When designing and building an electrical power system, getting the steps in the right order is one of the most important parts. Working out-of-order, or on the wrong deliverable, can lead to major delays and cost adds.
Here's a high level plan for how to execute any kind of electrical power system project:
Establish an Electrical Design Basis: The first step in any project should be to clarify the electrical basis of design with the client. This explains what kinds of work you will be doing, what level of effort is required, and any unique items important to a client. This document can also be used to establish project standard, naming conventions, etc. - the kinds of stuff that isn't technically challenging but can be very time-consuming. A design basis can also include a layout of the project if it fits the project.
Create a Load List: Every project should have a load list of some kind. For certain projects, there may be very few loads or mainly generating sources (like on a solar farm), but that doesn't mean this step should be skipped. Still take the time to identify what loads need to be served by your power system and at what voltages you expect.
Create an Overall One Line: The next step is to create an overall one line (also known as a single line) for your project. This should be a high level document showing all the major equipment and how you plan to feed power, including redundancy and overcurrent protection plans. An overall one line should be easy to create once the load list has been developed.
Dig into the Details: After establishing an overall one line, it's time to start digging into all the detailed information beyond it: creating additional one lines, schematics, calculations, wiring diagrams, etc. There's a lot of stuff that can be done here to get design in a good spot. The specifics will depend on your project.
Develop Specifications: With designs done, the next step is to create equipment and material specifications, guidelines for vendors on what you are trying to purchase for a project. Specifications should include technical requirements in addition to requirements enforced on the seller, like schedule, deliverables, etc. Specifications should be sent out, bids should be received, and the project should progress to construction with selected vendors. A good specification contains only what it needs to; too much or too little information will cause confusion with vendors and lead to errors in purchased materials and equipment.
Create Cable Schedules: With vendor documents in hand and design progressed far enough, it's time to start making cable schedules. These schedules are a list of cables that need to be pulled from Point A to Point B, including equipment involved, raceways, terminations, cable types, and more. The level of detail depends on the job and construction crew preferences, but the idea is to make installation as simple as possible.
Hand off Documents to Construction: With equipment known and designs completed, construction teams can truly begin getting to work. It's likely by this time that construction personnel have already been involved with the project, developing early plans and helping with layouts and work planning. However, it's not until this stage that they can really get going. A good handoff meeting should take place to ensure that construction has all of the information they need to be successful.
Build It and Take Back Lessons Learned: Construction isn't easy-certainly more difficult than putting a good design together on paper. Lessons will be learned in the field that need to be brought back to engineers and designers for future improvements.
Complete Testing and Commissioning: Before a project can wrap up, testing and commissioning of the electrical power systems must be completed. The details of testing and commissioning can be found in another of my articles here.
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