Se ——- PROTECTION SCHEMESPROTECTION OF ALTERNATORS Alternator is the most important and very costly machine of the power system. Therefore, it is desirable and necessary to provide appropriate protection to cover the wide range of faults which may occur on this unit. Some of the major faults which may occur on an alternator are given below 1. Failure of Prime-mover. 2. Failure of field. [Link] current. [Link] [Link] [Link] loading. 7. Insulation failure of stator winding.es] = Whenever there is a fault on the prime-mover, it may stop delivering the mechanical power to the generator. Usually, a large number of alternators are working in parallel in modem power system, therefore, in this case, the faulty machine will start working as a synchronous motor. The prime-mover will become load on the machine and instead of supplying power it will start drawing power from the bus-bars. When a generator starts running as a motor it is called inverted running. Let us see, what type of protection is applied when this type of fault occurs on the machines working at different generating stations;(a) (b) (c) In case of turbo-alternator sets, the failure of steam supply may cause inverted running. The machine remains in synchronism and operates as an alternator when steam supply is restored. However if the steam failure is likely to be prolonged, the machine can be safely isolated by the control room attendant. Since this fault is not harmful for turbo-alternators, no automatic protection is required. In case of hydro-generator sets, although no electrical protection is required against inverted running but mechanical protection is provided on the water wheel to disconnect the generator from the system when water flow drops to an insufficient rate to maintain adequate electrical out-put. In case of diesel engine driven generator sets, the inverted running may damage the engine due to possible mechanical seizure. Therefore, an automatic protection is required which can _ be achieved by providing reverse power relay in the generator circuit near the bus-bars. The reverse power relay must have a time delay in Operation in order to avoid in advertent tripping during system disturbances caused by faulty synchronizing and phase swinging.There are very rare chances of field failure. Even if it occurs, no immediate damage is caused by permitting the alternator to run without field for a short period. Therefore, the faulty alternator can be disconnected from the bus-bars by the control room attendant and no automatic protection required.OVER CURRENT Over current protection for alternators is not considered necessary because modern alternators are designed with very high (internal) reactance. This high internal reactance limits the short circuit current and alternators are capable to withstand this current for a sufficient time without any damage. Therefore, on this fault, alternators are disconnected manually and no automatic protection is required. 6Over speed may be caused due to sudden loss of all or the major part of load on the alternator. Modern alternators are usually provided with mechanical centrifugal devices (called governors) mounted on their driving shafts to close down the main valve of the prime-mover when a dangerous over- speed occurs.The field excitation system of modern alternators is designed in such a manner that there is no chance of over-voltage at normal running speeds. However, due to sudden loss of load on the alternator may increase the speed of prime- mover to such an extent that over-voltage may occur. In case of steam-turbine driven alternators, the control governors are so sensitive that they keep a check on overspeeds and prevent the occurrence of over-voltages. Therefore, over- voltage protection is not provided on turbo-alternators. In case of hydro- generators, the control governors are not sensitive to respond the overspeeds due to loss of load quickly. Therefore, the over-voltage during time lag may reach to a value that may over-stress the stator winding and insulation may break. Therefore, usually over-voltage protection is provided on hydro- generator units. The over-voltage relays are operated from a voltage supply derived from the generator terminals. The relays are arranged in such a manner that when the generated voltage rises 20% more than the normal value, they trip the main circuit breaker to disconnect the faulty alternator from the system. At the same time the alternator field circuit is also disconnected. 