Group 1

Protection of Alternator,
Transformers, Bus bar and
Lines
PRESENTED BY:
Mark Vincent Bernabe
Marc Joe Acio
Florencio Bacani
Jonard Gammad
Kenneth Belmonte
Cee Jay Tangonan
Jezreal Bielgo
Protection of Alternators

CONTENTS

Mechanical Protections
 Failure of Prime-mover
 Failure of Field
 Over-current
 Over-speed
 Over-voltage
Electrical Protections
 Unbalanced Loading
 Stator Winding Faults
Protection of Alternators

Introduction
 The generating units, especially the larger ones,
are relatively few in number and higher in
individual cost than most other equipment’s,
therefore it is desirable and necessary to provide
protection to the alternators.
FAILURE OF PRIME MOVER

 When input to the prime-mover fails, the alternator runs as a

synchronous motor and draws some current from supply system. This
is known as “inverted running”.
 In case of turbo alternator, failure of steam supply may cause
inverted running. if the steam supply gradually restored, the
alternator will pick up load without disturbing the system.
 In case of hydro generator, protection against inverted running is
achieve by providing mechanical devices on the water wheel. When
water flows drops to an insufficient rate to maintain electrical
output, alternator is disconnected from the system.
FAILURE OF FIELD

 The chances of field failure of alternators are undoubtedly

very rare. Even if it does occur, no immediate damage will
be caused by permitting the alternator to run without a
field for a short period. In this case the alternator can be
disconnected manually. So there is no need of automatic
protection.
OVER-CURRENT

 It occurs mainly due to partial breakdown of winding

insulation or due to overload on the supply system.
 Overcurrent protection for alternator is considered
unnecessary because of the following reasons:
*As the modern alternators have considerably high values of
internal impedance, these will stand a complete short circuit at
their terminals for suffient time without serious overheating.
*On the occurrence of an overload, the alternators can be
disconnected manually.
OVER-SPEED

 The chief cause of over speed is the sudden loss of all or

the part of load on the alternator.
 Centrifugal devices mounted on their driving shafts trip
the main valve of the prime mover when a dangerous over
speed occurs.
OVER-VOLTAGE

 The field excitation system of modern alternators is

designed that over voltage conditions abnormal running
speed can’t occur.
 However , overvoltage in an alternator occurs when speed
of prime mover increases due to sudden loss of alternator
load.
 Usually control governers are provided which continuously
checks the speed and prevents the over speed.
UNBALANCED LOADING

 Unbalanced loading arises from fault to earth or faults

between phases on the circuits external to the alternator.
 Unbalanced current may burn the mechanical fixing of the
rotor core or damage the field winding.
OPERATION

 Under normal operating condition, algebraic sum of three

currents flowing through the relays zero and relay does
not operate.
 When unbalancing occurs, resultant current flows through
the relay and relay trips the circuit breaker to disconnect
the alternator from the system.
STATOR WINDING FAULTS

 Fault between phase and ground Fault between phase

sinter-turn faults involving turns of same phase winding
Differential Protection

 It provides protection against phase to phase and phase to ground

 Current at two ends of the protected sections are compared
 Under normal operating conditions, these currents are equal, hence
no current flows through the relay.
 When a fault occurs in the protected zone, currents at two ends of
the CT becomes unequal. Differential current flowing the relay
isolates the protected section from the system.
DIFFICULTY AND REMEDY

 In most of the cases, alternator is located at a

considerable distance from the switchgear.
 As the relays are located close to the circuit breaker,
balancing resistances are inserted in shorter length of
pilot wire to balance the impedance on both side of there
lay.
LIMITATION

 It is impossible to provide protection to the whole winding

when neutral earthling resistance is used. It protects only
85% of the winding.
Balanced earth fault protection

 Balanced earth fault protection is used for those

alternators in which neutral ends of the three phase are
connected internally to a single terminal.
 It provides no protection against phase to phase fault.
CONCLUSION

 Electricity is used in every step of our life which is

generated by the alternator.
 The development of a country also indirectly depends on
electricity.
 As electrical engineer, we all must be very very much
aware about the protection of alternator.
TRANSFORMER PROTECTION
CONTENTS

 Introduction.
 Transformer Protection Overview.
 Transformer Failures.
 Transformer Protection Review.
 Types of Protection.
 Conclusion.
 References.
INTRODUCTION

 Transformers are a critical and expensive component of the power

system. Due to the long lead time for repair of and replacement of
transformers, a major goal of transformer protection is limiting the
damage to a faulted transformer.
 Some protection functions, such as over excitation protection and
temperature-based protection may aid this goal by identifying
operating conditions that may cause transformer failure.
 The comprehensive transformer protection provided by multiple
function protective relays is appropriate for critical transformers of
all applications.
TRANSFORMER PROTECTION OVERVIEW

