UNIT 1: FUSES

Introductions, Definitions, Fuse Characteristics,

Types of Fuses, Applications of HRC Fuses, Selection
of Fuses, Discrimination.
INTRODUCTION :

 It is a small piece of thin metal wire or strip connected

in between two terminals mounted on the insulated
base and forms the weakest link.
 It is the current interrupting device under overvoltage
or short circuit conditions.
 A fuse carries working current safely without
overheating.
 It melts under abnormal conditions such as current
exceeding the predetermined value caused by
overloading.
 Thus interrupts the circuit.
 Definitions:

1. Fuse: a fuse is protective device used for protecting cables and electrical
equipment against overloads and short circuits. It breaks the circuit under fault
conditions.
2. Fuse element: it is that part of the circuit which melts when flowing through it
exceeds the predetermined value.
3. Current Rating or Current Capacity of Fuse: it defines the
maximum amount of current a fuse can hold without blowing or
melting. This is usually mentioned in Amperes i.e. 2A, 4A, 600A
etc.
4. Minimum Fusing Current: It is minimum value of current due to
which fuse melts.
5. Fusing Factor: This is the ratio of minimum fusing current and
current rating of fuse. The value of fusing factor is always more
than 1.
6. Prospective Current in Fuse: Before melting, the fuse element
has to carry the short circuit current through it. The prospective
current is defined as the value of current which would flow through
the fuse immediately after a short circuit occurs in the network.
7. Cut off current: the current at which the fuse element melts.
8. Pre-arcing Time of Fuse: This is the time taken by a fuse wire to get
broken by melting. It gets counted from the instant; the over current starts
flowing through the fuse, to the instant when fuse wire gets just broken by
melting.
9. Arcing Time of Fuse: After breaking of fuse wire there will be an arcing
between both melted tips of the wire which will be extinguished at the
current zero. The time accounted from the instant of arc initiated to the
instant of the arc gets extinguished is known as arcing time of fuse.

10. Operating Time of Fuse: Operating time of fuse is the time gap between
the instant when the overrated current starts to flow through the fuse and
the instant when the arc in fuse finally gets extinguished.

Operating time of fuse = melting time + arcing time.

11. Breaking Capacity of Fuse: Breaking Capacity of the Fuse is also known
as the Interrupting Rating or Short Circuit Rating. Breaking Capacity will
specify the maximum safe current that the fuse can interrupt at a voltage
less than the maximum rated voltage.
 Application of HRC fuse

 Used for protection of Transformers, Motors and automobile,

etc.
 It is also used in motor stators
 Backup protection
 HV HRC fuses are used for short circuit protection in high
voltage switchgear for 50 to 60 Hz frequency range
 HRC fuses are used in Distribution upto 2000KVA
 Used in High Voltage motors up to 3MW
 Capacitors up to 1200 KVAR.
 Cable feeders.
 Selection of fuses:
 LIGHTNING PHENOMENON
 What is lightning phenomenon?
 The discharge of atmospheric charged from cloud to cloud to ground
is called lightning phenomenon.
 Cloud is at higher potential(+) when compared to ground (- ).
 Charge flow is always from higher to lower potential.
 Thus cloud gets discharged to the earth or ground.
 When a potential gradient of about 10KV/cm is set up in
the cloud, the air immediately surrounding the cloud gets
ionsed and the first process of actual lighting discharge
start.
 At this instant, a streamer called a pilot streamer.
 Starts from the cloud towards the ground which is not
visible.
 The associated with this streamer is of the order of
100amperes, and most frequent velocity of propagation of
the streamer is about o.15m/micro sec(i.e.0.05 percent of
velocity of light).
 It depends up on the state of ionisation of the surrounding
the pilot streamer.
 It is branched into several path, stepped leader is formed as
shown fig(a) its is called a stepped leader because of its
zigzag shape.
 The portion of the charge in the centre from which the
strike originated is lower and distributed over this entire
system of temporary conductors .
 This process continues until one of the leaders strikes the
ground.
 Which one the stepped leaders strikes the ground, an extremely bright
return streamer, as shown in fig(b).