8» LOADING The unbalanced loading arises from the earth fault (earth leakage) or phase to phase fault outside the alternator. If this fault persists for long period it may severely burn mechanical fixing of the rotor core. Therefore, automatic protection is required against this fault. This protection can be achieved either by earth leakage protection scheme or unbalance protection scheme.a EARTH LEAKAGE PROTECTION SCHEME: (a) The schematic arrangement of earth leakage protection scheme is shown in fig. In grounded neutral system, a relay is connected in the neutral through a current transformer. Under balanced load, current lowing through the neutral is zero. However, when unbalancing occurs due to earth fault on any one of the phases, some current equal to vector sum of currents in the different phases will flow in the neutral. This will energise the relay which consequently closes the trip coil circuit and opens the circuit breaker.' EARTH LEAKAGE PROTECTION SCHEME ALTERNATOR TO TRIP CIRCUITm UNBALANCE PROTECTION SCHEME The schematic arrangement of unbalance protection scheme is shown in fig. In this scheme, three CTs are placed on the three phases and their secondary’s are connected in parallel. A relay coil is also connected in parallel across the transformer secondary’s.m UNBALANCE PROTECTION SCHEMEcurrent flows through the relay coil. However, when unbalancing occurs, some current equal to the vector sum of currents in the three phases will flow through the relay coil. Consequently, relay closes the trip circuit and opens the circuit breaker.INSULATION FAILURE OF STATOR WINDING The insulation failure of stator winding may cause the following faults (a) turn to turn fault —(b) fault between any phase and ground (c) fault between phases. It is not practically possible to protect against turn to turn fault on the same phase winding without special winding arrangement. But these faults quickly turn to — short-circuit or earth —_ fault. All the above faults develope inside the machine and cause serious damage to expensive machinery. Therefore, it is necessary to make complete clearance of the fault in the shortest time in order to minimise the extent of damage. Hence a reliable automatic protection is absolutely necessary against the insulation failure. The best protection which can be employed is Differential protection usually called Merz Price Protection.' MERZ PRICE PROTECTION OF ALTERNATORS This is the most common form of protection scheme employed for stator winding faults. It operates on the principle of differential circulating current system. Schematic Arrangement The schematic arrangement of Merz Price Protection System for the protection against internal faults of a 3-phase alternator is shown in fig. Identical current transformer sets CT1 and CT2 are placed on either side of each phase of the stator winding. The secondaries of each set of current transformers are connected in star. The star points and the corresponding terminals of both the sets of CT’s are connected across the mid points of the connected wires and star point. 6MERZ PRICE PROTECTION OF ALTERNATOR: epee | MP PN | resistance | Neutral To trip circuit rUnder normal operating conditions, current at both the ends of each winding are equal. So equal [Link] are induced in the secondaries of current transformers and hence no current flows through the protective relays. However, when fault occurs in the stator winding (due to insulation failure), different current flows at the two ends of the stator winding. This results in difference in induced [Link] in secondaries of CTs placed on two ends and causes a flow of current in the protective relay which closes the trip coil circuit.' BALANCED EARTH-FAULT PROTECTION In small-size alternators, the three phase winding is often connected in star internally and only one neutral wire is available. In such cases it is not possible to use Merz-Price circulating current principle since there is no facility for accommodating the necessary CTs on one side of the three windings. Under these circumstances it is considered sufficient to provide protection against earth faults only by the use of balanced earth-fault protection scheme. This scheme does not provide any protection against phase-to- phase fault unless and until they develop into earth-faults. However, it has seen that usually these faults are converted into earth faults. 9ematic arrangement The schematic arrangement of a balanced earth-fault protection for a 3-phase alternator is shown in fig. In this arrangement, three CTs each one mounted on each line of the three-phases having their secondaries connected in parallel are connected to the secondary of another CT mounted on the neutral as shown in fig. A relay is connected across the secondaries of CTs. The protection against earth faults is limited to the region between the neutral and the line current transformers (such as F1).nder normal operating conditions, the currents flowing in the alternator leads and hence the currents flowing in the secondaries of the line CTs add to zero and no current flows through the relay coil. Also under these conditions, the current in the neutral wire is zero and the secondary of neutral current transformer supplies no current to the relay. If an earth-fault develops at F2 outside the protected zone, the sums of the currents at the terminals of the alternator is exactly equal to the current in the neutral connection and hence no current flows through the relay coil. When an earth- fault occurs at FI i.e. within the protected zone, these currents are not equal and the differential current flows through the operating coil of the relay. The relay is thus energised and closes the trip coil circuit. 