Fundamentals of Power y System Ff m@ Protection E> aes eee Me S.R. BhideBusbar Protection 5.1 Introduction The word bus is derived from the Latin word omnibus which means common for all. Busbars are the nerve-centres of the power system where various circuits are connected together. These are the nodes of the electrical circuit. Figure 5.1 shows a busbar having an N; number of incoming lines and an Nz number of outgoing lines. The protective zone, to be generated by the protective relays, is also shown. It may be noted that under the normal pawer flow condition the sum of incoming currents is equal to the sum of outgoing currents, ic rz Vita, = Y dou, ans Buster Ne number of qutgeing lines has po dna Pk am Protective zone of busbar Figure 5.1 Introduction to busbars. 101102 Fundamentals of Power System Protection Thus, there is a large concentration of short-circuit capacity at the busbars. A fault on the busbar, though rare, causes enormous damage. When protective relays operate to isolate the busbar from the system, there is a large disruption to the loads. Busbars are located in switchyards, substations, and supply kiosks. The switchyards are well shielded from direct lightening strokes but because of their outdoor nature, are subject to the vagaries of weather. The substations are well protected in all respects and fault probability is indeed very low. Similarly, supply kiosks are totally enclosed and sealed. The causes of faults experienced on busbars are: weakening of insulation because of ageing, corrosion beccause of salty water, breakdown of insulation because of over- voltages, foreign objects, and so on. For example, rodents, lizards and snakes are known to have caused busbar faults in remote unmanned substations Because of the low probability of busbar faults, for many years, it was considered unnecessary to provide explicit protection to busbars, It was felt at that time that maloperations of the busbar protection systems will be problematic by themselves and of little help in sensing genuine faults. It should be noted that busbars fall in the overlap between protective zones on either side, so they do get back-up protection. Hence, protection engincers hesitated from providing exclusive busbar protection However, as the system voltage went on increasing and short-circuit capacities went on building up, it was no longer advisable to leave busbars unprotected on a primary basis. ‘What form of protection is best suited for busbars? A little refleetion will convince the reader that differential protection will suit this situation best because the ends (terminals) of the system are physically near to each other. Thus, by installing CTs on the two sides, we can simply compare the current entering the busbar with that leaving it. Any discrepancy between the two will immediately signal an internal fault. In Section 5.2, we have explained the protection of busbars by the differential protection scheme. 5.2 Differential Protection of Busbars 5.2.1 Selection of CT Ratios in Case of Busbar Protection: Wrong Method Figure 5.2 shows a bushar, having two incoming feeders and one outgoing foeder, being protected by a simple differential protection scheme. The currents shown are for normal load flow. Let us decide the CT ratios on the basis of maximum primary load current seen by each CT. Thus, the CTs on the incoming feeder will have CT ratios of 1000/1 A and 2000/1 A, respectively. ‘The CT on the outgoing foeder will have a CT ratio of 3000/1 A. However, with this choice of CT ratios, it can be seen from the diagram that there is a spill current even during the healthy condition. Thus, the method of selecting CT ratio on the basis of maximum primary current seen by the feeder is not correct.Busbar Protection 108 CT. Be 30001 3000 A. * fap 2K TA Trip coils of CB,. CBa, CBe mT NO = Normally ope" | 5. relay output a NO contact — Trip battery Figure 5.2 Wrong method of selection of CT ratios for differential protection of busbars, 5.2.2 Selection of CT Ratios in Case of Busbar Protection: Correct Method Figure 5.3 shows the correct method of setting the CT ratios for the busbar differential protection, It can be seen that the CT ratios of all the CTs are equal and are based on the primary current of that feeder which carries the maximum current. Thus, all the CT Figure 5.3 Correct method of selection of CT ratios for differential protection of busbars.104 Fundamentals of Power System Protection ratios are 8000/1 A. Therefore, as can be seen from the figure, there is no spill current through the OC relay connected in the spill path and the scheme remains stable. ‘We draw an important rule for the selection of CT ratios for all the CTs in a busbar differential protection, namely: Maximum out of all the feeder currents (CT ratio for all CTs in bus different scheme 5.3 External and Internal Fault In the preceding discussion, we have assumed that the CTs are ideal. When the CT primary current, or the burden on it, is within its design limits, the CT ean indeed be assumed to be more or less ideal. However, as the primary current exceeds the design value or the CT burden (output of CT in VA) becomes excessive, the CT no longer behaves in an ideal fashion. The