Application of 3D technologies in substation engineering works

The engineering of high-voltage substations has long relied on 2D drawings as the primary carrier of design intent. While widely understood, this approach carries structural limitations. Errors propagate silently across disciplines, design data must be manually re-keyed at every project handover, and the drawing itself carries no queryable information beyond what is visible on the page. These are not problems of draftsmanship — they are the inherent limits of a process built on 2D representations of an inherently three-dimensional asset.

CIGRE Working Group B3.56 was established to document the state of the art in 3D and BIM-based digital transformation of substation engineering, and to provide practical guidance for utilities and engineering organisations seeking to advance their digital…