 The type of protection for the transformers varies depending on the

application and the importance of the transformer.
 Transformers are protected primarily against faults and overloads.
The type of protection used should minimize the time of
disconnection for faults within the transformer and to reduce the risk
of catastrophic failure to simplify eventual repair.
 Any extended operation of the transformer under abnormal condition
such as faults or overloads compromises the life of the transformer,
which means adequate protection should be provided for quicker
isolation of the transformer under such conditions
TRANSFORMER FAILURES

 winding failures due to short circuits (turn-turn faults, phase-phase

faults, phase-ground, open winding).
 core faults (core insulation failure, shorted laminations).
 terminal failures (open leads, loose connections, short circuits).
 on-load tap changer failures (mechanical, electrical, short circuit,
overheating).
 abnormal operating conditions (over fluxing, overloading,
overvoltage).
 external faults.
CONDITIONS
Internal
 Winding Phase-Phase, Phase- Ground faults.
 Winding inter-turn faults.
 Core insulation failure, shorted laminations.
 Tank faults.
 Over fluxing.

External
 Overloads.
 Overvoltage.
 Over fluxing.
 External system short circuits.
TRANSFORMER PROTECTION REVIEW
 Internal Short Circuit
- Phase Faults
- Ground Faults
 System Short Circuits (Back up Protection)
-Buses and Lines
-Phase Faults
-Ground Faults
 Abnormal Condition
 Open Circuit
 Over Excitation
 Abnormal Frequency
 Abnormal Voltage
 Breaker Failure
 Overload
 Geo-magnetically induced current (GIC)
TYPES OF PROTECTION

 Accumulation Gases Arcing by- production (EX: Buchholz Relay)

 Pressure Relays Arcing causing pressure wave in oil or gas space
(Sudden Pressure Relay)
 Thermal Caused by overload, over excitation, harmonics and Geo-
magnetically induced current Hot spot temperature Top Oil LTC
Overheating
BUCHHOLZ RELAY

 It is a gas actuated relay. When a fault develops slowly, it produces

heat, thereby decomposing solid or liquid insulating material in the
transformer.
 The decomposition of the insulating material produces inflammable
gases. The Buchholz relay gives an alarm when a specified amount of
gas is formed.
 The analysis of the gas collected in the relay chamber indicates the
type of the incipient fault.
 PROTECTION AGAINST FIRE
 Power transformers are subject to fires from many sources. They
often occur because of deterioration of insulation in the transformer.
 This produces arcing which in turn overheats the insulating oil and
causes the tanks to rupture; further arcing then will start a fire.
 Fires are also initiated by lightning and occasionally by dirty
insulators on the outside of the tanks.
 PROTECTION AGAINST LIGHTNING
 Lightning overvoltage surges originate from atmospheric discharges and they can
reach their peak within a few microseconds and subsequently decay very
rapidly.
 The surge voltage can reach up to 10 times the rated transformer voltage and
they pose the greatest threat to transformers on the distribution networks.
 The charge from the surge produces both short duration high current impulse
and long duration continuing current impulse which affects the transformer
insulation system.
CONCLUSION

 The protective equipment discussed is engineered to limit the

damage and system disturbance caused by faults which can occur in a
transformer.
 The choice of protective equipment depends on the size and the
connection of a transformer, voltage level, power system grounding
and the protective relays of the power network.
 The power companies also have different opinions about the extent
and choice of protective equipment for a transformer.
 No general recommendations can therefore be made
 BUSBAR PROTECTION
CONTENTS
 What is a bus bar?
 Causes of fault
 Suitable protection
 Types of faults Overcoming the faults
 Correction
 Dot convention or polarity marks
 Why PS class is preferred over other protection class.
 Stability ratio Bus Bar Protection drawing of MRSS
 Why is bus bar protection not in line at MRSS Philosophy of pilot wire
supervision relay
 Conclusion References
What is a bus bar?

 Bus is derived from Latin word “OMNIBUS” (common for

all)
 Nerve centre of the power system where various circuits
are connected together.
CAUSES OF FAULT

 Breakdown of insulation because of over voltages, foreign

objects, etc.
 Weakening of insulation because of ageing, corrosion,
salty water.
Suitable Protection

 Differential protection Why differential protection?

