Autoreclosing in Transmission and Distribution Systems

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January 21, 2013

Aut oreclosing in t ransmission and dist ribut ion syst ems (on phot o: A disconnect swit ch f or
a power line t hat 's maybe 200kV. T he moveable members are t he horizont al poles t hat
are hinged at op t he lef t set of insulat ors. - by Xylographile)

Introduction
Two main f unctions of Utility Electric System Operations department are Control and
Protection.
Control function deals with all operational aspects involved in ef f icient and optimal
dispatching of available real power (with reactive power support) f rom the Generating
units (and reactive sources) to geographically distributed consumers through available
system of Transmission and distribution (T&D) network (s).
Control f unction thus perf orms all operations line connection and disconnection of
circuits, equipment, changing levels of voltage (e.g. Power Transf ormer tap changes,
changing power f low directions, load shedding, synchronizing, decreasing/increasing
generation etc). Some of these f unctions are perf ormed automatically and some

manually by system operators. Various monitoring and alarming systems help perf orm
these control f unctions.
Protection function deals with automatic detection of f aults or abnormal/unsaf e system
operation conditions and automatically disconnects involved circuits or equipment. Thus
protective system helps in minimizing the damage to circuit components and equipment.
Circuit components and equipment are thus available f or reuse in most cases.

Automatic Reconnection
Once a circuit component or equipment is automatically disconnected by protective
f unctions, its reconnection is mostly a control f unction. Reconnection of a circuit
component or equipment (af ter its trip due to protective device action) is perf ormed
either manually or automatically.
It is of ten essential to make sure that reconnecting it will not thermally degrade the lif e of
major equipment or damage it beyond acceptable level or results in major f inancial
burden.
Protection action f or equipment like Generators, Transformers, Reactors, Capacitor
banks, Filter banks, Power cables etc. are always results in Locked out (meaning are
blocked f rom closing both manually or automatically). This is because it is always a
permanent f ault needing some kind of maintenance/repair.
Well, only time I f eel requires no maintenance af ter a protection trip is when it is known
f or sure that it is a protection mal-operation or it is a sympathetic protection operation
due to some other f ault/abnormal condition in the system. In any case, reconnecting
without any test is a SCARY business and involves a bit of personal risk!!!!

Every utility will have well decided operation

policy in regard to reconnection of
equipment or circuit component af ter a
protection trip. Bef ore reconnecting a major
equipment considerable testing
and maintenance procedures are f ollowed
(requires some equipment down time).
Overhead (OH) Transmission
and distribution circuits are the only circuits
which are of ten reconnected automatically
without any testing or maintenance
perf ormed af ter its trip due to protection
action. This is because most of ten the
protection action is due to a f ault which is
transient in nature and the f ault vanishes
once it is de-energized.
T riMod 600R Vacuum Recloser w/ Single or
T hree-Phase Operat ion

Depending on the magnitude of f ault current

and strength of electric potential (voltage
level), some ionization occurs in the
surrounding dielectric media (air) which neutralizes with time and regains required
dielectric strength making it available f or successf ul reconnection. Thus Automatic
reconnection called Auto-reclosing, can be perf ormed f or OH Transmission
and Distribution circuits.

From Auto-reclosing perspective, it becomes very important theref ore to understand

types of f aults which can occur in OH T&D circuits and amount of risk involved in autoreclosing and its advantages.
Finally, a quick question to readers Whether Auto-reclosing is a Control f unction or a
Protection f unction?
I guessed your answer if you are a Protection Engineer, you will surely say it is a
Control f unction and he he, if you are a Control system Engineer (operation person)
you will surely say it is a Protection function!!!!
Because it is perf orming a closing operation not a trip action, a Protection Engineer says
it is a control f unction. Control Engineer says otherwise because it is perf ormed by a
protective relay or device f ollowing a def initive and sequential action decided (major part
of sequence and conditions f or reclosing action) by Protection Engineers.
Psst I strongly believe most common real reason behind the views of Control
and Protection Engineers is the risk involved with unsuccessf ul re-closing and f ailing to
initiate it in the f irst placeanalyzing the events, making reports etc LOL guys
accountability is a major issue in competitive power companies (excepting some utilities
in corrupt systems) anyway, we will go back to Auto-reclosing f olks!
Resource: Autoreclosing in Transmission and Distribution Systems by mr. S.R. Javed Ahmed