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Faults in Transformers:
defects such as (over-voltages and short circuits, and initial breakdown) requires
immediate attention
What is meant by protective angle? Give its value for reliable operation?
Answer: Protective angle is the vertical angle through the ground wire axis and the line passing
from the ground wire axis to the outermost phase conductor. Its value for reliable protection is
taken equal to 20-30 degrees
What is the difference between the lightning arrester and surge absorber?
Answer: Lightning arrester limits the duration and amplitude of the follow current while a surge
absorber reduces the steepness of the wave front for a particular surge
Answer: Impulse ratio of any lightning arrester is the ratio of breakdown voltage of the
wave of special duration to breakdown voltage of a 50Hz wave
What is meant by voltage surge?
Answer: Voltage surge is sudden excessive rise in voltage that may be dangerous to
the electrical equipment of an installation. Voltage surge cause damage to insulation of
the system. Voltage surges are caused because of lightning, switching on and off the
load at high voltages
How standard lightning impulse wave is represented?
Answer: Standard Lighting impulse wave is represented by 1.2/50 micro sec wave
What types of relays are suitable for the protection of radial feeders?
Answer: Induction type IDMT relays are more suitable for protection of the radial feeders
because the time current characteristics are similar in shape and in no case they cross each
other at any time
What is the purpose of Line trap and Coupling capacitors in carrier channels?
Answer: Line trap is an LC network inserted between the busbar and connection of
coupling capacitors to the line and tuned to resonance at the high frequency and are
used to confine the carrier currents to the protected section so as to avoid interference
with or from adjacent carrier current channel.
Coupling capacitors is used to connect the high frequency (carrier) equipment to one of
the line conductors and simultaneously serves to isolate the carrier equipment from high
power line voltage
What is Unit Protection?
Answer: Unit system of protection is one in which the protection responds to the faults in
the protected zone alone and it does not respond to through faults (faults beyond the
protected zone). None unit systems does not have zone boundry
What is the minimum time interval set for two adjacent circuit breakers to operate
in radial feeders?
Answer: It will be usually around 0.4 sec
What is Stalling in Induction motor and how to protect motor during Stalling?
Answer: Due to the mechanical problem in the motor or due to high overloading during
starting of motor induction motor fails to start. This condition where the motor fails to
start is called Stalling and it is undesirable as motor draws heavy currents. Therefore
motor should be immediately isolated from the supply.
Instantaneous over-current relay is employed to protect the motor against Stalling
What is Single Phasing and problems associated with it in Induction Motor?
Answer: Single Phasing in an Induction motor arises when one of the supply lines out of
three phase open circuits. In this condition, motor continue to operate delivering load
not exceeding 57.7% of the normal rating with the same temperature rise compared to
three phase supply delivering full load.
Some of the problems associated with single phasing are it may cause extreme
magnetic unbalance, reduction in the torque of the motor, and overheating due to
negative phase sequence currents. Operation of the motor under this condition is not
advisable at it damages the motor. Therefore Thermal overload relays are provided for
the protection of motor against single phasing
Answer: Differential protection responds to the phasor difference between two or more
electrical quantities. It operates for the internal faults occur in generators or transformers. For
external faults differential protection does not operate
Answer: When differential relaying is used for protection, the CTs at both sides of the
generator winding must be of equal accuracy. Otherwise if the CT errors are excessive
it will cause the mal operation of the relay. To safeguard against such disadvantages
percentage differential protection is employed.
What is advantage of using percentage differential relay protection?
Answer:
Advantages:
It does not require CTs with air gaps or special balancing features
It permits a low fault setting to be used and this ensures maximum protection of
the windings
It ensures complete stability under the most severe through fault conditions
Answer: Over Current protection is not considered necessary for modern alternators because
these are capable of withstanding a complete short circuit at their terminals for sufficient time
without much over heating and damage
What type of protection is provided for the generators against over heating of the
generator stator?
Answer: Resistance temperature detector
Which type of relays are used for the Merz-Price protection system for alternator?
Answer: Merz-Price protection is differential protection provided for the alternator. The relays
used in the Merz-Price protection system of alternator are instantaneous electro-magnetic type
protection
Why
large
alternator
is
grounded
with
large
resistance?