 Terminals of the system are near to each other.
 Hence by installing CT’s on the two sides of the bus, comparison can be made
between the current entering it & leaving it. Any difference in current will
immediately signal an internal fault.
 The difference in current can be used to excite the coil of a differential relay
via CT secondary and thus issue trip commands to CB on both sides of the bus
to isolate it.
TYPES OF FAULTS

 Faults may be broadly classified as External Fault(through

fault) & Internal Fault. Requirement of a unit protection is
that the differential scheme should respond to internal
faults and should not respond to external fault.
CORRECTION

 When due to external faults one of the CT’s get saturated, the
differential relay coil needs to be restrained from tripping.
 We can easily accomplish this by connecting a high resistance known
as stabilizing resistance in series with the differential relay coil
 The stabilizing resistance should be of such a value, that under the
worst case of maximum external fault and full saturation of CT, the
current through differential coil is less than its pick up value and at
the same time it should respond to minimum internal fault current.
DOT CONVENTION

 Dot markings are used to know the direction of circulating

current in the CT secondary circuit.
 Rule of dot convention says that “When current enters the
dot mark on the primary side of a CT, the current must
leave the similarly marked dot mark on the secondary side
& vice versa”.
WHY PS CLASS ONLY ?

 Protection class CT’S such as 5P10,5P20 may produce undesired difference

current in the CT secondary due to following reasons

1.Two or more CT’S of class 5P10 may have different accuracy (in this case for 10
times the rated current)

2.Even if the CT’S are identically manufactured, deterioration of core properties

over time may differ & they may behave differently over time.
FEATURES OF PS CLASS

 1.Here instead of generalizing minimum saturation level of a CT, the

users have to exactly specify the saturation level of the CT. This is
called as knee point voltage as it appears as a human knee in CT
magnetization characteristics.
 2. This specification will take into account the maximum through
fault current, the actual lead burden, the relay burden, resistance of
the CT secondary winding & also a factor of safety.
Busbars in substation
 Busbars play an important role in power transmission and distribution. They
are employed as a central distribution point for all feeders. In the case of a
fault, current on the busbar becomes high, resulting to mechanical
destruction which would affect all feeders.
 The problem is that the bus bars are usually left out without specific
protection because it is assumed that they have high reliability. It was feared
that if a busbar had a dedicated protection scheme it might mal-operate and
end up affecting the whole power system.
 The other reason was that back up protection was assumed to be good enough
to provide decent bus protection. Due to problems such as loss of loads and
long time to clear the faults, when using back up protection, a
dedicated busbar protection scheme is required.
 When it comes to a dedicated busbar protection the high speed operation,
reliability and stability is in demand. Instability of the power system might
be caused by case of a failure to trip during an external fault or false tripping
during service of the busbar.
System protection used to cover bus bars

 The system that is used to cover busbar protection consists of

overcurrent or distance protection. Making use of this system the
busbar will be inherently protected.
 This system also can be used as back up protection by using
time grading in a case where slow protection action is required. Time
grading ensures that the circuit breaker nearest to the fault always
opens first, by choosing an appropriate time setting for each of the
relays.
Frame-Earth Protection

 Frame earth protection for bus bars has been extensively used in the past.
This method can be applied to various layouts of busbar protection, each
having certain capability.
 Frame earth protection schemes are still in existence and provide
effective service for busbar protection. Introduction of numerical relays has
added to a decline in application of a frame leakage system.
Differential protection for bus bars

 Differential protection operation directly uses

the Kirchhoff’s Current Law where it is required that the
currents going into a node are equal to current leaving the
node.
When the busbar has a fault also known as internal fault, the total currents
entering it is not equal to zero. Fault current If is the sum of the all currents.
Reverse blocking / Interlocking
protection

 In a distribution busbar system traditionally when a fault occurs it was

cleared by time delay protection upstream relays. With the
introduction of numerical technology a simple protection scheme such
as busbar blocking scheme can be applied to protect a distribution
system with a single source.
Conclusion

 Thus it is concluded that the bus bar protection is an

important part of the power system, as the system voltage
has been increasing and short circuit capacities are
building up.
 So, it is not advisable to leave the bus bars unprotected
on a primary basis.
Protection of Lines or Feeder

Contents
 Introduction
 Protection of line
 Time Graded Over Current Protection
 Protection of Radial Feeder
 Line Protection by Definite Time Relay
 Advantages of Definite Time Line Protection
 Disadvantage of Definite Time Line Protection
 Over Current Line Protection by Inverse Relay
 Over Current Protection of Parallel Feeders
 Differential Pilot Wire Protection
 Merz Price Balance System
Introduction

 As the length of electrical power transmission line is generally long

enough and it runs through open atmosphere, the probability of
occurring fault in electrical power transmission line is much higher
than that of electrical power transformer and alternators. That is why
a transmission line requires much more protective schemes than a
transformer and an alternator.
Protection of line- should have some
special features, such as-
 During fault, the only circuit breaker closest to the fault point should
be tripped.
 If the circuit breaker closest to the faulty point, fails to trip, the
circuit breaker just next to this breaker will trip as back up.
 The operating time of relay associated with protection of line should
be as minimum as possible in order to prevent unnecessary tripping of
circuit breakers associated with other healthy parts of power system.
These above mentioned requirements cause protection of transmission
line much different from protection of transformer and other equipment
of power systems. The main three methods of transmission line
protection are –

 Time graded over current protection.

