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PAC history
PAC.SPRING.2009
by Walter Schossig
Protection
71
History
DC Generator, Kriegstetten (CH) Power Station,
Oerlikon, 1886.
Biography
Walter Schossig
(VDE) was born
in Arnsdorf (now
Czech Republic) in
1941. He studied
electrical engi-
Generators are important and expensive neering in Zittau
(Germany), and
Generator
assets. joined a utility in
the formerEastern
Germany.After the
German reunion
Protection
the utility was
renamed as TEAG,
now E.ON Thuer-
inger Energie AG in
Erfurt. There he re-
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72
PAC history
Ferranti-oil-fuse (1894) into the oil after opening the contact.
The first high-voltage device working completely in oil was
3 Results of a short circuit in a unprotected
developed by C.L.E. Brown (one of the founders of Brown,
machine (appr. 1930)
Boveri & Cie) in Baden/Switzerland in 1897. He proposed
at the headquarters Porta Volta in Milan to put an air-circuit
breaker (5 kV) in a barrel of oil for testing purposes. This was
successful, and a new 16-kV-breaker was developed in the
same year for Paderno (with an oil hutch made of glass). Later,
steel plate hutches were used.
One could now protect the generator by switching it off
with a circuit breaker and de-exciting it in case of a certain
smell, electrical arc, or loud noises. Previously, this was not
possible due to the long reaction time (Figure 3).
First Generator Protection Devices
The first protection devices were fuses in series with
knife switches. Before that, there were fuses at the generator
only, so in case of a failure the whole grid (very small at this
time) was without power. After a short time it became clear
that not having a three-phase trip was a disadvantage. That's
why from 1885 to1890 the first automatic circuit breakers 2500 V, 50 PS, = 70 %) by Oerlikon. Figure 5 shows the
were developed. One of the first automatic circuit breakers in wooden switchboard, above the interface-device ( 3 wires
Germany was made by Hermann Meyer, S & H, 1886 with with a diameter of 6 mm, one of them as spare). On the left
the "biggest machine circuit breaker at this time" (knife switch) and on the right the automatic short-circuiters are arranged;
combined with an electromagnetic undercurrent relay (startup they are shorting the field magnets in case of a fault. They were
at 10% of nominal or reverse current). This was a combination used to replace the lead fuses.
of minimum- and reverse-current-automats (early relays), Switchboards
used for parallel operating DC generators. In the first years of high-current technology (1880- 1890)
After this the first "triumvirate"-automats were a "switchyard" consisted of a DC-dynamo connected to a
developed: minimum-automat; reverse-current-automat and switchboard. A board made of planks. Wood was considered
maximum-automat (Figure 4) as fundamental components a good insulator at this time. In Figure 6 you can see the
of the DC-generation and -distribution at this time together planks and the attached instruments, main switch and four
with batteries in power stations. The task of these devices was knife-switches with stripe fuse. The word "board" (in German
the switching-off during low currents, wrong direction of "Brett") is still used for terminal boxes of generators and motors
currents or overcurrents. - terminal board in English. A mock up circuit is sometimes
The tripping was accomplished electromechanically. called a "breadboard" ("Brettschaltung").
Several types were created. The first industrial transmission of Automatic Overcurrent Devices
current in Switzerland took place in 1887 with commissioning In 1885 American engineers equipped the knife switches
of the DC-interconnection Kriegstetten-Solothurn ( 8 km, with overcurrent magnets (Figure 1). A click holds the knife
1 2 3
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PAC history
8 Oil Circuit Breaker, V&H, appr. 1920 Increase in demand on power
and transmission of energy
over long distances was
Breaker with: the reason to build bigger
Primary Tripping
Device and
generators.
Secondary
Undervoltage
Tripping Device
Use of Measurement Transformers
Increase in demand on power and transmission of energy
over long distances was the reason to build bigger generators
or to operate generators and grids in parallel. This required
the use of measuring transformers. It seems that the first
voltage transformer had been used in the "Californian Light
Company" in San Francisco in 1879. The current transformer
was invented by Benischke,G. in 1898. And since 1900 relays
were designed to use current transformers.
Emmet,W.L.R. und Hewlett,H.E., GEC, built in 1901 oil
circuit breakers with two tripping coils, directly connected to
the current transformers to open the locking mechanism.
Figure 16 shows an "automatic machine tripping device"
9 Principle of mechanism. It required a current in coil 1 before the switch
with an overcurrent relay supplied by current transformers
(used by AEG in power stations in 1905). The figure shows
Reverse Switch
could be operated. the solution with auxiliary power supply. But this breaker was
If these devices were not available, the approach was to manufactured with tripping coils supplied by two parallel
avoid disabling of the automatic circuit-breakers in case of a operating current transformers.
trip (e.g. switch onto fault): Then, the automatic circuit-breaker It was a logical conclusion to change the measuring devices
and the lever switch are connected in series. in such a manner that the indicator also operates the contact.
When switching, the automatic circuit-breaker was first Nevertheless this solution was unsatisfying. The breaking
operated and then the lever switch was opened. This caused capacity was poor (6 VA at 220 V) and the electric arc held the
some failures due to wrong order of operation, this was contacts together.
reported for instance from the United States. That's why Since the same measuring principles have been used
Sharpstein, S.H. required "a trip free mechanism" in 1899, the first relays have been quite similar to measuring devices
realized by Emmett and Hewlett, GEC. (especially the round form Figure 19).
