SWITCHGEAR AND PROTECTION- 3360901

CHAPTER – 1 : ELEMENTS OF PROTECTION

STUDY MATERIAL

TOPIC : Protection Zone, CT, PT and Current Limiting Reactor

PREPARED BY: MR. NISHANT D. MEHTA

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Boundary of Zone Decided by Location of CT

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 CLASSIFICATION OF CT

CT

BASED ON APPLICATION BASED ON CONSTRUCTION BASED ON COOLING

MEASURING PROTECTIVE WOUND BAR DRY OIL

CT CT TYPE TYPE TYPE IMMERSED

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 BAR PRIMARY CT OR RING TYPE CT OR TOROIDAL CT

• Types (Shapes) of Core:

Nickel iron alloy (For Measuring CT) or Grain oriented sheet steel (For Protective CT) is used
for making the core of CT

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• Development process of Ring type CT

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BAR PRIMARY CT

The insulation on the bar type primary is bakelized paper tube

or a resin directly moulded on the bar. Such bar type primary is the integral part of the CT.

The core and the secondary windings are same in bar type transformer

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 WOUND TYPE CT

Types (Shapes) of Core:

Core is made up of hot rolled silicon steel stampings or cold rolled grain oriented nickel-iron alloy

Both primary and secondary windings are wound concentrically to reduce leakage reactance

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WOUND TYPE CT

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 MEASURMENT AND PROTECTIVE CT

Magnetization Characteristics of CT Comparison of measuring CT and protective CT

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COMPARISON BETWEEN MEASURMENT AND PROTECTIVE CT

MEASURMENT (INSTRUMENT) CT PROTECTIVE CT

• There is no problem of saturation of core so • There is saturation of the core at the time of
the smaller sized core can be employed and it fault. To prevent this, the bigger size of the core
is not necessary to provide the air gap in the is used. Sometimes airgap is also provided.
core.
• Both phase and ratio error are important • Ratio error is important

• Operates only in the region up to ankle point. • Operates on the knee region or above.

• It saturates at current about 120% of its rated • It can carry very large currents about 20 times it
value. full load current.
• Design is easy. • Design is difficult.

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 DIFFERENCE BETWEEN LIVE TANK CT AND DEAD TANK CT

TOP HOUSING / TANK

AT LIVE POTENTIAL i.e.
LIVE TANK

INSULATOR

BOTTOM HOUSING / TANK

CT CORES WITH CT CORES WITH SECONDARY
AT EARTH POTENTIAL i.e.
SECONDARY WINDINGS ARE WINDINGS ARE LOCATED
DEAD TANK
LOCATED INSIDE THE LIVE INSIDE THE DEAD TANK
TANK

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CT in Switchyard

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 TERMINAL
MARKINGS OF
CT:

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 POLARITY OF
CT:

POLARITY TEST OF
CT:

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 CLASSIFICATION OF PT

PT

BASED ON APPLICATION BASED ON CONSTRUCTION BASED ON COOLING

MEASURING PROTECTIVE ELECTMAG. TYPE PT CCVT DRY OIL

PT PT (CVT) TYPE IMMERSED

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ELECTROMAGNETIC TYPE PT

Dry Type (Synthetic Resin)Voltage Transformer ranges from 3.3

KV onwards

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 ELECTROMAGNETIC TYPE PT

ELECTROMAGNETIC TYPE PT [Dry Type]

Dry Type PT can be used upto voltage of 3.3 KV

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 ELECTROMAGNETIC TYPE PT

ELECTROMAGNETIC TYPE PT [Dry Type Encapsulated in Cast resin (Synthetic

Resin)]

Dry Type (Synthetic Resin)Voltage Transformer ranges from 3.3

KV onwards

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 ELECTROMAGNETIC TYPE PT

ELECTROMAGNETIC TYPE PT [Oil Filled Type]

Oil filled PTs can be used upto 66KV

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 Current Limiting Reactor

• A current limiting reactor, also called a series reactor, is a coil which has high inductive reactance as compared to its
resistance.
• These reactors are used to limit the short circuit current and the effect of resulting voltage disturbances during fault
conditions.
• The short circuit currents depend upon the generating capacity, voltage at the fault point and the total reactance between
the generators and the fault point.

