You are on page 1of 9

TRAINING REPORT UNDER PROTECTION

CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION Need for protection The purpose of an electrical power system is to generate and supply electrical e nergy to consumers. The system should be designed and managed to deliver this en ergy to the utilization points with reliability and economy. Protection is an ar t or science of detecting a fault in a power system and initiating the necessary operation to isolate only that part of the electrical power system that is faul ty from the rest of the healthy circuits. The main objective of a protection system is to keep the power system stable by isolating only the components (circuits) that are under fault, while leaving as much of the network as possible still in operation. No matter how well designed , faults will always occur on a power system and these faults affect the people and the property. The provision of adequate protection to detect and disconnect elements of the power system in the event of a fault is therefore an integral pa rt of power system design. Hence electrical elements such as generators, transfo rmers, overhead lines, underground cables, bus bars are protected with the purpo se of minimizing the effects of faults (such as damage to equipment, fire hazard s, loss of system stability, interruption of supply to consumers thereby causing loss of revenue) on electrical power systems. Basic definitions The definitions that follow are generally used in relation to power system prote ction: Protection System: a complete arrangement of protection equipment and other devi ces required to achieve a specified function based on a protection principal. Protection Equipment: a collection of protection devices (relays, fuses, etc.). Excluded are devices such as CTs, CBs, Contactors, etc. Protection Scheme: a collection of protection equipment providing a defined func tion and including all equipment required to make the scheme work (i.e. relays,

CTs, CBs, batteries, etc.) Attributes of a protection scheme The following are features of a protection scheme Stability: This refers to the ability of the protection system to remain unaffec ted by conditions external to the protected zone, for example through load curre nt and external fault conditions. Selectivity: When a fault occurs, the protection scheme is required to trip only those circuit breakers whose operation is required to isolate the fault. This p roperty of selective tripping is also called discrimination and is achieved by two general methods. Speed: The function of protection systems is to isolate faults on the power syst em as rapidly as possible. The main objective is to safeguard continuity of supp ly by removing each disturbance before it leads to widespread loss of synchronis m and consequent collapse of the power system. Sensitivity: This is a term frequently used when referring to the minimum operat ing level (current, voltage, power etc.) of relays or complete protection scheme s. The relay or scheme is said to be sensitive if the primary operating paramete r(s) is low. Components of a power protection scheme The following are components of a protection scheme that enable it achieve its o bjectives. A number of elements are included in the in protection scheme so that protective relay is able to monitor, detect and clear any faulty conditions tha t arise. These equipments include:Current transformer Voltage transformer DC/AC supply Circuit breaker Protective relays and auxiliary relay. They are arranged as shown in the block diagram below;

Circuit Breaker It is switching device capable of making, carrying and breaking currents under n ormal and abnormal circuit conditions. Therefore the purpose of a circuit breake r in protective scheme is to isolate the faulty part of the power system in case of abnormal conditions. Under abnormal conditions protective relay detects abnormal conditions and sends a tripping signal to the circuit breaker. After receiving the trip command from the relay, the circuit breaker isolates the faulty part of the power system. A circuit breaker has two contacts i.e. fixed contact and a moving contact under load conditions these contacts remain in closed position. Circuit breakers usually have:Spring charging mechanism both electrical and mechanical. Electrical control circuits to enable interfacing with other equipments e.g. rel ays. Trip coil to open CB during normal operation or during a fault through a relay. Closing coil to close the circuit breakers. Types of Circuit Breakers Circuit breakers are classified according to the basis of insulating medium empl oyed in the circuit breakers to extinguish the arc. Depending on the arc quenchi ng medium used, the following are important types of circuit breakers. Oil circuit breakers (OCB). Air Blast Circuit Breakers. Sulphur Hexafluoride (SF6) circuit breakers.

Vacuum Circuit Breakers (VCB). Auxiliary power Supply All substations have AC station supply three phase 415V. DC supply 110V, 48V AC Power Supply: At sub-stations auxiliary AC power supply is obtained by tran sforming 33kVor 11kV to 415V three phase four wire system so that both three pha se and single phase loads can be connected. AC power supply is used; To supply panel space heaters to prevent condensation. For lighting the substation and for maintenance services e.g. blowers, drill mac hines etc. To supply auxiliary supply 240V ac to AVR for automatic operations of tap change rs of power transformers. To provide power supply to battery chargers. To power up three phase tap changer motor so that tap changer can work automatic ally. DC power supply: DC power supply can be of 110V DC for protective scheme or 48V DC for communication and SCADA operations such as status indications and command s. DC supply is used as a back up so that in case the station supply fails, DC s upply from battery bank can fully power protective relays and communication sc hemes. It is used for supplying power to tripping and closing coils for circuit breaking, for SCADA operations and communication equipments.