 The propagates upward from the ground to the cloud following the
same path as the main channel of the downward leader.
 The charge distributed along the leader is the bus
discharge progressively to the ground giving rise to the
very large currents associated with lighting discharge.
 The conventional direction of the current in the
stepped leader and streamer are the same.
 The current varies between 1KA and 2ooKA and the
velocity of propagation of the streamer is about 10 per
cent that of light .
 Its here that the negative charge of the cloud is being
neutralized by the positive induced charge on the
ground.
 This instant which gives rise of the lighting flash
which is visible with our naked eye.
 After the neutralization of the negative charge on the cloud
any further discharge from the cloud on the cloud may
have to originate from another charge center with in the
cloud near the already neutralized charge center,
 Such a discharge from another charge center will, however,
make use of the already ionised path.
 And consequently it will have a single branch and
will be associated with a high current .
 This streamer of discharge is called a dart leader as
shown in fig(c) .
 The velocity of propagation of the dart leader is
about 3 per cent that of light.
 The dart leader can cause more severe damage
than the return stroke.
Wave shape of voltage due to lightning
 Lighting sets up steep-fronted, unidirectional voltage
waves which can be represented as the difference of two
exponentials
 v=v(e^-at –e^-bt)……1
 Where a and b are constants which determine the shape
and v is magnitude of the steep voltage and v is equal to the
crest(peak) value of the impulse voltage wave
 The steep is depends on whether the surge in is induced or
is the result of a direct stroke
 The wave shape is generally defined in terms of the times t1
and t2 in microseconds .where t1 is the time taken by the
voltage wave front to reach its peak value , and t2 is the
time taken for the tail to fall to 50 percent of the peak
value.
 PROTECTION OF TRANSMISSION LINES AGAINST DIRECT
LIGHTNING STROKES

 The transmission lines are effectively protected against

direct lightning strokes with the use of ground wires.
 The ground wire is a conductor which runs in parallel with
the line conductor ,it is the placed at the top of the tower
structure.
 For horizontal configuration of line conductors there are
two ground wires whereas for vertical configuration there
is only one ground wire.
 The use of ground wire is to provide shielding of line
conductors against direct lightning strokes .whenever a
stroke appears on a tower ,the ground wire on both sides of
tower provide parallel paths for stroke reducing effective
impedance and potential at tower top is comparatively less
as the ground wire and power line conductors are coupled
electrically and magnetically , chances of failure of
insulation are significantly reduced.
 The height of ground wire is such that practically all the
lightning strokes are intercepted by them ,these ground
wires are earthed at every tower or pole through low
resistance.
 Whenever any stroke strikes on the line ,it will be taken up
by ground wire .the heavy current flows to the ground from
the ground wire .
 The extent to which protection is provided by the ground
wire depends on footing resistance of the tower .
 Consider resistance as R1 and lightning stroke current is
Istroke , potential of the tower top Vtower with respect to the
earth is given by,

 Vtower=Istroke*R1
 If this voltage is less than that required for
insulator flash over may take place resulting in its
damage . hence the footing resistance of the tower
should be kept as low as possible to limit the value
of voltage which will avoid flash over of insulator.
 It is important to consider that the voltage to
which the tower is raised during lightning
stroke ,is not dependent on the system voltage.
 Figure shows one ground wire and one
conductor :
 REQUIREMENTS OF GROUND WIRE:
 The ground wires used for protection of
transmission line should be mechanically strong
and should be suitably located to provide the
protection .
 There must be sufficient clearance B/W power
line conductors and ground wire for the given
system voltage.
 The footing resistance of the tower should be
as low as possible and economically justifiable.
 GROUND RODS:
 It is used for lowering footing resistance of the tower . these rods
are put into the ground surrounding the tower structure .
 The variation of ground resistance with driven depth (length) for
various size rods is shown in figure .
 The thickness of the ground rod has no effect in reducing the
ground resistance .the length of the rod plays major role .hence long
rods which are thin or many small rods may be used.
 COUNTERPOISES:
A counterpoises is a galvanised steel wire which
either run in parallel , radial or a combination
of two, with respect to overhead line. Its
various configurations are shown in figure,

