Can you simply put temperature-controlled heaters on the critical components? There are companies that make these for the military where operations often must take place at Arctic -50C conditions.

If you are »»designing at very low temperature««, like -50C, it is likely that your senses are no longer working, . . . you are frozen.

I assume that you are »»designing for very low temperature«« applications.

The -50C is in the standards, . . . and occurs only once every 20 years when the moon turns blue. And as it is in the standards - you have to design for it. If your equipment can not take it, . . . put a heater on it and keep it warm . . .

O.

All sub stations generate heat. Insulate the floor and building to a higher standard and worry about getting rid of the heat when it is warmer. That may be an easier problem to solve.

Heating because it's too cold?

I battle with getting rid of the heat in my environment.

Then there's the need to re-humidify chilled air to eliminate static charge buildup.

Never ends. Microclimate engineering all the time.

My feel on operating an electrical substation in a cold environment would have been that it would self heat but I'm probably wrong.

Can you share some of the special considerations that low ambient temperatures introduce to the substation's design. Isn't colder generally better?

Problems with cold gensets and the effects of cold on mechanical and structural elements I understand, but switchgear and transformers??....

Ready to learn.