ADIGRAT UNIVERSITY

COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRICAL AND COMPUTER

ENGINEERING

POWER ENGINEERING STREAM

TITLE OF ASSIGNMENT: POWER SYSTEM PROTECTION AND CONTROL

COURSE CODE: ECEG4232

Prepared by:

Name ID no

1.

3.

4.

5.

6.

Submitted To: INS. TSIGE.A(MSc)

Date of Submission :17/07/2010E.C

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CIRCUIT BREAKERS
1.1 INTRODUCTION
 Electrical circuit breaker is a switching device which can be operated manually as
well as automatically for controlling and protection of electrical power system
respectively. As the modern power system deals with huge currents, the special
attention should be given during designing of circuit breaker to safe interruption of
arc produced during the operation of circuit breaker. This was the basic definition of
circuit breaker

1.2 Types of circuit breaker

 There are several methods of classification of circuit breakers. The most general way of
the rating of a circuit breaker is by the arc extinction medium. The arc extinction can easily
be done by using the different medium like air, insulator, gas, vacuum, dielectric, etc.

 By the arc extinction medium, the circuit breaker is categorized into four types. They are
the air break circuit breaker, air blast circuit breaker, Sulphur hexafluoride circuit breaker
and vacuum circuit breaker. The classification of the circuit breaker is shown in the figure
below

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 Fig; classification of circuit breaker

The circuit breaker is mainly categorized into two types.

 AC circuit breaks
 DC circuit breakers
1.2.1 AC Circuit Breaker
 The AC circuit breaker is sub-classified into two types, i.e., the low voltage circuit
breaker and the high voltage circuit breaker. The circuit breaker whose value lies
below the 1000V is known as the low voltage circuit breaker, and above 1000V it
is known as a high voltage circuit breaker
1.2.2 Types according to the medium of installation:
 Oil circuit breaker.
 Air Blast circuit breaker.
 SF6 circuit breaker.
 Vacuum circuit breaker.
 1. Oil circuit breaker.
 Oil circuit breaker is such type of circuit breaker which used oil as a dielectric or
insulating medium for arc extinction. In oil circuit breaker the contacts of the
breaker are made to separate within an insulating oil. When the fault occurs in the
system the contacts of the circuit breaker are open under the insulating oil, and an
arc is developed between them and the heat of the arc is evaporated in the
surrounding oil.

Working Principle of Oil Circuit Breaker

During the normal operating conditions, the contact of the oil circuit breaker is closed and
carry the current. When the fault occurs in the system, the contacts of the breaker are
moving apart, and an arc is struck between the contacts.

Due to this arc, a large amount of heat is liberated, and a very high temperature is reached
which vaporizes the surrounding oil into gas. The gas, thus liberated surrounds the arc and
its explosive growth around it displace the oil violently. The arc is extinguished when the
distance between the fixed and moving contact reaches a certain critical value, depends on
the arc current and recovery voltage

The oil circuit breaker is very reliable in operation, and it is very cheap. The most important
feature of oil circuit breaker is that no special devices are used for controlling the arc caused
by moving contact

2. Air Blast circuit breaker.

 Air blast circuit breakers employ a high-pressure air blast as an arc quenching
medium. Under normal condition the contacts are closed. When a fault occurs, contacts are
opened and an arc is struck between the them. The opening of contacts is done by a flow
of air blast established by the opening of blast valve (located between air reservoir and
arcing chamber). The air blast cools the arc and sweeps away the arching products in to the
atmosphere. Thus, the dielectric strength of the medium is increased, prevents from re-
establishing the arc. The arc gets extinguished and flow of current is interrupted. The circuit
breakers are classified on the basis the direction of air blast to the arc. They are classified
into
1. Axial Blast Type - air blast is directed along the arc path.
2. Cross Blast Type - air blast is directed at right angles to the arc path.
3. Radial Blast Type - air blast is directed radially.
In air break circuit breaker the arc is initiated and extinguish in substantially static air in which the
arc moves. Such breakers are used for low voltages, generally up to 15KV and rupturing capacities
of 500MVA

Working Principle Air Break Circuit Breaker

When the fault occurs, the main contacts are separate first, and the current is shifted to the
arcing contacts. Now the arcing contacts are separate, and the arc is drawn between them.
This arc is forced upwards by the electromagnetic forces and thermal action. The arc ends
travel along the arc runner. The arc moves upward and is split by the arc splitter plates. The
arc is extinguished by lengthening, cooling, splitting, etc.