non-ideal behaviour of the CT has very serious implications for the protective schemes. Figure 5.4 shows currents during an external fault beyond CTo. It can be seen that CT, the CT on the faulted feeder, has to carry the sum of all currents fed into the fault by various feeders. Therefore, CT sees a substantially larger primary current than either CT, or CTs, In all likelihood, CT¢ will therefore become saturated, We can, therefore, no longer assume that CT; will faithfully transform the fault current. For the sake of illustration, we have assumed that the secondary current of CT is only 4 A instead of 10 A. It can be seen from Figure 6.4 that this results into a spill current of 6 A, causing the scheme to maloperate, i.e. lose stability on external fault. CT; and CTs are unsaturated 10,000 A Cle gona OP=rstng in saturation Extemal fault (R) OC relay =O5A ® 0A aA Figure 5.4 Behaviour of busbar differential scheme on external fault. In the worst case scenario, CT, and CT, continue to transform faithfully as per their nameplate CT ratio but CTg, which carries the total fault current, gets completely saturated. This clearly indicates the occurrence of an imbalance in transformed secondary currents, resulting in substantial spill current. This situation most likely will cause the scheme to operate. Operation of a differential scheme under external faults is, therefore, clearly a case of maloperation.Busbar Protection 108 Interestingly, as the fault shifts by a small distance to the left and becomes an internal fault, still drawing the same current, the situation dramatically changes as far as CT, is concerned. This is depicted in Figure 5.5, wherein it can be seen that CT now does not carry any fault current (assuming a single-end-fed system with source on left- hand side). Since CT, and CTp are not carrying excessive primary currents, they transform the current without too much error. There is thus a spill current in the spill path and the scheme operates as expected. CTe Internal faut 3000/1 108 Zero Figure 5.5 Behaviour of busbar differential scheme on internal fault, ‘The maloperation of the busbar differential scheme on external faults is caused due to non-ideal behaviour of a CT carrying excessive primary current. It will, therefore, be pertinent, at this point to take a closer look at the actual behaviour of protective current. transformers 5.4 Actual Behaviour of a Protective CT Figure 5.6 shows the equivalent circuit of a current transformer referred to the secondary side. Rj, and X, are the primary winding resistance and leakage reactance, respectively, referred ta the secondary side. R, and X, are the resistance and leakage reactance of the secondary winding, respectively. The excitation is modelled by X, and core loss by F,, in the equivalent circuit (referred to secondary). At low values of primary current I, and therefore I,, voltage E, to be induced by the secondary winding, which is approximately equal to (Zpurden Jy), i8 quite low. The working flux in the CT, which is equal to (E,/4.44 {N) is also very low. The magnetizing current requirement is, therefore, correspondingly low. Thus, the secondary current I, is substantially equal to [,/N. If the primary current increases, initially, the secondary current also increases proportionately. This causes the secondary induced voltage to increase as well. Increased secondary voltage can only be met with an increase in the working flux of the CT. As the flux increases, the transformer needs to draw a higher magnetizing current. However, because of the nonlinear nature of the B-H curve for the CT, as the knee of the excitation106. Fundamemals of Power System Provection = un Wt) See: Figure 5.8 Equivalent circuit of CT. characteristics is passed, any further increase in flux demand causes a di large increase in the magnetizing current requirement of the CT: This Figure 5.7, It may also be noted that [, is no longer sinusoidal and its waveform has a prominent peak. Figure 5.7 Operation of the CT beyond the knee point of the B-H curve.Busbar Protection 107 As the primary current goes on increasing, a stage comes when the magnetizing current requirement is so large that almost all the transformed current is taken up by the CT for the sole purpose of magnetization, with the result that there is hardly any current available for the burden. When this occurs, we say that the CT is completely saturated. The secondary induced voltage and burden current waveforms of a CT, operating in saturation, are highly distorted. They, in fact, consist only of sharp pulses near the zero-crossings of the primary current. This is shown in Figure 5.8, where it can he seen that in order to reach the peak of the sinusoidal flux waveform, the CT is driven deep into saturation. Due to flatness of the excitation curve in this region, a very large amount of exciting current is demanded by the CT. The waveform of the exciting current becomes distorted and is, in fact, very peaky in nature. Induced secondary voltage e-@ Figure 5.8 CT saturation due to excessive primary current.108 Fundamentals of Power System Protection 5.5 Circuit Model of Saturated CT In the light of the preceding discussion, the saturated CT is modelled as shown in Figure 5.9, where it can be seen that the magnetizing branch is replaced with a short circuit to signify the fact that the magnetizing branch is taking up all the secondary current and none is available to the burden. yn Re R= 200 b= hin Burdon J IN Figure 5.9. Circuit model of a saturated CT. Thus, the circuit model consists of a current source of value (J,/N) feeding into a short circuit through Rj, and X;, The connections to the outside world are available through R, and X,. 