23rd International Conference on Electricity Distribution Lyon, 15-18 June 2015

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IMPACT OF OPERATING MECHANISM TYPE ON MV VACUUM CIRCUIT-

BREAKER RELIABILITY

Juan TOBIAS Jean-Marc BIASSE Philippe PICOT

Schneider Electric – France Schneider Electric – France Schneider Electric – France
[email protected] [email protected] [email protected]

Denis PERRIN Marc BONJEAN Michel Abadie

Schneider Electric – France Schneider Electric – France Schneider Electric – France
[email protected] [email protected] [email protected]

ABSTRACT MV circuit-breakers have rated voltages between 1 kV

and 52 kV and are available with maximum ratings up to
Circuit-breakers main duty is to interrupt short-circuit 4000 A normal current and 63 kA rated short-circuit
current caused by a fault in the electrical network. As the current. In the 1970’s MV current interruption technology
circuit-breaker is the ultimate electrical safety device, evolved from oil to SF6 and vacuum. Over the past 20
reliable short-circuit current interruption in case of years vacuum circuit-breakers (VCB) have dominated the
market, as illustrated in Figure 1.
network fault is paramount. The operating mechanism is
a key sub-assembly that has direct impact on the circuit-
breaker reliability as well as its cost and size. This paper
describes the principle of operation of MV VCB
mechanisms, namely solenoid, spring and permanent
magnet actuators. It provides a synthesis of the
requirements imposed by IEC and ANSI standards for
MV circuit-breakers as well as an overview of the needs
of the main MV network applications regarding the
mechanisms. Reliability aspects are examined and it is
argued that MV VCB reliability in real operational
conditions is not linked to the rated number of
mechanical operation that a new VCB can do in a Figure 1. Historical evolution of MV circuit-breaker
laboratory interruption technology

INTRODUCTION STANDARDIZATION ASPECTS

Circuit-breakers are used for fast interruption of the General
short-circuit current to prevent damage to the rest of the
electrical installation. When the circuit-breaker is in MV switchgear global market is ruled by two main
closed position it can carry the rated normal current standardization bodies: International Electrotechnical
indefinitely as well as the rated short-circuit current for a Commission (IEC) and American National Standards
short time (< 3 seconds). Circuit-breakers can safely Institute (ANSI).
make and break several times short-circuit currents as There are significant differences in ratings and
well as all types of load currents. performances required by IEC and ANSI/IEEE circuit-
Circuit-breakers are always associated with a protection breaker standards. As a result global manufacturers
and control unit, also referred to as Intelligent Electronic usually have two different products. Over the past few
Device (IED). Current and voltage sensors supply low years IEC and IEEE standardization committees have
level signals to the IED that will constantly monitor the made progress towards convergence on type test
current and voltage in the circuit and issue a tripping or requirements for MV circuit-breaker standards.
closing command according to how it was programmed. All standards applicable to MV circuit-breakers consider
The circuit-breaker can also be opened or closed for the operating mechanism as a sub-assembly. They specify
control purposes either remotely via the IED or locally ratings and requirements for mechanical functionalities as
via mechanical push buttons. well as the test procedures to verify the mechanical and
Opening or closing the circuit-breaker contacts requires electrical performances. Ratings are defined to meet real
some form of operating mechanism capable of storing the operational needs in terms of typical switching sequences
necessary energy to physically move the contacts. The and quantity of close-open (CO) cycles to be experienced
operating mechanism is a key sub-assembly that has by the circuit-breaker in its lifetime.
direct impact on the circuit-breaker reliability. Its design The standards also define rated operating sequences,
requires considerations of many factors determined by which are expressed as close (C) and open (O)
the type of interrupter technology used and performance mechanical operations followed by a time interval (t)
that has to be achieved. expressed in seconds or minutes. The requirements

