What is a distribution substation? I suppose it could be exactly what is sounds like. Is a distribution substation the place where retailers send all their products to be picked up by trucks to be delivered to the stores where they will be sold to consumers? That makes sense to me. But I was not sure what it was so I looked it up. The Free Dictionary defines distribution substation as an electric power substation associated with the distribution system and the primary feeders for supply to residential, commercial, and industrial loads. So, I guess it is exactly what is sound like. Just more technological than I had previously assumed.
Distribution substations include a mind boggling number of parts such as electrical switchboards, medium voltage switchgear, non segregated phase bus, and Siemens bus plugs. No, I really do not know what any of those parts do individually. But I do know that together, with hundreds of other parts, they create a distribution substation.
I think we talked about distribution substations in high school. My teacher made some kind of model for the power grid layered over a town she had created from paper and Styrofoam. I really appreciate teachers like that. She was trying to teach out of the box and spent hours of her own time creating that model to help appeal to the senses of us visual learners. She was awesome. Anyway, years after high school, when I became a professional, I watched my CEO who makes a half a million dollars a year draw a picture of the power grid on the white board with a variety of colored markers. So I suppose I have no excuse for not remembering the definition of a distribution substation. But after moseying through this little blog of a memory I think it is all coming back to me. That has to be worth something, right?
