UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY

SCHOOL OF ELECTRICAL AND INFORMATION ENGINEERING

ELEC 5204 POWER SYSTEMS

Review Questions 1 Answers

Q1. What are the main functions of power protection systems? Refer to Slide#4 Part A

Q2. Which of these conditions should a well-designed power protection system operate?

A short circuit between two wires in a transmission line? Yes

A short circuit in the cable supplying a motor in a customer’s premises? Yes

A short circuit in the motor in the above? Not specifically; a short in a large motor will
operate the power system protection

An overload caused by excessive mechanical load on the motor in the above? No

An open circuit in the wiring of a customer’s premises? No

An open circuit inside one phase of the windings in a power transformer? Yes

A short circuit in an instrument transformer at a substation? No

Failure of the steam turbine driving an alternator in a major power station? Yes

Electric shock caused by a person getting too close to power lines? No, unless it causes a
short-circuit

Q3. Name the main steps in the design of a power system protection scheme. Refer to Slide#5 Part A

Q4. What is the purpose of a network short-circuit study at the beginning of a power system
protection scheme design? To determine the maximum and minimum fault currents the system has to
cater for, both for switchgear ratings choice and protection system settings.

Q5. Name some of the hazards associated with a power system short-circuit. Refer to Slides#13, 14
Part A

Q6. A single-phase to earth short circuit occurs on the LV terminal of a delta-star 3-phase
transformer. Why is this fault level higher than if a 3-phase fault were to occur? Because the zero
sequence impedance at the LV terminals is less than the positive and negative (equal only to
transformer leakage reactance).

Q7. A 10kV 3-phase network has a fault level of 173.2 MVA. What is the short-circuit current? The
short –circuit current = 173.2 E+6/(sqrt(3)*10E+3) = 10 kA/phase.

Q8. Name the most common form of power system short circuit. Single-phase to earth (~90%)
Q9. Name the four main desirable features of protection systems. Reliability, Sensitivity, selectivity,
speed.

Q10. What is the difference between “selectivity” and “sensitivity” of a protection scheme?
Selectivity means detecting and isolating the barest minimum of the system around the faulted point,
leaving a much healthy parts in service as possible. Sensitivity means the detection of the smallest
true faulted condition as possible, without falsely tripping out under normal but temporary conditions
such as inrush currents, etc.
 UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY

SCHOOL OF ELECTRICAL AND INFORMATION ENGINEERING

ELEC 5204 POWER SYSTEMS

Review Questions 2 Answers

Q1. Name typical types of switchgear. Which switchgear types can only open short-circuit currents?
Refer slide #44, Part A

Q2. Where would you expect to see air-blast CBs? HV transmission substations (>+132kV), SF6
CBs? Whole range of voltages, from about 22kV and upward Vacuum CBs? On MV (3.3kV-12
kV), Compact air CBs? Low voltage to 1100 V

Q3. What is the function of a switch-fuse unit? Economic way to combine functions of load switch
and fuse. Why is both a switch and fuse used? The switch cannot open short-circuit currents. The
fuse does this. The switch is tripped by the fuse for a single-phase fault to clear all 3 phases.

Q4. . List the advantages and disadvantages of vacuum versus SF6 switchgear. Refer slide #51, Part A

Q5. What are the functions of protection relays and circuit breakers, in terms of fault detection and
fault clearance? The relays detect the faulty conditions; the CB is tripped by the relay and breaks the
short-circuit current.

Q6. A circuit-breaker has the following specification: rated voltage 12 kV, rated current 630 Amps,
rated making current 23 kA, rated breaking current 19 kA. Explain what this means. Can be used on
systems of nominal voltage 12 KV; full load continuous carrying current rating = 600 A; can close
onto a fault of 23 kA (assuming some other device upstream can interrupt it); can break a fault current
of 19 kA. Could this switchgear handle a fault level of 400 MVA at 11kV? 400 MVA at 11kV =
400+E6/(sqrt(3)*11E+6) = 21 kA. Its rated breaking current is 19 kA, so it could not handle 400
MVA.

Q7. Explain pre-arcing time, arcing time and clearance time for a fuse. Refer slides #60, 61, Part A

Q8. What is the difference between “fast acting” and “slow acting” fuses? What determines their
choice? Basically, the operation time, especially for high currents. Choice depends on grading with
upstream devices and the thermal I2t characteristic of the equipment being protected.

Q9. What is meant by the “I2t” let-through capability of a device? What would determine this? The
thermal (heating) characteristics of the device.

Q10. Why is silica sand used in HRC fuses? To cool the arc and then melt and form a glass-like
substance that fills the fuse and opens the circuit. Refer slides #64, 65 Part A.

Q11. Why does an AC fuse have less interruption capability if used on DC? Because AC is easier to
interrupt (natural current zero crossings).

