PROTECTION

&
SWITCHGEAR
 UNIT – I

PROTECTION
SCHEMES
 Syllabus
• Principles and need for protective schemes
• Nature and causes of faults
• Types of faults
• Fault current calculation using symmetrical
components
• Methods of Neutral grounding
• Zones of protection and essential qualities of
protection
• Protection schemes
 Protection

• Providing security or safety to the components

present in the power system against their

damage due to faults or any abnormal

conditions in the power system.

 Switchgear

• It is a general term that refers to the various

equipment used for protection and switching

operations.
Responsibility of a Power Engineer
• Electrical energy management system ensures
supply of energy to every consumer at all
times
 at Rated voltage
 at Rated frequency
 at Specified waveform
 at Lowest cost
 with minimum environmental degradation.
 Need for Protective Schemes
• An electrical power system consists of
 Generators
 Transformers
 Transmission & Distribution lines etc.
• Short circuits and other abnormal conditions
often occur in a power system.
• The heavy current associated with short circuit
causes damage to equipment if the power
system is left unprotected.
Need for Protective Schemes (Contd..)
• If a fault occurs in an element of a power
system,
– an automatic protective device is needed to
isolate the faulty element
– as quickly as possible
– to keep the healthy section of the system under
normal operation.
Need for Protective Schemes (Contd..)
• The fault must be cleared within fraction of a
second.
• If a fault persists for longer time, it may cause
damage to some important section of the
system.
• A heavy short circuit current may cause
– a fire which may spread and damages a part of the
system
– the system voltage may reduce to a low level
– the generators to loose synchronism
– total failure of the system.
 Protective System
• Any protective system includes
 CTs and PTs
 Protective relays
 Circuit breakers
 Protective System (Contd..)
• CTs and PTs are used to reduce the currents and voltages and
to isolate the relays from high voltage and high currents of the
system.
• They give signal to relays. Relay senses the abnormal
conditions of voltage, current & frequency.
• Then the CB disconnects the faulty section when it receives
signal from a relay.

Protective Circuit
Line

CTs and PTs

Relay Breaker
 Protective System (Contd..)
• A protective relay does not prevent the
occurrence of fault.
• It just senses the fault and operates the circuit
breaker.
• But a protective device like Buchholz relay can
prevent the fault that may occur in a
transformer.
 Nature and causes of Faults
• Faults are generally caused either
– by failure of insulation or
– by breaking of conductor

• Most of the faults on the transmission & distribution

lines are caused by
– over voltages due to lightning and switching
surges or
– external conducting objects falling on OH lines
 Examples of Faults
• Insulators get punctured or break.
• Dust particles in industrial areas or salt in coastal
areas may accumulate on the surface of insulators to
cause flashover.
• Short circuits caused by tree branches falling on the
overhead lines.
• Birds also cause faults on OH lines when their bodies
touch one of the 3 phases and earth wire.
• When conductors break, it is a open circuit fault.
• If it falls on the ground, it is a short circuit fault.
 Types of Faults
 Symmetrical faults
 Three phase fault
 Unsymmetrical faults
 Single line to ground fault
 Double line to ground fault
 Line to line fault
 Open circuit fault
 Fault statistics
The frequency of fault occurrence in different parts of a
power system

Equipment % of Total Faults

O.H. Lines 50
Cables 10
Switchgear 15
Transformers 12
CTs &PTs 2
Control Equipments 3
Miscellaneous 8
Zones of Protection
 Primary & Backup Protection
• Power system is divided into various zones.

• Each zone is protected by a protective scheme.

• If a fault occurs in a particular zone, the primary

relays must operate as a first line of defense.

• If primary relays fail to operate, then a backup

protection scheme must clear the fault as a second
line of defense.
 Primary & Backup Protection
• Reliability of protective scheme must be 95% at least.

• Operation of backup relays are independent of

primary relays.

• A backup relay operates after a time delay to give the

primary relay sufficient time to operate.