• In large interconnected systems, the total rating of the generators is very high and also, when the system is extended by
the addition of more generating units, the fault currents are also increased. So the fault current to be interrupted by the
same circuit breaker will become greater than the earlier value. These short circuit currents may be large enough to cause
damage to the line and other equipments of the power system network.

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• The short circuit current can be kept within safe limits by increasing the reactance between the source and the fault.
Thus, there is a need of providing a protective reactor. By including a reactor or few reactors at strategic locations, the
short circuit currents at different points in the power system can be reduced.
• The reactors allow free interchange of power under normal conditions but under short circuit conditions the disturbance
is limited to the faulty section. As the resistance of the reactors is very small, thus the efficiency of the system is not
affected much.

Main functions of Current Limiting Reactors:

1. To reduce the flow of current into a short circuit so as to protect the power system apparatus and parts of the system
from excessive mechanical stress and overheating.
2. To reduce the magnitude of voltage disturbances caused by short circuits.
3. To localize the faults by limiting the current that flows into the fault from other healthy feeders or part of the system.
4. To reduce the duty imposed on switching equipments during short circuits.

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 Construction of Current Limiting Reactor:

Reactors are normally of two types:

1. Dry Type
2. Oil Immersed Type

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 Dry Type

• In air cored dry type reactor, the core is of

air and the whole construction of the
reactor is free from ferromagnetic
materials.
• The winding of the reactor is rigidly placed
on glass-reinforced synthetic resin
supports. Due to the absence of iron, the
reactance remains fairly constant during
the flow of heavy current.

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• Dry type reactors are usually cooled by
natural ventilation and sometimes provided
with forced air and heat exchanger
auxiliaries. These reactors occupy relatively
large space and are used only up to 33 kV.

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 Oil Immersed Type

• Oil immersed reactors are used for voltages above 33 kV.

These reactors are similar to power transformers in several
aspects.
• They are either without iron core or have gaped iron core.
Cooling is similar to that of power transformers. The coil
assembly is oil immersed and is enclosed in a tank.
• Oil immersed reactors have the advantage of smaller size,
high thermal capacity and higher safety against flash-overs.

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Drawbacks of Reactors:

The main drawbacks of a reactor are:

1. The total percentage reactance of the system is increased, thus causing an increase in the reactive voltage drop.
2. The power factor is decreased.

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Location of Current Limiting Reactor:

By including a reactor or few reactors at strategic locations, the short circuit currents at different points can be reduced.
The reactors may be connected in –

1. Series with the generator (Generator Reactor),

2. Series with each feeder (Feeder Reactor),
3. Between bus-bar sections (Bus-bar Reactor)

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Generator Reactor

• When a reactor is connected in between the generator and

the bus, the reactor is known as generator reactor. Modern
alternators are designed to have sufficiently large reactance
to protect themselves against dead 3-phase short circuits at
its terminals.
• With such a large reactance the current during short circuits
at terminals may be less than full load current therefore,
externals reactors are not required. Current limiting reactors
are only used with old generators having low values of
reactance.
• The main disadvantages of such type of reactors are that if
the fault occurs on one feeder, then the whole of the system
will be adversely affected by it.

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Feeder Reactor
• Feeder reactors are connected in series with the feeders.
The advantage is that the voltage of the bus does not drop
substantially in the event of fault on any one feeder. Thus,
other generators continue to supply the load and other
feeders are also not affected.
• The other advantage is that the fault occurs on a feeder will
not affect the others feeders, and thus the effects of fault
are localized.
• The disadvantage of such type of reactors is that it does not
provide any protection to the generators against short
circuit faults occurs across the bus bars.
• There is constant voltage drop and power loss during
normal operation in case of feeder reactors. Cost-wise
feeder reactors are expensive.

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Bus Reactor

• Under normal operation each generator supplies to the

feeder connected to its own section and thus there will be
no current through the reactors (under normal operation).
Therefore there is no voltage drop or power loss in the
reactor during normal operation.
• In case of fault on any one feeder, only one generator feeds
the fault while the current from the other generator is
limited because of the bus-bar reactor.
• The only drawback of such type of reactor is that it does not
protect the generators connected to the faulty sections.

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