 ADVANTAGES OF GROUND WIRE:
 Direct lightning strokes on the transmission line are well protected by
ground wire.
 There is damping effect of the ground wire on the disturbance
travelling along the line as it acts as a short circuited secondary.
 for external fields , it provides electrostatic shields to certain extent
which reduces the voltage induced in the line conductors due to
discharge of a neighbouring cloud.

DISADVANTAGES OF GROUND WIRE:

 It requires extra cost.
 It may be possible that due to breaking of ground wire and
falling on the line conductors can cause a direct short circuit
fault . but this situation is rare to occur as mechanically
strong galvanized steel stranded conductors are used. Due to
this ground wires bear sufficient strength.
 Applications of ground wire:
 Ground wire is used for protection against
direct lighting strokes for voltages ranging
from 110kv to 500kv.
 They are used on all the important
transmission lines running through regions
which subject to frequent lightning storms.
 Insulation coordination:
 Definitions :Insulation coordination is the process
of knowing the insulation levels of power system
components.
OR
Determining the insulation strength of the
equipment .
The main aim of the insulation coordination
is the selection of suitable values for the
insulation level of the different components in
any power system so that the whole power
system is protected from over voltages of
excessive magnitude.
 figure shows Volt time curves of protective device
and the equipment to be protected.
 from the volt time curves A and B it is clear that any
insulation having a voltage withstanding strength in
excess of the insulation strength of curve B will be
protected by the protective device of curve A.
Over-Voltage
Protection Devices
Protection of station and
substation from direct
strokes and indirect strokes
 Protection of electrical apparatus against
travelling waves (indirect waves):
 The lightning arrestors or the surge arrestors are the
one who provide protection against the travelling
waves
 There are two main sources of causing overvoltage
external over voltage due to lightning strikes and
internal over voltage due to switching protection
 Protection from external ov can be provided by
shielding methods and for internal ov non shielding
methods
 in non shielding method arc path is provided between
line and ground
 The non shielding method are based on the principle
of insulation breakdown when there is OV incident
on protective device , a part of energy content in it is
discharged to ground through the protective device.
 The breakdown of insulation is function of voltage as
well as time of its application along with shape and
size of the electrodes used.
 The energy criterion for different insulators can be
compared with the help of term called impulse ratio
 Which is defined as ratio of breakdown voltage due to
impulse of specified shape to the break down voltage
at power frequency.
 The impulse ratio in case of insulators is expected to
be high while it should be low in case of lightning
arrestors so that surge incident on it should pass to
ground instead of passing it on to the apparatus.
 The volt time characteristics of gaps with one electrode
grounded depend on polarity of the voltage wave as
shown in fig 4.9.1
 If proper protection is not provided against the
travelling waves then external flash over may take
place damaging the insulator .
 It may also cause internal flash over which can damage
the main insulation of the apparatus .
 These effect of travelling waves are due to high voltages
in the surge, steep wave front of the surge and step
wave during passage of long tailed wave.
 The travelling voltages wave after reaching near the diverter
spark over at a certain prefixed voltage. It is shown in the
fig 4.9.2(a) and (b) .
 This provides a conducting path of low impedance between
line and earth. The residual or discharge voltages will be
controlled to a safe value which could be withstood by
insulation by flow of current to earth through surge
impedance of the line.
Requirement of surge diverter
1. it should not carry any current at normal system
voltage The transient voltage wave whose peak value
is greater than the spark over.
2. The surge diverter should be capable of carrying
discharge current without damage to it and the
voltage should not be more than its break down value
 When the transient voltage reduces below its breakdown
value the power frequency current flowing through the
diverter should be interrupted as quickly as possible.

