E-Distribuție Banat has completed the construction of a new primary substation, worth 23.59 million lei, in Dumbrăvița commune, near Timișoara, for the benefit of over 5,300 customers, in an area in full development. The primary station is one of the best performing in the Romanian energy distribution system. Another 27 million lei will be invested in the medium voltage grids connected to the substation, the total value of the project amounting to over 50 million lei.

The new primary substation has a total capacity of 50 MVA (Mega Volt Amper), provided by two 110/20 kV transformers, and will supply, after the full completion of the medium voltage grids, the household and industrial consumers in the area located in the north of Timisoara, such as Traian Vuia International Airport, shopping centers, production halls, logistics centers etc.

The major benefits brought by the new primary substation and the upcoming medium voltage grids consist in increasing the capacity of the distribution network and the level of safety in the supply of the existing household and non-household users in the served area, thus leading to the improvement of the quality indicators of the distribution service. The new primary substation allows, depending on the pace of development in the area, to increase its capacity up to 80 MVA, thus making possible a greater number of connections to the distribution network and a higher consumption of electricity, for another approximately 4,500 households or more than 30 industrial customers.

“Dumbrăvița primary substation is a very important project that supports our constant efforts to digitize and increase the resilience of the distribution networks, in order to achieve our decarbonisation and electrification targets, all for the benefit of our customers. The significant investment in this project reflects our vision and commitment to support the development of this area. The project will bring significant benefits to this community, improving the quality of the distribution service and the safety of the electricity supply, and offering additional possibilities to connect the new consumers to the grid,” said Monica Hodor, General Manager of the E-Distribuție companies.

The primary substation is supplied from the nearby high voltage power line (110 kV), the connection being made through an underground electrical line, and is introduced in the Telecontrol system of the E-Distribuție companies, which allows the operation and performance of maneuvers remotely, from the dispatcher, reducing the intervention times and improving the quality of services.

The primary substation is equipped with new transformers, with low losses, according to European standards, 22 cells with state-of-the-art protections, with the possibility of extension for another 12 cells to which both producers and consumers can connect. Some of the 110 kV equipment is produced in Romania, and the new facilities are compact, with increased efficiency, low own consumption, and minimal risks for the environment. For this purpose, for the connection from the power transformers (110/20kV) to the medium voltage cells, a heat-shrinkable insulating material was used to protect, at the same time, the MV bares and fauna in the area.

In order to ensure a high level of energy efficiency of the primary substation, the building has been thermally insulated, for the lighting were used LED fixtures, and on the protection and safety field, photovoltaic panels will be able to be installed to reduce its own technological consumption and CO2 emissions.

Also, E-Distribuție supports the professional training of future engineers, by organizing visits of students from the faculties in the field, together with their teachers. A number of 60 students and professors from the Faculty of Electrical and Energy Engineering of the Politehnica University of Timisoara have already visited the primary substation in Dumbrăvița, so that the young people had the opportunity to get acquainted with the most modern technologies in the field of primary substations and grids.

Since 2005, E-Distribuție Banat has made investments of over two billion lei in the modernization and digitization of the electrical grid, in the refurbishment of the primary substations and substations and in the replacement of the measuring equipment, with a direct impact on the grid’s capacity to distribute energy to new consumers and to improve the management of unplanned interruptions, for safe supply to customers. The E-Distribuție companies have carried out, since the beginning of their activity in the country until 2022, investment projects totaling almost 7.5 billion lei, mostly in digitization, in the refurbishment of the primary substations and substations and in the modernization of the distribution network.