Bus Zone protection

Prof.O.V.Gnana Swathika
 Causes for bus zone failure:
Accidental fall of the foreign objects on the
busbars.
Insulation failure.
Failure of circuit-breakers.
Errors in the operation and maintenance
of the switchgear.
Flashover caused by overvoltages.

Prof.O.V.Gnana Swathika
 Introduction:
The differential current protection scheme
of bus-zone is based on KCL.
The bus zone includes bus, CB,
disconnecting switches, instrument
transformers, bus sectionalizing reactors
etc.
If there is internal fault, algebraic sum of
the current meeting at bus zone will not
remain zero and relay operates to send
the signal to CB connected for tripping and
isolating the faulty section.
Prof.O.V.Gnana Swathika
 Faults on bus zone rarely occur. But if it
occurs the following adverse effects may
occur:
i) MVA loading increases due to addition of
fault MVA which may damage the bus.
ii) Loss of zone causes supply intervention

Prof.O.V.Gnana Swathika
 Routine testing to ensure the proper
working of the bus-zone protection is
must.
Protection scheme must be fast, reliable
and stable.

Prof.O.V.Gnana Swathika
 Bus Backup Protection
For small switchgear installation, busbar
protective zone may be covered within the
reach of the distance protection scheme
provided by the feeders.
For large switchgear installation, a
separate bus-zone protection scheme is
required.
Back-up scheme could be provided with
appropriate time delay through a timer.
Prof.O.V.Gnana Swathika
Differential Protection Scheme:
Circulating current entering the busbar is
equal to the currents leaving the busbar
under normal operating condition and for
external faults.
For internal faults (L-G and L-L fault), the
current entering the busbar will not be
equal to the currents leaving the busbar.

Prof.O.V.Gnana Swathika
Prof.O.V.Gnana Swathika
 Relay detects the current in the protect
zone and sends tripping signal to
associated CB.
To avoid false operation due to the
difference in the magnetic conditions of
the iron-cored CTs, CTs without iron cores
are used.
CTs w/o iron cores are called linear
coupler.

Prof.O.V.Gnana Swathika