LESSON 34 BUSBAR PROTECTION

OUTLINE OF THE LESSON

INTRODUCTION BUSBAR FAULTS PROTECTION REQUIREMENTS TYPES OF PROTECTION SYSTEMS FRAME EARTH PROTECTION DIFFERENTIAL PROTECTION

INTRODUCTION

The protection scheme for a power system should cover the whole system against all probable type s of fault.

 Unrestricted forms of line protection such as overcurrent and distance systems,meet this requirement, although faults in the Busbar zone

are cleared only after some time

delay.

 If unit protection is applied to feeder and plant the busbars are not inherently protectected

 Busbars

have

been

left

without

specific protection for one or more of the following reasons:

The busbars and switchgear have high

degree of reliability ,to the point of

being regarded as intrinsically safe.

 It

was

feared

that

accidental

operation of busbar protection might cause wide spread dislocation of the power system ,which ,if not quickly cleared ,would cause more loss than would the very infrequent actual bus faults

 It was hoped that system protection or back-up protection would provide

sufficient bus protection

BUSBAR FAULTS
Majority of bus faults involve one
phase and earth, but faults arise

from many causes and a significant

number are inter-phase clear of

earth.

 With fully phase -segregated metal clad gear ,only earth faults are possible ,and a protective scheme

need have earth fault sensitivity only.

 For outdoor busbars , protection schemes ability to respond to inter-

phase faults clear

advantage

of earth is an

BUSBAR FAULT STATISTICS

For a particular system in which total faults equal to 129 , the distribution is :
PHASE TO EARTH 87

TWOPHASE TO EARTH
THREE PHASES TO EARTH THREE PHASE UNKNOWN

15
19 6 2

PROTECTION EQUIREMENTS
Although not basically different from other circuit protections,the key

position of busbars intensifies the emphasis put on the essential

requirements of speed and stability

SPEED
High speed operation is required for limiting the damage due to fault. Removal of bus faults in less time than could be achieved by back up protection ,with the object of

maintaining system stability.

 Most

of

the are

modern based

busbar on low

protection unbiased

impedance biased or high impedance differential protection

systems.The operating time is of the

order of one cycle .

STABILITY
The stability of bus protection is of paramount importance In order to maintain the high order of integrity needed for bus protection,it is an almost invariable practice to make tripping depend on two

independent measurements of fault

quantities .

 Security three

of

both

stability

and

operation is obtained by providing

independent

discriminating

channels,the trip outlets of which are

connected in series and in pairs as

shown below:

TWO OUT OF THREE PRINCIPLE

FIG: Two out of three principle

 Three channels x,y and z from three independent trip circuits ,x+ y,y+z,and z+x. This means that any kind of failure can occur in any one channel without prejudging either stability or ability to operate for the scheme as a whole.

TYPES OF PROTECTION SCHEMES

System protection used to cover bus bars

Frame earth protection

Differential protection

SYSTEM PROTECTION
A system protection that includes

overcurrent or distance systems will inherently give protection cover to the busbars.

 Overcurrent protection will only be

applied to relatively simple distribution

systems,or as a back-up protection set

to give considerable time delay.Distance protection will provide cover with its second zone. In both cases,therefore ,the busbar protection so obtained is slow

FRAME-EARTH ROTECTION
This is purely an earth fault system,and ,in principle ,involves simply measuring the fault current flowing from the switchgear frame to earth.To this end a current transformer is mounted on the earthing conductor and is used to energize a simple instantaneous relay.

FRAME EARTH PROTECTION

DIFFERENTIAL PROTECTION
BASIC PRINCIPLE
Basic Principle

Summation scheme

BASIC PRINCIPLE
The merz-price principle is applicable to multi-terminal zone such as a busbar.The principle is the direct application of kirchhoffs first law.Usually the circulating current arrangement is used.

BASIC CIRCULATING CURRENT SCHEME

Fig Basic Circulating Current Scheme

SUMMATION SCHEME
By using current transformers of

different

ratios,

for

example

300/1,400/1and 500/1in each three

phase group,connected in parallel

and interconnected between groups ,by two bus wires only a response is obtained to all types of fault.

 An alternate arrangement to that

above is obtained by using current

transformers of equal ratio but cross

-connecting two of them and taking a

centre tap from the third.

RECOMMENDATIONS ON BUSBAR
PROTECTION (Reference: Manual on PROTECTION of GENERATOR, GENERATOR

TRANSFORMER, and 220 KV and

400KV NETWORKS, Publication No.

274(revised) CBIP New Delhi).

1. Busbar kV

protection as

must well

be as

provided in all new 400 kV and 200

substations

generating station switchyards.

2. It shall be of 3-phase type and

operate selectively for each bus

bar section.

3. It shall operate on differential principle and provide independent

zones of protection for each bus.

4. It shall be stable for through fault conditions up to maximum 40KA fault level.

5.

It

shall

incorporate
for C.T.

continuous
secondaries

supervision

against any possible open circuits. In

case of detection of any open circuit of C.T. secondaries, after a time delay, the affected zone of protection shall be rendered inoperative and an alarm will

be initiated

6.

It

shall

include

D.C.

supply

supervision. 7. Include adequate number of high

speed tripping relays.