 Differential protection.
 Distance protection.
Time Graded Over Current Protection

 This may also be referred simply as over-current protection of

electrical power transmission line. Let’ discuss different schemes of
time graded over current protection.
Protection of Radial Feeder

 In radial feeder, the power flows in one direction only, which is from
source to load.
 This type of feeders can easily be protected by using either definite
time relays or inverse time relays.
Line Protection by Definite Time Relay
 This protection scheme is very simple. Here total line is divided into
different sections and each section is provided with definite time
relay. The relay nearest to the end of the line has minimum time
setting while time setting of other relays successively increased,
towards the source.
 For example, suppose there is a source at point A, in the figure below
 At point D the circuit breaker CB-3 is installed with definite time of relay
operation 0.5 sec. Successively, at point C another circuit breaker CB-2 is
installed with definite time of relay operation 1 sec. The next circuit breaker
CB-1 is installed at point B which is nearest of the point A. At point B, the
relay is set at time of operation 1.5 sec.
Now, assume a fault occurs at point F. Due to this fault, the faulty current
flow through all the current transformers or CTs connected in the line. But as
the time of operation of relay at point D is minimum the CB-3, associated
with this relay will trip first to isolate the faulty zone from rest part of the
line. In case due to any reason, CB-3 fails to trip, then next higher timed
relay will operate to initiate the associated CB to trip. In this case, CB-2 will
trip. If CB-2 also fails to trip, then next circuit breaker i.e. CB-1 will trip to
isolate major portion of the line.
Advantages of Definite Time Line Protection

 The main advantage of this scheme is simplicity. The

second major advantage is, during fault, only nearest CB
towards the source from fault point will operate to isolate
the specific position of the line.
Disadvantage of Definite Time Line Protection

 If the number of sections in the line is quite large, the

time setting of relay nearest to the source would be very
long. So during any fault nearer to the source will take
much time to be isolated. This may cause severe
destructive effect on the system.
Over Current Line Protection by Inverse Relay

 The drawback as we discussed just in definite time over current protection

of transmission line, can easily be overcome by using inverse time relays. In
inverse relay the time of operation is inversely proportional to fault current.
 In the above figure, overall time setting of relay at point D is
minimum and successively this time setting is increased for the relays
associated with the points towards the point A.
In case of any fault at point F will obviously trip CB-3 at point D. In
failure of opening CB-3, CB-2 will be operated as overall time setting
is higher in that relay at point C.
Although, the time setting of relay nearest to the source is maximum
but still it will trip in shorter period, if major fault occurs near the
source, as the time of operation of relay is inversely proportional to
faulty current.
Over Current Protection of Parallel Feeders
 For maintaining stability of the system it is required to feed a load from
source by two or more than two feeders in parallel. If fault occurs in any of
the feeders, only that faulty feeder should be isolated from the system in
order to maintain continuity of supply from source to load. This requirement
makes the protection of parallel feeders little bit more complex than simple
non direction over current protection of line as in the case of radial feeders.
The protection of parallel feeder requires to use directional relays and to
grade the time setting of relay for selective tripping.
Differential Pilot Wire Protection

 This is simply a differential protection scheme applied to

feeders. Several differential schemes are applied for
protection of line but Mess Price Voltage balance system
and Trans lay Scheme are most popularly used.
Merz Price Balance System
 The working principle of Merz Price Balance system is quite simple. In this
scheme of line protection, identical CT is connected to each of the both ends
of the line. The polarity of the CTs is same. The secondary of these current
transformer and operating coil of two instantaneous relays are formed a
closed loop as shown in the figure below. In the loop pilot wire is used to
connect both CT secondary and both relay coil as shown.
 Now, from the figure it is quite clear that when the system is under
normal condition, there would not be any current flowing through the
loop as the secondary current of one CT will cancel out secondary
current of other CT.
Now, if any fault occurs in the portion of the line between these two
CTs, the secondary current of one CT will no longer equal and
opposite of secondary current of other CT. Hence there would be a
resultant circulating current in the loop.
Due to this circulating current, the coil of both relays will close the
trip circuit of associate circuit breaker. Hence, the faulty line will be
isolated from both ends.