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Bep 2

This document discusses substations and circuit breakers. It provides details on different types of circuit breakers including oil, air blast, SF6 gas, and vacuum circuit breakers. It also discusses isolators, earth switches, wave traps, and coupling capacitors. Outdoor switchyards and indoor metalclad and gas insulated switchgear are covered as well.

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RK K
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147 views4 pages

Bep 2

This document discusses substations and circuit breakers. It provides details on different types of circuit breakers including oil, air blast, SF6 gas, and vacuum circuit breakers. It also discusses isolators, earth switches, wave traps, and coupling capacitors. Outdoor switchyards and indoor metalclad and gas insulated switchgear are covered as well.

Uploaded by

RK K
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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ABCD

CHAPTER-2
SUBSTATIONS

Substations are centres for the control, transmission and distribution of electrical
power including voltage transformation through power transformer. In the design
of the s/s a number of points have to be considered, to have a layout which is
technically good and economically attractive.

1,Is easy maintenance possible without interruption of supply or danger to staff.


2,What alternative facilities are available if there is outage on any apparatus.
3,Can the station easily be expanded if the load grows.

CIRCUIT BREAKERS

Circuit breakers are meant for controlling the circuits. The circuit breakers are
designed to make and break load current and fault current. Breakers are normally
controlled from remote control panel in the control room. Breakers are provided
with trip and closing coils. When energised the trip coil causes the mechanism of
the breaker to open and closing coil to close its main power contacts. The circuit
breaker also will be provided with normally open & normally closed auxiliary
contacts for indication , control & interlocking purpose.

There are two types of circuit breakers .based on the tripping mode.
1,Circuit Breakers designed for 3phase tripping (Ganged operation)
2,Circuit Breakers designed for1&3 phase tripping (individual poles can be tripped
independently.)

The circuit breakers can be further classified as follows.


1, Oil Circuit Breaker
2, Air Blast Circuit Breaker
3, SF6 Gas Circuit Breaker
4, Vacuum Circuit Breaker

1,Oil Circuit Breaker


In oil circuit breakers, the current is interrupted in oil, which by its cooling effect
,helps to quench the arc that forms when the contacts part, and which, because of
its insulating properties, permits closer spacing of live parts than would be
permissible in air. In a oil-blast circuit breaker , de-ionization of the arc is
accomplished by contact of the arc with the oil, with metal or fiber plates , and
with un-ionized gas generated by the decomposition of oil and fiber when heated
by the arc.
Maintenance of Oil Circuit Breakers
The chief maintenance work required on oil circuit breakers is replacement of
contacts and of oil. When a breaker interrupts short-circuit current, the contacts

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ABCD
may be worn by arcing. In addition, the oil becomes carbonized in the vicinity of
the contacts, thereby losing some of the dielectric strength. The dielectric strength
of the oil and the interrupting capacity of the breaker are restored partially as the
contaminated oil is diffused through the rest of the oil. After the interrupting the
fault current a few times, or load current many times the oil becomes deteriorated
to such an extent that it needs to be replaced. Used oil may be purified with a
centrifuge to remove carbon particles, water and sludge. The dielectric strength of
the oil should be checked periodically by testing sample drawn from the bottom of
the tanks.
The principal disadvantage of the oil circuit breaker is the fire hazard due to the
inflammability of the oil and the gas formed by the decomposition of oil. Rupture
of currents beyond the capacity of the breaker or sticking of the operating
mechanism leads to occasionally to prolonged arcing and consequent production
of abnormally large amounts of gas, high pressure ,and high temperatures, and
once in a while, to the bursting of tanks, throwing of oil and emission of flame.
The operating mechanism in this breaker is a charged spring. The charging of the
spring is done by a motor.

2,Air Blast Circuit Breaker


Although oil circuit breakers were for many years the only type of with high
interrupting capacity, and although they had been improved in design they had
important disadvantages which had given impetus to the development of various
oil-less circuit breakers of sufficient capacity. Air blast circuit breakers were
developed in Germany and extensively employed in Europe before they came into
use in the United States. In the air- blast circuit breakers the arc is extinguished by
a stream of air blown through it as the contacts separate. There are two principal
types, the cross blast and the axial blast. The cross blast is now commonly used in
indoor circuit breakers of the medium-high-voltage class, whereas the axial blast
is used in high voltage breakers. In both types , compressed air is used also to
open and close contacts.