Q12. What is meant by “fully offset DC switching transient”? The AC is offset by its peak value,
caused by inductance in the circuit (see waveshape in slide #60, Part A).
 UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY

SCHOOL OF ELECTRICAL AND INFORMATION ENGINEERING

ELEC 5204 POWER SYSTEMS

Review Questions 3 Answers

Q1. Explain the need for instrument transformers. To isolate staff and instruments from the high
voltages and high currents of the real power network

Q2. Why must an unused CT have its secondary circuit short-circuited? To avoid very high voltages
developing across the secondary terminals caused by driving currents through the magnetizing
impedance.

Q3. What is the “knee-point” voltage of a CT? Where a 10% increase of output volts requires a 50%
increase in current. What will determine the knee-point voltage? The saturation flux density of the
iron used, and the iron core cross-sectional area What happens to the CT output if excess current
above the knee-point flows through the CT? It saturates and little more voltage can be generated.

Q4. If the knee-point voltage requirement is too high for a given CT, what could you do to rectify the
problem? Use a relay/instrument of lower burden or use a bigger CT with a bigger cross-sectional
area.

Q5. A multi-tap 800/400/5 CT has a knee-point voltage of 120 V on the 800/5 tap. What would you
expect the knee-point voltage to be on the 400/5 tap? 60 V. Why? Depends on no of turns.

Q6. What is a “CVT”? Where would you expect to find this sort of VT? Why is the output of a CVT
fed through a conventional double-wound transformer? Capacitive voltage transformer. To tune out
the internal capacitive impedance.

Q7. A bar-type current transformer has 500 secondary turns. What is its turns ratio? 500:1

Q8. A 400/5 CT has a 20% error when handling a fault current of 8 kA. Its knee-point voltage is 50
volts. Write down its specification. 20 P 50

Q9. What are the main differences between metering (class M) and protection CTs (class P), in terms
of operating requirements and design? Refer slide #87, 88 Part A

Q10. Standard CT output currents are either 5 amps or 1 amp. Which type would you use in the
following situations, and why –

Large HV switchyard, with long CT secondary leads with high resistance? 1 amp secondary,
to reduce knee-point requirement due to the high lead resistance; 5 times more turns are needed
meaning a bigger CT but this is not an issue in a large HV switchyard

Inside a compact MV switchboard, close to the CB with short CT secondary leads? 5 amp
secondary, because 5 times fewer turns need, meaning smaller CT; short leads means lead resistance
is not an issue.
 UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY

SCHOOL OF ELECTRICAL AND INFORMATION ENGINEERING

ELEC 5204 POWER SYSTEMS

Review Questions 4 Answers

Q1. Why would separate protective devices be required to provide short-circuit and overload
protection on the supply to a motor? Different time-current characteristics are required. Why would a
fuse supplied for short-circuit protection be unsuitable for overload protection? It is aimed at short-
circuit levels in the circuit; it may not detect overloads in the motor.

Q2. Name 2 types of quite normal transient overloads that can occur on a power system. Motor
starting currents under DOL (direct on-line) starting; transformer inrush currents.

Q3. Fuses and overcurrent relays have an “inverse” type of current-time operating characteristic.
What does this mean? The higher the current, the faster the operating time.

Q4. What are the differences between “standard inverse”, “very inverse” and extremely inverse”
overcurrent relay characteristics? Refer to slide #107, Part A. Which one is closest in form to a fuse
characteristic? Extremely inverse (refer slide #102).

Q5. There are 3 overcurrent relays set up along a long radial feeder. The fastest relay is set to operate
for a fault in 0.15 second. What would be the fastest possible operating time for the first-most relay
on this feeder, for the same fault? 0.15+0.4+0.4 = 0.95 second.

Q6. For the combined 3-phase and earth fault relay set-up shown in Slide #85, why is a third phase
relay not required? If there was no local earth point available, how would the CTs be connected up
for earth fault relay? For either 3-phaswe faults, phase-to-phase faults, or single phase to earth faults,
there will always be fault current flowing trough at least one of the relays (check the circuit to
convince yourselves!)

Q7. A 3-phase, delta-star power transformer has overcurrent and earth fault relays set up on both the
HV and LV sides. Why is it that the HV overcurrent can detect 3-phase faults on the LV side (and
thus act as back-up for the LV overcurrent), but the HV earth fault relay cannot detect LV earth
faults? How are LV earth faults on the LV side detected on the HV side? For a delta-star, a LV
single-phase to earth fault translates into a phase-to-phase fault on the HV side (refer Tutorial #1).
The phase fault setting on the HV side has to be sensitive enough to detect these LV faults.