PAC.SPRING.2009
75
The Swedish Company ASEA delivered the first induction
relay for a water station of the Swedish Rail (16 2/3 Hz) in
13 Independent direct release HB,
BBC, 1943
1912. To cut one's own path was the decision of Voigt &
Haeffner (V&H). Vogelsang, M. developed an overvoltage
relay with timing element in 1902. They decided to do it
like that because they did not produce current transformers
themselves. Additionally Vogelsang developed an "oil circuit
breaker with fuse". To change the fuse it was at first necessary
to switch off the breaker before opening the cap.
The history of measuring transformers will be covered in a
later issue of PACWorld.
Overcurrent Protection
The main element of generator protection was overcurrent
protection from the beginning. It protected the generator
of inner damages, and was also the backup protection for all
further assets such as transformers and lines. Smaller machines
were equipped with direct overcurrent release, connected
with a lever (Figure 13; Figure 15). The first stand-alone
electromechanical relay was designed in1904. Figure 18
shows the first time-overcurrent relay made by ASEA, type
TCB, manufactured in 1905. ASEA's (now ABB) first relay of
induction type was delivered in 1912 to a hydropower station
in the north of Sweden, built to deliver power at 16 2/3 Hz to 14 Thermal image of ST-Relays (BBC) The main
the railway from Kiruna to Lule, which was built to transport
iron ore. This was the first electrified railway in Sweden. element of
Overload Protection
The use of thermal relays for protection of generators generator
was introduced exclusively by BBC in Europe and was very
successful. protection
German recommendations required generators with a
nominal power of more than 5000 kVA to use six resistance- was a
thermometers or thermo elements in the stator to supervise
the temperature of winding. Once they were installed it was overcurrent
very difficult to reach them again- that's why they very often O
were not changed after damage. So it was the decision to P from the
supervise the temperature with thermal relays. These devices
are equipped with thermo elements (heating relays with beginning.
current proportional to main current delivered an image of
temperature of the machine- Figure 14.
The outer insulating mat "O", was working as a protection 15 Thermal relays 16 Maximum On-Off 17 "Automat",
against thermal radiation. It encloses the source of heat, the HT, BBC, 1943 switch, AEG, 1905 Berlin, 1891
measuring element and the heat storage "P". The heating "Automat" with Under-
element a band made from a resistive material- heated the voltage Tripping Device,
Gebrder Naglo
measuring column and the heat material storage, consisting
of changeable measuring boards. The thermal time constant
of the relays could be changed with the numbers of boards
in 6 stages between 20 and 110 minutes. The upper scale
was a display of the temperature to allow a later estimation
of temperature. Additionally the relays were equipped with a
tripping device.
Later single pole overcurrent relays with a setting of 1.1 In
and 10 s have been used for indicating overload.
Short Circuit Protection
To use overcurrent relays between generator and busbar
in case of failures inside the generator was active only if other
machines were able to deliver short circuit currents. The
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18
PAC history
First time-overcurrent relay, TCB, unmanageable short-circuit currents in case of failure.
ASEA, 1905 Sometimes the unreasonable guaranties for small voltage drops
in the machine required the use of coils for the limitation of the
current from generators with high short circuit power (hard
machines). Later "soft" generators were used, equipped with
a huge short-circuit reactance. The Swiss grid reported good
experiences with the usage of a cutback of excitation to achieve
a limitation of a sustained short-circuit current. All big power
stations have been equipped with such devices. The automatic
decrease of excitation could limit the steady-state short-circuit
current to a certain value (as 1.4*Inom). After switching off
the short circuit the voltages recovers. Out of step machines
could be "catched". The current level in case of a short circuit
sometimes reached the level of overload current.
Nevertheless, in case of a malfunction of the line
protection the generator overcurrent protection should trip.
Solowjew,L.E., USSR, proposed in 1932 to use "undervoltage
supervision". This allowed a more sensitive setup of the
overcurrent startup. An overcurrent relay produced by BBC in
the 1960's is shown in Figure 22.
The overcurrent setting must be over the highest possible
operating current. Since these devices started up with a fault in
the grid already the operating time must be the biggest in the
grid. If several generators are working in parallel all overcurrent
relays had the same operating time. In case of terminal
power of another machine had to be as big as the power of the short-circuit of a generator there was no selectivity anymore.
machine to be protected. In case of its own failure the generator This was only possible if the faulty generator could be tripped
delivered a huge short circuit current but this could not be faster than the other ones.
detected with such a setup. That's why overcurrent relays Further solutions such as reverse power protection,
have been installed in the neutral point of the generator. This differential protection, interwinding fault protection and
setup was the only possibility if the generator was the single earthfault protection will be covered in a later issue of this
source in the grid. Figure 21 shows a three-phase overcurrent magazine.
protection "S", manufactured by SIEMENS in 1936.
Connecting generators and grids in parallel increased the walter.schossig@pacw.org
reliability of power supply but on the other hand created www.walter-schossig.de
19 TOC, 20 Thermal 21
Overcurrent 22 Overcurrent Relays S1 without Housing,
AEG, 1916 overcurrent (ST,BBC) protection S, Siemens BBC, appr. 1960
Pl Nr 69036G, 1914 &
Pl Nr 69007
PAC.SPRING.2009