CHAPTER TWO: INSTRUMENT TRANSFORMERS These transformers are used when the values of voltage or current in a power cir cuit are too high to permit convenient direct connection of measuring instrument s or relays. They are required to produce a scaled down replica of the input qua ntity to the accuracy expected for the particular measurement; this is made poss ible by the high efficiency of the transformer. Applications of instrument trans formers find their application in metering, protection and monitoring. They are two types of instrument transformers namely; Voltage transformer Current transformer. Current transformer Current Transformers (CTs) are instrument transformers that are used to supply a reduced value of current to meters, protective relays, and other instruments. CTs provide isolation from the high voltage primary, permit grounding of the second ary for safety, and step-down the magnitude of the measured current to a value t hat can be safely handled by the instruments. Current transformers are high prec ision transformers in which:The current in secondary winding is a replica of the current in primary winding. The ratio of primary current to secondary current is constant. Phase angle between primary and secondary is very small. The burden in VA is low Nominal current is usually between 1A to 5A Insulation between primary and secondary winding is very great to withstand the full line to neutral voltage. Classifications of Current Transformers Current transformers can be classified into two categories depending on burden t o be connected across them. Metering current transformers Protection current transformers

Metering Current Transformer (MCT) Metering current transformer is a transformer that is required to be accurate ov er the normal working range of load currents. Instruments currents are required to give a high accuracy for all load currents up to 120-125% of the rated curren t. The excessive currents fed to instruments and meters are prevented during faults on power system due to fact that complete saturation of core takes place at low flux density. Protection Current Transformers Protection current transformers are CTs that are required to give a correct rati o up to several times the rated primary current. This is because protective rela y has to perform reliably at normal currents as well as at fault currents. The a ccuracy of protective relay is not important at currents less than the rated val ue. But accuracy is critical for currents more than rated value. Important Current Transformer Parameters Important CT parameters that a protection Engineer must know are accuracy (ratio ), burden, class of the ct and accuracy limits factor or saturation factor. Accuracy of CT is departure of its ratio from its true ratio expressed as a perc entage. Ratio error (Current error) is defined as the error in the secondary current due to the incorrect ratio, and is expressed as a percentage. , where N is the nominal ratio, Is is the actual secondary current Ip is the actual primary current CT Burden: This is the load applied to the secondary of the CT and is expressed in terms of volt-amperes (VA) and power factor. A given burden may only apply fo r a particular value of the secondary current Accuracy limit factor is ratio of accuracy limit primary current to rated primar y current. Standard values are 5, 10, 15, 20, and 30.

Types of Current Transformer Construction CTs can be categorized according to their construction as bushing or bar primary CTs; core balanced CTs, air-gapped CTs and wound primary CTs. Bushing or Bar pr imary CTs are the common CTs on Umeme network. In this type the primary is a st raight conductor which is a part of the power system. Maintenance of Current Transformer Burdens When installing and maintaining CT burdens it is important that The secondary of a CT must always be shorted out to ensure safe working. An open circuited secondary of CT can result into development of a dangerously high vol tage. Energized but unused CTs must be kept shorted out. One terminal of secondary must always be connected to ground. Voltage Transformers (VTs) These are used for metering and protection in high-voltage circuits. They are de signed to present negligible load to the supply being measured and to have a pre cise voltage ratio to accurately step down high voltages so that metering and pr otective relay equipment can be operated at a lower potential. They provide the input voltage to the relays which is usually 110V. Voltage transformer is high p recision transformers that are used for; Reduceing the power system voltage to levels low enough to suit the ratings of protective relays. As protective relays have voltage rating of 110V. They are used to isolate the high system from protective relays and metering uni ts. Below is a figure that shows a typical voltage transformer

