FEROZE GANDHI UNCHAHAR THERMAL POWER PROJECT

VOCATIONAL TRAINING
REPORT
HT SWITCHGEAR & DC SYSTEM
SUDHANSHU TRIPATHI & MAHARSH MISHRA

2012

UNCHAHAR RAE BARELI,UP

 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I am very grateful and thankful to all those who were a part of this project on HT
Switchgear and DC System and helped me towards its smooth and efficient
completion. I feel especially thankful to Mr.A.K.Sharma, Mr.M.Z.A.Siddique, Mr.
K.M. Gupta, and Ms. Megha Bharadwaj to name a few for their helpful contribution
and knowledge without which my project would not be a reality.

SUDHANSHU & MAHARSH

B.Tech 3rd year
Electrical Engg.
SHIATS, Allahabad
H.T. Switchgear
In an electric power system, switchgear is the combination of electrical disconnects
switches, fuses or circuit breakers used to control, protect and isolate electrical
equipment. Switchgear is used both to de-energize equipment to allow work to be
done and to clear faults downstream. This type of equipment is important because it
is directly linked to the reliability of the electricity supply.

Operating voltage is 6.6 kV. Used for the protection of the equipments operating at
6.6 kV.

Requirement of circuit breaker:

 After occurrence of fault the switchgears must isolate the faulty circuit as
quickly as possible i.e. keeping the delay to minimum.

Basic principal of operation of circuit breaker:

Circuit breaker consists of a fixed contact, moving contact, operating mechanism &
spring charging mechanism with motor. The moving contacts of breaker are attached
with operating rod to operate the breaker with the help of mechanism. In the
breaker one is closing coil for closing the breaker & another one is trip coil for
tripping the breaker.

Type of breaker- it is classified according to the arc quenching medium have used-

 MOCB (Minimum oil circuit breaker)

 SF6 (Sulphur hexafluoride circuit breaker)

 Vacuum Circuit Breaker

 Air circuit Breaker

  MOCB (Minimum oil circuit breaker)
In this type of circuit breaker the arc interrupting device is enclosed in a tank of
insulating material which as a whole is at live potential of system. This chamber is
called arcing chamber or interrupting pot. The gas pressure developed in the
arcing chamber depends upon the current to be interrupted. Higher the current
to be interrupted causes larger the gas pressure developed inside the chamber,
hence better the arc quenching. But this put a limit on the design of the arc
chamber for mechanical stresses. With use of better insulating materials for the
arcing chambers such as glass fiber, reinforced synthetic resin etc, the minimum
oil circuit breaker are able to meet easily the increased fault levels of the system.

Minimum oil circuit breaker

 Working Principle or Arc quenching in minimum oil circuit breaker

In a minimum oil circuit breaker, the arc drawn across the current carrying
contacts is contained inside the arcing chamber. Hence the hydrogen bubble
formed by the vaporized oil is trapped inside the chamber. As the contacts
continue to move, after its certain travel an exit vent becomes available for
exhausting the trapped hydrogen gas. There are two different types of arcing
chamber is available in terms of venting are provided in the arcing chambers. One
is axial venting and other is radial venting. In axial venting, gases (mostly
Hydrogen), produced due to vaporization of oil and decomposition of oil during
arc, will sweep the arc in axial or longitudinal direction.
The moving contact has just
been separated and arc is
initiated in MOCB.

The ionized gas around the arc

sweep away through upper vent
and cold oil enters into the
arcing chamber through the
lower vent in axial direction as
soon as the moving contact tip
crosses the lower vent opening
and final arc quenching in
minimum oil circuit
breakeroccurs

The cold oil occupies the gap

between fixed contact and
moving contact and the
minimum oil circuit breaker
finally comes into open position.
Whereas in case of radial venting or cross blast, the gases (mostly Hydrogen) sweep the arc
in radial or transverse direction

The axial venting generates high gas pressure and hence has high dielectric strength,
so it is mainly used for interrupting low current at high voltage. On the other hand
radial venting produces relatively low gas pressure and hence low dielectric strength
so it can be used for low voltage and high current interruption. Many times the
combination of both is used in minimum oil circuit breaker so that the chamber is
equally efficient to interrupt low current as well as high current. These types of circuit
breaker are available up to 8000 MVA at 245 KV.

 SF6 (Sulphur hexafluoride circuit breaker)

Sulphur Hexafluoride (SF6) is an excellent gaseous dielectric for high

voltage power applications. It has been used extensively in high voltage
circuit breakers and other switchgears employed by the power industry.
Applications for SF6 include gas insulated transmission lines and gas
insulated power distributions. The combined electrical, physical, chemical
and thermal properties offer many advantages when used in power
switchgears. Some of the outstanding properties of SF6 making it desirable
to use in power applications are:
  High dielectric strength

 Unique arc-quenching ability

 Excellent thermal stability

 Good thermal conductivity

Operation of SF-6 Circuit Breaker:

In general, the circuit breakers consist of two main parts, the poles and the
mechanism. The poles consist of contact and arc-extinguishing devices. The
mechanism is the part to open or close the contacts in the poles at the same time
instantaneously (with max. 5 millisecond. Tolerance). The closing and opening
procedures are performed through springs which are charged by a servomotor and a
driving lever. In the system, the closing springs are first charged.
If "close" button is pressed the opening springs get charged while the contacts get
closed. Thus, circuit breaker will be ready for opening. The mechanical operating
cycle of the circuit breaker is (OPEN-3 Min CLOSE/OPEN-3 Min- CLOSE/OPEN) or
(OPEN-0.3 sec-CLOSE/OPEN-3 Min CLOSE/OPEN). The second cycle is valid when the
circuit breaker is used with re-closing relay. In that case, after the closing operation,
the closing springs are charged by the driving lever or by driving motor (if equipped).
Thus, the circuit breaker will be ready for opening and re-closing.