4 External Fault with One CT Saturated: Need for High Impedance Busbar Protection Now, consider the external fault of 30,000 A, on the busbar shown in Figure 5.4 Assuming that CT¢ gets completely saturated while CT, and CTs continue to operate normally, Figure 5.10 shows the equivalent circuit as seen ftom the CT secondaries. Note that for simplicity, all leakage reactances have been neglected. It can be seen from Figure 6.10 that currents (U,/N) ~ Igq) and ((fp/N) — Iya) sum up and the resultant current has two parallel paths available. One path is through the over-current relay and the other is through (R, + Ry) via the short representing the saturated CT magnetizing branch. Thus, the part of fault current will flow through the over-current relay, causing it to trip, even though the fault is external. Hence, the OCBusbar Protection 10% relay needs to be restrained from tripping on external faults (with one CT completely saturated). We can easily accomplish this by connecting a high resistance (known as the stabilizing resistance) in series with the OC relay. The stabilizing resistance should be of such a value that under the worst case of maximum external fault and full saturation of one CT, the current through the OC relay is less than its pick-up value. Such schemes are known as high impedance busbar differential schemes. Fe Rit Re OC relay Figure 5.10 Secondary equivalent circuit with one CT fully saturated during external fault. To find the value of the stabilizing resistance, let the pick-up value of the OC relay be I, and the value of the resistance associated with the saturated CT be (, + Ry). The impedance of the secondary circuit of the saturated CT be represented by Z,, where 2, = (Ry + Ry). The procedure is as follows: First consider that the OC relay is not connected and find out the voltage that will be developed across it, let it be Via. Now, the stabilizing resistance should be of such a value that with the relay connected, the current through the relay should be less than the pick-up value of the relay. Therefore, we have the following relationship: Voltage across the over current relay in series with the stabilizing resistor ve (4) Gel = (% + }- tn + tal], In order that under this condition, the current through the relay be less than or equal to its pick-up value I,,, we have ¥, Rass =110. Fiondamentats of Power System Protection Assuming % feeders and further assuming that the magnetizing current of each unsaturated CT is same and equal to [,, and noting that the transformation ratio of all the CTs is same and equal to N, we get the general expression: (fi) i where the subscript # varies from 1 to n - 1, n being the total number of feeders nl terminating on the bus. Note that (=) is the maximum external fault current, East Igext,maxy Up to which the differential scheme remains stable. Therefore, neglecting magnetizing currents, we can write Tete Vow = [EG 2, ‘The preceding equation gives the value of maximum external fault current up to which the differential relaying scheme remains stable as: = Net a FZ, iy, 5.7. Minimum Internal Fault That Can Be Detected by the High Impedance Busbar Differential Scheme It will be worthwhile to investigate the minimum internal fault current J; ternal, primary that can be detected by the high impedance busbar differential scheme. The equivalent. CT secondary circuit during internal fault is shown in Figure 6.11. It is assumed that none of the OTs is saturated. The high impedance scheme has a pick-up of Ips & stabilizing resistance of Rew and, therefore, needs a minimum voltage of Vig to be developed across the series combination of the stabilizing resistance and the OC relay. ‘Thus, the minimum fault current on the CT secondary side, that can develop the required, voltage Vic. will be given by Veet = Fi, min, se Betas Meat Jenin = But Therefore,Busbar Protection 111 Figure 5.11 shows that during internal fault, all the CT secondaries feed into the spill path. Therefore, the current for a minimum internal fault in the high impedance spill path will be Figure 5.11 Minimum internal fault current that can be detected by high impedance busbar differential scheme. Et) (tae 5G) (tan tn Be) h, " a + =P Rael, + 2|112 Fundamentals of Power System Protection Fattet lo (y+ haste) Assuming [,, = Ing = Joc = Jp (ie. all the CT magnetizing currents to be equal) and multiplying both sides by N, we get Nyx = Tying. min, pei = SNE or Trinismin,pri = NUgy + SI,) (with 3 feeders terminating on the bus) For the general case of n feeders terminating on the busbar, the minimum internal fault current that can be detected by the high impedance busbar differential scheme will be given by Frimeroal,minimum,primary = NUIpy + fo) 5.8 Stability Ratio of High Impedance Busbar Differential Scheme ‘The stability ratio 5 of the high impedance busbar differential scheme is defined as the ratio of maximum external fault current for which the scheme remains stable to the minimum internal fault current for which it operates. Fr ectarnal, maxirum g = [tostorat, Z Trinernal minimum: The stability ratio is a dimensionless quantity. The higher the value of stability ratio 8, the better is the quality of differential protection. Stability ratios of a few tens are common in EHV busbar differential schemes. 