Answer: Large capacity of alternators are typically provided with resistance grounding. High
value of resistor is connected to the neural path to the ground. If the generator is delta
connected, then it is grounded with the help of zig-zag transformer or (Delta-Star) transformer
such that a high resistor is connected between the neutral point and the ground. Resistance
grounding is provided so as to limit the short circuit current flowing during earth fault to stator
winding in order to provide protection against mechanical stresses and melting of winding during
Line to Ground short circuit. In large generators fault current is limited as low as 10 to 15
amperes during short circuit.
Why it is not necessary to provide protection for turn to turn fault in alternator?
Answer: The coils of the modern alternators are single turn and therefore it is not
necessary to provide protection for turn to turn faults
Why it is necessary to suppress field immediately after disconnection of faulty
alternator from the system?
Answer: In the event of fault on the generator windings even though the generator
circuit breaker is tripped, the fault is continuous to fed as long as the excitation will exist
because the emf is induced in the generator. Hence it is necessary to suppress the field
immediately after disconnecting the faulty generator from the system
Why it not necessary to provide over-voltage protection in turbo-alternator?
Answer: The over voltage occurs when the prime mover speed increases due to sudden
loss of the load on the generator and the speed control governors in case of turbogenerators are very sensitive to the speed variations and therefore generator over
voltage of significant duration or magnitude does not generally occur. This is the reason
why generators are not provided with over voltage protection
Answer: Biased differential relay is preferred because its operation is not affected by the
trouble arising out of the difference in the CTs ratios for high values of external short
circuit currents
Where Impedance relay, Reactance relay and Mho relays are employed?
Answer: The Impedance relay is suitable for the phase faults relaying for the lines of
moderate lengths Reactance type relays are employed for the ground faults while Mho
type of relays are best suited for the long transmission lines and particularly where
synchronizing power surge may occur
What is percentage differential relay?
Answer: It is a differential relay where the operating current required to trip can be
expressed as a percentage of load current
Answer: The instantaneous type attraction armature can be made a definite time lag or
inverse time lag by using a oil dash pot, an air escapement chamber a clock work
mechanism or by placing a fuse in parallel wit it.
When several generators are connected to a common neutral bus, the bus is
connected to the ground through a single grounding device. Disconnect switches are
used to ground the desired generators to the neutral bus
When several generators are operating in parallel, only one generator neutral is
earthed. This is to avoid the interference between the zero sequence currents
In generating stations there is a provision to ground neutral of at least two generators,
though one at a time. The other generator neutral is grounded when the first generator
is out of service
When there are one of the two supply sources, no switching equipment is used in the
grounding circuit.
For the protection purpose, the neutral point of the star side of the power transformer
is usually grounded
The star connected secondary sides of the protective CTs and PTs are grounded at
one point. This ensures stable neutral, proper measurement of the voltages and
currents, kWh and kVA on the secondary side measuring instruments and controls
For the circuits between 3 kV and 33 kV resistance or reactance grounding is used.
But for low voltages less than 600V and high voltages above 33 kV solid or effective
grounding is used. Effective grounding limits the voltages of healthy phases to line-toneutral values in the events of ground faults and also eliminates the arcing grounds.
The effective grounding causes the ground fault currents of very high magnitudes flow
through the machine. But modern day protection systems are very sensitive and fast
operating so that faults are cleared in very short time
Advantages or merits:
Disadvantages or demerits:
High burden level instrument transformers are required (CTs and PTs of high burden is
required for operating the electromagnetic relays compared to static relays)
The directional feature is absent in electromagnetic relays
Requires periodic maintenance and testing unlike static relays
Relay operation can be affected due to ageing of the components and dust, pollution
resulting in spurious trips
Operation speed for an electromagnetic relays is limited by the mechanical inertia of the
component
Applications:
Electromagnetic relays are employed for the protection of various ac and dc equipments
The over/under current and voltage protection of various ac and dc equipments
For differential protection
Used as auxiliary relays in the contact systems of protective relay schemes
The capacitance currents in the faulty phase becomes 3 times the normal value
For operation of the protective device it is necessary that magnitude of current
supplied should be adequate to operate them. In the case of earth fault of an isolated
neutral or ungrounded systems, the fault current may be too small to actuate the
protective devices. Thus in ungrounded system the earth fault relaying is more
complicated
The over voltages due to induced static charges are not discharged to the ground in
an isolated neutral system. The voltage due to lightning surges do not find path to earth
The danger to the equipment on the occurrence of line to line ground fault is
appreciable and danger to the life in the proximity of the fault is often prolonged
A capacitive fault current flows into the earth. Such a current if exceeds 4-5 amperes
is sufficient to maintain an arc in the ionized path of the fault, even though the medium
causing the fault has cleared itself. The persistence of the arc due to the flow of
capacitance currents gives rise to condition known as "Arcing Grounds" in which cyclic
charging and discharging of the system capacity through the fault results in high
frequency oscillations superimposed on the whole system and build up of very high
voltage can occur. This results in phase voltage to rise to 5 to 6 times of normal voltage.