2Transformer is a static device, generally immersed in oil and is placed in a sealed tank. Therefore there are very rare chances of internal faults. But if it occurs due to any reason, it may damage this costly device. This necessitates to provide adequate automatic protection for transformers against internal faults. Small pole mounted distribution transformers are usually connected to the supply system (11kV line) through series (re- wireable) fuses instead of circuit breakers. Consequently no automatic protective relay equipment is required. However, the probability of faults on power transformers is more and hence automatic protection is absolutely necessary. 3(a) Open caeuit (b) Overheating (c) Windings short circuited e.g. earth faults, phase to phase faults and inter-turn faults. An open circuit in one phase of a 3-phase transformer may cause undesirable heating. In practice, no automatic relay protection is provided against open circuit fault because this condition is relatively harmless. On the occurrence of such a fault, usually transformer is disconnected manually. Overheating of a transformer is usually caused by sustained overloads or short circuits and very occasionally by the failure of the cooling system. In this case also no automatic relay protection is provided. However thermal accessories are generally used to sound an alarm or control the banks of fans Windings short circuits (e.g. earth faults, phase to phase faults and inter-turn faults) are the internal faults which may damage the transformer. Therefore, under these faults, the transformer must be disconnected from the supply system quickly with the help of relay and circuit breakers. 4= we ' PROTECTION SYSTEMS FOR TRANSFORMERS For protection of alternators, Merz-Price circulating current system is unquestionably the most satisfactory. The same system is quite suitable for the protection of transformers but some other protective systems are also employed for the protection of transformers which are given below: (a) Buchholz relay protection. (b) Earth fault or leakage protection. (c) Combined leakage and overload protection. (d) Merz price protection. 25-_ ‘Ce Buchholz relay is named after its inventor, Buchholz. It is a gas actuated relay installed in the pipe connecting the conservator to the main tank as shown in fig. . It protects the transformer against all kinds of internal faults. Mostly these relay are used on all such oil immersed transformers having ratings 750 kVA and above.TO CONSERVATORThe constructional details of a Buchholz relay are shown in fig . The relay consists of an oil tight container with two mercury switches. One of the mercury switch is attached to the upper float which closes the alarm circuit. Whereas, the other mercury switch is mounted on a lower hinged type flap located in the direct path of the flow of oil from transformer to the conservator. This switch closes the trip coil circuites] ee UN LOY In the event of minor fault within the transformer, heat is produced which decomposes the transformer oil. The products of decomposition contain gases (nearly 70% hydrogen). The gas being light, try to go into the conservator tank and in the process of passing through the relay they are being trapped in the upper part of the relay due to which the oil level falls. This tilts the upper float downward and closes the alarm circuit contact through mercury switch attached to the float arm. Alarm gives a warning to the control room attendant that some fault is developing inside the transformer. In case of serious fault within the transformer, an enormous amount of gases is generated in the main tank. The oil in the main tank rushes towards the conservator via Buchholz relay. The heavy rush of oil applies thrust on the lower flap and tilts it to close the contacts of mercury switch attached to it. This completes the trip coil circuit of the circuit breaker. 30BREF UNO GE PROTECTION The earth or leakage fault usually involves a partial breakdown of winding insulation to earth. To protect the transformer against earth or leakage fault, a core- balance protection system is generally employed. Schematic arrangement The circuit diagram of a core-balance protection system is shown in fig. In this case, the three primary conductors are surrounded by the magnetic core of a current transformer. The secondary of the CT’s is connected to the operating coil of the relay.SECONDARY RTT 4 : B POWER TRANSFORMERin Under normal operating conditions, the system is balanced and the algebraic sum of currents in the three phases is zero, so iron core of CT carries no resultant flux. Therefore, no emf is induced in secondary winding of CT and no current flows through the relay operating coil. However, when earth fault (leakage) occurs, an unbalancing of currents is caused resulting in a flux in the iron core of C.T. So e.m.f. is induced in the secondary of CT resulting in flow of current through the operating coil of the relay which closes the trip coil circuit. 3B(9) The core balance protection suffers from the disadvantage that if fault occurs between two phases the relay does not respond. This short-coming is overcome by providing combined "leakage (i.e., earth fault ) the overload protection scheme. The earth leakage relay has low current setting and operates under earth or leakage faults only. The over current relays have high current setting and are arranged to operate against faults between the phases.SECONDARY PRIMARY R R' Y ar 0 a B OVERLOAD —?p OVERLOAD RELAY’ - schematic arrangement of combine leakage and over load protection scheme is shown in Fig. In this case three separate CTs are employed on the three phases. Two overload relays and one, earth leakage relay are connected in the circuit. The two overload relays are sufficient to protect all the three phases against overloads while the leakage relay is energised by the resultant current from all the three CTs in case of leakage fault. Hence protection of transformer against phase to phase fault or earth fault is achieved.