A

switchgear is a device or a combination of devices, primarily intended for the purpose

of making, carrying and breaking currents in electric circuits, during normal conditions as
well as during abnormal situations. Thus, in the event of an abnormality as that of a fault,
detection and timely isolation of the faulty portion of the network is the most important
function of any switchgear. So, in a switchgear installation, the trip circuit is very crucial.
What is the use, even if an installation has 'world-class' protection relays, auxiliary relays and
even 'world-class' switchgear, if the circuit breaker trip coil is faulty and/or the wiring is loose
and/or the power supply to the circuit breaker trip circuit is interrupted?
In the event that the trip circuit becomes unhealthy, either the fault remains unisolated,
leading to catastrophic damages, or leads to the tripping of an upstream switching device,
thereby causing unwanted power outage in a larger portion of the network.
The trip circuit of a switchgear may include the main protection relay, the master trip relay,
relay contacts, switchgear auxiliary contacts, fuses, links, wiring, terminal blocks etc. With so
many components, the probability of the trip circuit becoming unhealthy is quite high. Thus,
it calls for a system to monitor the integrity of the trip circuit. This is known as Trip Circuit
Supervision (TCS).
Principle of operation
The trip circuit supervision, in its simplest form, may consist of a 'Trip Circuit Healthy
(TCH)' indication lamp, as shown in the figure below. To avoid any unwanted tripping of the
breaker, in the event of any short circuit in the lamp, a series resistor (R) is added in the
circuit.
This arrangement offers trip circuit supervision only when the breaker is in ON condition.

Trip circuit supervision scheme, when the circuit breaker is closed...

By incorporating a simple modification, the trip circuit supervision facility can be extended to
the breaker OFF status also, as shown below:

TCS Scheme, when the circuit breaker is open or closed...

In both the above cases, the trip circuit supervision is continuous. Since this is only a local
lamp indication for the trip circuit healthiness, an operator has to continuously be monitoring
the glowing of the TCH lamp. This is not practically possible. Also, such a continuous
supervision of the trip circuit, with resistors in the circuit, might lead to unnecessary drain on
the sub-station battery capacity.
Hence, the circuit can be modified such that the trip circuit healthiness can be checked only
'on demand.' This is made possible by the addition of a 'Trip Circuit Healthy Check (TCH)'
push button, with a normally open (N.O.) contact configuration. This is shown below:

Modified circuit with the TCH push button...

But, the problem with the above scheme is that the scheme would give only a local
indication. Thus, it is suitable only for manned switchgear installations. Also, the operator has
to check the healthiness of the trip circuit, regularly, by pressing the 'TCH Push Button' and
ensuring that the TCH lamp glows, while doing so. If there is any dereliction of duty on the
part of the operator, then even when the trip circuit is faulty, the alarming situation will not
come to the notice of the concerned personnel at all.
I have witnessed a couple of cases, where in such installations (as above) with a 'TCH Check
Push Button and a TCS Lamp,' there has been catastrophic failure of critical equipment in the
installation, due to operator's negligence. That is, there were failures of trip coils of important
breakers in the installation, but this did not come to the notice of any one, as no one had been
following the practice to check the healthiness of the trip circuit regularly, by pressing the
TCH button.

Trip Circuit Supervision (TCS) relay...

To avoid such an eventuality and also to have a remote alarm for failure of the trip circuit
healthiness, a Trip Circuit Supervision Relay can be used.
Refer to the scheme below:

Trip circuit supervision scheme (with remote alarm), when the circuit breaker is open or
closed...

In the above arrangement, when the breaker is ON, and if the trip circuit is healthy, the
current path will be:
+ ve, Fuse, R, Coil A of the TCS relay, 52a contact, Trip Coil (TC), Link & -ve.

Coil A of the TCS relay will energise and the normally open (N.O.) contact of this coil, wired
in the path of Coil C of the TCS relay, will close. Thus, Coil C of the TCS relay will energise
and open its normally closed (N.C.) contact that may be wired to the Trip Circuit Failure
Alarm.
And, when the breaker is OFF, and if the trip circuit is healthy, the current path will be:
+ ve, Fuse, R, Coil A of the TCS relay, R, Coil B of the TCS relay, Trip Coil (TC), Link
& -ve.
Now, both Coil A & Coil B of the TCS Relay will energise and the normally open (N.O.)
contacts of these two coils wired in the path of Coil C of the TCS relay, will close. Thus, Coil
C of the TCS relay will energise and open its normally closed (N.C.) contact that may be
wired to the Trip Circuit Failure Alarm.
Thus, when the trip circuit is healthy, no trip circuit failure alarm will be initiated. When the
trip circuit is unhealthy, whether the breaker is in ON condition or in OFF condition, an alarm
will be initiated.
Again, to avoid any unwanted tripping in the event of an inadvertent short circuit in any of
the trip circuit supervision circuit components, resistors are added in series with coils A & B.
Generally, these resistors are mounted separately, external to the relay. A very important point
to note is that the trip circuit failure alarm supply should be independent of the tripping
supply so that the trip circuit failure indication/alarm will be obtained, even in the case of
failure of the tripping supply.
Such Trip Circuit Supervision (TCS) relays are intended for a continuous supervision of
circuit breaker trip circuit, and to give an alarm for loss of auxiliary supply, faults on the tripcoil or its wires independent of the breaker position, faults on the breaker auxiliary contacts
and faults in the supervision relay itself.