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defined in IEC or ANSI/IEEE standards for mechanical VCB MECHANISM DESIGN CONSTRAINTS
operations, in terms of quantity of operations and
operating sequences reflect most of the needs found in Mechanisms for MV VCBs have specific requirements
the applications of circuit-breakers. that are related to the physical characteristics of vacuum
interrupters, which consist of a fixed and moving butt
IEC standard 62271-100 contacts kept under high vacuum inside a ceramic
This standard defines circuit-breaker mechanical envelope. The moving contact is attached to metallic
endurance ratings that impact mechanism designs. Two bellows that allow it to move to the open position,
types of mechanical endurance ratings are established : leaving a short gap of typically 1 to 2 cm. A typical MV
- Class M1 circuit-breakers require mechanical vacuum interrupter is illustrated in Figure 2.
endurance of 2,000 CO cycles; Butt contacts in closed position tend to be forced apart by
- Class M2 circuit-breaker have an extended the electromagnetic forces generated when the short-
mechanical endurance of 10,000 CO cycles. circuit current passes through them. This phenomenon,
Normal duty circuit-breakers require either O – 3 min – known as “contact popping” must be avoided as it leads
CO – 3 min CO or CO – 15 s – CO operating sequence. to arcing, which causes contact surfaces to melt and
Circuit-breakers intended for rapid auto-reclosing must subsequently to weld, making it impossible to separate
perform O – 0.3 s – CO – t’ – CO where t’ can be 3 min, them again.
1 min or 15 sec. To avoid “contact popping” the operating mechanism has
Mechanism designs used in normal duty and rapid auto- to provide a high compression force on the contacts in
reclosing duty MV circuit-breakers are quite different. closed position. In all cases this is provided by the “wipe
Meeting rapid auto-reclosing operating sequence is spring” located in the drive linkage, which is compressed
challenging as the mechanism must be capable to perform as the contacts close.
a closing operation 0.3 seconds after opening
ANSI/IEEE standards applicable to MV circuit-
breakers
ANSI/IEEE has three complementary standards that
impact the mechanism design.
- ANSI/IEEE standard C37.04 – Rating structure;
- ANSI/IEEE standard C37.06 – Preferred ratings;
- ANSI/IEEE standard C37.09 – Test procedures.
Manufacturers must choose the optimized ratings to
cover the target markets and carry out the circuit-breaker
type tests accordingly. Figure 2. Typical MV vacuum interrupter
The rated operating sequence defined for normal duty
circuit-breakers is O – 15 s– CO – 3 min CO while All MV circuit-breaker mechanisms must be able to
circuit-breakers intended for rapid auto-reclosing must achieve close-open operation on short-circuit. This means
perform O – 0.3 s – CO- 3min – CO. that when the circuit-breaker closes onto a fault, the
The rated interrupting times defined by ANSI/IEEE mechanism should have sufficient energy stored to be
C37.04 are expressed in terms of cycles of the power able to immediately open the interrupter and clear the
frequency: the most commonly used values are 3 cycles short-circuit current. The circuit-breaker must also be
(i.e. 50 ms at 60 Hz) and 5 cycles [1]. able to manage two simultaneous orders close and open
ANSI/IEEE C37.06 defines different values of operating (trip-free, as defined by IEV 441-16-31, and anti-
mechanical endurance capabilities from 1,500 to 10,000 pumping features).
operations depending on ratings. For a class M2 circuit-breaker (10,000 CO cycles), the
vacuum interrupter itself is generally designed to achieve
IEC 62271-111 and IEEE C37.60 standards for a mechanical endurance between 20,000 to 30,000 CO
automatic circuit-reclosers up to 38 kV cycles. The limit comes from the metallic bellows that
The preferred rated operating sequence for this special eventually break under fatigue.
type of circuit-breakers is: O – 0.5 s – CO – 2 s – CO –
5 s – CO. Longer time intervals between C-O operations MECHANISM OPERATING PRINCIPLES
may be used, depending on the application.
This standard requires a minimum of 2,000 CO Three types of operating mechanisms can be found in
operations to be done without maintenance, of which MV VCBs and auto-reclosers available in the global
1,800 have to be done using the automatic circuit recloser market today. These are classed by the type of technology
integral protection and control unit. The remaining 200 used to store the energy needed to close and open the
operations shall be done by using the manual opening and vacuum interrupters.
closing mechanisms (when provided). Solenoid mechanism
Solenoid mechanisms use a compressed spring to open
the interrupter and a solenoid to close it as well as
charging the opening spring. The energy required to
operate the solenoid is supplied by the DC or AC