The buildup of high voltage may result in insulation breakdown
Answer: Switch is just a device when can be able to open and close the circuit during normal
operation. Whereas on the other hand circuit breaker has the ability to open and close the
contacts during abnormal or fault conditions. Thus circuit breaker has the potential to break and
make heavy short circuit currents. Auto-reclosures in the circuit beaker has the ability to re-close
after certain designed duration to verify whether the short circuit was cleared
Name the materials used for the contacts of vacuum circuit breakers?
Answer: Copper-Bismuth, Copper-lead, Copper-tellurium, Silver-bismuth, Silver-lead and Silvertellurium are some of the alloys employed as contact materials in the vacuum circuit breakers
Fuses are used on low and high voltage circuits of moderate to high capacity where frequent
operation is not not expected. Fuse is employed for protection of distribution transformers, small
and medium size motors, lighting circuits, branch circuits of distribution lines, in industrial plants
and commercial buildings.
Advantages:
Disadvantage:
During short circuit or overload once fuse blows off replacing of fuse takes time. During
this period the circuit lost power
When fuses are connected in series it is difficult to discriminate the fuse unless the fuse
has significant size difference
Over-current protection:
The inverse time over-current element shall be set to operate at 110 to 115% of the rated full
load current, to initiate a common motor overload alarm and individual display light in the control
system
Differential protection:
Motors rated 2500hp and above sensitive protection against internal phase and ground faults
shall be provided by three phase, self balancing differential relay. This relay shall be mounted
on the switchgear and connected to three CT's mounted in the motor terminal box
Bearing protection:
HV motors shall be provided with dual element, standard accuracy bearing thermocouples,
continuously monitored to alert the operators of high bearing temperature
Faults that can occur in 3 phase induction motors and associated protections are discussed
below:
Stator faults:
These faults include phase to phase faults, earth faults, and inter turn faults. Faults in motor
windings are generally occur due to failure of insulation which causes due to the excess heating
in the windings of the machine. Phase to phase faults are rare because enough insulation is
provided between the phases. Earth faults are more likely occur in induction motors. Inter turn
fault (phase to phase fault) if occurs lead to earth fault. Hence it is sufficient to provide
protection for the earth faults
Rotor faults:
These faults are more likely occur in wound rotor machine. Faults on wound rotors may be
either earth faults or inter turn faults which occurs due to severe mechanical and thermal
stresses
Other faults which occurs on the rotor of the motor includes failure of bearings and faults in the
starters and associated circuits
Abnormal conditions:
Some of the abnormal conditions that are likely occur are:
Prolonged over loading protection:
It is caused by excessive mechanical loading, short time cyclic over loading. This causes
excessive rise of temperature of winding and deterioration of insulation resulting in winding fault.
Hence over load protection should be provided in electrical machines irrespective of the size,
rating of the motor and type of load driving
Stalling protection:
Due to mechanical problem or overload during the period of starting motor may stall and refuse
to start. During stalling motor draws huge current. Hence it is not desirable and immediate
isolation of the motor from supply mains is essential
Unbalanced supply voltage protection:
The unbalanced three phase supply causes negative sequence currents to flow in the motor
that is likely to cause over heating of the motor
Single Phasing protection:
Single phasing in motors cause when one of the supply lines gets disconnected. They may be
occurred due to blowing of fuse or open circuit in one of the three phase connection. In such
condition motor continuous to operate as single phase induction motor provided that load does
not exceed 57.7% of the normal rating.
Single phasing may cause extreme magnetic unbalance, reduction in torque and over heating
due to negative phase sequence currents. Operating under this mode lead to damage to the
motor and therefore protection is provided for single phasing of the motor
Answer: Primary reason for relay failure to operate during faults are wrong settings, bad
contacts and open circuit in the relay coil.
Generator protection
Transformer protection
Busbar protection
Transmission line protection and
Feeder protection