Protection Systems & Devices (Relays) 3rd Year

CHAPTER 6 Busbar Protection

Busbars are important and need special attention due to: Fault level at busbars is very high. The faults at busbars cause disconnection of power to large portions of the system. Busbars faults should be cleared in very short time ( 50 ms ) to avoid damage to insulation. tability of the system is affected by busbars faults. !t"s desirable to include the following in busbar protection: #. $igh speed. %. tability for e&ternal faults. '. Freedom from unwanted operation. (. )o operation due to *T saturation. 5. !nterloc+ with generators for over current. ,.-se main and chec+ protection to assure disconnection only when desirable. Methods of busbar protection #. %. '. (. .vercurrent relays of connected circuits. /irectional interloc+. /ifferential protection. Frame lea+age earth fault.

1. Overcurrent Relays
The fault in bus 0 can be sensed by 1 5 and 1(. !n this type of protection2 all the circuit brea+ers of the busbar 3one are disconnected. These are * #2 *%2 *'2 *( 4 *5. 1, 4 15 will act as bac+up protection if *( and *5 do not clear the fault. For fault in bus B2 16 will sense the fault and *,2 *5 and *6 will open. This type of protection is slow and evolves complicated control system to discriminate faults within the 3one. 0lso2 the 3one of the busbar is not clearly identified. 44

Protection Systems & Devices (Relays) 3rd Year

2. Directional Interlock

!t uses directional relays in source circuits and over current relays in load circuits. !t ma+es the discrimination between internal and e&ternal faults possible. The contacts of the relays are interloc+ed in such a way that if power flows the busbar is sufficiently low2 all the circuit brea+ers on the source side and the load side are tripped.

3. Differential Protection

For normal conditions2 the vector sum of currents entering the bus 3one is e7ual to the vector sum of currents leaving the bus 3one. i.e. !i 8 3ero /uring internal faults2 the vector sum of currents in the circuits connected to bus bar is e7ual to fault current2 i.e. !i 8 !f Disadvanta es! #. 9arge number of circuits having different current levels. %. aturation of *T cores due to d.c. component in s.c. current. '. ectionali3ing of bus ma+es the circuit complicated.

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Protection Systems & Devices (Relays) 3rd Year

". #ra$e leaka e %arth #ault

One of the fa$ous connections for busbars! 2 out of 3

.nly % of the ' circuit brea+ers can operate at the same time. The circuit brea+ers on the transformers are normally closed but the circuit brea+er in the centre of the busbar is normally open.

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