Bus Bar protections

Bus bars are large section conductors, to which all circuits and equipments are connected Bus bar protection is intended to detect faults with in the bus and trip all connected circuits Why separate bus bar protection is required
In sub station all equipments like generators, transformers and feeders have their own protections. Fast acting protections of these equipments will not operate for bus fault. A bus fault is external to the equipment protections and are cleared on back up. The time delayed clearance on bus faults having highest fault currents can cause large system disturbances Equipments like transformers and generators are stressed due to sustained short circuits On tripping of equipment back up protections all circuits of the bus trip out and healthy section of the bus also is lost Bus faults may cause serious fire and damage other equipments if not cleared quickly

----By H.Raghavendra Rao, SE(RETD)/KPCL

Bus Bar protections

Why bus bar protection not always provided
Probability of fault occurrence in bus bars are less No costly and large equipments are part of the bus-PT,CT,LA etc Any way the back up protections of the equipments connected to the bus will isolate the fault False tripping of bus protection is highly undesirable which causes disconnection of large no. of generators, feeders etc. from the system and partial block outs Cost of bus bar protection and associated additional CT cores

Hence bus bar protection is provided selectively for EHV and larger sub stations Bus bar protection also provides discriminative tripping of faulted bus section only retaining healthy section in service. Less disruption Bus faults can occur due to
Wrong on load operation of isolators Failure of CT/PT/LA etc Flash over of bus insulators Snapping of jumpers Unknowingly leaving safety earths

----By H.Raghavendra Rao, SE(RETD)/KPCL

Bus Bar protections

Requirements of bus bar protection
Very high speed of operation to justify their application Stability is of paramount importance. False tripping highly un desirable. Shall not operate heavy through faults Selective tripping where multiple bus sections are there

Type of bus configurations

Single bus Double bus Single or double bus with sectionalising Main and transfer bus One and half breaker system

Bus protection zone to operate for faults in bus up to the equipment breaker terminals (Defined by CT locations) Types of bus protections
Frame earth protection/Phase comparison/Current differential

Only Current differential protection is used

----By H.Raghavendra Rao, SE(RETD)/KPCL

Bus Bar protections

Bus differential protection principle Sum of all currents into the bus is equal to sum of all currents going out of the bus in healthy and external fault condition that is the algebraic sum of all currents is zero During a fault with in the bus the sum is not zero since the fault current from the bus is flowing into the fault. The currents add up and the differential current is present The presence of differential current is used to operate the protection To obtain algebraic sum CTs of all circuits are connected in parallel with correct polarity and the relay is connected across All CTs to have identical ratios and high knee point voltages Bus differential protection can be provided only for earth faults since these faults are more likely . this case all 3 phase CTs of all circuits are in parallel and relay across. But mostly all 3 phases are provided with separate protection elements. Separate set of elements for each separable section of the bus. Ct connections to over lap the zones to avoid blind zones. For one and half breaker bus separate Ct and relays for each bus. For double bus CT switching by isolator contacts to connect the CT to respective zone The trip logic to trip only those breakers connected to the faulty bus. This is met through isolator contacts

----By H.Raghavendra Rao, SE(RETD)/KPCL

Bus Bar protections

Bus bar protection to have IN/OUT switching facilty since during operations like bus change over etc. the bus bar protection is to be out. Bus bar current differential is of 2 types
High Impedance differential protection Low Impedance diffrential protections

High impedance is connecting all CTs in parallel and across the relay. No bias circuit. High impedance of the relay circuit made to provide the stability gives this name Low impedance protection is providing a bias winding in relay for stability and lower impedance presented to CT Advantages of high Impedance
Simple robust and reliable All CT connections need not be brought to relay panel and can be paralleled at the yard. Reduces cabling Less expensive
----By H.Raghavendra Rao, SE(RETD)/KPCL

Bus Bar protections

Disadvantages of high Impedance
CTs to have higher knee point voltages since the impedance presented to CT is high All CTs to identical in ratio. No slight deviation is permitted Adding of new circuits in expansion is difficult Simple robust and reliable

