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Distribution of Power System: ELEC 423
Distribution of Power System: ELEC 423
Distribution of Power System: ELEC 423
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CONTENTS
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2
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Five components of protection systems
Current and voltage transformer to step down the high voltages and currents of the
electrical power system to convenient levels for the relays to deal with,
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Protective relays to sense the fault and initiate a trip, or disconnection,
Circuit breakers to open/close the system based on relay and autorecloser commands;
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&
Potential transformer (VT, PT)
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POWER SYSTEM PROTECTION
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currents and voltages
2. Current transformers (CTs) and potential transformers (PTs)
sensors detect the change in currents/voltages
3. Relays use sensor input to determine whether a fault has
occurred
4. If fault occurs relays open circuit breakers to isolate fault
The protections are often classified according to the object that they
protect. An example is shown in following figure. If a failure occurs
within an indicated area in figure, this area should be isolated from
the rest of the network.
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Protective relays
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COORDINATION OF PROTECTIVE DEVICES
What is coordination?
Overcurrent protective devices can be coordinated selective or
nonselective.
Selective coordination: localization of overcurrent condition to restrict
outages to the circuit or equipment affected, accomplished by choice of
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overcurrent protective devices and their ratings or settings (i2t).
Nonselective coordination: occurs when a fault on a branch circuit
opens not only the branch-circuit overcurrent device but also the feeder
overcurrent device.
• Nonselective systems are installed unknowingly
• Causes needless power outage in portions of the electrical system
that should not be affected.
ELEC432: Electric Power Distribution Systems 11
COORDINATION OF PROTECTIVE DEVICES
The fault on the branch-circuit
may trips both the branch-circuit CBM CBB
breaker and the feeder circuit 100A 20A
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In this case the protection is not
fully coordinated.
Time
Overlap
As a result, power to the panel is zone
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20A 100A
Time
feeder fuse, then in most of the cases we
have a fully coordinated system. So the
main protective device should be rated
twice the largest branch protective device.
Current
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.2s and downstream breakers “B” and
“C” have been set to .1s.
A ground fault occurring in the circuit
supplied by “B” will trip the “B” breaker
without disturbing “A” or “C”..
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generators for a short time period until they stop
3kA
completely (regenerative breaking) and will 36kA
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one-line diagram supply other
circuits and loads.
The fault current path from the
power source is depicted by the red
arrows/lines superseded on the
one-line diagram.
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instantaneous trip setting and the curve is as
depicted.
The 400A circuit breaker has an instantaneous
trip set at 10 times its amp rating (10X) which is
10 times 400A or 4000A.
The 1200A circuit breaker has an instantaneous
trip set at six times its amp rating (6X) which is
six times 1200A rating or 7200A..
ELEC432: Electric Power Distribution Systems 17
CIRCUIT BREAKERS
Remember that when the curves of two circuit
breakers cross over in their instantaneous trip
region, then the drawing indicates that the two
circuit breakers do not coordinate for fault
currents greater than this cross over point.
For instance, interpreting the coordination
curves for the 100A circuit breaker and the
400A circuit breaker: their curves intersect in
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the instantaneous region starting at
approximately 3600A.
That means for a fault current greater than
3600A on the load side of the 100A circuit
breaker, the 400A circuit breaker will open as
well as the 100A circuit breaker.
This demonstrates a lack of coordination and
results in a "cascading effect" that will cause a
partial blackout.
ELEC432: Electric Power Distribution Systems 18
CIRCUIT BREAKERS
This curve also shows that for any fault
greater than approximately 6500 amps
on the load side of the 100A circuit
breaker, the 400A and 1200A circuit
breakers will open as well as the 100A
circuit breaker.
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The reason: for a fault of or greater than
6500A, all three of these circuit breakers
are in their instantaneous trip region.
Both the 400A and 1200A circuit
breakers can unlatch before the 100A
circuit breaker clears the fault current.
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The yellow shading indicates that all three
circuit breakers opened - 100A branch circuit,
400A feeder and the 1200A main.
In addition, all the loads fed by the other
circuit breakers, denoted by the hash shading,
are blacked out unnecessarily.
This is due to the lack of coordination between
the 100A, 400A and 1200A circuit breakers.