SF6 circuit breakers

  Vacuum Circuit Breaker:

Vacuum interrupters became commercially available in the early 1970’s. The vacuum
bottle is sealed for life and cannot be maintained and is capable of more fault
interruptions than would be seen during the life of the switchgear without wearing
out. The dielectric strength of the high vacuum is such that a contact travel of only
6mm can be used at a rated voltage of 12kV.

Vacuum Circuit Breaker

The various switchgears which are currently in use at NTPC Unchahar are:

Stage 1(unit 1 &2): M/S Jyoti Ltd. The switchgear has Minimum Oil type Circuit
Breaker (MOCB) and Electromechanical type of relays. Recently changed to SF-6 CB
and numerical relays with SCADA system of M/S ABB ltd.
Stage 2(unit 3&4): M/S Voltas Ltd. have SF-6 circuit breakers and electromechanical
relays-
The various equipments protected by the HT switchgear are as follows:

1. Bowl Mill (340 kW)

2. Force Draft Fan (750 kW)

3. Induced draft fan (1300 kW)

4. Unit Auxiliary Transformer TUC-1 (1000 kVA)

5. Spare Transformer Feeder (1000 kVA)

6. CEP (500 kW)

7. Boiler Feed Pump (3500 kW)

8. Reserve Supply from SA-1

9. Primary Air fan (1250 kW)

10. Earthing Transformer

11. Standby BFP

The main Incoming from Unit Auxiliary Transformer UAT-1A (6576 Volts L-L, 416.9 A,
0.857 pf lagging)
Metal Clad Switchgear:

Inside of a cell of metal-clad switchgear, there are different and separate

compartments used to segregate different components and functions from one
another, to improve reliability and improve safety. Each compartment is separated
by a grounded metal barrier. Standard compartments are low voltage, circuit
breaker, main bus and cable, with other compartments possible as the design
demands.

Control Incoming
Panel Bus Bar
Chamber

HT
breaker
Outgoing
Relays:

A relay is an electrically operated switch. Many relays use an electromagnet to

operate a switching mechanism mechanically, but other operating principles are also
used. Relays are used where it is necessary to control a circuit by a low-power signal
(with complete electrical isolation between control and controlled circuits), or where
several circuits must be controlled by one signal.

The following relays are used in the protection of the equipments:

Under/Over Voltage Relay: The under/over voltage relay used for detection of
under voltage (or loss of voltage) or over voltage in the AC system.
Relay is used for over voltage protection and supervision in distribution systems.
Relay is also
Used for overvoltage / under voltage protection of Generators, Motors and
Transformers. Operating voltage level and time delay can be set with the
potentiometer on the front-panel of the relay. The product of the potentiometer
setting and multiplier (marked) is the set operate time for relay.

Supervision relay: Trip Circuit Supervision relay has been designed as a simple and
cost effective device for monitoring the condition of the trip circuit supply, trip circuit
wiring and circuit breaker operate coil continuity.

Control relay: A control relay is an electromechanical device which activates one or

more switches according to the current through a coil not connected to the switches.

Definite Time Over current Relay: This type of relay is used to protect the
equipments from the large short circuit currents that may flow through them during
a fault. This may damage the costly equipments. The definite time over current relay
trips after a definite amount of time when the fault current flows through it.

Motor Protection Relay: The combination of all the types of relays.

Switchgear testing:

Switchgear is often inspected using thermal imaging to assess the state of the system
and predict failures before they occur. Other methods include partial discharge (PD)
testing, using either fixed or portable testers, and acoustic emission testing using
surface-mounted transducers (for oil equipment) or ultrasonic detectors used in
outdoor switchyards. SF6 equipment is invariably fitted with alarms and interlocks to
warn of loss of pressure, and to prevent operation if the pressure falls too low.
DC system
The 220V DC system supplies direct current as source of operating power for control,
signalling, relays, tripping and closing of switchgears, emergency motors of most
important auxiliary systems. Under normal conditions of station generation, the
storage battery units are kept floating in DC bus bars by means of the trickle chargers
(also known as float chargers). The trickle chargers of each battery unit, which is a
rectifier with AC input, is normally made to take all DC requirements of the power
station without allowing the battery to discharge. This is achieved by maintaining the
DC output voltage of trickle charger a few volts higher than the voltage of the
battery.

