THE CONTROL ROOM

Control panels
In respect of control there may be separate panels or control may be entirely from the switchboard. This is often most satisfactory as a permanent 11 kV supply need only be switched off in an emergency. Such an occasion may never occur and the extra expense of separate controls is not worthwhile. However, where two or more sources of supply are involved, or if synchronising of a private generator is necessary, or if there is a great deal of switching owing to load management or uctuations of loads or supply systems, then a separate control panel is best. This is equipped with instruments indicating the normal electrical parameters such as voltage and current with perhaps, where necessary, power, vars, power factor and frequency; it could also have switchgear position indicator lamps together with a remote control switch for each circuit-breaker. There may be a requirement for additional facilities such as auto-trip alarm, overload alarm, earth-leakage alarms, trip circuit supervision and remote/local changeover switches. Protective relays, alarm facias, mimic diagrams, secondary circuit fusegear and test blocks may all be mounted on the control panels of substantial construction and vermin proof with adequate space to mount the equipment, run the wiring and terminate the incoming cables. Control equipment may be on the front panel of a vertical cubicle or on the horizontal or sloping face of a desk-cubicle. In the larger installations there are visual display units to receive, process, store and have available for display by instruction from the operator, the data needed to decide on the correct sequence of operations. Such systems are very powerful tools which can also provide facilities such as data recording and analysis, alarm limit setting and display, high-speed pre- and postfault recording, sequencing control and monitoring, equipment status as well as loading information and the selection of sections of the network to be illustrated on the screen while the status is being changed.

Fire ghting
The layout of the plant and the design of the building play a major part in reducing the spread of re and the effect of explosions. Cleanliness and tidiness are very important, as is the careful maintenance of tools. Most res are caused either by carelessness or faulty equipment. Fixed systems use water sprinklers, carbon dioxide and halon gas. There is also the used of sand, blankets and re hoses. Fire doors and ventilating systems with automatic shut-down if not with automatic dampers in the event of re are indispensable as well. Cabling may also be a cause of serious res with risks of extensive damage to the installation and danger to personnel. The d.c. supplies are a particularly important and vulnerable part of any installation. They are generally derived from stationary batteries which give off ammable and toxic gases. Batteries are in a separate room with an acid-resistant oor, special lighting ttings, a suitable sink and adequate water supplies.

POWER SYSTEM PROTECTION:

Without discriminative protection it would be impossible to operate a modern power system. The protection is needed to remove as speedily as possible any element of the power system in which a fault has developed. So long as the fault remains connected, the whole system may be in jeopardy from three main effects of the fault, namely: (a) it is likely to cause the individual generators in a power station, or groups of generators in different stations, to lose synchronism and fall out of step with consequent splitting of the system; (b) a risk of damage to the affected plant; and (c) a risk of damage to healthy plant. There is another effect, not necessarily dangerous to the system, but important from the consumers' viewpoint, namely, a risk of synchronous motors in large industrial premises falling out of step and tripping out, with the serious consequences that entails loss of production and interruption of vital processes.

Protection requirements:
The protection arrangements for any power system must take into account the following basic principles: 1. Reliability: the ability of the protection to operate correctly. 2. Speed: minimum operating time to clear a fault in order to avoid damage to equipment. 3. Selectivity: maintaining continuity of supply by disconnecting the minimum section of the network necessary to isolate the fault. 4. Cost: maximum protection at the lowest cost possible. Protection zones: A power system can be divided into protection zones generators, transformers, groups of generator transformers, motors, busbars and lines. Faults and other abnormalities Power systems are subject to many kinds of faults. The principal types are: threephase with and without earth connection; phase-to-phase (two-phase); phase-toearth (single-phase); and double phase-to-earth (phase-phase-earth). Components of protection 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. Relays Current transformers Voltage transforming devices Capacitor dividers H.F. capacitor couplers Line traps Circuit-breakers Tripping and other auxiliary supplies Fuses, small wiring, terminals and test links

10. Pilot circuits. Originally, in telegraphy, a relay had a coil which was energised by a weak, received signal current, and this coil, attracting an armature, closed a contact in the line ahead, giving a 'relayed' signal of renewed 'strength'. Relays, which are at the heart of protective schemes, are now of many diverse designs, each aimed at achieving particular results. They are not nowadays exclusively electromagnetic in principle, and may often be solid state devices. Relays associated with protection are divisible into two main groups. The first are relays designed to detect and to measure abnormal conditions, and having achieved this, to close contacts in an auxiliary circuit to cause some other function to take place. This type of relay is often called a 'comparator' as its function is to compare electrical quantities. The second group are auxiliary relays, designed to be connected in the auxiliary ckcuits controlled by the measuring relay contacts, and to close (or open) further contacts usually in much heavier current circuits. This second group is also called 'all or nothing' relays. RelayTypes: For the purpose of system protection, we may classify relays according to the following functional descriptions: Overcurrent relay: A relay that operates or picks up when its current exceeds a pre-determined value. Overcurrent relays can be instantaneous, that is, with no intentional time delay Differential relay: A relay that, by its design or application is intended to respond to the difference between incoming and outgoing electrical quantities associated with protective apparatus. Directional relay: A relay that responds to the relative phase position of a current with respect to another current or voltage reference. Distance relay: A generic term covering those forms of protective relays in which the response to the input quantities is primarily a function of the electrical circuit distance between the relay location and the fault point. Principal types of relays: Attracted-armature relays Moving-coil relays Induction relays Thermal relays Motor-operated relays Gas- and oil-operated relays (Buchholz relays) Auxiliary d.c. relays: 1. Operating-voltage limits 2. Discharge of wiring capacitance 3. Tripping relays 4. Time-lag relays 5. Repeat contactors

6. Trip-circuit supervision 7. Alarm relays.

Protection signaling :
Signalling is the transfer of information between separate locations, and is usually accomplished using derived signals or messages, which represent the information to be transferred. Media currently in use for signalling for protection purposes are: (a) power-line-carrier circuits (b) private pilot wires owned by the supply company (c) pilot wires or channels rented from telecommunication companies (d) radio links. Faults can occur on a power system such that, although the protective systems or relays at one end of a circuit operate, those at the other end or ends either cannot operate, because there is little or no fault current, or require further information to enable them to discriminate between faults within the protected zone and those that occur in other zones. The signals required in these circumstances fall into two main groups: (i) Command signals which result in remote circuit-breakers being directly tripped without reference to the state of the local protection at the remote end or ends. This is known as 'intertripping'. (ii) Advisory signals which enable protective systems and relays located at different points on the power system to achieve a co-operative function, the signals either permitting or inhibiting operation. Facilities of this type are known as protection signalling. Protection-signalling systems may also be used to inhibit or lock out automatic switching facilities in the event that programmed switching routines are not completed, or in the event of faults occurring within predetermined boundaries.

Power-line carrier
In power-line-carrier (PLC) signalling systems, the signal propagation medium is the power circuit itself, communication between ends of the circuit being effected by means of a superimposed carrier-frequency signal carried by the power-circuit conductors. The carrier signal may exist continuously on the line or only during fault conditions (equipments operating in the latter manner are referred to as 'normally quiescent'). The band of frequencies employed is 70-700 kHz.