Trip Circuit Supervision

There are different contacts connected in series along a trip circuit of a electrical circuit breaker.
There must be some situation when the circuit breaker should not trip even a faulty current
passes through its power contacts. Such situations are low gas pressure in SF6 circuit breaker,
low air pressure in pneumatic operated circuit breaker etc. In this situation the trip coil of the
CB must not be energized to trip the CB. So there must be NO contacts associated with gas
pressure and air pressure relays, connected in series with breaker trip coil. Another scheme of
trip coil is that it should not be re energized once the circuit breaker is open. That is done by
providing one NO contact of breaker auxiliary switch in series with trip coil. In addition to that
the trip circuit of a CB has to pass through considerable numbers of intermediate terminal
contacts in relay, control panel and circuit breaker kiosk. So if any of the intermediate contacts is
detached, the circuit breaker fails to trip. Not only that, if dc supply to the trip circuit fails, the
CB will not trip.

To overcome this abnormal situation, trip circuit supervision becomes very necessary. The
figure below shows the simplest form of trip circuit healthy scheme. Here one series
combination of one lamp, one push bottom and one resistor is connected across the protective
relay contact as shown. In healthy situation all the contacts except protective relay contact are in
close position. Now if push bottom (PB) is pressed, the trip circuit supervision network is
completed and lamp glows indicating that the breaker is ready for tripping.
The above scheme is for supervision while circuit breaker is closed. This scheme is called post
close supervision.

So far whatever we have discussed it is only for local controlled installation but for a distance
control installation, relay system is necessary. The figure below shows the trip circuit
supervision scheme wherever a remote signal is required.

When trip circuit is healthy and circuit breaker is closed, relay A is energized which closes the
NO contact A1 and hence relay C is energized. Energized relay C keeps NC contact in open
position. Now if the circuit breaker is open, relay B is energized which closes No contact B1
hence relay C is energized. As C is energized, it keeps the NC contact C1 in open position. While
CB is closed, if there is any discontinuity in the trip circuit relay A is de-energized which opens
contact A1 and consequently relay C is de-energized and which make the NC contact C1 in close
position and hence alarm circuit is actuated. Trip circuit supervision is experienced by relay B
with the circuit breaker is open in a similar manner as relay A with the circuit breaker is closed.
Relays A and C are time-delayed by copper slugs to prevent spurious alarms during tripping or
closing operations. The resistors are mounted separately from the relays and their values are
chosen such that if any one component is inadvertently short-circuited, a tripping operation will
not take place. The alarm circuit supply should be separated from main trip supply so that the
alarm can be actuated even the trip supply is fail.