Q8. For the transformer in Q7 above, what transient conditions must the overcurrent relay be able to
handle? What side is affected – the HV side overcurrent or LV side overcurrent? The transformer is
normally switched on and off from the HV system. The transformer inrush current. Only seen on the
HV side because it is switched only on the HV side .
 UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY

SCHOOL OF ELECTRICAL AND INFORMATION ENGINEERING

ELEC 5204 POWER SYSTEMS

Review Questions 5 Answers

Q1. Explain how directional overcurrent relays can adequately protect a simple ring circuit. Refer
slides #2, 3 Part B

Q2. Why has a simple impedance relay have no “directionality”? What is meant by this? Because it
detects magnitude of current and voltage only, not the directions. It means the direction of fault
current flow past the relay cannot be determined by the relay.

Q3. Why would you normally want directional capabilities in a distance relay in a normal
transmission network? Because setting requirements are determined by the transmission line
impedances connected beyond the relay, not behind it.

Q4. In the example shown in slide Part B #9 for the relay at point B12, how would the zone 3
protection be altered if the relay had a small backwards component in its zone 3 setting? The zone 3
would extend back a little way towards the generator.

Q5. In the tee-network example of slide Part B #17, the relay “R” (at bus A) zone 2 and zone 3
protection “see” right through Bus C and overlap the zone 2 and zone 3 settings of relay R2 (on bus
C). Explain how this happens. Tee line + transformer impedance (at R2) may be less than 120% of
line beyond bus B. Is this necessarily a problem in the case of the zone 3 setting? No – zone 3
usually sees right into the next section. Name some solutions to the problem with the zone 2 “reach”
of relay R. Install a busbar and extra relay at the tee-point. Replace the distance with differential
protection on the tee-ed system.

Q6. What is meant by “load encroachment” into the protection zones of a distance relay? How is this
solved? Refer slide #18, Part B. Solved by using relays with special shaped impedance
characteristics.

Q7. Why is arcing impedance more of a problem for the detection of single phase to earth faults on
sub-transmission rather than HV transmission lines? How can the distance relay characteristics be
modified to overcome this problem? Arcs usually have a fixed voltage drop; this is more of an issue
with systems of lower voltage under conditions of long high impedance lines and lower fault levels.
 UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY

SCHOOL OF ELECTRICAL AND INFORMATION ENGINEERING

ELEC 5204 POWER SYSTEMS

Review Questions 6 Answers

Q1. For the basic differential protection schemes shown in slides Part B #23 and 24, what is of
crucial importance, as regards the CTs? The CTs must have identical characteristics. If the knee-point
voltages are different on the CTs what can happen under a heavy through fault? You will get unequal
CT outputs which will be incorrectly detected by the differential scheme as a fault.

Q2. In the example of a transformer differential protection scheme as in slide Part B #26, how are the
unequal voltages and currents on the HV and LV sides accommodated in a current differential
protection scheme? By using CTs of different ratios, in the same ratio as the power transformer turns
ratio.

Q3. In the same example of a transformer differential protection scheme, what sources of mis-match
of input and output currents would there be (aside from the normal turns ratio of Q2)? Inrush current,
and a tap-setting somewhat away from the nominal turns ratio. A “restraint” or “bias” setting of 20%
is typical for transformer differential protection. What does this mean? A mis-match of up to 20%
can be tolerated before the relay trips.

Q4. In the case of a 3-phase delta-star transformer arrangement, where does the 30 degrees phase
shift and the √3 factor come from? Refer to Q1, tutorial 1

Q5. In the busbar differential scheme of slide Part B #31, explain how a heavy through fault can
result in unequal CT saturation. How does this affect the differential scheme? A heavy through fault
will result in full fault current flowing through the outgoing CT but being divided amongst incoming
CTs; the outgoing CT may get saturated whilst the incoming CTs will not.

Q6. Explain how the CT saturation detector circuit of slide Part B #33 works. Explained in class.

Q7. Why is a low-level earth fault (deep in the winding) of a transformer difficult to detect using
conventional differential or overcurrent protection? The fault current is too low.

Q8. Is the magnetizing inrush current a problem for differential protection schemes applied to
transformers? Why? It is seen on the incoming (usually HV) side, but not the outgoing side and is
hence an unbalance and detected by the differential relays.

Q9. Is the starting current a problem for differential protection schemes applied to motors? Why or
why not? No it isn’t; for motors the CTs are placed at each end of the stator wings (refer slide #24
part B) and the starting current will flow through both ends of the windings and hence CTs; there is
thus no CT unbalance.