With this, the trickle charger besides meeting all the DC requirements of the power
station, supplies a few hundred milliamps of direct current to the battery to
compensate the loss in the capacity of the battery due to action between the plates
of the cell. With this arrangement, the battery remains connected to the DC bus bars
as a standby supply source and immediately supplies the DC load in the vent of
temporary failure of complete AC system.

The complete AC power system failure in a power station is known as emergency

situation. DC battery units are designed to supply station DC loads for an emergency
period of one hour. The tickle charger normally supplies the station DC load and the
momentary loads will also be catered for by the trickle charger and if such a load is
more than its capacity, the battery being in parallel with the trickle charger will
supply the excessive load. The trickle charger will normally be kept operating at
around 115×2.15 V ie 247 volts. In case of AC mains failure the full battery of 115
cells will supply the load ie 230 volts. If the emergency lasts for one hour with an
appropriate load of 450 Amps, then battery will supply the load for one hour when
its end voltage will drop down to 1.75 volts per cell ie 201 volts.

After the emergency when the quick charger is closed the full battery will receive a
boost charge and at the same time only the voltage of 98 cells will appear across the
load.

If a second emergency occurs during quick charging, then immediately all the 115
cells are connected to the bus by closing the switch meant for the purpose. During
routine daily testing of emergency DC motors connected to main distribution board
middle section, supply has to be taken from the quick charger and the middle section
has to be kept isolated from the left and right sections of main distribution board.
This is to test the quick charger.

Types of battery being used:

1. Lead-acid battery tubular

2. Lead-acid battery plaint

3. Ni-Cd battery

Sources of AC power

Two sources of AC power have been provided for both quick charger and trickle
charger, one is the normal source and other is standby. AC power supply to the
chargers is through transformers having off-loaded tap changing arrangement. An AC
voltage-signalling relay communicates; ‘AC voltage low’ when the supply voltage
becomes low.

Voltage level indicating device

A voltage level indicating device in MDB gives audio and visual annunciation when
the DC bus voltage changes beyond set low (180-210) and high limits (240-270).

AVR

The DC voltage is maintained at desired value automatically by means of AVR unit

provided at panel board.

Insulation monitoring device

This device annunciates when the insulation resistance of either positive bus to earth
or negative bus to earth falls below 20 kilo ohms and also when the ratio of
insulation resistance of positive bus to earth to negative bus to earth is 1.5 or above.

Float Cum Boost charger:

Float charging: Float charging of a battery involves charging the battery at a
reduced voltage. This reduced voltage reduces the possibility of overcharging.
The Float charger ensures that the battery is always in the charged condition and is
therefore considered "floating". The Float charger starts by applying a charging
voltage to the battery. As the battery gets charged, its charging current reduces
gradually. The float charger senses the reduction in charging current and reduces
the charging voltage. Float charging is Constant Voltage charging.

If the battery gets drained, the float charger will again increase the
charging voltage and process continues. Float chargers can be connected indefinitely
to the batteries.

Boost Charging: Boost charging involves a high current for short period of time to
charge the battery. It is generally if the battery has been discharged heavily. Boost
charge enables the quick charging of depleted batteries. Boost charging is constant
current charging.

For instance, a two volt lead acid battery which has been discharged will initially be
boost charged with a charging voltage of around 2.35-2.4 volts. However, as the
battery voltage rises, the charger will switch over to the float charge mode with a
float voltage of 2.25 volts.

GENERAL DESCRIPTION

The Float cum Booster charger:

Battery Charging equipment is manufactured according to IS standards both in

construction and performance wise. The charging equipment is designed to supply
required DC current to recharge the battery and also supply the constant DC load of
the system. Battery chargers are micro controller based design with thyristor power
devices. The chargers provide regulated DC output continuously from an AC source.
The charger maintains the battery on float voltage on completion of charging.

The batteries will be charged in float mode between 1.75V to 2.4V and in boost
mode 1.88V to 2.66V. The charger is capable of automatically switching from float
mode to boost mode and boost mode to float mode depending on the current drawn
by the battery. The rectifier transformer & chokes are dry type and air-cooled with
class F insulation. Mains isolation/protection is provided through MCB and contactor.
Suitable fuses are also provided in the mains and rectifier side. All meters, control
switches, indication lamps, ON/OFF switches are mounted on the hinged front door.
The charger cubicle is made out of sheet steel and angle iron frame fabrication. The
enclosure is dust and vermin proof self standing, floor mounting type with bottom
cable entry through removable gland plates. The components housed inside the
panel are accessed by opening front and back door.
The Battery charger at Unchahar:
Protection: Various relays are used to protect the float cum booster charger and the
batteries. Some of them are listed below:

1. DC Earth fault relay

2. Instantaneous Under voltage relay ( setting at 220 V, drop out voltage 176V)
3. Overvoltage Relay (setting at 242 V DC)
4. Auxiliary Relay
5. Control Relay
 Conclusion
On completion of my vocational training at NTPC Feroze Gandhi Unchahar
Thermal Power Project, I have come to know about the protection schemes of the
equipments at the plants. I came to know about the Switchgears and the DC system of
the power plant. The training gave me an opportunity to clear my concepts from
practical point of view with the availability of machinery of diverse ratings.