Protection Application Breaker failure

Handbook Protection
© ABB Group - 1 -
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 Breaker failure protection
Stability
G G

ƒ In modern networks the critical fault clearing time may be less than 200
ms. Hence, if the fault is not cleared due to failure of the primary protective
relays or their associated circuit breaker, a fast - acting back - up protective
relay must clear the fault

ƒThere are two basic forms

Remote back - up
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Local back - up
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 Breaker failure protection
ZL2
Remote back-up I1+I2+I3
ZL1
I1

I2
x
x
I3
Z<
Distance
Z = ZL1 + ZL2 + (I2 + I3) ZL2 Relay
I1
ƒ The measured impedance Z will vary with the switching functions
ƒ To maintain the selectivity in the system a relatively long time delay is
necessary for the second step of the distance relay. Variations of the infeed
at the remote busbars may virtually prevent the application of remote back -
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up protection.
Advantage: Provides back - up for both the relays and breakers at the
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remote station
 Breaker failure protection
Local back-up

Z <

Local back - up protection can be divided into two categories

1. Relay back - up
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2. Breaker back - up
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 Breaker failure protection
Relay back-up +

RELAY
SYSTEM
CHANNEL
-
52
52a

- 52 52a
50

RELAY CHANNEL
SYSTEM
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+
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 Breaker failure protection
Breaker back-up
5 1 2 6

Z<

7 8

3 4
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For uncleared fault shown CB’s to be tripped are 1, 3, 4 & 6

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 Breaker failure protection
Reliability of Circuit Breakers

„ According to the latest CIGRE survey there is on

average 1 failure to operate per 10 000 attempts to
interrupt current (both fault current and load current) by
means of modern gas circuit breakers.

„ According to information from NGC there is a failure to

operate per 1 000 attempts to interrupt fault current.
© ABB Group - 7 -
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 Breaker failure protection
Failure causes
60
Drive
mechanism
Percentage (%)

40
SF6 -
leakage Secondary and
auxiliary circuits

20
Live parts

0
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123 kV 245 kV 420 kV

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 Breaker failure protection
Circuit Breaker Failure Protection

Has No Reset
Protection Normal Breaker
Operated? Operation Failure
Protection

Yes

Start
Breaker Wait for Fault
Failure Fault Cleared?
Protection Clearance
Yes

No

Trip Trip
Main Back-up
Breaker(s) Breaker(s)
© ABB Group - 9 -
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 Breaker failure protection
Basic Principle for CBFP

Fault
Main Detec-
Protection Main Breaker Timer
Interruption tor Relay Margin
Operate Reset
Time Time Error
Time Back-up
Breaker
Interruption
Time

Breaker Failure
Timing Relay Operate Time

Total Back-up Fault Clearance Time

© ABB Group - 10 -
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 Breaker failure protection
Fault detector
ƒ C.B. Aux contact should not be used to indicate if C.B. is carrying current
or not unless there is no other way to do the job

ƒ The reasons are

- Operating linkage is broken or out of adjustment
- CB mechanism is open but CB has failed to interrupt
current
- CB open but fault current continue

A current detector gives more positive indication

© ABB Group - 11 -
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 Breaker failure protection
Classical CBFP

Breaker Failure Protection

I>
I> I>
I>

t
+
if trip trip
from
relay
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 Breaker failure protection
Principle diagram of BFR Single timer scheme
BUS

Tripping of all backup circuit

breakers & transfer tripping
when used
DISTANCE
RELAY

Retrip feature
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Principle diagram for breaker-failure relay

 Breaker failure protection
Breaker failure protection

B
A
E
Primary fault current

Secondary current
H
t

"current tail" due to

CT flux change A - E.
A: Saturation level
E: Remanence value
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 Breaker failure protection
Breaker failure protection

• Adaptive signal
detection (ASD)
Pre-filter
Post-filter
0.5 *
• No false operation in
Stab zone case of saturated CT
• Maximum current
detector ASD reset
time 1/2 cycle

ASD output
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RMS output
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 Breaker failure protection
Breaker failure protection (BFP)

Current detector
ASD
Current Back-up trip
&
RMS-value (Busbar)

t t2
Start &
t1
Retrip of own
circuit breaker
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 Breaker failure protection
Time chart

Fault occurs

Normal clearing time

Current detector
drop-out

Protection Breaker
Margin
time interrupting time
- 30 ms - 60 ms

Back-up breaker

Start BFP timer t2 BFP Breaker time

BFP Trip
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Breaker failure total clearing time

