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Power Circuit Breakers (PCB) break an electrical circuit to isolate faults. They
also re-close to make a circuit after the fault is removed. To enable this open and Join 745 other subscribers
close operation, it is operated by either a remote relay or a local switch. A remote

relay is located at a remote location such as a control room while the switch is Email Address

located inside the circuit breaker junction box.

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Understanding the breaker scheme is important if you plan on designing a
substation. Quite often, it is overwhelming to make sense of the entire scheme at
F R O M T HE W E B
a glance. Therefore, the figure below depicting a circuit breaker scheme will be
used to simplify and explain various elements of the PCBs design and its control.
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Understanding

Figure 1: Close and Trip Circuit of a Breaker Power Circuit Breaker

- Operation and

Forms of Contact Control Scheme

Before explaining what each device in the scheme does, understanding the What Do Symmetrical,

different forms of auxiliary contact is necessary. Asymmetrical,

Momentary,
A form a contact represents a Normally Open (N.O.) contact. Thus when Interrupting, Close &
thebreaker is open, its 52acontacts are open. When the breaker is closed, the 52a Latch Ratings Mean?
contacts are closed. The 52acontact follows the statusof the breaker.
AC vs. DC Power - The

Basics
A form b contact represents a Normally Closed (N.C.) contact. It operates
exactly opposite of what an a does. When the breaker is open, the 52bcontacts RECENT POSTS
are closed. When the breaker is closed, the 52bcontacts are open.
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Apart from breaker contacts, you will see relays such as anti-pump relay 52Y, low Choosing Between

gas relay 63X, under voltage relay 27 etc in the breaker scheme. The contacts Resistor and Reactor

from each of these relays are interlocked with other relays in such a way that for Neutral Ground

Impedance
they either permit or not permit the breaker operation.

Power Cable Neutral

Circuit Breaker Trip Coil and System Grounding

Figure 1 depicts a trip coil of the breaker. For brevity, I will cover the trip coil
Substation SCADA
no.1 with trip coil no.2 identical.
System - Design

Guide
From the diagram, the breaker is fitted with a 43 switch that toggles between

local trip and remote trip. Positioning it in local allows the persons at the breaker Cable and Conduit Installation
junction box to trip the breakerby closing the Control Switch (CS). Switching it in Substations - Best Practices
to remote position permits the relays in the control house to close their contact
Substation Sub-
and trip the breaker.
Surface Engineering:

An Overview of What a
Modern PCBs employing Sulfur Hexa-Flouride (SF6) gas to extinguish an arc are
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fitted with ANSI 63 relay. To prevent breaker damage due to flash-overs during

low gas conditions, tripping of breaker is cut-out by this relays contact. Notice
in Figure 1 how the contacts from this relay are strategically placed in the close
and trip circuit to cut out any signal from the relays or switches.

At this point, the reader should realize the importance of contact development.
All contacts operate only when the trip coil of their respective relay is energized.
For instance, consider the 63 relay and its contacts shown in in figure 1. This

relay is energized by the same DC source as the one supplying the breaker.
However its trip coil is actuated by a transducer that can sense a fall in SF6 gas
pressure. When this occurs, it switches its contacts located in different circuits to
prevent any breaker operation. Similarly, the 27 undervoltage relay trip coil is
connected across the DC source. When this supply is interrupted, the relay
switches its contact position. This change can be relayed to an alarm or initiate
some other action.

To trip the breaker from a remote location, all contacts from relays at the remote
location shall be hard-wired. Yes, this means laying a lot of copper from the
breaker cabinet to the relays. Further, all tripping contacts are wired in parallel.
When any onerelay contact closes, thus completing the circuit, the breaker trips.

Target Devices
Now, you may notice the red target lamp is connected in a way that will
essentially short out the remote relays and trip the breaker. Not surprisingly, this
is not the case. The target lamps shown in the scheme have enough resistance in
them (~200 ohms), limiting the current that can energize the coil.
Target lamps are used in circuits to convey certain conditions. With the breaker
closed and energized, the red lamp illuminates to indicate a live breaker. When
the breaker opens the green lamp illuminates the circuit complete with 52b
contact switching from open to close.