 Protection of generating stations and substation

against direct strokes:
 To protect structures from direct strokes three
important requirements viz interception, conduction
and dissipation must be fulfilled.
 Transmission line conductor are protected with the
help of overhead earthed shield .
 In outdoor switchyard, lightning masts are preferred
up to 33kv. With increase in voltages, it becomes tall
and uneconomical .
 In this case, overhead shielding wires are employed
as height of the structure required is less.
BASIC IMPULSE INSULATION LEVEL
 For each system voltage basic impulse insulation
level has been fixed by most of the national and
international standards.
 The major substation equipment viz, transformers, breaker
is isolating switches, current trans formers, potential
transformers are manufactured for the same insulation
level, expect where transformers may be manufacturing for
a lower step of insulation level in consideration of the
economy possible.
 Sometimes, where the lightning arresters are installed
right on the terminals of transformers, some of the
substation equipment may fall outside the protective zone
determined from the Withstand level of the equipment.
discharge voltage of the lightning arresters and the
distance between the equipment and the lightning
arrester, and such equipment may be arranged with one
step higher B.l.L.
 In general the insulation level of substation
equipment such as circuit breakers, snatches, bus bars,
instrument transformers is assumed 10% higher than
the transformer B.l.L. insulation level across the open
poles of disconnect switches may be kept 10 -15%.
 higher than that provided between the poles and
earth.
MODERN TRENDS IN
POWER SYSTEM
PROTECTION
GAS INSULATED SWITCHGEAR(GIS)
 THE NEED FOR GIS:
• Non availability of sufficient space.
• Difficult climatic and seismic conditions at site.
• Urban site (high rise building).
• High altitudes.
•Limitations of AIS.
Introduction:
 Compact, multi-component assembly.
 Enclosed in a ground metallic housing.
 Sulphur Hexaflouride (SF6) gas – the primary
insulating medium.
 (SF6) gas- superior dielectric properties used at
moderate pressure for phase to phase and phase to
ground insulation
 Preferred for voltage ratings of 72.5 kV, 145kV, 300 kV
and 420 kV and above.
 Various equipments like Circuit Breakers, Bus-Bars,
Isolators, Load Break Switches, Current Transformers,
Voltage Transformers, Earthing Switches, etc. housed
in metal enclosed modules filled with SF6 gas.
Properties of SF6:
• Non-toxic, very stable chemically.
• Man-made.
• Lifetime – Very long (800 to 3200 years!).
• Insulating properties 3-times that of air.
• Colorless & heavier than air.
• Almost water insoluble.
• Non inflammable.
GAS INSULATED SUBSTATION
 GIS Assembly:
 ESSENTIAL PARTS OF GIS:
 1. Bus bar
 2. Circuit Breaker
 3. Disconnector (line or bus)
 4. Earthing switch (line or bus)
 5. Current transformer (feeder / bus)
 6. Voltage transformer (feeder/ bus)
 7. Feeder Disconnector
 8. Feeder Earthing switch
 9. Lightning / Surge Arrester
 10. Cable termination
 11. Control Panel.
 Advantages :
 Occupies very less space (1/10th) compared to
ordinary substations.
 Hence, most preferred where area for substation is
small (eg: Cities)
 Most reliable compared to Air Insulated Substations.
 Number of outages due to the fault is less
 Maintenance Free.
 Can be assembled at workshop and modules can be
commissioned in the plant easily.
Main Drawbacks:
 High cost compared to conventional substation(AIS).
 Excessive damage in case of internal fault.
 Diagnosis of internal fault and rectifying takes very
long time (high outage time).
 SF6 gas pressure must be monitored in each
compartment.
 Reduction in the pressure of the SF6 gas in any
module results in flash over and faults.
 SF6 causes ozone depletion and global warming.