SWITCH YARD EQUIPMENT

The power from 132KV line is received at one end of the switch yard and at the other end it is
converted to 11KV by a 15MVA transformer.

Lightening arrester: A lightning arrester is a device used on electrical systems

and telecommunication systems to protect the insulation and conductors of the system
from the damaging effects of lightening.

Potential transformer: Voltage transformers (VT), also called potential transformers (PT),
are a parallel connected type of instrument transformer. They are designed to present
negligible load to the supply being measured and have an accurate voltage ratio and phase
relationship to enable accurate secondary connected metering.

Current transformer: A current transformer (CT) is a type of transformer that is used to

measure AC Current. It produces an alternating current (AC) in its secondary which is
proportional to the AC current in its primary. It has relay connected to it in series so that it
can detect faults and send signal to the circuit breaker.

Isolators: Isolator is a switch operated manually, which separate the circuit from the power
main and discharges the trapped charges in the circuit.

Circuit breaker: A circuit breaker is an automatically operated electrical switch designed to

protect an electrical circuit from damage caused by excess current, typically resulting from
an overload or short circuit. Its basic function is to interrupt current flow after a fault is
detected.
 11 kV SYSTEM
The plant is supplied with 11KV high tension overhead power lines from OPM 30MW generating unit. 11KV
supply is fed to the incoming feeder in the switch gear room, from where the power is supplied to different
units
30 MW OPM GENERATOR
 SWITCH GEAR ROOM
11 kV supply from the OPM end energizes the busbar through system coupler
Q2. Different tappings are then taken from the busbar for different sections of
the plant.
132kV supply is converted to 11kV by a 15MVA transformer and is connected to
the busbar through system coupler Q4 and SF6 circuit breaker in case of power
failure from the OPM end.
Tappings are taken from the busbar to feed 1MVAR, 2MVAR, 3MVAR, 5MVAR
capacitor banks, 1.5MVA, 2MVA auxiliary transformer and IEM rectiformer
through SF6 circuit breakers.
The SF6 circuit breakers are of rating 11 kV, 12500 A, 40 kA.
 RECTIFORMER

Rectiformer is an essential part of the industrial electro chemical process, which

provides high DC current at low voltage.
The rectiformers consist of a 12 pulse, 20 MVA, 90000A transformer.
84 Thyristor rectifier
A cooling system to remove heat during the process and an additional
demineralized water cooling system regulates the temperature inside the
rectiformer .
The gate pulse to the thyristors is provided with a push button, and is varied
according to the amount of tons of caustic soda being manufactured.
Also there are snubber circuits connected with the rectifier to suppress the
voltage spikes.
 RECTIFORMER DIAGRAM

The input to the transformer is 11kV and the output can be varied between any of
these AC voltages 196V, 156V, 116V, 76V. The output is varied with the
autotransformers connected in the 3 input phases
 CAPACITOR BANK
In AC electrical system inductive loads consume active power and also reactive power.
This reactive power is needed to generate magnetic field for inductive loads.
The power factor is the ratio of kW (active power) component to the kVA (apparent
power) component.

cos = Real Power / kVA

= kW/ kVA

The reactive power necessary to achieve the power factor is calculated as under

kVAR = kW (tan1 - tan2)

cos1 = Original P.F.
cos2 = Desired P.F.

The company has maintained a PF of 0.8-0.9 by installing capacitor banks of capacity

1MVAR, 2MVAR, 3MVAR and 5MVAR.
 MOTOR STARTERS
Starter is a device that reduces initial high current of the motor by reducing the
supply voltage applied to the motor. Such reduction is applied for very short
duration and once the motor accelerates, a normal voltage is then applied.
At starting condition a very high current flows through the rotor.
As the rotor needs a high current, stator winding draws a very high current from
the supply. This initial drawing current can be of the order of 5-8 times the full
load current of the motor. This huge current at the starting of a motor can damage
the motor windings.
Therefore, a starter is necessary to limit this starting current to avoid damage to
the motor as well as to other adjoining equipment.
In addition to the starting current protection, motor starter also provides the
protection against overload.
All starter devices are provided with some overheating protection element to
limit high current during overload. Most starters are equipped with bimetallic
strips to achieve this operation.
 Electrically operated starters, electromechanical relays are used for switching the
power carrying conductors. These relays are called as contactors. When the coil in
the contactor is energised, it produces the electromagnetic field and that pulls the
switch contacts.
And when the coil is de-energised, contacts are pulled back to normal position by
the spring arrangement.
Usually, the motor starters are provided with push buttons (start and stop
buttons) in order to energise and de-energise the coil.
The types of starters being used in the industry are DOL starter, star delta starter,
and soft starter.
 CIRCUIT BREAKERS
Electrical circuit breaker is a switching device which can be operated manually
and automatically for controlling and protection of electrical power system
respectively.
The circuit breaker mainly consists of fixed contacts and moving contacts. In
normal "ON" condition of circuit breaker, these two contacts are physically
connected to each other due to applied mechanical pressure on the moving
contacts. There is an arrangement stored potential energy in the operating
mechanism of circuit breaker which is released if switching signal is given to the
breaker.

The circuit breakers being used in the industry are

SF6 Circuit Breaker - A circuit breaker in which the current carrying contacts
operate in sulphur hexafluoride or SF6 gas is known as an SF6 circuit breaker.
SF6 has excellent insulating property. SF6 has high electro-negativity. That means
it has high affinity of absorbing free electron.
So, due to its high dielectric strength and high cooling effect SF6 gas is
approximately 100 times more effective arc quenching media than air. Due to
these unique properties of this gas, SF6 circuit breaker is used in complete range
of medium voltage and high voltage electrical power system. These circuit
breakers are available for the voltage ranges from 33KV to 800 KV and even more.

Air Circuit Breaker - This type of circuit breakers, is those kind of circuit
breaker which operates in air at atmospheric pressure.
ACBs are still preferable choice up to voltage 15 KV.
After development of oil circuit breaker, the medium voltage air circuit
breaker (ACB) is replaced completely by oil circuit breaker in different countries
It is also good choice to avoid the risk of oil fire, in case of oil circuit breaker .
DIESEL GENERATOR