Seismic fragility analysis of electric substation equipment and structures

This paper presents a seismic fragility analysis of equipment and structures in an electric substation in the eastern United States, using Substation 21 in Memphis as an example. The fragility data of substation equipment and structures can be generated using actual earthquake damage data, experimental data, or analytical approaches. Seismic damage to electric facilities in the eastern United States is rare and information on dynamic testing of electric equipment similar to those installed in the substation is not available; thus, an analytical approach is used to perform the fragility analysis in this study. The fragility analysis results can reveal the expected performance of equipment and structures in the substation in the event of an earthquake. The fragility analysis results also provide the necessary data for the seismic performance evaluation of an entire electric substation and for a system reliability analysis of an electric system.