CIRED 20th International Conference on Electricity Distribution
Paper 0660
SELECTIVE ARC-FLASH PROTECTION
Lauri KUMPULAINEN
Vamp Ltd – Finland
lauri.kumpulainen@vamp.fi
ABSTRACT
Arc-flash faults in MV and LV switchgear are severe
incidents causing safety hazard to personnel and damage to
equipment. Substantial additional costs are often inevitable
due to interruption of the distribution process. For these
reasons, effective methods to reduce the impact of arc-flash
incidents are needed. This paper shortly evaluates different
arc-flash mitigation methods and motivates the use of
technology based on detection of light. The benefits of this
technology are discussed, and practical application
alternatives and examples are given.
INTRODUCTION
Arcing fault is a short circuit via ionized gas (air) between
one live part and ground or between live parts. High power
arc-flash faults can be characterized as electrical explosions.
They release large amounts of energy in the form of radiant
heat, intense light, and high pressure waves. The
temperature of the plasma can reach 20.000 K. The increase
of the temperature expands the volume of the air causing a
pressure wave. Because of the high temperature, circuit
components can change physical state from solid to vapor.
E.g. copper expands by a factor of 67.000 in vaporizing,
which significantly increases the pressure. In addition to
danger caused by radiation, heat and pressure wave, there
may be shrapnel and toxic gases, causing additional
personnel hazard. [1], [2]
Most arc-flash faults start as single-phase to ground faults
and develop into three-phase faults. This emphasizes the
importance of early detection of the arc in order to rapidly
clear the fault.
Arc current is not the same as the bolted fault current,
because of the arc resistance. Because electric arc is more or
less unpredictable, exact values for arc resistance or current
cannot be given. Calculation formulas in standards are
based on extensive experimental data. Arcing current is
always lower that the bolted fault current [3], [4]. Especially
in low voltage, the arcing current can be less than half the
value of the bolted fault current. It is important to note that
low fault current may lead to longer fault clearing time and
thus higher risk and damage.
Hazard to personnel, in practice arc burns, is not the only
reason to apply arc-flash protection. The economic
consequences can be substantial, including not only the
CIRED2009 Session 1 Paper No 0660
Prague, 8-11 June 2009
Samuel DAHL
Vamp Ltd – Finland
samuel.dahl@vamp.fi
costs because of the damaged equipment but often very high
economic losses due to interrupted industrial processes.
OVERVIEW OF ARC-FLASH PREVENTION
AND MITIGATION METHODS
The IEC switchgear standard 62271-200 [5] underlines the
prevention of internal arc fault, but recognises several other
measures. These methods are shortly evaluated below.
Arc-flash prevention
Prevention of arc-flash incidents should always be
emphasized. By careful design and maintenance of
equipment, and adequate training of personnel the risk can
be mitigated. There are also on-line monitoring
technologies, based on e.g. partial discharge or infrared
radiation detection or thermal monitoring. These methods
can be effective against faults caused by other factors than
direct human error.
Arc-flash protection methods
The impact of an arc-flash incident depends on the energy
of the incident. The energy depends on voltage, current, and
arcing time, and of course on the distance to arc. System
voltage is normally not one of the issues that can be
changed. Thus the practical protection principles are
increasing the distance to arc or providing a mechanical
barrier between the operator and the arc, and reducing the
arcing time or current.
Passive protection
Personal protective equipment, withdrawable devices, and
arc-resistant switchgear with pressure relief devices are
passive means to mitigate hazard to personnel. From safety
point of view, arc-resistant switchgear provides protection
to personnel as long as the doors are closed. However, open
doors are very common in practice, and in injury scenarios
[6].
Limiting the fault current
Fault current can be limited by choosing transformers with
higher impedance or by using current-limiting reactors, but
this increases cost and system losses. A more widely used
method is current-limiting fuses which provide not only
current limitation but rapid fault-clearance as well. The
serious drawback of current-limiting fuses is that they
operate rapidly when the current is high, but when current-
limiting fuses do not operate in their current limiting range,
clearing times can be significantly longer [1]. Especially in
CIRED 20th International Conference on Electricity Distribution
low voltage, the arc-fault current is often less than 50% of
the bolted fault current.
Rapid fault-clearing times
Time is the critical factor in limiting arc incident energy.
Bus differential protection provides rather fast fault-clearing
time, but it is often complicated and costly. Zone-selective
interlocking is a more cost-effective method, but not as fast
as bus differential. Neither of these methods provides
selective protection against faults in cable compartment.
The fault arc can be detected by pressure sensors. At least
with high power arc the pressure rises fast. Reference [7]
reports that pressure sensors have been removed, and the
arc detection is based on photosensors alone.
The fastest way to detect the arc is based on the detection of
light. According to [8], the evolution of the arc can be
directly traced by observing the luminous intensity. The
recent laboratory tests have verified that even a low power
arc can be detected by light sensitive sensors. The trip of the
circuit breaker can then be initialized within a few
milliseconds. In addition to light condition, in most
applications overcurrent is also required in order to
eliminate nuisance tripping caused by external light sources.
When using optical sensing, the longest delay in arc
protection comes from the operation time of the circuit
breaker. Maximum protection that can eliminate even the
pressure wave can be reached by arc eliminators. Instead on
breaking the fault current these devices provide an
intentional bolted fault, extinguishing the arc within a few
milliseconds.
The impact of fault-clearing time is illustrated in Figure 1,
comparing the incident energy levels (calculated according
to IEEE Std 1584™-2002 [9]) of different protection
approaches.
Comparison of incident energy
Breaker time 50ms
35,00
30,00
25,00
Energy / cal/cm^2
20,00
15,00
10,00
5,00
0,00
Conventional Zone selective Light & current
overcurrent interlocking based detection
protection (100ms+50ms) (7ms+50ms)
(400ms+50ms)
Figure 1. Comparison of arc-flash incident energy levels of
different protection methods.
CIRED2009 Session 1
Prague, 8-11 June 2009
Paper 0660
The importance of the fault-clearance time is better
visualized in Figure 2, presenting results of 50kA arcing
fault tests without and with optical sensing based protection.
In the first case, the copper has totally vaporized.
Figure 2. Arc test results (50kA) with conventional
overcurrent protection (500ms) and with photosensor based
protection (47ms).
IMPLEMENTATION OF ARC-FLASH
PROTECTION BASED ON DETECTION OF
LIGHT
Dedicated arc protection relays
Arc-flash protection is usually implemented by separate
system using arc flash detectors connected to dedicated arc
protection relays. Overcurrent, earth fault etc. protection is
carried out by other relays. A comprehensive, selective arc
flash protection system comprises of arc flash sensors, light
and current slave units collecting data from light sensors
and current transformers, and a master unit or several units
for final collection of all the data, and tripping the correct
breaker, if both light and overcurrent are detected.
Arc flash sensors (Figure 3) can be point sensors or fiber
optic sensors. Selection of sensor type depends on the
application. According to practical experience, fiber optic
loops are cost effective to apply in low voltage switchgear
or motor control centres with multiple compartments.
Figure 3. Point sensor and fiber optic loop sensor.
Advantages of point sensors are easy new and retrofit
installation and provision of exact fault location indication
as sensors are installed in each protected compartment. The
safety of the maintenance personnel can be enhanced even
further by personal point sensor, connected to clothes.
Regardless of the sensor type, it is essential that the whole
Light & current
detection and
arc-flash protection system has continuous self-supervision
arc eliminator including the sensors and cables.
(2ms)
In multi-zone arrangements, master units must be able to
interchange data. Information on activated sensor can be
Paper No 0660
CIRED 20th International Conference on Electricity Distribution Prague, 8-11 June 2009