3, SF6 Gas Circuit Breaker.


At the beginning of the 1960s the market for transmission swithgear was met by
circuit breakers of bulk oil, minimum oil and air- blast types .Amidst the rapid
increase of ratings and a better understanding of system conditions, together with
the increasing complexity of multi-gap air blast circuit breakers, pioneering work
was done in U.K. for using SF6 gas as an insulating and arc quenching medium in
circuit breaker. These were modelled on those developed in the USA in the early
1960s on oil circuit breaker principles using a dead tank configuration with low-
pressure sulphur hexafluoride gas for insulation a mechanically coupled contact
system, and high pressure sulphur hexafluoride gas stored for arc extinguishing
purposes. Several years of uninterrupted and satisfactory service of SF6 circuit
breakers has dispelled all of the early misgivings of a new technology. A further
increase in reliability associated with maintenance was achieved through improved
technology.

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ABCD
Since the compression of the gas for interruption takes place within about
15milliseconds, this demands a considerable amount of energy .This together with
the necessary operating forces to accelerate the moving masses, has to be
provided by the operating mechanism. The high energy levels required effectively
rules out spring operation and so the choice has to be either a compressed air or
a hydraulic type. The hydraulic mechanism provides high operating pressure,
which reduces the masses of moving parts and the quantities of oil to be moved to
a minimum.
4,Vacuum circuit breaker
In this type of circuit breaker the contacts make and break in a vacuum chamber.
Vacuum circuit breakers are used in medium voltage switchgear.

ISOLATORS & EARTH SWITCHES

A, Isolators are off load devices and are not designed for making or breaking
load current, either, inductive, capacitive,or resistive at any voltage other than zero
voltage across their main contacts. Isolators are capable of making and breaking
rated currents if the voltage between the main contacts is zero. These are meant
for making a visible break in the circuit during maintenance.
Isolators can be operated either manually or electrically. Electrically operated
isolators are motorised. When the motor rotates in one direction the isolator closes
and when in the other direction the isolator opens. The closing coil and the
opening coil control the direction of rotation of the motor.
Different types of isolators are available.
a, Double break type
b, Centre break type
c, Pantograph type

B, Earth switches are meant for earthing transmission lines, busbars and other
equipment for safety during maintenance. Earth Switches are part of main
isolators.

Isolator and earth switch operation are interlocked with each other. Isolator
operation is interlocked with circuit breaker. In ” Isolator interlocking
scheme” the operational sequence of various isolators and earth switches are
sequenced in a particular manner. The complexity of the scheme depends on
busbar layout. The interlocking scheme is simple in case of single busbar layout
and most complicated in case of double busbar layout with a by-pass isolator.

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ABCD
WAVE TRAP
The wave traps are used on transmission lines to confine the power line high
frequency carrier signals within the line section. Wave traps offer low impedance
for power frequency and high impedance for high frequency. Wave traps are a
combination of capacitance & inductance tuned to the system frequency.

COUPLING CAPACITOR.
Coupling Capacitors are used to send high frequency PLCC signals from one
end to the other end of the transmission line. They offer a high impedance to
power frequency and low impedance for high frequency.
CTs&PTs
CTs & PTs play an important role in power system protection and these are called
instrument transformers. Hence a detailed study of the same is required and is
done in chapter 5.

OUTDOOR SWITCHYARD
In outdoor switchyard layout the busbars, breakers, Isolators CTs, PTs and other
equipment will be constructed outdoor. The air will be the insulating medium and
hence the space occupied by the switchyard will be considerable.

INDOOR METALCLAD SWITCHGEAR & GAS INSULATED SWITCHGEAR


11KV, 6.6KV, 3.3KV & 415volts switchgear can be installed indoor and air is
insulating medium for the switchgear.
The insulating properties of sulphur hexafluoride gas are such that metalclad
switchyards can fit into areas much less than those required for conventional open
–type air insulated installations.
Fig. shows a comparison of space occupied by 145KV gas insulated switchgear
and a conventional open-terminal layout for the same voltage on the same
scale.Taking into account transformers and plant buildings a ratio of 1:10 space
saving is achieved.
In India Gas Insulated Switchgears are available upto 400KV.

With these points in mind it is interesting to consider some of the busbar layouts in
use and the isolator interlocking schemes applicable for these layouts.

Issue-B
11-07-2000
BEP-2

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