For Utilities, each substation is regarded as an asset. Managing of assets is one of domains of Asset Management including Life Cycle Costing (LCC) as a decision-making criterion. However, LCC as a decision-making criterion should be applied on an entire substation taking into account all of the potential cost influences for the purpose of achieving of an effective substation management. Asset management as a decision-making process should be observed within a larger context and should be more focused on risk management, as all real decisions include an element of risk due to present uncertainties. Two promising avenues are explored in regards to more comprehensive and rigorous up-front planning through usage of Information Technology (IT). While up-front planning falls under the domain of Lean philosophy, Building Information Modeling (BIM) falls under the category of agile decision-support tools. Utilization of both is explored from a perspective of design-uncertainties under both product and process design. Standard specifications and standard designs are another form of applied Lean Philosophy that reduces design-uncertainty and variability. However, a range of technical solutions stemming out of the standardization can be quite wide. Customization involves specification and design of new / innovative designs with wide range of technical solutions as well. Due to external pressures focused on shortening of the project delivery time, there is a need for a faster project time throughput. This is reflected in the form of a requirement for more rapid engineering decision-making and faster decision cycles. Streamlining of a decision-making process related to the engineering is all about engineers’ awareness of the situation from the project level perspective coupled with utilization of decision-support tools for creation and reuse of knowledge. Plan – Do – Study – Orient (PDSO) cycle is a decision-making model that supports creation and reusability of knowledge along with providing an explanation in regards to the time dimension relating to decision-making, and as such is presented in this paper. The rigid busbar system design is an iterative process influenced by many factors, defined either as design variables or design constraints. As rigid busbars are gaining more popularity for both greenfield and brownfield investments, the rigid busbar system design is explored from a perspective of decision-making streamlining. The case of the rigid busbar system design of El Chaparral project in El Salvador is given.

Effective substation management should include engineering and construction costs. While the construction process has to be methodically planned and sequenced to achieve optimized construction costs, substation designers play a vital role for delivering cost-efficient substations. Integrated design and construction has been proposed as a way to achieve effective project management, which historically viewed, was a responsibility of a “master builder”, thus causing Contractors to identify themselves as “master builders”. As EPC is a highly competitive arena, Contractors are looking for ways to differentiate themselves from their competitors. Some are turning to 3D technologies, while others turn to the design-construction integration. Virtual Master Builder (VMB) supports both 3D technologies and the design-construction integration. Due to a global shortage of worldwide available expertise, Contractors turn to education and training of their employees. While education aims at providing basic skills, training aims to provide the skill necessary to do the job. This paper examines these basic skills as a part of personal mastery before defining organizational learning as a key organizational competence.   Physical Virtuality realm is seen as a fruitful ground for staging of memorable and transformational experiences leading towards achieving “accelerated learning”, and especially 4D models as representations of a “space-time” environment. The project case of Skopje 4 SS 380/110 kV rehabilitation is given as an example of 4D models usage. Project Engineering is seen as a middle ground between engineering and management in order to achieve goals of effective substation management and cost-efficient substation solutions. Project teams are seen as Virtual Design and Construction (VDC) users to achieve these goals.

This paper focuses on the optimization of the design of high voltage transmission lines in order to reduce the negative impact of electric and magnetic fields. Within this paper the results of measurements of electric and magnetic fields near 400 kV transmission line were presented. Measurements were performed in the middle of the range between two towers, because at this point transmission lines are closest to the ground. In order to make better validation of the used calculation models of electric and magnetic fields, measurement of temperature, pressure, humidity and height of particular transmission lines in the middle range, were performed simultaneously. The values of current and voltage on the transmission line, at the time of measurement of the fields, are also given. Based on the measured values of electric and magnetic fields, validation of calculation was performed. This paper also contains a brief comparative analysis of regulations on non-ionizing radiation of power facilities that are in use in some European countries, as well as recommendations of the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP). Calculation of electric and magnetic fields of different configurations of 400 kV transmission line, were performed in order to find optimal solution in terms of reducing the negative impact of electric and magnetic fields of high voltage transmission