Paper 0660

distributed to all master units, so that all master units which

detect overcurrent can open the circuit breakers in their
zones. Similarly, information on locally detected
overcurrent can be passed to other units as a trip condition,
if one unit detects light but no overcurrent. Figure 4
presents an example of selective multiple zone protection.
With this arrangement, only the appropriate circuit breakers
operate. E.g. in a typical fault in the cable compartment of
outgoing feeders, only the faulty feeder is tripped.

Figure 5. An example of selective protection using

common numerical relays equipped with arc-flash
protection option.
Stand-alone arc protection units
A very cost effective solution for e.g. in wind power plants
and secondary substations are stand-alone arc protection
units. Figures 6 and 7 present examples of point sensor based
arc flash protection in a wind power plant.

Figure 4. An example of selective arc-flash protection

scheme with dedicated arc-flash protection system.

Numerical relays equipped with arc-flash protection

option
Numerical protection relays can be equipped with arc-flash
protection option. In practice this means sensor inputs to
which the arc flash sensors can directly be connected. This
way the total cost of the protection concept is minimal. The
arc sensor input may include e.g. two inputs for arc sensors,
one binary input and one output for receiving/sending arc
sensor data to other relays. The relays include high-speed Figure 6. Protection zones of a wind power plant equipped
overcurrent and earth fault stages dedicated to operation with point sensors.
with the arc flash sensors.

