Auto Reclosing

Auto-Reclosing SCHEME for High voltage
Introduction
About 80%-90% of faults are caused by transient fault and the remaining 10%-20% of
faults are either semi-permanent or permanent fault.
Faults are classified into three with corresponding examples:
A. Transient – Lightning, insulator flashover, swinging conductors and temporary contact of

objects.
B. Semi-Permanent – A tree branch falling on the line and eventually burn up by the arc when
the line is re-energized.
C. Permanent – Broken conductor, collapse of a line tower and tree leaning against the line.
Application of Auto-Reclosing
Figure 1: Example illustration of auto reclosing
Important Parameters:
1. Dead Time – It is the period between arc extinguished points to contacts make point. The
sum of t2 + t3 + t4.
2. Reclaim Time – Is the time between coil’s closed energized points to breaker’s fully closed
point.
3. Single or multi-shot
These parameters are influenced by:

a) Type of protection
b) Type of switchgear
c) Possible stability problems
d) Effects on the various types of consumer loads
Example of Single Shot in Transient and Permanent Fault
Figure 2: Single-shot auto-reclose scheme operation of a transient fault
Figure 3: Single-shot auto-reclose scheme operation of a permanent fault

Auto-Reclosing on HV Distribution Networks
This scheme is applied mainly to radial feeders where problems of system stability do not
arise. The advantages to be derived from its use can be summarized as follows:
a. Reduction to a minimum of the interruptions of supply to the consumer.

b. Instantaneous fault clearance can be introduced, with the accompanying benefits of
shorter fault duration, less fault damage, and fewer permanent faults.
And for transient faults, auto-reclosing gives obvious benefits through:
c. Improved supply continuity

d. Reduction of substation visits
Instantaneous tripping reduces duration of power arc resulting from and overhead line fault to
minimum. This application of protection may result in non-selective tripping of circuit breakers and
an ensuing loss of healthy sections. Auto-reclosing scheme helps these breakers to be reclosed
within a few seconds. With transient faults, a large portion of customers will be affected within a
short time. If only time-graded protection without auto-reclosing, smaller number of customers will
be affected but for a longer period of time.
When instantaneous protection is used with auto-reclosing, the scheme is normally arranged
to inhibit the instantaneous protection after the first trip. For a permanent fault, the time-graded
protection will give discriminative tripping after reclosing, resulting in the isolation of the faulted
section. A further benefit of instantaneous tripping is a reduction in circuit breaker maintenance
by reducing pre-arc heating when clearing transient faults.
Factors Influencing HV Auto-Reclosing Schemes
I. Dead Time
Several Factors affect the selection of system dead time as follows:
a. System Stability and Synchronism

- In order to reclose without loss of synchronism after a fault on the interconnected feeder,
the dead time must be kept to the minimum permissible consistent with de-ionization of
the fault arc. Other time delays that contributes to the system disturbance must be kept
as short as possible.
- It is also essential to use high-speed protection with operating times less than 50
milliseconds.
- Synchronism check logic is desirable in some cases to prevent auto-reclosing if the phase
angle is not in phase.
b. Type of Load
- Various types of consumer loads is considered to be a problem in relation to dead time
because of its effect.
1. Industrial Customers
▪ Mixed loads are used like motors and lightings. Dead time has be long
enough to allow motor circuits to trip out on loss of supply.
▪ Once supply is restored, restarting of drives can then occur under direction
of the process control system in a safe and programmed manner, and can
often be fast enough to ensure no significant loss of production or product
quality.
2. Domestic Customers
▪ Main consideration is the inconvenience and compensation for supply
interruption.
▪ A short dead time is of little importance compared to loss of cooking
facilities, central heating, light and visual entertainment resulting from
longer power interruption without auto-reclosing.
c. Circuit Breaker Characteristics

- Time delays of circuit breaker must be considered during tripping and reclosing, especially
when assessing the possibility of applying high speed auto-reclosing.
1. Mechanism Resetting Time
▪ After tripping, a time of the order of 200 milliseconds must be allowed for
the trip-free mechanism to reset before applying a closing impulse. Latch
check is desirable in the reclosing circuit where high speed reclosing is
required.
2. Closing Time
▪ The time interval between energization of closing mechanism and the
making of contacts.
Figure 4: Typical circuit breaker trip-close operation times

d. De-Ionization of Fault Path
- Time delay of a circuit breaker trip should be long enough to de-ionize the fault path.
This time is dependent to system voltage, weather conditions and so on. But for 66kV
above, 100ms to 200ms should be adequate.
Figure 5: Fault arc de-ionization times
e. Protection Reset Time

- Timing device should be fully reset during dead time if time delayed protection is used,
so that correct time discrimination will be maintained after re-closure of the fault.
- When short dead time is required, protection relay must rest instantaneously.
II. Reclaim Time
Factors affecting the setting of reclaim time are as follows:
a. Type of Protection
b. Spring Winding Time
III. Number of Shots
Auto-reclosing implementation have no definite rule in defining the number of shots but there
are factors to consider for this application:
a. Circuit Breaker Limitations

- The ability of the circuit breaker to perform several trip and close should be considered
and the effect of this operation during maintenance period.
b. System Conditions
- Multi shot scheme may be justified if statistical information shows moderate percentage
of semi-permanent faults that could be burned out during 2-3 time delayed trips.
- Another situation is where fused “tees” are used and fault level is low, since the fusing
time may not discriminate with the main IDMT relay. The use of several shots will heat
the fuse causing it to blow before the main protection operated.

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Auto-Reclosing SCHEME for High voltage

Faults are classified into three with corresponding examples:

A. Transient – Lightning, insulator flashover, swinging conductors and temporary contact of

Figure 1: Example illustration of auto reclosing

These parameters are influenced by:

Figure 2: Single-shot auto-reclose scheme operation of a transient fault

Figure 3: Single-shot auto-reclose scheme operation of a permanent fault

a. Reduction to a minimum of the interruptions of supply to the consumer.

And for transient faults, auto-reclosing gives obvious benefits through:

c. Improved supply continuity

Factors Influencing HV Auto-Reclosing Schemes

Several Factors affect the selection of system dead time as follows:

a. System Stability and Synchronism

c. Circuit Breaker Characteristics

Figure 4: Typical circuit breaker trip-close operation times

Figure 5: Fault arc de-ionization times

e. Protection Reset Time

II. Reclaim Time

Factors affecting the setting of reclaim time are as follows:

III. Number of Shots

a. Circuit Breaker Limitations

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