• When a backup relay operates, a larger part of the

system is disconnected. It is unavoidable.
Primary & Backup Protection
A Typical Relay & its Operation
 Essential Qualities of Protection
• Speed
– Protective relaying must disconnect a faulty
element as quickly as possible.
• Because it
– improves the system stability
– decreases the amount of damage
– reduces the interruption of supply to consumers

– For fast operation, high speed protective relays to

be operated with high speed C.Bs
 Essential Qualities of Protection
• Selectivity or discrimination
– A relay must be able to discriminate between a
fault and normal condition.

– It is the ability of the protective system to

determine the point at which fault occurred and
to select the nearest CB to clear the fault.

– It must also be able to discriminate between a

fault and transient conditions like power surge or
inrush current of transformers.
 Essential Qualities of Protection
• Sensitivity
– A protective relay should operate when the
magnitude of the current exceeds the preset
value.

– This value is called pickup current.

– The relay should operate when the operating

current just exceeds its pickup value and not in
any case.
 Essential Qualities of Protection
• Reliability
– Any protective system must operate reliably
whenever a fault occurs in its zone.

– Protective system elements are relays, CTs, PTs,

CBs, wiring, battery etc.

– These elements must be designed, installed,

maintained and tested properly to achieve a high
degree of reliability.
 Essential Qualities of Protection

• Simplicity
– The relaying system should be simple so that it can
be easily maintained.

– The simpler the protection system, the greater will

be its reliability.
 Essential Qualities of Protection
• Economy
– Too much protection is as bad as too little.

– Relay engineer must design sufficient amount

protection keeping in mind that the cost for
protective system is affordable.
 Earthing
• The process of connecting the non – current
carrying metal parts of any equipment or
some electrical part of the system to the earth
is called earthing or grounding.

• Types of earthing
– Equipment Earthing
– System Earthing or Neutral Earthing
Equipment Earthing
 System Earthing
• Electrically connecting the neutrals of the
system to the earth directly or through some
electrical elements is called system or neutral
earthing.
Ungrounded Neutral System
 • Consider an ungrounded
neutral system.
• Capacitance effect exists
between each line & ground.
• Line charging currents flow.
• Under normal condition, they
are equal & leads their
respective phase voltages by
900.
• Its magnitude is,
Ungrounded Neutral System
 •Consider an earth fault at F in
line B.
• Phase B current has two
components. IBR and IBY.
 Ungrounded Neutral System
• Voltage across the two healthy phases to ground rises to
line voltage which leads to insulation breakdown.

• Capacitive current in two healthy phases increases to

1.732 times normal value.

• Capacitive current in faulty phase is 3 times its normal

value.

• This capacitive fault current IF flows into the ground.

Capacitive current more than 4 amps will produce an arc
between line and ground.
 Ungrounded Neutral System
• The persistance of arc between line and ground due to
the flow of capacitive current leads to a condition called
“Arcing Ground”.

• Charging and discharging of the line charging capacitance

occurs and hence a very high voltage is imposed on the
line.

• The phase voltage of the system may rise to 5 to 6 times

which leads to insulation breakdown.
 Grounded Neutral System
• In the modern systems, the neutral points of all three
phase systems are grounded to avoid the problem of
arcing ground.

• The system neutral can be grounded

• Effectively - neutral is connected directly to the
earth.
• Non-effectively - neutral is connected to earth
through resistance or reactance or coil.
 Types of Neutral Grounding
• Solid grounding (Effective grounding)

• Resistance grounding (Non – Effective grounding)

• Resonant grounding (Non – Effective grounding)

 Solid grounding
• The neutral point of the three phase system is directly
connected to earth.
• Consider an earth fault at F in
line B.
• Three currents flow through
line B. They are INR, INY & IF.
• INR & INY currents are driven by
line capacitances.
• IF was driven by inductive
nature of the source.

