than they maybe should have.


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If we learn from our mistakes I'm getting a great education!

 

[WhiteyWhitey]

Tendency in Australia is if in a developed area or sometimes even not, using indoor equipment and architect designed substation front to blend in with local buildings.

If you have unlimited money just put the whole thing underground and put a park on top.

Lovely.

 

[racookpe1978]

Berm and trees around the outside. Fast-growing bushes outside for low level angles of sight (under the trees) that will quickly look "green", longer-lived trees for higher angles of view over the longer term.

Reminder: don't put the trees under the wires. 8<)

 

[marks1080]

A nice pastel paint for the crushed stone?

 

[dpmac]

We did some acceptance testing on a 345kV GIS system that was installed inside a building made to look like a Tudor home complete with driveway, walkway to front door, flowers, etc. When you drove around back it was a nothing but a steel building with a roll up door. Performing the AC test on the GIS was interesting because they had built the "home" around the substation. They needed to manufacture a custom extended test bushing set up to get outside the structure so we could perform the test. They did not want to remove the roof.

 

[cranky108]

The worst part of hiding substations as buildings we have seen so far, is having someone to remove the junk mail.

Yes we tried a wall around a substation, but at $1.3M, we won't jump on that very fast.

We have tried berms, and we are intending on trying trees. But we have to also have a watering system to keep them alive.

We have discussed pad monunted substations for smaller subs, but the maintenance people don't like them.

 

[Zogzog]

Turn the stones into a nice japaneese rock garden?

 

[racobb]

marks1080

I think if you are going with pastel stone, a nice mauve stain and a clear coat might be better! I once had a sub that I built screamed about by a lady in an editorial in the local newspaper. Just blew me away since I thought, as subs go, it was a pretty nice one! She obviously did not think so.

Alan

 

[rcw retired EE]

City of Seattle requires all public projects spend 1% on art. There was a downtown substation that had different color porcelain insulators on each phase, wild transformer paint schemes and steel silhouette figures on the fences. Other fences had colored slats placed in the cyclone fence wires in a weave design. The philosophy seemed to be if you can't hide, might as well stand out with class.

It was either really ugly, an eyesore or really cool. (Art is in the eye of....)

The city is out for bids for artists to place art on a large blank wall on another substation. Some entries are propsoing slide shows projected on the wall. (Artists get more money than the engineers.)

 

[Zogzog]

RC, have any photos of that sub?

 

[oldfieldguy]

"City of Seattle requires all public projects spend 1% on art. " To some of us, a well-designed substation **IS** a work of art.

And I've been inside some OLD substations and they'd meet "museum" criteria, too.

old field guy

 

[rcw retired EE]

Zog - I was looking for photos of that substation but haven't found any yet.

It's near the base of the Space Needle. Last time I drove by it looked like a station expansion project removed or hid most of the "art".

I thought it was the Broad Street substation. The only picture I found was the 1951 concrete transformer untanking tower building tht is on the city's list of historic places.

http://web1.seattle.gov/dpd/historicalsite/QueryResult.aspx?ID=-140674652

 

[jghrist]

Zog - I was looking for photos of that substation but haven't found any yet.

If it's the substation on the corner of Broad and Taylor Ave N, you can see it from ground level on Google Maps street view. Looks like a 115 kV sub with four power transformers.

Other than the architectural fence and a tower painted pink or beige, I don't see anything particularly "artsy". It even has the old style chocolate cap and pin bus insulators.