3. Sulphur Hexafluoride (SF6) circuit breaker.

 In SF6 Circuit Breakers, Sulphur hex fluoride gas (SF6) is used as the arc
quenching medium. The Sulphur hex fluoride gas (SF6) is an electronegative gas
and has a strong tendency to absorb free electrons. The contacts of the breaker are
opened in a high-pressure flow of Sulphur hex fluoride (SF6) gas and an arc is
 struck between them. The gas captures the conducting free electrons in the art
form relatively immobile negative ions.
This loss of conducting electrons in the arc quickly builds up enough insulation
strength to extinguish the arc. The Sulphur hex fluoride (SF6) circuit breakers
have been found to be very effective for high power and high voltage service.
 A circuit breaker in which SF6 under pressure gas is used to extinguish the arc is called
SF6 circuit breaker. SF6 (Sulphur hexafluoride) gas has excellent dielectric, arc quenching,
chemical and other physical properties which have proved its superiority over other arc
quenching mediums such as oil or air

Working Principle of SF6 Circuit Breaker

In the normal operating conditions, the contacts of the breaker are closed. When the fault occurs
in the system, the contacts are pulled apart, and an arc is struck between them. The displacement
of the moving contacts is synchronized with the valve which enters the high-pressure SF6 gas in
the arc interrupting chamber at a pressure of about 16kg/cm^2.

The SF6 gas absorbs the free electrons in the arc path and forms ions which do not act as a charge
carrier. These ions increase the dielectric strength of the gas and hence the arc is extinguished.
This process reduces the pressure of the SF6 gas up to 3kg/cm^2 thus; it is stored in the low-
pressure reservoir. This low-pressure gas is pulled back to the high-pressure reservoir for re-use.

Now a day puffer piston pressure is used for generating arc quenching pressure during an
opening operation by mean of a piston attached to the moving contacts

4. Vacuum circuit breaker.

 In vacuum circuit breakers, vacuum is used as the arc quenching medium. Vacuum offers
the highest insulating strength. so, it has far superior arc quenching properties than any
other medium.

For example, when contacts of a breaker are opened in vacuum, the interruption occurs at first
current zero with dielectric strength between the contacts building up at a rate thousands of times
higher than that obtained with other circuit breakers.

The technology is suitable for mainly medium voltage application. For higher voltage vacuum
technology has been developed but not commercially viable.

A breaker which used vacuum as an arc extinction medium is called a vacuum circuit breaker. In
this circuit breaker, the fixed and moving contact is enclosed in a permanently sealed vacuum
interrupter. The arc is extinct as the contacts are separated in high vacuum. It is mainly used for
medium voltage ranging from 11 KV to 33 KV
Working principles of Vacuum Circuit Breaker
When the fault occurs in the system, the contacts of the breaker are moved apart and hence the arc
is developed between them. When the current carrying contacts are pulled apart, the temperature
of their connecting parts is very high due to which ionization occurs. Due to the ionization, the
contact space is filled with vapor of positive ions which is discharged from the contact material.

The density of vapor depends on the current in the arcing. Due to the decreasing mode of current
wave their rate of release of vapor fall and after the current zero, the medium regains its dielectric
strength provided vapor density around the contacts reduced. Hence, the arc does not restrike again
because the metal vapor is quickly removed from the contact zone.

2). HVDC Circuit Breaker

 The HVDC circuit breaker is a switching device that interrupts the flow of abnormal direct
current in the circuit. When the fault occurs in the system, the mechanical contacts of the
circuit breaker are pulled apart and thus their circuit is open. In HVDC circuit breaker,
 circuit breaking is difficult because the current flow through it is unidirectional and there
is no zero current.

