When the supply is restored automatically , the

resulting event is called short interruption.

It can takes place by reclosing the circuit breaker

which cleared the fault or by switching to a
healthy supply.
– Long – longer than 3 mins
– Short – up to 3 mins

IEEE std.1159-1995:
momentary intrup: ber 0.5 cycles and 3 sec
Sustained intrup: longer than 3 sec
Temporary intrup: bet 3 sec and 1 min

IEEE std.1250-1995
Instantaneous : bet 0.5 and 30 cycles
Temporary intrup: bet 2 sec to 2 min
momentary intrup: bet 30 cycles and 2 sec
Sustained intrup: longer than 2 min

IEEE std.859 -1987

Transient outages – restored automatic
Temporary - manual
Permanent – restored repair.
 Basic principle:

Most faults on overhead lines are transient – require operation of protection.

Do not cause permanent damage.

Example. Lightning stroke.

Lightning current –> 2 and 200kA in peak

Typical lightning current –> Ipeak = 20kA (<1us)

Because of protection by circuit breaker , arc disappears.

•A practice associated with reclosing and short interruptions is “fuse
saving.”

•These are slow fuses which will not trigger when a transient fault is
cleared by main circuit breaker .

•Transientfault will be cleared by the re closer and the supply will be

automatically restored

•A permanent fault can also be cleared by the main breaker, but that would
lead to a long interruption for all customers.
• Permanent fault is cleared by expulsion fuse.

• To achieve this , the reclose has two settings

– An instantaneous trip
– Delayed trip

– The coordination should be such that the

instantaneous trip is faster than expulsion trip and
the delayed trip should be slower.
• Fig shows A is that fault clearing time and B the
reclosing interval.

• By seeing this we can say a voltage sag with a

duration equal to the fault clearing time.

• The moment the recloser opens, the voltage

recovers.
 by seeing the above response, we can say that
the fault clearing time (A) is only a few cycles,
whereas the reclosing time (B) can be up to
several minutes.
 The voltage magnitude initially drops to about
25% of nominal and to almost zero after 3
cycles .
 The effect of is that the voltage becomes zero very fast.

 Induction motor – able to maintain some voltage in the system for a short time, that too
only for a few cycles.

 Synchronous motor – maintain their field even when the supply voltage disappears.
- able to maintain some system voltage until their load has come to a
standstill.

Synchronous and induction generators connected to the feeder and capable of

maintaining the feeder voltage at non-zero value even during long interruption.

This could be a problem when large amounts of generation are connected to the feeder.
This is so called embedded generation.

To avoid this problem, this embedded generation is equipped with a loss of grid
protection that disconnects the generator when an unusual voltage or frequency is
detected.
 A number of surveys have been performed to
obtain statistical information about voltage
magnitude variations and events.

 E.g., interruption frequency versus time of day

or time of year.
 Each vertical bar gives the average number of
interruptions per year, with a duration in the
given interval.
 Comparison of short interruptions at various
places in the system.

 Interruptions lasting several seconds and

longer mainly originate in the low – voltage
system.

 For interruptions less than one second in

duration , frequency remains the same.
 A customer may experience 2 or more events
within a short interval.
 When a short circuit fault is still present upon
the 1st reclosure.

 Simultaneously the customers fed from the

faulted feeder will experience a 2nd event, 2nd
attempt occurs.
In north America , they use to say 1-minute or 5-
minute window.

That means if 2 or more events takes place within

such a window, they are counted as one event.
“FIVE –MINUTE FILTER”
( No. of equipment trips)