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auxiliary supply. Solenoids take a high current surge and generates an opposing force in the other air gap.
when they are energized, which requires a stiff auxiliary Energy for open and close operations is derived from two
power source (DC battery or LV AC) or a large capacitor separate electrolytic capacitors that are discharged
di into
discharge, and high rating auxiliary contacts. They are the opening and closing coils. Manual trip in case of loss
also bulkier and heavier than spring operated mechanism. of DC supply is complex because it requires the
For this reason they are now rarely used in practice. application of a high force using a lever to “unstick” the
armature from the permanent magnet latch and to provide
Spring mechanism the opening energy.
Spring mechanisms use separate charged springs to store stable PMA is often preferred to bi-stable for the
Mono-stable
energy for opening and closing the interrupters. The following reasons :
closing spring has sufficient energy to charge the opening - Eliminates risk of incomplete
inco opening (tripping
spring and is recharged either manually or by a small energy is stored by charging the opening spring).
motor supplied by the auxiliary supply.
supply There are two - Simpler manual and electrical tripping (only
basic types of VCB spring mechanisms: requires cancelling the permanent magnet flux to
- Mechanisms for VCBs that do not require fast open the VCB)
reclosing duty (e.g. O – 3 min – CO rated
operating sequence);
- Mechanisms for VCBs able to perform fast
reclosing duty (e.g. O – 0.3s – CO – 15 s – CO
rated operating sequence), as shown in Figure 3.

Figure 4. Single magnetic latch PMA mechanism

Electronic Control System

Figure 3. MV CB spring mechanism designed for fast PMA mechanisms require an electronic control system
reclosing duty that receives either DC or AC auxiliary power, provides
DC power to charge the electrolytic capacitors,
Two main principles are used in fast reclosing spring discharges the stored energy in the opening or closing
mechanism designs: cam follower and four-bar
four linkage coils and disconnects the energy source once the VCB
[2]. Trip-free
free feature can be provided either by the has reached the open or closed position. In most designs
intrinsic design of cam follower mechanism or by toggle the electronic control system is used to monitor the
linkage systems [3]. condition of the capacitors and operating coils, giving
alarms in case of anomalies.
The electrolytic capacitor is a key component as it stores
s
Permanent Magnet Actuator (PMA) mechanism the necessary electrical energy that will generate the
Permanent magnet actuator current pulse needed to operate the PMA. Typical
Permanent magnet actuator (PMA) mechanisms use capacitance of 100,000 µF charged at 80 V DC gives a
energy stored in electrolytic capacitor for closing stored energy of 320 Joules, sufficient to carry out a VCB
operation and permanent magnets to latch in closed fast reclosing sequence, including
uding short intervals between
position. PMA mechanisms were developed oped specifically CO operations.
to be used with MV VCBs [4].. First commercial models
were introduced in the market in the late 90’s [5] [6] but MV VCB NETWORK APPLICATIONS
uptake has been poor. There are two families of PMA
mechanisms : mono-stable
stable (single magnetic latch) and bi-
bi MV circuit-breaker mechanism performance
stable (double magnetic latch). requirements are dependent on the function they are
The principle of mono-stable PMA mechanism is similar intended to perform in the MV electrical distribution
to the solenoid one except that in closed position the network. There are four main types of MV networks :
mechanical latch is replaced by a permanent magnet latch - Electrical utility MV distribution networks
(see Figure 4). The closing force is designed to keep the - Electro-intensive
intensive industrial sites
vacuum interrupterter closed with the correct contact - Data centres res and hospitals
pressure while charging the opening spring.
spring - Buildings,
uildings, infrastructure and light industry sites
In the bi-stable
stable PMA mechanisms, permanent magnetsmagne Utility MV distribution networks are specific to each
latch the armature in both closed and open position. To country, but they can be classified into urban
move the armature from one position to the other a high underground cable network and rural r overhead line
magnetic flux is created by a DC current in i the opening networks. Utility
ity MV underground cable networks use
or closing coil. This reduces the magnetic latch strength
streng VCBs in MV transformer incomer, MV cable feeder or

