Basics of Busbar

Protection
Said Salim Palayi
Assistant Executive
Engineer
Electrical Division, KSEB
Limited
Manjeri, Kerala, South India
salimpalayi@yahoo.com

Need for Busbar Protection

Need For Bus Protection
In its absence fault clearance takes place in
zone II of distance relay by remote end
tripping.
This means slow and unselective tripping
and wide spread black out.
Effect of delayed clearance
Greater damage at fault point
Indirect shock to connected equipments
like shaft of generator and windings of
transformer

Requirements of Busbar Protection

Must have short tripping time as possible.
Must be able to detect internal faults

(sensitivity).
Must be absolutely stable to external faults
(stability).
Must be able to detect and trip only faulty
part of busbar system (selectivity)
Must be secure against maloperation due
to auxilliary contact failure.

Types of Busbar Protection

Differential type of busbar protection is
divided into
two groups.
Low impedance scheme :

Low impedance scheme uses biased

differential relay.
High impedance Scheme:

High impedance scheme uses a stabilizing

resistor in series with the differential relay.

Differential Relay Principle

Busbar protection relays works on the

differential principle i.e. comparing the currents
entering and leaving a protected object.
If those currents matches the protected object
is assumed to be in healthy condition and relay
remains stable (non operating) . If there is a
difference
is
C.T in magnitude of currents, itC.T
assumed that there
is some internal fault and
Protected object
the differential relay operates.

Differentia
l Relay

Single busbar Protection (Healthy

condition)
Current
entering
the bus

P2
2

BUSBAR
ZONE

P1

S
1

87

Busba
r
P1

S
1

P2

Under healthy condition the

current entering the busbar and
leaving the busbar will be same
and the CT secondary current
circulates thru the secondaries.
No current flows thru the relay.
Hence the relay will remain

S
2

Curren
t
leaving
the
bus

Single busbar Protection (fault within bus )

Current
entering
to the
bus

P2
2

BUSBAR
ZONE

P1

S
1

Busba
r

87

P1

S
1

P2

S
2

Under faulty condition all

remote busbars feed into
fault and the direction CT
secondary currents becomes
additive and flows though the
rlay.

Curren
t
enters
from
the
remote
bus

Single busbar Protection scheme

K

Rela
y
(R)

87

BUSBAR
ZONE
B

C
D

Here, in the figure above we assume that at normal condition feed, A,

B, C& D, carries current IA, IB, IC, and ID . Now, according to Kirchhoff's
current law, at node K, IA + IB+ IC+ID = 0

So, it is clear that under normal condition there is no current flows

through the busbar protection tripping relay.
Now, say fault is occurred at any of the feeders, outside the protected
zone. In that case, the faulty current will pass through primary of the
CT of that feeder. This fault current is contributed by all other feeders
connected to the bus. So, contributed part of fault current flows
through the corresponding CT of respective feeder. Hence at that
faulty condition, if we apply KCL at node K, we will still get, i R = 0.

When fault is occurred on the bus itself. The fault current is contributed
by all feeders connected to the bus. Hence, at this condition, sum of all
contributed fault current is equal to total fault current. The sum of all
secondary currents is no longer zero. It is equal to secondary equivalent
of fault current.
So at this condition current starts flowing through 87 relay and it makes
trip the circuit breaker corresponding to all the feeders connected to this
section of the busbar. As all the incoming and outgoing feeders,
connected to this section of bus are tripped, the bus becomes dead.
This differential busbar protection scheme is also referred as current
differential protection of busbar.

Double busbar system

Double bus system consists of two number of buses

(Bus1 & Bus # 2 )
separated by a bus coupler.

Double busbar Protection Scheme

(explained step-by-step)
Feeder
#1

871

872

Bus
Couple
r
Open
100
A

Trafo #1

Feeder
#2

Bus #2

Bus
#1

Busbar
Protectio
n Relay
Bus-1

100
A

100
A

100
A

Busbar
Protectio
n Relay
Bus-2

Trafo #2

Two number of bus bar protection relays are required

for
protection of the double bus system , one for each bus.