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 Breaker failure protection
Requirements on breaker failure relay

ƒ High security against undesired tripping of adjacent breakers

ƒ Current detectors
- Short resetting time(<12 ms)
- Short operating time(~4 ms)
- High reset ratio (<88%)
- Insensitive for the dc component in the secondary current
- Insensitive for CT saturation

ƒ Time measuring unit

- Accurate time - measuring - ± 0.5% of highest scale value
- Negligible overtravel - Resetting and recovery time ~ 20ms
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 Breaker failure protection
Pole discrepancy relay
PD shall trip its own CB , start BFR ,
lockout its own CB and give alarm
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 CBIP manual on Protection
of Generators, generator Local Breaker Back-
transformers and 220kV Up Protection
and 400 kV networks
© ABB Group - 20 -
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 Breaker failure protection
1.0
1.0 GENERAL
GENERAL
• In the event of any circuit breaker failing to trip, on receipt of trip
command from protection relays, all circuit breakers connected to
the bus section to which the faulty circuit breaker is connected are
required to be tripped with minimum possible delay through LBB
protection

• This protection also provides coverage for faults between C.B and
C.T which are not cleared by other protections
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 Breaker failure protection
• Recommendations for providing LBB protection at different voltage
levels are as follows:

(i) In all new 400kV and 220kV substations as well as generating stations
switchyards, it must be provided for each circuit breaker

(ii) For existing switchyards, it is considered a must at 400kV level and

also at 220kV switchyards having multiple feed

In case of radially fed 220kV substations, provision of LBB protection is

desirable but not essential
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 Breaker failure protection
2.0
2.0 Special
SpecialComments
Comments
(i) The relay is separate for each breaker and is to be connected in
the secondary circuit of the CTs associated with that particular
breaker

(ii) For line breakers, direct tripping of remote end breaker(s) should
be arranged on operation of LBB protection.

For transformer breakers, direct tripping of breaker(s) on the

other side of the transformer should be arranged on operation of
LBB protection

(iii) For lines employing single phase auto reclosing, the LBB relays
should be started on a single phase basis from the trip relays.
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 Breaker failure protection
(iv) It is considered a good practice to have DC circuits of Gr.A and
Gr. B protections and relay independent.

(v) LBB cannot operate without proper initiation. It is good practice

to provide redundant trip output and breaker fail input where other
forms of redundancy does not exist.

(vi) Separation should be maintained between protective relay and CB

trip coil DC circuit so that short circuit or blown fuse in the CB circuit
will not prevent the protective relay from energizing the LBB scheme.
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 Breaker failure protection
(vii) In addition to other fault sensing relays the LBB relay should be
initiated by Bus bar protection, since failure of CB to clear a bus fault
would result in the loss of entire station if BFP relay is not initiated

(viii) Tripping logic of the bus bar protection scheme shall be used for LBB
protection also.

(ix) For breaker-fail relaying for low energy faults like buchholz operation,
special considerations may have to be given to ensure proper scheme
operation by using C.B. contact logic in addition to current detectors
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 Breaker failure protection
3.0
3.0 Setting
SettingCriteria
Criteria

(i)
• Current level detectors should be set as sensitive as the main
protections

• A general setting of 0.2 A is commonly practiced for lines and

transformers

• In case of existing schemes associated with lines having single

phase autoreclosure and where phase wise initiation is not
available, it is recommended that 2ph + 1 E/F element may be
used with phase element set above maximum expected load
current while E/F element may be set sensitively
© ABB Group - 26 -
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 Breaker failure protection
(ii) Current level detector for generators may be set at 50mA (for 1A C.T
secondaries)