5.9 Supervisory Relay In the busbar differential scheme, it may, at times, happen that a particular CT secondary gets opén circuited. At other times there may be a break in the pilot wire coming from a particular CT secondary winding. Thus, even though there may be no internal fault on the busbar, an imbalance is created on the secondary side, causing a spill current which is equal to the current that was being contributed by the particular CT before its secondary got open circuited. Such types of events are, no doubt, dangerous, The current contribution of an individual CT would be much less than the pick-up value of the OC relay and the scheme will remain insensitive to such CT open-circuit faults. All the same, we need to develop a mechanism to detect such faults so as to raise an alarm to alert the operating personnelBusbar Protection 113 The highest spill current, in case of loss of one CT secondary current, will be caused in case of the CT which carries the maximum load current, Tioad, mx: Figure 5.12 shows the normal load being supplied by the feeders. There is a break in the pilot wire coming from secondary of CT. This will cause a spill current equal to the current that was being contributed by CT; before the break occurred, as shown in Figure 5.12. Thus, the spill current = [c/N. This spill current will develop a voltage across the series combination of the stabilizing resistance and OC relay, which can be sensed by a sensitive over-voltage relay known as supervisory relay. NO = Normally open, NC = Normally closed, TCCB = Trip coil of CB Figure 5.12 Supervisory relay to prevent against maloperation due to loss of a CT secondary current. ‘The supervisory relay is set to pick-up at: ‘The above discussion neglects the magnetizing currents of the CTs. ‘The setting of the supervisory relay Veupervisny Will be much less than the setting of the high impedance differential relay Vi...114 Fundamentals of Power System Protection 5.10 Protection of Three-phase Busbars All high voltage busbars are three-phase, however we showed single-phase busbars so as to keep the diagrams uncluttered. Figure 5.13 shows a three-phase busbar with two incoming and three outgoing lines. A phase Figure 5.13 High impedance three-phase busbar differential protection.Busbar Protection 115 5.11 Numerical Example on Design of High Impedance Busbar Differential Scheme A 182 kV busbar consists of two incoming lines and four outgoing lines. The system is solidly earthed and the switchgear capacity is 3500 MVA at 132 kV. The parameters are: Maximum full-load current in one line = 500 A. R, = CT secondary resistance =072 Read wire =209 Relay load (1 A relay is used) 109 CT magnetizing current up to 120 V = 0.28 mA/V (assumed linear) CT saturation voltage Vineo > 120V 1, If the over-current relay in the spill path is set at 1.0 A and the voltage setting Vie; is 100 V, find (a) the maximum ‘through fault’ current up to which the scheme will remain stable. (b) whether the answer in part (a) is commensurate with the switchgear capacity. (c) the minimum internal fault current which will be detected by the scheme. (@) the setting for detecting minimum internal fault current of 500 A? (e} the value of the stabi ing resistance. 2, It is required that a break in the pilot wire from a CT carrying a current of 25 A and more should be detected by the supervisory relay: Calculate the setting of the supervisory relay? Solution 1(a), Let us choose 1 A CTs. Therefore, as explained in the text: CT ratio for all CTs = Maximum of all the feeder currents : 1 = 500: 1 = NV oe Teext,max a 500 x 100 _ ToT = 1851851 A Ab). From the given data, the maximum ‘through fault’ current that can be handled by the switchgear is: 3500 x 10° Yo x1a2 «ig? "004116 Fundamentals of Power System Protection ‘The scheme remains stable up to ‘through fault’ current of 18518.51 A. However, the switchgear is designed to handle only 15,300 A. Therefore, we need to fine tune the setting to: = 15,300 x 2.7 00 = 82.62V ‘1(¢). Minimum internal fault current (for Vig. = 100 V and J,, = 1.0 A) is given by Teinemningei = NOpy + fo) N = 500, I= 1.0A and n=6 I, is given as 0.28 mA per volt, therefore, for a voltage of 82.62 V; (0.28 mA/V)(82.62 V) mA = 0.02813 A Thus, Tintmings: = 500 [1 + (6)(0.0231)] = 569.39 A 1(@). For minimum internal fault current of 500 A, the pick-up value should be: Tw = (“ape aa nl, 500 Boo ~ (610.0281) = 0.861 A Vou _ 82.62V He). Roabiting + Roc reey = FS = Saar pa = 95.93 0 Roc wtuy = 1.2 Recabiticing = 94.93 0 2. Setting of supervisory relay Neglecting magnetizing currents of the CTs, we get Sa, Vuaparisry © MST (Reewitang + Roc ray) = (3) 25.90 = 4.79 V