Busduct is an electrical equipment that serves as an interconnection between two or more electrical equipment to transfer power efficiently and effectively without any disturbance to the systems. This electrical equipment is designed considering the current and voltage needs, short circuit requirements, space availability, and aesthetic aspects.
Broadly, the Air Insulated Busducts are classified into Isolated Phase busduct, Segregated Phase Busduct and Non-Segregated Phase Busduct. In a nutshell, isolated phasebusducts are commonly used in large power plants to connect generators to transformers and other equipment. Each phase conductor is housed in its own enclosure, which allows it to carry a higher current for a given temperature compared to other types of busducts.
As for Segregated Phase Busducts (SPBD), they are simply metal-enclosed systems where all phase conductors are housed in a shared enclosure but are separated by barriers. These barriers are either metal barrier or insulated barrier. The non-magnetic barriers can immensely reduce the forces during phase-to-phase faults.
In non-segregated phasebusduct (NSPBD), on the other hand, all the three phase conductors are mounted in a common metal enclosure without any metal barriers between adjacent phases. There are two main types of NSPBDs i.e., conventional type and interleaved type.
A couple of years back, it had been a conventional practice to transport power from one equipment to the other by means of cables. Well, this worked quite efficiently as long as the requirement of power to be transported was quite low.
But in fast-changing scenario, the size and capacity of different equipment have increased to a great extent. To transport such large amounts of power, cable was not viable due to its own limitations and inherent cons. Of course, we have to think of alternatives to overcome this lacking in power transmission and distribution, leading to newer methods for transportation i.e., busduct. After all, it helped eliminate innumerable problems faced by use of cables.
You might ask: what are the applicable parameters to select the busduct? Some of the basic parameters for the preliminary selection of busduct include voltage rating and BIL value, continuous current rating, short circuit current rating, ambient temperature, temperature rise limits, and busbar material.
Of course, the above-mentioned parameters are the basic only and there are various other parameters influencing the busduct design. In this regard, you should take it upon yourself to review and understand more about the busduct.