(iii) Timer setting should be set considering breaker interrupting time,

current detector reset time and a margin. Generally a timer setting
of 200 ms has been found to be adequate.
© ABB Group - 27 -
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 CBIP manual on Reliable
fault Clearance and Back- Switching Devices
UP Protection for EHV
and UHV Transmission
Network
© ABB Group - 28 -
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 Breaker failure protection
Breaker fail protection
„ In the above paragraphs some important application
aspects connected with breaker fail protection and
some recommendations have been brought out and
these should be considered. Few of these are
brought out below.
„ It is is recommended that the utilities maintain the
circuit breaker performance data, which will be useful
in planning back-up protection and other actions
pertaining to circuit breaker performance and
maintenance
© ABB Group - 29 -
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 Breaker failure protection
Breaker fail protection
„ One may decide to plan and operate the power
system to avoid transient instability at shunt faults
with a stuck breaker. The back-up fault clearance
time then determines the power transfer capability of
the transmission network. This means that it is very
important to have a fast breaker failure protection.
„ It is desirable that the back-up fault clearance time is
shorter than the operating time of the remote
protections. One would lose the advantages with the
expensive bus bar configuration, if Zone-2 of the
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distance protection in the remote substations

operates faster than the breaker failure protection
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 Breaker failure protection
Breaker fail protection
„ It is possible to use one delay for single-phase faults
and a shorter delay for multi-phase faults in the
breaker fail protection. This is done to avoid transient
instability during multi-phase faults in combination
with a stuck breaker. The critical fault clearance time
is much longer for single-phase faults than for multi-
phase faults.
„ It is recommended that for operation of Buchholz
protection, an additional criterion from breaker
auxiliary contact may be provided.
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 Breaker failure protection
Breaker fail protection
„ Another requirement on the breaker failure relay is
for lines employing single-phase auto reclosing. The
current relays should be started on a single-phase
basis from the trip relays for proper operation.
„ It is possible to design the breaker failure protection
to have two steps. This approach may decrease the
risk for unwanted operation of the breaker failure
protection during maintenance and fault tracing.
Therefore it is recommended utilities consider two-
stage tripping to avoid any unwanted operation of
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circuit breaker fail protection

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 Breaker failure protection
Breaker fail protection
„ It is a good practice to use breaker failure protection
provided in a separate hardware than the one used
for main protection, when a multifunction numerical
protective relay is used for line, transformer, reactor
etc. This will help avoid loosing breaker fail
protection function when main protection fails. Thus
it can be separate stand-alone relay or provided in
bay controller or as part of bus bar protection. If the
main protections are duplicated and have built in
breaker fail function, providing it in a separate hard
ware is not required. In such cases the breaker fail
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function gets duplicated.

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 Breaker failure protection
Breaker fail protection
„ As per the current practice breaker failure protection
is provided for all substations at 765kV, 400kV, 220
kV and for generating station switchyards. No
change is proposed in this practice. Reference may
be made to CBIP Manual No 274 “Protection of
Generators, Transformers and 220kV and 400kV
Networks”, which gives details of current practices
followed
„ For 132kV substations too, it is recommended that
breaker failure protection be provided since any
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failure of circuit breaker to open may create wide

spread disturbance.
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 Protection Application Breaker failure
Handbook Protection
Settings
© ABB Group - 35 -
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 Breaker failure protection
Fault detector settings
„ Fault detectors that have high drop out and whose drop out time
is minimally effected by CT saturation and DC offset isecondary
circuit should be used
„ Setting applied should ensure positive operation for faults which
occur at electrical extremity of protected circuit i.e. it should be
as sensitive as the protective relay

„ Thermal capability should be considered

„ For lines and transformers range of 200-600 mA used (1 A CT
sec)

„ For generators setting of 50 mA recommended (1 A CT sec)

This is to care of low currents during Class - B trip
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 Breaker failure protection
FAULT DECTECTOR FOR FAULTS WITH INSUFFICIENT
CURRENT
„ For some faults in transformer like one detected by Bucholz
protection there may not be enough current to operate fault detector unit
of BFR relay In such case supervision by breaker Aux contact may be used

+ Buchholz CB aux contact Timer of BFR -

trip
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 Breaker failure protection
Fault
occurs
TIME- CHART

Normal Clearing Time Current Detector

Dropout Time
Normal
Clearing
Protective Breaker Interrupting
Time Time Margin
~30ms ~60ms <12ms
Back-up
Breaker
Failed Breaker Breaker Failure Timer Interrupting
Breaker Failure Breaker Time
Initiating Failure
Tripping
Breaker Failure Total Clearing Time
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 Breaker failure protection
Breaker failure timing
„ The BFR should be fast enough to maintain stability but not so fast as
to compromise tripping security

„ Margin should consider following

- Excessive breaker interrupting time during either low fault current
or close open duty cycle
- Time over travel
- Setting errors
- Safety factor depending on confidence level
- Margin of 60 ms may be considered
© ABB Group - 39 -
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© ABB Group - 40 -
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Breaker failure protection