The selectivity of arc flash protection can be increased by

connecting arc flash sensors of the outgoing feeder to the
overcurrent relay of the feeder. If an arc fault occurs in the
feeder area, only the feeder breaker will open, leaving the
rest of the substation operational. This is very beneficial,
because many arc faults occur in cable compartments.
Figure 5 presents an example of arc flash protection carried
out carried out by common numerical relays with arc flash
protection option.

In figure 5 it should be noted that selective protection and

indication of fault location is easily achieved by installing
light sensors in busbar compartment, circuit breaker
compartments, and in feeder compartments.
Figure 7. Selective arc flash protection of the tower cable and
the MV switchgear of a wind power plant.

CIRED2009 Session 1 Paper No 0660

 CIRED 20th International Conference on Electricity Distribution
Figure 8 presents the arc-flash protection scheme of a 4
generator power plant. Each generation unit is equipped with
its own stand-alone arc protection unit. General trip follows if
the fault is in the busbar compartment or in a circuit breaker
compartment, while a selective trip is initialized if the fault is
in a cable compartment.
Figure 8. Selective arc-flash protection of a power plant.
ARC ELIMINATORS
With light and current based arc flash protection the arcing
time consists of the operation time of the protection relay
(2-15ms) and the operation time of the circuit breaker
(typically 50-80ms). In some cases even shorter arcing time
is needed, often in order to limit the rise of the pressure. For
these purposes, arc quenching devices can be applied. When
the arc is detected by the arc protection relay, the relay trips
the quenching device within 2-5ms and sends the tripping
signal to the circuit breaker. The quenching device makes
the short circuit at ultra high speed, and the arc is quenched.
The bolted short circuit current flows through the quenching
device until the circuit breaker opens.
Figure 9. Arc eliminator.
Combination of arc quenching device with current limiting
fuses is a potential solution to overcome the limitations of
current limiting fuses. The quenching device makes a bolted
fault which lead to high current and rapid operation of the
fuse. This mitigates the stress to the equipment.
For low voltage systems the quenching device makes the
busbar potential free within 2ms. Arc eliminator for medium
voltage system is able to extinguish the arc within 5ms.
CONCLUSION
This paper has given on overview of methods to mitigate
arc flash hazard. Because arcing time is the most critical
factor, the fastest, optical sensor based protection methods
are preferred. Other important issues are the selectivity and
self-supervision of the protection system.
CIRED2009 Session 1 Paper No 0660
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Prague, 8-11 June 2009
Paper 0660
Asset protection along with safety aspects should be taken
into account as in any system design. Combination of
sensing of light and overcurrent has proved to be a very
efficient method. This method can be applied by dedicated
arc flash protection system or by using common numerical
protection relays equipped with arc protection option. For
the most demanding cases, ultra fast arc eliminating
technology is available.
REFERENCES
[1] T. Dugan, 2007, “Reducing the arc flash hazard”,
IEEE Industry Applications Magazine, p. 51-58,
May/June 2007.
[2] R.H. Lee, 1987, “Pressures developed by arcs”, IEEE
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760-763, July 1987.
[3] M. Murphy, 2008, “How to form a bounding arc flash
study for your site”, Proceedings IEEE IAS Electrical
Safety Workshop, Dallas, Texas, March 18-21, 2008.
[4] D.M. Doan, 2008, “Designing a site electrical system
with arc flash energy under 20 cal/cm2”, Proceedings
IEEE IAS Electrical Safety Workshop, Dallas, Texas,
March 18-21, 2008.
[5] IEC, 2003, “IEC International Standard 62271-200,
High-voltage switchgear and controlgear - Part 200:
AC metal-enclosed switchgear and controlgear for
rated voltages above 1 kV and up to and including 52
kV”
[6] R.A. Jones, D.P. Liggett, M. Capelli-Schellpfeffer, T.
Macalady, L.F. Saunders, R.E., Downey, B. McClung,
A., Smith, S., Jamil, V. Saporita, 2000, “Staged tests
increase awareness of arc-flash hazards in electrical
equipment”, IEEE Transactions on Industry
Application, Vol. 36, No 2, March/April 2000.
[7] H.B. Land, C.L Eddins, J.M. Klimek, 2004,
“Evolution of Arc Fault Protection Technology at
APL”, Johns Hopkins APL Technical Digest, Volume
25, Number 2, 2004.
[8] B. Melouki, M. Lieutier, A. Lefort, 1996, “The
correlation between luminous and electric arc
characteristics”, Journal of Physics D: Applied
Physics, Volume 29, Number 11, November 1996.
[9] IEEE, 2002, “IEEE Std 1584™-2002, IEEE Guide for
Performing Arc-Flash Hazard Calculations”