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MV/LV transformer feeder applications. Faults in MV OPERATING MECHANISM PERFORMANCE

cables and MV/LV transformers are rare, consequently REQUIREMENT BY APPLICATION
these VCBs remain in closed position for months or even
years, just carrying load current. In case of fault, the VCB Selecting the VCB mechanism type for a particular MV
will trip and remain open as all faults are permanent. network application requires understanding of
MV cables and MV/LV transformers are protected by environmental constraints and switching duties in order
time delayed overcurrent relays with operating time > to define rated mechanical and electrical endurance and
200 ms. Consequently, VCBs with rated operating operating sequence. The VCB expected operating life,
sequence O – 3 min – CO and opening times < 100 ms maintenance frequency and procedure are also important.
are perfectly fit for purpose. The selection criteria are summarized in Table 1.
MV utility networks supplying rural areas use overhead VCB Application Expected Rated Rated Expected Best
Type operations operating mechanica operating adapted
lines that are exposed to lightning strikes, birds and fallen per year sequence l life VCB
endurance Mechanism
trees. Auto-reclosing duty is used in the overhead line General Cable M1
purpose /transformer < 30 O-3 min- CO 2,000 ops Spring
feeder VCB to minimize the impact of transient faults feeder/incomer 30 years
Capacitors
due to lightning strikes. The VCB is used to disconnect Motors O-0,3 s-CO- M2 Routine Spring
Frequent Generators 15 s-CO ma intenanc (preferred)
the MV supply and reenergize the line after a few switching DRUPS < 300 10,000 ops e every 3 or PMA
Overhead feeder years
hundred milliseconds as it is very likely that the fault Pole Mounted O-0,3s-CO-
recloser 2s-CO-5s-CO PMA
disappears during the time that is de-energized. 10 years
Utilities in certain countries like US, Australia and Brazil Heavy Special Full
also install pole mounted automatic reclosers along long duty Arc furnace
< 3,000
O-0,3 s-CO-
15 s-CO 30,000 ops
ma intenanc
e required
PMA