 The main application of the HVDC circuit breaker is to interrupt the high voltage direct
current flows in the network. AC circuit breaker easily interrupts the arc at natural current
zero in the AC wave. At zero current, the energy to be interrupted is also zero. The contact
gap has to recover the dielectric strength to withstand natural transient recovery voltage.
With DC circuit breakers, the problem is more complex as the DC waveform does not have
natural current zeros. Forced arc interruption would produce high transient recovery
voltage and restrike without arc interruption and ultimate destruction of the breaker
contacts. In designing of HVDC circuit breakers, there are three main problems to be
overcome. These problems are
 Creation of artificial current zero.
 Prevention of restrikes arc.
 Dissipation of stored energy

 The artificial current zero principles are used in HVDC circuit breakers for arc
extinction. By introducing a parallel L-C circuit, the arc current is subjected to
oscillations. These oscillations are severe and have several artificial current zeros.
The breaker extinguishes the arc at one of the artificial current zeros. The crest
current of the oscillation must be greater than the direct current to be interrupted.

 A series resonant circuit with L and C is connected across the main contact M of a
conventional DC circuit breaker through an auxiliary contact S1, and resistor R is
connected through contact S2. Under normal operating conditions, main contact M
and charging contact S2 remain closed, and the capacitor C is charged to line voltage
through the high resistance R. Contact S1is open and has line voltage across it
For interrupting main circuit current Id, the operating mechanism open contact S2 and closes
contact S1. This indicates discharge of capacitor C through inductance L, main contact M
and auxiliary contact S1 setting up an oscillatory current shown in the figure below. Thus,
artificial current zeros are created, and the circuit breaker main contact M is opened at a
current zero. After that, contact S1 is opened, and contact S2 is closed.
Another way of interrupting the main direct current is by its diversion to the capacitor so that the
magnitude of current to be interrupted by the circuit breakers becomes smaller. This is shown in
the figure below. The capacitor C is initially uncharged.

 When the main contact M opens, the main circuit current is diverted to the capacitor C.
Thus, the current to be interrupted by the main contacts M becomes smaller. The nonlinear
resistor R absorbs energy without greatly adding to the voltage across the main contact M.

The rate of rising of the recovery voltage across M is expressed as

The problem of prevention of restrikes is very intense in oscillating current DC circuit breakers
where the time in which the current is chopped is very small. Thus, the steep surge of the restriping
voltage across breaker terminals is produced, and the circuit breaker must be capable of
withstanding this voltage

APPLICATION OF CICUIT BREAKER IN COORDINATION WITH RELAYS

 Detects and isolates faults on transmission and distribution lines by opening and closing
circuit breakers
 Isolating the controlling circuit from controlled circuit when the two are at different
potential
 It is applicable in logic function
 It is applicable in delay function
 Controls high voltage circuits with the help of low voltage signals

2. Instrument transformers
 an instrument transformer is a device used to reduce the current or the voltage values
in to values can handled by other equipment’s.
 Is a device to transform the power system current and voltage to lower magnitudes,
and provide an isolation between the power network and the relay and other
instruments connected to the transformer secondary winding
 These are special types of transformers used for the measurement of voltage, current,
power & energy.

Why instrument transformer is needed?

 To reduce the voltage or current into values that other equipment can handle it.
 To isolate the equipment’s from the power network (i.e. we need more insulation)
 To provide possibilities of a standardization of instruments and relays to a few rated
currents and voltages.
 For isolating the protection, control & measurement equipment from the high voltage
Supplying the equipment with the appropriate values of current and voltage
 Supplying the equipment with the appropriate values of current and voltage

2.1 Types of instrument transformer

they are basically two types of two types

current transformer

potential transformer

2.1.1. current transformer

They generally used to step down current in a very predictable fashion with respect to
current and phase the current (or series)
transformer has a primary coil of one or more turns of thick wire connected in series with
the line whose current is to be measured.
The secondary consists of a large number of turns of fine wire & is connected across the
ammeter terminals

Working principles of current transformer

The alternating current in the primary produces an alternating
magnetic field in the core, which then induces an alternating
current in the secondary. The primary circuit is largely
unaffected by the insertion of the CT

Accurate current transformers need close coupling between the

primary and secondary to ensure that the secondary current is proportional to the primary
current over a wide current range. The current in the secondary is the current in the primary
(assuming a single turn primary) divided by the number of turns of the secondary. The
conductor carrying the primary current is then passed through the ring; the CT's primary
therefore consists of a single 'turn'. The primary 'winding' may be a permanent part of the
current transformer, with a heavy copper bar to carry current
through the core.
 current transformer grounding

the grounding of CTs is important to both the safety and the correct operating of

protective relays

to assure safe and reliable operation, the neutral of the CT secondary should have a

single ground location for each circuit

 Point to note about CT

 Primary current depends on load, but not on the burden Current coil of
Wattmeter or Ammeter is connected across the terminal of the secondary or
Relay
 Secondary operates near short circuit
conditions
 One of the terminal of CT secondary
winding is earthed
2.2. voltage transformer