Most modern circuit breakers are specified with two trip coils. Energizing either
one leads to breakers trip. Since a good amount of redundancy is built into the
protection and control of a power system, it is not uncommon to see all primary
relaying in the system tripping trip coil 1 and the back-up tripping trip coil 2.

Circuit Breaker Close Coil

This coil when energized actuates a lever that engages the closing mechanism
(like a spring).

A close circuit is optionally fitted with both 43 local/remote switch and a local
trip switch. Remote relays are wired in as shown in Figure 1.

There are two relaying elements in the close circuit. There is the close contact
from a breaker control relay. This contact is then tied in series with a string of
lockout relay (LOR) contacts (all in series). The lockout relay contacts are all b

contacts. Read more on lockout relays here. The b contacts are normally closed
during normal operation. However when an abnormal condition exists, the b
contact opens up, preventing the breaker from closing.

Anti-Pump Relays
To prevent inadvertent multiple closing operation, breakers are fitted with anti-
pump relay. Assume a scenario where a fault persists on a line and a person is
looking to close a breaker on it. Although the person presses the close button for
a second or two, for the breaker which operates in cycles, this duration is an
eternity. With the close button pressed, the breaker attempts to open and close

multiple times. Since the motor in the breaker is not rated for continuous duty,
serious damage can occur.

Modern breaker control relays are programmed to check for synchronism. That
is, before the breaker isclosed, the relay checks the phase angles of source and

load side voltages. This will require PT inputs from the source side (typically a
line PT) and from the load side (typically a bus PT).

The close circuit also has contacts from the Motor Switch (MS). They open-close
based on motor operation.

On a final note, keep in mind that not all relay contacts can handle the
momentary trip/close coil currents of the breaker. For example SCADA board
control relays. Interposing relays like those manufactured by Potter-Brumfield
are typically installed to handle these currents. So in our case the SCADA control
relay trips an aux relay and the aux relay trips the breaker.
Most modern microprocessor relays especially ones made by Schweitzer can
handle inrush currents upto 30Amps and thus can be wired directly to the breaker
coils.

Summary

Breaker scheme is a web of interlocked relays and switches.

Breaker operation is controlled by relays and switches.
Trip contacts are wired in parallel.
Close contacts are wired in series i.e. breaker control relay a contact
followed by a series of LOR b contacts.

T A GGE D W IT H Anti pump relay circuit breaker DC scheme sf6 gas relay

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11 Responses to Power Circuit Breaker Operation and Control

Scheme

Admin says:
December 20, 2016 at 11:57 am

MS is the motor switch. The motor in the breaker kicks in to

charge the springs. You dont want to close when the breaker
springs are charging. The MS contacts inhibit breaker operation
when it is charging.

navin kumar says:

September 6, 2016 at 11:41 pm
What is the function of ms relat

aphrodis says:
April 27, 2016 at 10:59 pm

Hello!!!!! I want to connect two network by using CIRCUIT

BREAKER but my circuit breaker is not closing .

i need some suggestions

Sonrill says:
February 18, 2016 at 4:22 am

Very good explanation illustration. I just notice that you have not
mentioned the operation of MS. Kindly add to your explanation

about the MS. Thanks

Khan says:
January 18, 2016 at 10:08 pm

Could you explain MS contact in close circuit? I think ms contact

connected wrong in this diagram.

gisdude says:
October 7, 2015 at 11:01 pm

ok, but 1 question. The schematic shows the circuit in a DE-

ENERGIZED state. So, once the 2 switches on the positive rail and
the negative rail are closed(ie power), do those 52a and 52b
contacts change their states?
Thanks

gisdude says:
October 7, 2015 at 10:54 pm

Very cool description. It would be nice to show say a SEL351

feeder relay in here and showing the SCADA outputs, but this is
great!

Qartas says:
August 11, 2015 at 2:10 am

What a simple and brief description of CB control circuits.Be

blessed with sharing

Anees says:
July 31, 2014 at 2:38 am
 why two anti-pump relay contacts on close circuit ??

Anees says:
July 31, 2014 at 2:36 am

Thanx Article is very useful to understand basics of CB circuits

kelly short says:

June 20, 2013 at 4:33 pm

good article and great explenation and will pass on to my

coworkers

explain the 86 functions and were to put the relays to

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