Voltage transformer can be classified into two according burden connected across the VT Protection VTs Metering VTs Protection Voltage Transformer is transformer that requires errors to be limited over a wide range of voltages under fault conditions this may be about 120-150% of the normal voltage. Metering VT is transformer for meters and instruments where accuracy is only imp ortant at normal system voltages. CHAPTER THREE: PROTECTION RELAYS A protective relay is a device which detects the fault and initiates the operati on of the circuit breaker to isolate the defective element from the rest of the system. In other words, it provides information to the breaker for circuit inter ruption in case of faults. The following are categories of a protective relay, Electromechanical relays Static relays. Digital relays or microprocessor-based relays. Numerical relays Electromagnetic Relays They work on the principle of a mechanical force causing operation of a relay co ntact in response to a stimulus. The mechanical force is generated through curre nt flow in one or more windings on a magnetic core or cores, hence the term elec tromechanical relay. The principle advantage of such relays is that they provide galvanic isolation between the inputs and outputs in a simple, cheap and reliab le form. Static Relays The term static implies that the relay has no moving parts. In a protection relay, the term static refers to the absence of moving parts to create the relay charact eristic. Their design is based on the use of analogue electronic devices instead of coils and magnets to create the relay characteristic. Digital Relays Microprocessors and microcontrollers replaced analogue circuits used in static r elays to implement relay functions. These are microprocessor and software based relays, feature advanced programmable functions which maximize flexibility and m onitoring capabilities and offer a wide choice of trip curves and self test capa bilities. Below is a figure showing a digital relay Numerical relay These use a specialized digital signal processor (DSP) as the computational hard ware, together with the associated software tools. The input analogue signals ar e converted into a digital representation and processed according to the appropr iate mathematical algorithm. Processing is carried out using a specialized micro processor that is optimized for signal processing applications, known as a digit al signal processor or DSP for short. Digital processing of signals in real time requires a very high power microprocessor. Applications of a protective relays Over current relay: Over current and earth fault protection Distance relays: These are used for distance protection that provides high speed fault clearance on lines Buccholz relay: Buccholz protection used for transformer protection. It prevents

gas build the event Restricted Over/under

up in the transformer tank due to decomposition of gases given off in of a fault earth fault protection. This is used for protecting the transformer voltage relays: For protection against over and under voltage

CHAPTER FOUR: PROTECTIVE SCHEMES 1. Feeder protection Distance protection. This employs a number of distance relays which measure the impedance or some com ponents of the line impedance at the relay location. The measured quantity is pr oportional to the line length between the location of the relay and the point wh ere the fault has occurred. It is used for protection of 33KV distribution lines . Over current protection This protection scheme is mostly used main protection for protection of 11kV fee ders; and is used as backup protection on 33kV feeders and power transformers. T he relay operates on principle that when current in the protected apparatus exce eds the pick-up current the relay will operate to isolate the apparatus. Over cu rrent protection is also used as a backup protection for bus bar protection. 2. Transformer protection Buccholz protection -Is mechanical device located in oil pipe between transforme r main tank and conservator or between tap changer tank and conservator tank. Fig Buchholz relay mounting arrangement It detects oil or gases surges due to severe internal faults for which trip is i nitiated. It will also detect abnormal generation of gases within the transforme r due incipient faults for which an alarm is initiated. The most common causes o f Bucholz relay operation are: Low level of transformer oil in main tank and tap-changer tank due leakage. Accumulation of gases in tap changer tank due on load tap-changing if tap-change r is not in good condition. Accumulation of gases in transformer main tank Restricted earth faults protection on LV This is unit protection scheme which detects internal phase to earth faults. As over-current and earth fault relays dont provide good protection for a star conne cted winding when the neutral is earthed through impedance. The scheme is used o nly when Neutral point is solidly earthed. Earthed through impedance. Differential protection A differential system can be arranged to cover the complete transformer; this is possible because of the high efficiency of transformer operation, and the close equivalence of ampere-turns developed on the primary and secondary windings. Figure: Basic Transformer Differential Protection In applying the principles of differential protection to transformers, a variety

