Busbar Protection

Simon Richards
Marketing

1 May 2008
 Methods of Providing Busbar Protection

 Frame to Earth (Leakage) Protection

 P120
 Differential Protection
 High Impedance: MCAG34, MFAC 34, P12x +
Metrosil, P14x + Metrosil
 Low Impedance: P740 scheme, P746
 Directional Comparison (Blocking Schemes)
Protection
 P12x, P14x

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 Frame Leakage Protection
Switchgear frame
Switchgear frame bonding bar
Frame-leakage
current transformer

P120

Earth bar

I1
Frame insulation Earthing
resistance to earth electrode
(> 10) resistance (< 1)

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 High Impedance Protection

Simple system to apply

and extend.

High sensitivity for

phase and earth faults.

Extremely stable for

external faults.

RST CT requirements:
METROSIL Equal ratios
87 Class ‘X’

May require stabilising

MCAG34, P1xx – resistors, RST.
Current calibrated
MFAC34 – Voltage May require non-linear
calibrated resistors (Metrosils).
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 Check Feature

Usually provided by duplication of primary protection using

second set of CTs on all circuits other than bus section and
coupler units. Check system forms one zone only, covering
whole of busbar systems and not discriminating between
faults on various sections.

Zone A

87A 87A Zone B

Check zone

87A

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 Buswire Supervision: MVTP31
A
B
C Zone bus wires
N

95X
95X Bus wire short contacts
95X

95 Supervision
relay

Stabilising
resistors

Metrosil
resistors
v v v
87 87 87

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 High Impedance Differential:
eg. MCAG34 and MFAC34
CT switching 52a ?,
Same ratios

Stabilising Resistor:
Metrosil Can’t be supervised

(if req’d)
MFAC/MCAG Inputs

MCAG
 The stabilising resistor is sized to ensure stability for
external faults
 No breaker failure

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 Isolator Auxiliary Switches in High Impedance
Scheme Applications
Busbars

Reserve

Main
Auxiliary switches should :
A B C D
1) Close before the isolator
closes
2) Open after the isolator
a b c d opens
In order to maintain stability
Buswires on switching.
reserve
main

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 Typical Trip Relay Arrangement:
Use of MVAJ05x As Lockout Trip Relays

Double Busbar System

+ -
In Out M1 M2R
87M1 - 1 87CH - 1
96D1

CSS - M1 96D2
87M2 - 1 a1
96E
CSS - M2 c1
87R - 1

CSS - R 96F1

96F2
b1
96G
c2

96H1

96H2

D.C. Buswires

80T

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 « Low Impedance » (Biased/Percentage Restrained)
Busbar Protection
Fast
Modular scheme design allows relays to relate to each circuit and
function of the protection. This enables the user to easily understand the
principles of application.
High sensitivity for phase and earth faults. Protection for each phase can
be relatively independent.
Earlier schemes were less stable than high impedance schemes. Modern
schemes incorporate saturation detectors and are extremely stable.
Duplicate measuring circuits are included.
Current transformers can be :
of different ratio
of relatively small output
shared with other protections
Current transformer secondary circuits are not switched.
Continuous supervision of CT circuits and constant monitoring of vital
circuits are included.

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 Dedicated Busbar Protection vs Constrained
Investment Cost...
System Voltage
(kV)

Dedicated
145 Busbar
66 Protection
Relays
33
MiCOM P1xx
13.8 Busbar
Blocking
4
Scheme

20 100 Protection
Trip Time (ms)
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 MV Busbar Blocking Protection – P12x and P14x
Incomer
BLOCK
O/C Relay

IF2

O/C Relay O/C Relay O/C Relay O/C Relay

IF1
 Uses only logic combination of binary status from existing
feeder protection relays
 Can use hardwiring, or IEC 61850 GOOSE to transfer signals
between relays
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 Directional Comparison Busbar Protection

 Bus zone protection and unit protection of feeders

Forward Forward Forward

DOC F1 DOC BS DOC F2

OC OC OC OC
F3 F4 F5 F6

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 Example P14x Scheme for Sectionalised Busbar

L3 + RL1 L3 + RL1 L3 + RL1

L6 + RL5 L6 + RL5 L6 + RL5

L4 + RL2 L4 + RL2 L4 + RL2

L5 + RL4 L5 + RL4 L5 + RL4

+ _ + _ + _
L# -ve L# -ve L# -ve

FIELD SUPPLY

BLOCKING BUS 1
BLOCKING BUS 2
BUS TRIP ZONE 1
BUS TRIP ZONE 2

INCOMING FEEDER F1, INCOMING FEEDER F2,

BUS SECTION
OUTGOING FEEDERS 1A, 1B OUTGOING FEEDERS 2A, 2B

NOTE : L# -ve = Commoned Opto Cathode Connections

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 Low Impedance
Busbar
P740, P746

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 Low Impedance

Features

Busbar Overcurrent
Protection Protection
CB Fail Dead Zone
Protection Protection

Switchgear Continuous
Supervision Monitoring

CT
Measurements
Supervision

Disturbance Event & Fault

Recorder Records
Programmable
Scheme Logic

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 Typical Low Impedance (Biased) Characteristic

Phase Differential Characteristic

idiff (t) Differential current

 Sum of current samples
TRIPPING
AREA  idiffnode (t) = i1 + i2 + i3 + … + in
Operating current
 Magnitude of the differential current
ID>2 RESTRAIN  idiff (t)= |idiffnode (t)| = |  in|
AREA
Restraining (bias) current
ID>1
 Sum of the magnitude of the current
ibias (t) samples
 ibias(t) = |i1|+ |i2|+ | i3| + … + |in| =  |in|

Discriminating
Zone Differential

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 MiCOM P740 Scheme (P741/2/3)
Double Busbar Application

BB1 BB3

BB2 BB4

BB5
2 off P742
or P743

P742 P742 P742 P743 P741

Peripheral Units Optical Fibre Central Unit

 Fully numeric, modular solution

 Fully supervised
 Distributed solutions
 Innovative topology configuration & processing
 Up to 8 zones with 28 bays
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 MiCOM P746
1 box Topology Examples
Single busbar without Isolator

1 2

BB1

3 4 5 6

1 Zone
Maximum of 6 Feeders
6 CTs, and Breakers and 0 isolators (option 1 VT)
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19
 MiCOM P746
3 box Topology Examples
Single busbar with bus section isolator
1 P746 per CT phase

1 2

6+1

BB1 BB2

3 4 5 18

1 or 2 Zones
Maximum of 18 Feeders
18 CTs and Breakers and 19 isolators (option 2 VTs)
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20
 MiCOM P740 and P746
Low CT requirements

 The scheme can be used with many different classes and

manufacturing standards of CTs (IEC/BEAMA/ANSI) and can
accommodate various ratios in the same substation.

 Due to the low CT burden, the scheme can be connected in

series with any feeder protection.

 Low impedance schemes can be easily

integrated into the substation
with no dedicated CT cores for
the busbar protection.

 The VTs are present but are optional

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 MiCOM P746
Customer benefits

 Cost effective solution

 No dedicated CT reduces maintenance costs,

 Reduced engineering (topology via setting)

 Reliable operation minimises outages

 Cost monitoring with:

 Fault analysis & monitoring tools that ease the commissioning and
extensions, etc...)

 “Backup” protections help to increase the plant life

 They can be used as normal protections

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