Q10. In the balanced voltage differential protection scheme of slide part B #44, explain what will
happen if (a) the pilot wires become open-circuited or (b) one of the 2 relays becomes inoperative.
The scheme cannot detect any faults as no current will flow through the relays.
 UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY

SCHOOL OF ELECTRICAL AND INFORMATION ENGINEERING

ELEC 5204 POWER SYSTEMS

Review Questions 7 Answers

Q1. A HRC fuse interrupts a 10 kA fault in a DC circuit of 10 milli-henries inductance. Melting

current is 500 amp, pre-arcing time is 5 m.sec and arcing time a further 5 m.sec. Determine the arcing
voltage for this fuse. Melting (arcing) di/dt = 500/5E-3 = 1E+5; L.di/dt = 1E+5*10E-3 = 1000V.

Q2. Name some of the protection schemes you would expect on the steam-turbine generator sets in
the major coal-fired power stations in Australia. Refer slide #49, Part B.

Q3. What are the problems caused by unbalanced voltages to AC synchronous and asynchronous
(induction) machines? Why? Overheating of the stator windings; because zero sequence and
negative sequence impedances of AC machines are very low (have a think - why is this so?).

Q4. A common form of protection for a large induction motor is a switch-fuse unit, with additional
thermal overload protection. If a single-phase to earth (e.g. a winding to frame) fault occurs and
blows one of the 3 phase fuses, why is it necessary to switch off the remaining two healthy phases?
Because two phases would be left supplying the motor, causing major voltage unbalance which causes
overheating problems.

Q5. Where do rotor and stator faults occur on a synchronous generator? Name some suitable
protection schemes for either. In the rotor (inner rotating part, fed by DC) and the stator (outer )
windings. Differential schemes will work for both.

Q6. In the zones of protection shown in slide Part B #50, why is it necessary to have the zones
overlapping? To avoid protection system “blind spots”. If each scheme was a differential scheme, in
what order would you arrange the CTs? On opposite sides of CTs; refer slide #52, part B

Q7. In the typical substation protection zones arrangement of slide Part B #51, sketch in where the
protection zones on the incoming HV feeders would be in the substation. Explained in class.

Q8. In the industrial network of slide Part B #56, identify which fuses would be AC fuses and which
would be DC fuses. AC fuses on incoming supply; DC fuses in lines to diodes and/or DC output.

Q9. In the industrial network of slide part B #56, identify which devices would contribute to the fault
level. Local generators and large AC synchronous motors. If the DC drive was regenerative, would
this have any impact on the fault level? Yes it would.

Q10. In the regenerative motor drive scheme of slide Part B #60, explain the √2 difference in currents
in the bridge arms and the supply? Due to currents through the diodes – refer slides #65, 66 part B.
With reference to the overall protection scheme shown in slide Part B #60, explain which fuses, both
DC and AC, would have to grade with one another in the case of the DC motor drive. DC fuses have
to grade under the incoming AC fuses – after allowing for √2 difference in currents.
 UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY

SCHOOL OF ELECTRICAL AND INFORMATION ENGINEERING

ELEC 5204 POWER SYSTEMS

Review Questions 8 Answers

Q1. Explain how the “MEN” system of earthing of the low voltage network works. Why is the
neutral point effectively connected to earth at zero impedance? Because it consist of many thousands
of individual earth points connected up in parallel.

Q2. What are the risks of a broken connection between the neutral on a house switch-board and
earth? Refer slide #91, 92, part B.

Q3. Why are electric currents a potential hazard for humans and other living creatures? Interfere with
rhythms of heart and lungs.

Q4. Which pin on a 3-pin plug is the earth wire? Bottom (vertical) one. What colour is the earth
wire normally? Green or green with yellow stripe.

Q5. Why is a low voltage arcing fault such a hazard? Because it won’t always be detected and may
burn for a long time; generates extreme heat

Q6. What is “back-up” protection? Why is it required? Because protection system (relays) and CBs
also fail occasionally; it is crucial that faults be detected and removed quickly at all times.

Q7. Explain the difference between “local” and “remote” back-up? Local means a second relay and
system at the same site; remote means at another (upstream) site.

Q8. How do you protect against circuit breaker failure? By inter-tripping to another CB and/or
remote back-up.

Q9. Where would you expect to find inter-tripping schemes in place? With all “unit” type schemes;
also each end of a transmission line with distance or differential protection.

Q10. What are some of the advantages of modern digital relays over the older electro-mechanical
ones? What is the main [potential] disadvantage? Refer slide #84, part B. Main disadvantage is (at
current time) the still unproven long-term reliability.

Q11. Name some common causes of overvoltages on power lines. Lightning, switching, resonances.
Of lightning surges and switching surges, which is more of a problem for a) sub-transmission and
distribution lines? Lightning b) HV transmission lines? Switching. For reasons, refer slide #71.

Q12. What is meant by the “BIL” of a power line? Basic Insulation Level. What determines it? The
lightning level. How is a lightning arrestor used and chosen to match the BIL of a power system? The
arrester voltage knee-point is set to the BIL of the system, which is also determined by the system
insulation withstand capability – refer slide #75.