High Impedance circuit and stabilising resistance

During a close in external fault the CT in the circuit in which fault occurred will be carrying maximum current with all other CTs carrying less current. Probability of this CT getting saturated is more. During such CT saturation to provide stability a stabilising resistor is added to relay sensing circuit so that currnet through relay is less than pick up value-----Id=If(Rct+Rl)/(Rstab=Rrelay) Relay is virtually set as voltage pick up CTs to have knee point voltage > 2(voltage at CT reqd. for relay pick up)
----By H.Raghavendra Rao, SE(RETD)/KPCL

Bus Bar protections

Atypical high impedance scheme for double bus
CTs of circuits switched by isolator contacts to the respective zone Bus coupler has CTs on both sides or two cores and connected two zones separately All circuits have separate Cts for check zone Each zone has CT supervision relay for sensing any ct open and shorting the tripping the zones Tripping through respective isolator contacts

Discrimination can also be provided by over current relays instead of isolator CT switching. But this requires time delay hence not preferred

----By H.Raghavendra Rao, SE(RETD)/KPCL

Bus Bar protections

Low impedance scheme
Relay has bias circuit to restrain the relay by total bus current. Higher through current higher operating current required and thus providing stability Bias current is derived from magnitude sum of all CT currents and operating current is derived from algebraic sum CT currents

Advantage of low impedance

Reduces CT sizes Tolerates small CT ratio errors Stability for through faults

Presently numerical bus bar schemes are being installed.

Low impedance CTs can be connected to bay units in yard and bay units connected to central unit avoiding long CT pilots CT saturation detection Plant replica and trip logics by soft ware
----By H.Raghavendra Rao, SE(RETD)/KPCL

Breaker fail protection

All protections of the equipments finally give command to the breaker to trip and isolate. If the breaker fails to trip protections will be ineffective and equipments get damaged EHV breakers are reliable but they fail to trip due to
Defective mechanism Air/hydraulic pressure for operation in adequate Gas pressure due to leak Trip coils burnt Breaker DC failing Low impedance scheme

During such breaker failures the equipment can be isolated only by tripping all breakers connected to the bus and making bus dead To take care of such breaker failures Local Breaker back up protection is provided Scheme logic detects continued presence of current flow after a small delay from the energisation of trip relays when the breaker has not tripped and trips all breakers connected to the bus through the bus bar trip circuit LBB and bus bar protection operate through same trip circuits
----By H.Raghavendra Rao, SE(RETD)/KPCL

Transmission Line Protections

Transmission lines of different voltage levels of different lengths and different capacities are in service They form the grid network carrying power from source to load centers Faults in transmission lines are more frequent compared to faults in other power system components. The lines lie in forests, hilly regions and are subject to weathering, bird/animal faults etc The faults that occur could be
Ph-Ground faults Ph-ph faults Ph-Ph-Ground faults 3 Phase faults Broken conductor

All faults in transmission line are to be cleared with out time delay for secured operation of the system

----By H.Raghavendra Rao, SE(RETD)/KPCL

Transmission Line Protections

Faults result in high magnitude of currents and simple over current and earth fault relays were used in earlier and smaller radial feeders. These can not provide fast tripping because
Time grading is to be done for discriminated tripping thus time delay The current grading can not be done since the fault current is always not the same and depend on system conditions Tripping takes place in both direction flow Directional over current protection provided directional discrimination. Directional relays are operational even now for lower voltage one end fed feeders are Transmission lines of different voltage levels of different lengths and different capacities are in service
----By H.Raghavendra Rao, SE(RETD)/KPCL

Transmission Line Protections

Advent of impedance relays suited most for line protections Impedance relays are energised by 2 quantities voltage and current and measure the V/I ratio and trip when the measured impedance is less than the set value Since the distance along the line up to fault point is proportional to the impedance , the impedance measuring relay is also called as distance relay This were suited for line protection since relay operation was not dependent on fault current, no current grading and could be set to operate for the required length of the line Type of distance relays Plain impedance relay, reactance relay, MHO relay, The characteristics of the relays depicting their tripping and non tripping zones could be conveniently shown on an R-X diagram. Since line also has its characteristic impedance the relay characteristic adoptability could be analysed in an R-X diagram Modern distance relays in addition to standard circular characteristics can also provide quadrilateral/Lenticular etc. which can be made precisely fit the requirement Static and now numerical relays can be made to provide any operating characteristic
----By H.Raghavendra Rao, SE(RETD)/KPCL