of considerations have to be taken into account. These include: Correction for possible phase shift across the transformer windings (phase corre ction) The effects of the variety of earthing and winding arrangements (filtering of ze ro sequence currents) Correction for possible unbalance of signals from current transformers on either side of the windings (ratio correction) The effect of magnetizing inrush during initial energization The possible occurrence of over fluxing Correct operation of transformer differential protection requires that the trans former primary and secondary currents, as measured by the relay, are in phase. I f the transformer is connected delta/star, balanced three-phase through current suffers a phase change of 30. If left uncorrected, this phase difference would le ad to the relay seeing through current as an unbalanced fault current, and resul t in relay operation. Phase correction must be implemented. ZONES OF PROTECTION To limit the extent of the power system that is disconnected when a fault occurs , protection is arranged in zones. The principle is shown in figure below Ideally, the zones of protection should overlap, so that no part of the power system is left unprotected. This is shown in figure below where the circuit brea ker is included in both zones. For practical physical and economic reasons, this ideal is not always achieved, accommodation for current transformers being in some cases available only on one side of the circuit breakers, as in figure below; This leaves a section between the current transformers and circuit breaker A tha t is not completely protected against faults. In figure above, a fault at F would cause the bus bar protection to operate and open the circuit breaker but the fault may continue to be fed through the feeder . The feeder protection, if of the unit type would not operate, since the fault is outside its zone. This problem is dealt with by inter-tripping or some form o f zone extension, to ensure that the remote end of the feeder is tripped also. The point of connection of the protection with the power system usually defines the zone and corresponds to the location of the current transformers. CHAPTER FIVE: TESTS CARRIED OUT Current transformers and voltage transformers The following are the tests carried out on both current and voltage transformer s; Primary injection tests. These include ratio test, polarity test and excitation test for CTs Insulation resistance test. These include pressure test and megger test The equipment used to test the CT are primary injection test set, earth megger a nd HV test set Tests on the relays Secondary injection test: This in meant t check for sensitivity and performance Commissioning tests Primary injection tests. These are carried out on VTs and CTs Secondary injection test. These are for checking the performance and sensitivi ty of protection relays. Pressure tests. These tests are carried out on transformers, cables and circuit breakers to test their leakage current and know the status of the insulation.

Megger tests. These tests are carried out to check the insulation resistances. T hey are carried out on transformers, cables circuit breakers to check for contac t resistance, DC resistance tests Phasing tests Signaling tests. These include buccholz alarm and trip; and winding temterature alarm and trip Current transformer tests Polarity test Current transformers are normally tested to verify if the primary and secondary polarity markings are okay. An ammeter is connected to the secondary of the curr ent transformer. A low voltage battery is used via a single pole push button swi tch, to energize the primary winding. On closing the push button the DC ammeter A should give a positive flick and on opening a negative flick. Ratio test This is usually carried out during the primary injection tests. Current is passe d through the primary conductors and measured. The secondary current is also mea sured. The ratio of the value on A1 to that on A2 should approximate to the rati o marked on the current transformer nameplate. This is carried out by a primary injection set, the CPC100 (OMICRON) and the readings read directly. Voltage Transformer Tests Polarity test The voltage transformer polarity can be checked with the test described for the main current transformers. Care must be taken to connect the battery supply to t he primary winding with the polarity ammeter connected to the secondary winding. Ratio test This is carried out when the primary circuit is energized. The voltage transform er secondary voltage is compared with the secondary voltage of a voltage transfo rmer already connected to the same primary bars or the test can be carried out b y primary injection, measure the secondary voltage and compare the results with that on the a nameplate. Megger test This is done by use of a megger tester. It basically involves getting the insula tion resistance between the primary winding of the coil and the secondary windin g of the coils or between the primary and Earth or secondary and Earth. This tes t is carried out for the instrument transformers. The readings should be at leas t greater than (500 mega ohms) for better insulation resistance.

Pressure test. This is meant to measure the leakage current t earth i.e. it dete rmines the insulation resistance to earth. Apparatus HV test set, HV unit set 110KV and a discharge. The apparatus is arranged as ind icated below; disc harge rod

Earth Test voltage= 1.5* rated voltage For 11KV, it is 16.5KV while for 33kv, it is 49.5KV. The leakage current is read off from the HV test set after withstanding the voltage for one minute. Testing the Automatic Circuit Recloser This was carried out during the training. The following steps were followed; The cable was connected between the control panel and the CB (Automatic Circuit recloser) The breaker, the CPC 100 (OMICRON) and the control panel were all earthed for sa fety reasons The panel was powered with a 240V AC supply. Batteries are used as back up or em ergency in case the station supply fails. The ACR was then connected to the Omicron, phase by phase for measurements to be taken Primary injection test A current is injected from the omicron to check what the panel indicates. If 80A is injected, 80A should be read from the panel. More current is injected and time taken for the breaker to trip noted to check t he ACR relays operating time (norminal value *2, *5)

You might also like