 Voltage transformer is also known as potential transformer

 Voltage transformer is a device used to decrease the network voltage in to values can be
handled by other equipment’s.
 voltage transformer decreases secondary voltage and rise the current.
 It is always connected in parallel to the transmission line.
 It’s secondary winding is very low with respect to
the primary.
Working principle voltage transformers
The potential transformer works along the same principle of other transformers i.e. When
an alternating magnetic field is applied to magnetic material an emf is induced in the
material itself according to faraday’s law of electromagnetic induction, the induced
voltage is then induce current or flux in primary winding, then the flux links both primary
and secondary winding and also the flux induces voltage in secondary winding then
voltage transformer converts voltages from high to low. e=-N 𝑑𝑥 (flux)/ 𝑑𝑡.
It will take the thousands of volts behind power transmission systems and step the voltage
down to something that meters can handle. These transformers work for single and three
phases systems and are attached at a point where it is convenient to measure the voltage.

Point to note about potential transformer

 secondary is connected voltmeter or potential coil of the wattmeter or relay

 design is similar to power transformer, but potential transformer is lightly loaded

 secondary is rated for 110v

 should not be short circuited

Application Instrument transformers are ideally suited in the

following applications:
Indoor
Switchgear assemblies
Motor controllers
Over power transformer bushings
Over circuit breaker bushing
Metering
Relaying
Current sensing
 Errors in the instrument transformer

 for an instrument transformer, it is necessary that the transformer ratio must be exactly equal to turns

ratio and phase of the secondary terms (voltage and current). two types of errors affect these

characteristics of an instrument transformer which are

 ratio error

 phase angle error

Ratio error

In practice it is that current transformation ratio I2/I1 is equal to the ratio N2/N1. but actually, it is not so. the

current ratio is not equal to turns ratio because of magnetizing and core loss components of the exciting

current. it also gets affected due to the secondary currents and its power factor. the load current is not a

constant fraction of the primary current. similarly, in case of potential transformer, the voltage ratio V2/V1 is

also not exactly equal to N2/N1 due to the factors mentioned above. thus, the transformation ratio is not

constant but depends on the load current, power factor of load and exciting current of the transformer. due to

this fact, large error is introduced in the measurements done by the instrument transformers such an error is

called ratio error. ratio error is defined as

𝑛𝑜𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜−𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑢𝑎𝑙 𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜

%Ratio 𝑒𝑟𝑟𝑜𝑟 = 𝑥100%d as
𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑢𝑎𝑙 𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜
 𝐾𝑛 − 𝑅
%Ratio 𝑒𝑟𝑟𝑜𝑟 = 𝑥100
𝑅
where,

𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑝𝑟𝑖𝑚𝑎𝑟𝑦 𝑐𝑢𝑟𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑡

𝐾𝑛 = … … . 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑐. 𝑡.
𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑠𝑒𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑑𝑎𝑟𝑦 𝑐𝑢𝑟𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑡

𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑝𝑟𝑖𝑚𝑎𝑟𝑦 𝑣𝑜𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑎𝑔𝑒

= … … . 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑝. 𝑡.
𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑠𝑒𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑑𝑎𝑟𝑦 𝑣𝑜𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑎𝑔𝑒

𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑢𝑎𝑙 𝑝𝑟𝑖𝑚𝑎𝑟𝑦 𝑣𝑜𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑎𝑔𝑒

𝑅= … … . 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑝. 𝑡
𝑐𝑜𝑟𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑝𝑜𝑛𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑠𝑒𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑑𝑎𝑟𝑦 𝑣𝑜𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑎𝑔𝑒

𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑢𝑎𝑙 𝑝𝑟𝑖𝑚𝑎𝑟𝑦 𝑐𝑢𝑟𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑡

= … … . 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑝. 𝑡.
𝑐𝑜𝑟𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑝𝑜𝑛𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑠𝑒𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑑𝑎𝑟𝑦 𝑣𝑜𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑎𝑔𝑒