• Both currents in phase opposition & hence cancel each other.

 Solid grounding
• When an L - G fault occurs, the voltage between the
faulty phase and neutral becomes zero & between
healthy phases and earth remains at their normal phase
voltage.
• The flow of heavy fault current IF neutralizes the flow of
capacitive fault current ICF. Hence no arcing ground
phenomena or over voltage occurs.
• But this increased amount fault current interferes with
the neighbouring communication circuits.
• Also this current when flowing through the circuit
breaker, it might damage the contacts of C.B.
• It is employed where the system impedance is sufficient
to keep the ground current within safe limits
 Resistance Grounding
• To limit the fault current within safe limits, a current
limiting device is added between neutral and earth.
• A resistance is added between neutral and earth in this
method of grounding.
• Value of R is adjusted to
nullify the capacitive fault
current so that no arcing
ground occurs.

• It is employed in systems
with operating voltage
between 3.3 kV and 33 kV.
 Resonant Grounding
• This method of grounding is also called arc
suppression coil grounding.
• Here an iron cored inductor is connected between
neutral and earth.
• It can be tuned to resonate with XC when L – G fault
occurs.
• This coil has tappings to adjust its XL to neutralize XC
which depends on the length of the transmission
line.
• The coil used here is called as Peterson coil, arc
suppression coil or ground fault neutralizer.
 Resonant Grounding
• During this fault, the voltage of the faulty phase (VBN) is
applied across the suppression coil.
• Hence a current IF flows through the coil and this current lags
behind the faulty phase voltage by 900.

• By adjusting the tapping

in the coil, the fault
current IF can be made
equal to ICF

• Hence no current flows

through the fault.

• Hence arc at the fault cannot be maintained and no arcing

ground problems.
 Resonant Grounding
•• The
  inductance of the coil is determined as follows. At
resonance, XL = XC. Hence ICF and IF are made equal.

• Here XL is the inductance of the arc suppression coil. At

resonance, IF = ICF. Hence,

 
 
 Relay Terminologies
• Operating force or torque

– This is a torque which tends to close the contacts

of relay.

• Restraining force or torque

– It opposes the operating torque and tends to

prevent the closure of relay contacts.
 Relay Terminologies
• Operating or Pick-up (level)

– It is the threshold value of current or voltage

above which the relay will close its contacts.

• Drop out or Reset (level)

– It is the value of current or voltage below which

the relay will open its contacts and return to
normal position
 Relay Terminologies
• Flag or Target

– It is a device for indicating the operation of a relay

• Power Consumption (Burden)

– It is the power consumed by the relay.

– Expressed in Volt-amperes in AC
– Expressed in watts in DC
 Relay Terminologies
• Operating time
– It is the time between the moment the actuating
quantity attains equal value to the pick-up and the
instant at which the relay operates its contacts.

• Over Reach
– A relay is said to over reach when it opens trip coil
at a current which is lower than its setting.
• Under Reach
– A relay is said to under reach when it closes trip
coil at a current which is lower than its setting.
 Relay Terminologies
• Plug Setting Multiplier (P.S.M)
– It is the ratio of fault current in relay coil to its pick
up current.

• Time Setting Multiplier

– Generally a relay is provided with a control to adjust
the time of operation which is known as time
setting multiplier
– Time is adjusted from 0 to 1 sec in steps of 0.05 sec.
 Faults and Abnormal conditions
• A fault in an electrical system is defined as a defect in
its electrical circuit due to which the current is
diverted from its intended path.

• Any abnormal condition that causes a reduction in

the insulation between phase conductors or between
phase conductors and earth creates a fault.
Abnormal Conditions in AC system
 Voltage and current unbalance
 Over voltages
 Under frequency
 Temperature rise
 Instability
 Protective Relays

• It is defined as an electrical device connected

between the main circuit and CB that detects

the fault and initiate the operation of CB to

isolate the faulty portion from the healthy

parts of the system .