Transmission Line Protections

Distance relay schemes applied to line protections by setting their impedance pick up to cover tha transmission line length as required. Distance relays form the main protection for lines The back up to distance protection is by directional over current relays for line voltages up to 220 Kv and for 400 KV the back up is also by one more distance scheme. Now a days for 220 KV lines also back up is by distance Distance measuring element is required for all Ph-Ph faults and Ph-gnd. Faults. Thus 6 elements reqd. Further for back up for remote faults different impedance set relays reqd. 3 such zones are generally used. Thus 18 elements reqd. One distance element for all measurement which is switched by starte relays are used for 66 KV and below voltage lines. Switched schemes could be with both phase switching and zone switching For 220 KV lines separate relays for phases but same relay switched for zones are used. Now with numerical relays providing number of measuring elements is not additionally expensive and hence all schemes are non switched In addition to main and back up as above over voltage protection is provided for 400 KV lines
----By H.Raghavendra Rao, SE(RETD)/KPCL

Transmission Line Protections

3 Zone distance protection
All faults with in protected section is to be cleared with out any time delay Ideally the distance relay is to be set to reach up to the next remote end. This may cause undesired tripping even for faults in the next section
Relay over reaches (operates for more than the set Impedance) due to inaccuracies of relay (10%erroe) CT PT errors Line parameters and distance considered for setting may not be exact due to route etc.

Hence the inst. Tripping distance relay(Zone1) is to be set for less than line length, 80 to 85 % adopted For providing protection for balance 20% another distance element(Zone2) provided. To cover any under reaching relay is set for more than the line length but less than zone 2 reach of next section. Up to 50% of next shortest section adopted. This is time delayed to allow the zone1 element at the other end to trip Back up protection for faults in the next section to cover failure of tripping by other end relays providedby Zone 3 element. The back up is required to reach up to the end of the longest line at the other end. Time delay more than zone 2 time required.next faults
----By H.Raghavendra Rao, SE(RETD)/KPCL

Transmission Line Protections

Standard 3 zone distance scheme
Z3B Z2B

D
Z1B Z1 time Z2 time Z1A Z2A Z3 time

Z3A

Zone1A=80% of protected zone=80% of A-B, Time =Instantaneous Zone2 A=Up to 50 % of next shortest section=(A-B)+50%of(B-D), Time=0.3 to 0.5 sec Zone3A=Up to slightly more than100% of next longest section=120%of (A-B)+100% of (B-C), Time= 06 to 1.0 sec.
----By H.Raghavendra Rao, SE(RETD)/KPCL

Transmission Line Protections

Carrier aided protections
Providing instantaneous tripping for only up to 80% of the section and leaving balance 20% to trip with time delay is not meeting high speed fault clearance for all in zone faults. The auto re closing will also be not effective This can not be achieved by only distance protections Distance protection schemes with Carrier aided schemes over come this and provide instant tripping for all in zone faults The principle is based on using a communication channel to transmit signal to remote end when fault is sensed in forward direction and receive such signal from far end. Receipt of signal is used to trip instantly even the faults are seen in zone2 The integrated scheme with signaling could be following types
Blocking scheme Inter tripping scheme
Direct transfer trip/permissive under reach/permissive over reach/Accelerated scheme
----By H.Raghavendra Rao, SE(RETD)/KPCL

Transmission Line Protections

Carrier aided protections
Blocking scheme
Remote end equipment sends signal if the fault is in the other section. Reverse looking distance relay is used to send the signal. The zone 2 element will operate as per zone 2 delay if signal is received since receipt of signal implies that the fault is not in the section If the fault is in the protected direction then the reverse looking distance relay at far end will not pick up and send signal implies that the fault is in the section . Then Zone time delay is shorted and zone trip also will be instant In blocking scheme non availability of signaling equipment will not prevent instant tripping. This may be disadvantage also since for far end faults also Zone 2 may trip instantly if signaling is faulty If signaling channel is faulty scheme is reverted to original scheme A small time delay reqd for zone 2 extended trip to avoid instant tripping due to delay in signal transmission

