Substation Design

We provide electrical, civil, and structural engineering services for substation projects of any size and voltage, from targeted upgrades and retrofits to electrical and civil design packages for complete substations. We can also provide targeted expertise in collaboration with your project team.

SEL electrical and civil engineers have extensive experience creating and implementing substation solutions in the field. Our engineering teams work closely with each other—and with you—to ensure that the structural design of the substation and the protection, control, and automation systems in it meet both industry standards and the project owner's standards and requirements.

Throughout the engineering and design process, our gated quality assurance process ensures that all factors are accounted for and nothing is left to chance.

Our teams of licensed engineers provide:

• Front-end engineering design (FEED) studies, initial cost estimates, and conceptual design.
• Customized 30, 60, and 90 percent issued-for-review (IFR) packages.
• Issued-for-construction (IFC) packages complete with bills of materials and construction bid documents.

Examples of our specific engineering and design services include:

• Environmental protective services and permitting support.
• Surveying and geotechnical coordination.
• Substation physical design studies.
• Site development and grading.
• Structural and foundation design/analysis.
• Equipment specification and sizing.
• Substation design development.
• Transmission and distribution line design.

SEL provides comprehensive EPCM services for substation engineering projects. Whether we are procuring turnkey components like substation control buildings or helping clients to prepare, receive, and assess material procurement bids, we ensure that everything meets both industry standards and your own project-specific requirements.

Having SEL act as your agent in acquiring and commissioning major equipment and materials helps you ensure quality and control costs while keeping your project on schedule.

When it comes to construction management, SEL has prequalified partners who provide construction services under the supervision of our on-site construction managers. If you have a preferred contractor, we will prequalify them as part of our supplier qualification process, making sure the contractor can support the project’s requirements.

Our project managers ensure that standards and requirements are met at every step and that construction proceeds on schedule and within budget.

SEL is an engineering company with 35+ years of leadership in the electric power industry—which means you can count on us to lay the complete engineering groundwork necessary for your project’s success. Our engineers, project managers, designers, technicians, and support staff are located in offices across the United States and around the world.

At every stage of the process, SEL is your single source of accountability. SEL project teams are carefully chosen to meet the project’s objectives and will work closely with you to ensure that every part of the project meets industry standards and your specific requirements.

SEL maintains a documented quality system that is certified to ISO 9001 requirements.

Our licensed professional engineers will work closely with you through the budgeting, conceptualizing, design, permitting, procurement, and construction process, making sure your requirements are met at every step. Projects are typically divided into five phases: planning; definition; development; testing and validation; and commissioning and construction.

In the planning and definition phases, the SEL project team works with you to develop quality assurance checklists, which will be used to verify that work in each phase of the project meets requirements. Any hold/witness points or approval requirements that you define will be included in the detailed project plans.

These crucial beginning steps help ensure that project requirements and the design basis are correct, building quality in from the start and saving time and effort for everyone in later phases.

At each subsequent phase, the SEL technical reviewers and your team must each verify that the agreed-upon quality assurance benchmarks have been met before moving on.

Throughout the project, SEL will communicate project status and provide opportunities for you to define requirements, review deliverables, and provide feedback on our performance.

We install and commission turnkey substation control buildings with complete SEL protection, automation, and control solutions—the most trusted in the electric power industry—as part of the package.

SEL engineers have extensive experience with power engineering and protection, automation, and control systems. We can fully integrate SEL devices with third-party IEDs and switchgear from nearly any manufacturer, ensuring a smooth commissioning process and on-time project delivery.

SEL devices are designed to withstand the world’s most challenging environments, exceeding all industry standards for temperature, shock, and electric stress. An optional conformal coating for electronics adds an extra level of protection against contaminants in extreme environments.

Every SEL-manufactured product comes with a ten-year warranty—the best in the electric power industry. If any SEL product fails under warranty, we’ll repair or replace it for free.