Research on Building Energy Efficiency Performance of Substations in Hot Summer and Warm Winter Zones

Substation buildings must achieve energy conservation and carbon reduction, and thereby realize sustainable development, by optimizing envelope structures and adopting systematic design, all while meeting the operational demands of high-precision electrical equipment. This research takes a typical substation building (including switchgear building, main control building, and guard room) in a hot-summer and warm-winter zone as a case study to evaluate the effects of building thermal performance on building energy use. The building cooling load and the energy-saving rate of the air conditioning system are selected as key evaluation metrics. Using building cooling load and energy-saving rate as core indicators, energy simulation software is employed to analyze the thermal parameters of the building envelope of the switchgear building and the main control building. The influence of operational parameters, such as air conditioning setpoint temperature and internal heat gains, on the building cooling load is also investigated in order to explore design solutions that achieve sustainable development. Results indicate that the cooling load per unit area of the switchgear building is significantly higher than that of the main control building. Among the factors analyzed, the air conditioning setpoint temperature has the most substantial impact on the cooling load; increasing it by just 1 °C can reduce the load by 7–8%. When the optimal values of each factor are adopted, the energy-saving rates of the switchgear building and the main control communication building can reach 32.09% and 24.08%, respectively. This research aims to provide valuable references for determining appropriate building thermal performance parameters and operational settings for fully outdoor 220 kV substation buildings in hot-summer and warm-winter zones, thereby contributing to the sustainable development of buildings.