Gas-Insulated and Hybrid Substations: Substation Modernization in the Mexican Petrochemical Industry 7

This article presents the issues that must be considered for the modernization of the power systems in the national refining industry (NRI) in Mexico and the migration to gas-insulated substations (GISs). The NRI increased its production capacity and demand for electrical power, requiring sources of electricity and equipment that deliver higher availability, reliability, and security of the supplied electricity. The selection of new technologies should represent an improvement in efficiency, preserve the overall operational security of the plants, and solve the actual power systems´ problems. Among the new proposed requirements are the migration of the distribution level from 13.8 kV to 34.5 kV or to 115 kV, as well as the use of GISs and hybrid substations (HSs). the GIS technology itself represents a major technological breakthrough for repowering and modernizing power substations due to its innovative features, high quality of equipment, and higher reliability, which represents the use of sulphur hexafluoride (SF6) as the insulating medium. in addition, this article exemplifies the conceptual schemes proposed to restructure the power system for the Mexican refineries by 2015. The selection of technology allowed the actual conditions to be identified, thereby offering technical solutions that could be useful in similar projects.