MV overhead lines to minimize the number of customers every year

affected by transient faults. Reclosers are special circuit-

breakers designed to perform several CO operations with Table 1. Mechanism requirements by application
short delay (< 5 sec) between them.
MV electrical distribution networks used in oil and gas, For the vast majority of applications the performances of
mining, steel, cement and paper industrial sites have very VCBs with spring mechanisms are perfectly adequate.
large MV motors (> 3 MW). These installations are very PMA mechanisms are recommended in special
dynamic. MV circuit-breakers perform many load applications where the VCB has to perform a very high
switching operations per day to change network number of operations (e.g. arc furnace) or several
configurations, shed loads and connect local generation. consecutive fast reclosing cycles (e.g. pole mounted
MV capacitor banks are often used to compensate lagging recloser).
power factor caused by the motor inductive loads. This selection criterion is reflected in the MV VCB
Circuit-breakers used to control them also need to operate global market data:
several times a day. - Spring mechanism is the main technology for
The most demanding application for an MV circuit- MV VCBs (> 90% market share)
breaker is electric arc furnace (EAF) control in steel - PMA is the dominant mechanism technology for
plants as the process requires several CO operations per pole mounted reclosers (> 90% market share)
day switching high load current. To ensure high - PMA mechanisms are better adapted for niche
reliability these special VCBs are subject to regular applications requiring very precise “point on
maintenance. wave” single pole switching [7].
MV electrical distribution networks for data centres and
hospitals are designed for high supply availability. In VCB RELIABILITY ASPECTS
case of a utility supply failure, critical loads (e.g. server
rooms, operating theatres) are supplied by LV UPS for up The VCB rated mechanical endurance is generally
to 10 min, giving enough time to start back-up diesel verified using a new device in a laboratory by performing
generators usually connected to the MV network via repetitive uninterrupted sequence of CO operations that
circuit-breakers. Utility failures are indeed very rare, but stops when the VCB fails to open or close. This
the back-up generation needs to be tested regularly, conventional test cannot represent all the situations and
which requires MV circuit-breaker to perform regular CO the real duties that the VCB will see in the field.
operations with light load currents. Some data centres use However, many consulting engineers and end users take
diesel rotary UPS (DRUPS), which consist of an MV VCB rated mechanical endurance as indicator of
generator driven by a flywheel and a diesel engine. In operational reliability based on the belief that higher
case of utility failure the critical load will be supplied by mechanical endurance gives higher reliability.
kinetic energy stored in the flywheel until the diesel In fact, VCB reliability is more appropriately measured
generator gets up to right speed to take over the load. The by its operational MTBF (Mean Time Between Failures).
MV circuit-breaker connecting the DRUPS system to the In practice, operational MTBF of a new VCB operating
utility supply could perform many CO operations with mechanism design it is very difficult to estimate.
light load current if the utility supply is poor. Calculations must take into account the reliability of each
MV networks in commercial buildings, large component that takes part in the opening or closing of the
infrastructure and light industry sites consist mainly of VCB, as well as the stress factors and operating
MV cable feeders and MV/LV transformer feeders. These conditions (often referred to as “the mission profile”).
are static, very reliable MV cable network that do not A simple reliability block diagrams (see Figure 5) shows
require MV switchgear to operate for months or even how component reliability contributes to the overall
years. Most operations are for planned maintenance. reliability of spring and PMA VCBs mechanisms.

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the mechanism operates once [8]. This risk can be

reduced by performing
rforming a single CO operation every 3
years or less.

CONCLUSION
Although spring and PMA mechanisms are based on
Figure 5. Basic reliability model of spring and PMA different technologies, both of them are suitable for
mechanisms used for MTBF estimation. most of MV VCB applications.
VCB reliability is not linked to the maximum number of
A quantitative comparison between both systems was operations that a new device can perform in a laboratory.
made using the following assumptions: The real parameter to consider is operational MTBF.
echanical parts (trip
1. Failure rate of the mechanical ( coil, Spring mechanism reliability is determined by
motorized spring and PMA) is low at the beginning mechanical system failure rates only while PMA
but increases with the number of operations due to mechanism reliability is determined by the combination
wear. Periodic maintenance can partially restore the of mechanical and electronic failure rates.
condition of the mechanism; Although spring mechanisms have a risk of performing a
2. Failure rate of the electronic parts (control board and “slow open” operation after long periods of inactivity, the
electrolytic capacitors) is constant throughout the risk can be reduced by carrying out periodical
p VCB
expected service life fe of the operating mechanism but operation test.
considerably higher than that of the mechanical parts
at early life stages; In summary, the author’ss logical arguments
argument challenge the
3. Typical operational MTBF for mechanical systems idea that VCBs with PMA mechanism with wi higher
was assumed to be > 1,000 years. Typical mechanical endurance are more reliable than VCBs with
operational MTBF for the trip coil was assumed to motorized spring operation.
be > 1,000 years. These are based on field failure
data of spring-operated
operated LV and MV CB C in operation This qualitative analysis highlights just some aspects of
for over 15 years; the impact of operating mechanism on VCB reliability,
4. Typical operational MTBF for PMA control board thus opening debate among the MV switchgear experts.
and electrolytic capacitor was assumed to be < 350 Further
er work is required to achieve accurate VCB
years. This is based on operational reliability of reliability models.
Schneider Electric IEDs,, which is considered to
contain similar technology. Actual reliability could REFERENCES
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