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Broken Conductor Protection

The document discusses broken conductor protection, which detects open circuit faults on power lines that do not result in increased current. Such faults can be detected by measuring negative to positive phase sequence current ratio (I2/I1), which remains sensitive even at low loads. A setting of 8% for I2/I1 provides reliable detection. A long time delay of 5 seconds is needed to coordinate with other protective devices since this setting is very sensitive.

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903 views3 pages

Broken Conductor Protection

The document discusses broken conductor protection, which detects open circuit faults on power lines that do not result in increased current. Such faults can be detected by measuring negative to positive phase sequence current ratio (I2/I1), which remains sensitive even at low loads. A setting of 8% for I2/I1 provides reliable detection. A long time delay of 5 seconds is needed to coordinate with other protective devices since this setting is very sensitive.

Uploaded by

waqas_a_shaikh4348
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Broken Conductor Protection

September 20, 2016 by admin


The majority of faults on a power system occur between one phase and ground or two phases and
ground. These are known as shunt faults and arise from lightning discharges and other over
voltages which initiate flashovers. Alternatively, they may arise from other causes such as birds on
overhead lines or mechanical damage to cables etc. Such faults result in an appreciable increase
in current and hence in the majority of applications are easily detectable. In Broken Conductor
Protection, it is assumed that broken conductor do not touch the ground that is why, it is also known
as the Open Jumper Protection.

Another type of unbalanced fault which can occur on the system is the series or open circuit fault.
These can arise from broken conductors, maloperation of single phase switchgear, or the operation
of fuses. Series faults will not cause an increase in phase current on the system and hence are not
readily detectable by standard overcurrent relays. However, they will produce an unbalance and a
resultant level of negative phase sequence current, which can be detected.
It is possible to apply a negative phase sequence overcurrent relay to detect the above condition.
However, on a lightly loaded line, the negative sequence current resulting from a series fault
condition may be very close to, or less than, the full load steady state unbalance arising from CT
errors, load unbalance etc. A negative sequence element therefore would not operate at low load
levels.
The Broken Conductor Protection relay incorporates an element which measures the ratio of
negative to positive phase sequence current (I2/I1). This will be affected to a lesser extent than the
measurement of negative sequence current alone, since the ratio is approximately constant with
variations in load current. Hence, a more sensitive setting may be achieved.
In the case of a single point earthed power system, there will be little zero sequence current flow
and the ratio of I2/I1 that flows in the protected circuit will approach 100%. In the case of a multiple
earthed power system (assuming equal impedances in each sequence network), the ratio I2/I1will
be 50%.
It is possible to calculate the ratio of I2/I1 that will occur for varying system impedances, by referring
to the following equations below.

I1F = Eg(Z1+ Z0) / (Z1Z2+Z0Z1+Z2Z0)


I2F = -EgZ0/ (Z1Z2+Z0Z1+Z2Z0)
Where
Eg = System Voltage
Z0 = Zero sequence impedance
Z1 = Positive sequence impedance
Z2 = Negative sequence impedance
Thus,
I1F / I2F= Z0 / (Z0+Z2)

Therefore, for an open circuit in a particular part of the system, I2/I1 can be determined from the
ratio of zero sequence to negative sequence impedance. It must be noted that this ratio may vary
depending upon the fault location. It is desirable therefore to apply as sensitive a setting as
possible. In practice, this minimum setting is governed by the levels of standing negative phase
sequence current present on the system. A minimum value of 8% negative phase sequence current
is required for successful Broken Conductor relay operation.

Since sensitive settings have been employed, it can be expected that the element will operate for
any unbalance condition occurring on the system for example, during a single pole autoreclose
cycle. Hence, a long time-delay is necessary to ensure co-ordination with other protective devices.
Normally 5 second time-delay is provided for Broken Conductor Protection.

What is SOTF Protection?


September 21, 2016 by admin
SOTF Protection stands for Switch On to Fault. This protection is provided for high speed clearance
of detected fault immediately after Manual Closure of Circuit Breaker. Let us suppose that a fault
is existing and we gave a closing command to Breaker, then in that case SOTF protection will
immediately trip the Breaker.
SOTF Protection is helpful in the sense that while taking maintenance on a Line, it may happen so
that Earth Switch of a particular Circuit Breaker is close. In that case if we give closing command
to the Circuit Breaker, it will immediately trip on SOTF Protection. But it is normal to strike in your
smart brain that how can we close a Breaker when a fault is already existing? Thing is that you can
close the Breaker by bypassing all the required logics, so in that case SOTF will come into picture.
Suppose while maintenance Earthing Rod was used for discharging a particular section but after
competition of maintenance the Earth Rod is still connected to that section. In such case there is
nothing or no logic to prevent closing of Breaker and as soon as one closes the Circuit Breaker, it
will trip on SOTF.

SOTF Protection gets enabled whenever all the three poles of a Circuit Breaker is open for more
than a settable time say 110s (This time can be changed and configured as per the design.)
SOTF is enabled in two cases. They are mentioned below.

Case1: If no Closing command to the Breaker is Present.


When all the three poles of Circuit Breaker is open for more than a particular time say 110 s, as
soon as we give a closing command to the Circuit Breaker, the SOTF is enabled for 500 ms and
then gets reset.
Case2: When an external closing command is present.
Here external closing means closing the Circuit Breaker either manually or remotely. The SOTF
logic is activated immediately. As soon as all the poles are closed SOTF is enable for 500 ms
and then is reset.
During this SOTF time frame of 500 ms, individual distance protection can be enabled or disabled.
When a particular distance zone say Zone-2 is enabled, Zone-2 will actuate immediately without
waiting for Zone-2 time delay if there exists any fault in this zone.

How SOTF Relay Senses a Fault?


Basically there are two elements in relay providing SOTF feature. They are Voltage Level Detector
and Current Level Detector. The purpose of Voltage Level Detector is to ensure Dead Pole situation
and Current Level Detector ensures that a fault occurred i.e. Current Level Detector is used for
detection of fault. Therefore SOTF Relay element must have two settings, one for Voltage Level
Detector and another for Current Level Detector. Typical setting for both the elements are as
follows:

Vph < 75% VN


Iph > 5% IN

Here VNand IN are Nominal Voltage and Nominal Current respectively. Thus if the phase voltages
are below 75 % and if phase current increases from the setting then SOFT will sense it a fault and
will issue three phase trip command provided all other conditions as mentioned in case1 and case2
for SOTF are met.

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