CHAPTER EIGHT

CONTROL CIRCUITS AND THEIR

FUNCTION

INTRODUCTION
During power system faults, devices are used for fast
isolation of affected equipment to save them from
damage. Special circuits called control circuits are used
for other functions besides switching on or off of circuit
breakers and isolators as enumerated below:
1. Voltage raises or lowers in tap changer device of
power transformers.
2. Frequency regulation and load control.
3. Power system monitoring such as power factor
control.
4. Alarm and indication control.
5. Circuit supervision.
6. Audio/visual annunciation.
B. CONTROL SYMBOLS AND ALPHABETS

In order to make for easy identification, symbols and

alphabets are used for various devices in control
circuits. This method helps to simplify the control
drawings. Control symbols and alphabets generally
used are as shown in Table 1. A clear knowledge of
these facilitates the understading of control drawings.

In instrument and control circuits, pipe & instrument

Drawing (P & ID), the symbol used for schamatic
diagrams are listed in chapter six. These symbols
simplify control drawing and knowledge of them
facilitates the understanding of the drawings.
CONTROL CIRCUIT SUPPLIES

To effect operation of control circuits, external auxillary

power supplies are used. Two major sources of supplies
are most common namely:

 D.C. supply
 A.C. supply

D.C. SUPPLY

The major source of D.C. supply is form a storage

battery. The storage battery types commonly used are:

(a)Lead Acid Accumulator type.

(b)Nickel Cadmium type.

Auxiliary D.C. supply has standard voltage ratings of

24V, 30V, 36V, 48V, 50V, 60V, 72V, 110V, 220V and
250V.

Generally 110V is used for Trip/Close control. In some

cases a combination of 50V and 110V D.C. are used. In
this case the relay coil energizes an auxillary
interposing relay whose contacts make to enrgise an
110V D.C. breaker trip/close coil which in turn opens
/closes the contacts of a breaker.

Standard ampere-hour ratings of auxiliary D.C. supply

are 45, 60, 100, 250, 500 and 1000AH.

The voltage rating and the Ampere-Hour rating are

decided by:

The size and capacity of generating station and or

substations.

The bus bar switching arrangement, which decides

the number of circuit breakers and isolators.

The location of the control equipment in regard to

the location of the controlled apparatus i.e. the
distance from the control room tp the controlled
apparatus.

In most 11KV,33KV and 132KV substations in NEPA,

110V DC batteries are installed. In 330Kv substations,
both 50V DC and 110V DC batteries are used for
control circuits.

The ampere-hour rating range between 100 and 250

AH.

A D. C. distribution panel is generally associated with a

D. C storage battery. The size of the panel depends
upon the number of individual circuit it serves. A Non-
fused breaker usually protects each sub-circuit of the
distribution panel, which trips as soon as a fault exists
along the circuit being protected.

To protect the D.C. circuits from ground fault, a grounf

fault relay is installed which usually flags whenever
there is a ground fault within any of the poles of the
D.C. circuits. For example, if there is a fault within the
positive pole of the D.C. circuits, the D.C. ground
positive target of the ground fault will operate. The
relay will not reset except the source of the fault is
cleared. In some cases, the fault signal is wired to a
visual alarm, which will indicate the actual pole that is
faulty. In some installations, a switch is used to monitor
the amount of voltage leaking to ground.

Under normal conditions P-E and N-E voltages are

equal. But a pole loses the voltages to ground if faulty.

A.C SUPPLY

The A.C supply for the control circuits is obtained from

a station auxillary transformer. This, in the case of
generating units, may be directly connected to the
generator terminals as unit auxillary transformers.

A standby A.C generator is also used as an alternate

source of A.C supply for control circuits. In stations
were A.C. supply is to be reliable, there could be two
sources from which auxillary supply is obtained with an
automatic change – over switch. In this case, if supply
from one source fails then, supply from the other source
is readily available. The alternative source could be
another auxillary transformer fron a separate source,
D.C. motor, A.C. generator set, or batter inverter
circuit.

In control circuits, A.C. supply could serve the

following purposes:

a. Control panel illumination

b. Control panel heater

c. Breaker spring operating motor

d. Breaker control panel heater and illumination.

e. Control panel indication lamps

f. Audio/ visual annuciation

g. OLTC gear motor operation in power transformer

h. Position indication for tap-changer progress.

 LEGEND FOR FIG. 2

H1 – H2 -Auxiliary A.C. Single phase supply

M -Spring charging motor

MS -Motor control switch

H -Heater

PBC, PBT -Push button (close/open)

52 CS -Control switch for circuit breaker

LS -Limit switch

LSS -Local slector switch

LCS -Local control switch

RSS -Remote selector switch

L/R -Local/remote position

CC/ TC -Closing/Trip coil

ITR -Inter-tripping Relay (optional)

HTPB -Healty trip push button

HTL -Healty trip supervision lamp

BOL -Breaker open lamp

BCL -Breaker close lamp

ATL -Auto trip lamp

52a, b -Circuit breaker auxiliary contacts

51 -Over current relay

64N -Earth fault relay.

TRIP CIRCUIT

The control circuit for the opening of switchgear during

normal operation or on fault is usually known as Trip
circuit.

To ensure that this circuit does not fail whenever a

signal is sent to operate the breaker/disconnect switch,
it is being monitored continuously by a relay known as
Trip Circuit Supervision relay. The relay is wired in
such a way that the relay coil is energized as long as the
trip circuit is healthy. If for any reason there is a fault
within the trip circuit causing a loss of D.C. supply, this
relay de-energises causing the mechanical target to flag,
which will indicate, “Trip circuit faulty”. The relay is
usually a self reset relay, which resets itself as soon as
the D.C. supply is restored. D.C. supply can also be lost
if the battery charger is faulty or the D.C. fuse gets
ruptured as a result of a short-circuit fault within the
D.C. circuit. A control scheme showing the trip circuit
supervision wiring is as shown in Figs. 1 and 2.