----By H.Raghavendra Rao, SE(RETD)/KPCL

Transmission Line Protections

Carrier aided protections

Permissive under reach transfer trip scheme

Signal is transmitted when zone 1 element picks up and on receipt of signal zone 2 trip acts instantly. If the fault is out side no signal is transmitted and scheme operates with the zone time delays set

Permissive over reach transfer trip scheme

It is similar to permissive under reach except that the signal is transmitted by the over reaching zone 2 elements

----By H.Raghavendra Rao, SE(RETD)/KPCL

Transmission Line Protections Power swing detection

Power swings in the system occur due to delayed fault clearances, sudden change in load flows ,generators running with evacuation through long lines etc During power swings the two end voltage vectors start slipping relative to each other with current also swinging from maximum to minimum The impedance measured during power swings will be varying with the locus entering the relay characteristic The relay ses it similar to a 3 phase fault and may trip For recoverable swings such tripping is not desirable Hence during power swings tripping is to be blocked. For some special cases tripping on power swing is required. However detection of power swing is required so that selectively tripping or blocking can be adopted Power swing detection is based on the principle that the impedance vector during swings moves slower from load point to inside where as during faults the impedance vector suddenly moves in to the relay characteristic. Discrimination of power swing and fault based on this Detector has a characteristic with reach higher than the zone 3 distance relay reach and the annular area is the swing band. If the locus enters swing detector characteristic and remains in the band for more than set delay it is detected as power swing. If the locus leaves the band with in that time than it is not a power swing. Time taken to travel from outer characteristic to inner characteristic is more than 30 MS it is detected as swing

----By H.Raghavendra Rao, SE(RETD)/KPCL

Transmission Line Protections

Auto Re closing
Most of the faults(90%) that occur in transmission lines are transient faults which get cleared once the line is de energised and will be ready for re closing. Transient faults are
Insulator flash overs due to tracking Swinging of wires due to wind temporarily reducing clearance Forest fire Growth of vegetation which burns out on flash over

Automatic re closing after line has tripped from both ends reduces line outage times to large extent With out this auto re closing, for transient faults also operators closing the line breakers from both ends after mutual consultation takes minimum 15 to 30 mts Also quick auto re closing reduces the risk of system disturbance, over loading of other lines etc. Hence auto re closing is provided for EHV lines, important tie lines
----By H.Raghavendra Rao, SE(RETD)/KPCL

Transmission Line Protections

Auto Re closing
Auto re closing scheme performs automatic closing of the line breaker after the line has tripped on fault and line has been de energised from both ends Main features of auto re closing scheme are
Selectable to reclose on 1 ph. Faults or 3 phase faults or both A dead time is allowed from fault tripping to reclosing command. This is to allow arc extinguishing and deionising time of the fault arc for successful re closing A reclaim time is allowed before going for subsequent auto re close after breaker is closed either by auto re closer or by manually. This is to take care of breaker duty cycle. After one close-open operation the breaker mechanism to be ready for re closing Air pressure/spring charging, Reclaim time for breaker arc chamber For 3 phase re closing check for dead line condition or synchronism of bus and line supplies before re closing Lock out of re closing after one shot closing and re tripping on permanent/semi permanent fault
----By H.Raghavendra Rao, SE(RETD)/KPCL

Transmission Line Protections

Auto re closing
Requirements in line protection system for application of auto re closing
The breaker shall have separate tripping arrangement for each pole for single pole tripping and re closing The distance relay shall have individual phase tripping as per faulted phase The breaker shall be suitable for auto re close duty The line protection system shall have instantaneous tripping on both sides for all faults in protected section which is provided by either carrier aided distance protection or unit protection like phase comparison relaying with phase segregation

Auto re closing is enabled only on tripping by distance relay in zone 1 or zone 2 extended and is blocked for tripping by
Zone 2 and zone 3 distance/Over voltage/bus bar protection/inter trip from other end/manual trip
----By H.Raghavendra Rao, SE(RETD)/KPCL