Bus coupler closed condition

Feeder
#1

871

Feeder
#2

200
A
Feeder #2 CB
open

Bus
#1

Bus #2
872

100 Bus
A Couple

Busbar
Protectio
n Relay
Bus-1

Busbar
Protectio
n Relay
Bus-2

r
closed
100
A

Trafo #1

100
A

Trafo #2

When bus coupler CB closed and feeder#2 switched- off

condition, all the load current is
coming through feeder #1. There will be unbalance current in
the relays and both relays

Buscoupler CTs
Feeder
#1

Feeder
#2

200
A
Feeder #2 CB
open

87-1

Bus
#1

100
A

100
A

Bus #2
872

Bus
Coupler
closed

Busbar
Protectio
n Relay
Bus-1
100
A

Trafo #1

Busbar
Protectio
n Relay
Bus-2
100
A

Trafo #2

When the bus coupler bay is included in the bus bar

protection scheme.
The relays will remain stable during normal

Fault at bus coupler

Feeder
#1
Busbar -1
Protection
Zone

87-1

Feeder
#2
Busbar -2
Protection Zone

Bus
Couple
r fault

Bus #2

Bus
#1

Busbar
Protectio
n Relay
Bus-1

872

faul
t
Trafo #1

Busbar
Protectio
n Relay
Bus-2

100
A

Trafo #2

In case of a fault in busbar heavy fault current flows

but bus coupler CB is
not covered by any bus bar protection zones. So the

Overlapping of Zones

Feeder
#1

Feeder
#2
Busbar -2
Protection Zone

Busbar -1
Protection
Zone

87-1

Bus
#1

Bus
Coupler

Bus #2
872

Busbar
Protectio
n Relay
Bus-1

Busbar
Protectio
n Relay
Bus-2

Trafo #1

Trafo #2

Now the protection zones of Bus-1 and Bus-2

overlaps to include the
buscoupler CB, So both Relays operates for a fault

CT Switching

Bus
-1
Bus -2

CT Circuits are switched depending upon the position of

busbar disconnectors. The current is either connected to

busbar-1s or busbar 2s differential protection. Switching is
performed by using repeat relays controlled via two auxiliary
contacts at each busbars.

Check Zone Relay

Check Relay
protection
Zone

87CH

87 CH- Check
Zone Relay

871

Bus
#1

Trafo #1

Bus
Couple
r

Bus
#2

872

Trafo #2

The figure above shows double bus bar protection

scheme with a check zone relay.

Check Zone Relay

For a double busbar arrangement, two different high impedance units are
required. In this case, the current must be switched between the two
different measuring unitsby connecting auxiliary switches to the busbar
isolator contacts.
In some cases the auxiliary switches did not operate correctly. This
causes
the busbarProtection to trip the busbar. For this reason, a safety
precaution was introduced. Check zone is a safety precaution to avoid
tripping of bus bars due to defective CT Switching relays.
An overall Check-Zone unit, fed from individual CT cores. This overall
scheme does not include any switching of CT and therefore is more
secure.
Double bus system consists of 2 bus differential and a check
zone relay.

Double bus with Check Zone - Trip Logic

Trip 871

Trip 1

Trip 872
Trip 2
Trip 87CH

The TRIP command is issued only when both

discriminating and check-zone systemoperates. It is
also called two-out-of-three (2/3) logic.

Busbar protection- CT Switching Relays

In double bus system all the feeders could be

connected to either bus 1 or bus 2 through
disconnectors. The auxilairy contacts of the
disconnectors decide to which protection relays(i.e.
bus 1 or bus 2 protection relays) the CT inputs from
the specific feeder should be feeding. So the

CT wire Supervision Relays

This is a three phase monitoring device

designed to provide continuous supervision of

the bus wires in high impedance type bus wire
protection schemes.
The relay will detect open circuited bus wires
as well as open circuited main current
transformers.
3-5seconds time lag is provided to ensure that
the protection would not be interfered with.

Breaker Failure Protection (LBB)

In modern networks the critical fault clearing time

may be less than
200ms. Hence, if the fault is not cleared due to
failure of the primary protective relays or their
associated circuit breaker, a fast acting back-up
protective relay must clear the fault.
LBB is a protection designed to clear a system
faulty by initiating tripping other circuit breaker(s)
in the case of failure to trip of the appropriate
circuit breaker.

LBB/BFR FLOW CHART

MAIN
PROTECTION
OPERATED

YES

TRIP
MAIN
BREAKER

RESET
BREAKER
FAILURE
SCHEME

FAULT
YES
CLEARED

NO

YES

INITIATE
BFR

WAIT FOR
FAULT
CLEARENCE

&

TRIP
BACK-UP
BREAKERS

LBB trip is given to all breakers in the bus (to

which the failed circuit breaker is connected) and
incoming CBs in the remote station via
communication channel to isolate the CB