=z RMERS Merz Price Protection system is employed to give protection to transformers against internal earth and phase to phase fault. Though, it is the same system which is applied for the protection of alternators(insulation failure). But when this system is employed for the protection of transformers the following points must be considered.a) Since the primary and secondary of the transformers have different currents depending upon their turn ratio. Therefore, CTs of different turn ratios are selected to compensate the above effect. Hence, under normal conditions, the e.m.s. induced in the secondary windings of the two CTs (connected together) placed on two sides should have same magnitude. (b) There is usually a phase difference between the primary and secondary currents of a 3-phase power transformer depending upon their connections. This effect can be compensated by employing the connections given in the following table. (c) In case of tap-changing transformers turns ratio of CTs must be adjusted.STAR CONNE eo cT1Power transformer (@ituvoo (ceyntetras Coli ty transformer connections Primary Secondary Primary Secondary Winding Winding Winding Winding Star Star Delta Delta Star Delta Delta Star Delta Star Star Delta Delta Delta Star Staric Arrangement The schematic diagram of Merz Price Protection Scheme for the protection of a 3-phase delta-delta power transformer is shown in fig . Here CTs of appropriate turn ratio are connected in star-star. Operation Under normal operating conditions, the secondaries of CTs carry identical currents. Therefore no current flows through the operating coil (O C) of the relay. However, when earth fault or phase to phase fault occurs in the transformer, current in the secondaries of CTs will no longer remain the same. A differential current flows through the operating coil of the relay which closes the trip circuit and opens the circuit breaker.- BS _eus-aAg provecrion Bus-bars form a link between the incoming and outgoing circuits at the generating stations or sub- stations. If a fault develops in this part of the power system, considerable damage and disruption of supply will occur. Still proper protection scheme has to be adopted to improve the reliability of supply. Although, various schemes have been developed for the protection of bus-bars but the most common scheme is differential protection.a DIFFERENTIAL PROTECTION SCHEME The schematic diagram of current differential protection scheme employed for the protection of sub-station bus-"bars is shown in fig..The secondaries of all the CTs connected in incoming and outgoing feeders are connected in parallel as shown in fig. The CTs are designed in such a way that under normal condition, the emfs induced in the secondaries of the CTs placed on the incoming feeders must balance the emfs induced in the secondaries of the CTs placed on the outgoing feeder. Then no current flows through the operating coil of the relay which is connected across the connecting wires. BBUS-BARUnder normal conditions or external fault conditions. the sum of the current entering the bus-bar is equal to the sum of currents leaving it. Therefore, no current flows through the operating coil. However, when fault occurs within the protected zone (bus-bar), the currents entering the bus-bar will no longer be equal to those leaving it. Thus, a differential current flows through the operating coil of the relay which closes the trip circuit.The chances of faults occurring on the feeder (transmission lines) is much more due to their greater length and exposure to atmospheric conditions. Therefore, various, protection schemes have been developed which may be classified as: (a) Time-graded over current protection. (b) Differential protection (Translay — scheme). (c) Distance protection.' TIME-GRADED OVER-CURRENT PROTECTION In time-graded over current protection scheme, the time setting of relay is so graded that in the event of fault, the smallest possible section of system is isolated. This scheme is applied for the protection of (i) Radial feeders (ii) Parallel feeders and (ii) Ring mains.TIME-GRADED PROTECTION FOR RADIAL FEEDERS The time-graded protection of radial feeder is obtained by employing inverse definite minimum time lag relays. The relays are so set that the minimum time of operation decreases from the power station to the remote sub-station as shown in fig. The operating time of inverse definite minimum time lag relays is inversely proportional to the Operating current, but is never less than the minimum definite for which it is set.iult-e d b 0) second by the relay and circuit breaker of substation E because all other relays have higher operating time. If the relay at substation E fails to trip, the relay at D will operate after a time delay of 0.5 seconds i.e. after 0.6 seconds from the operating time.{E GRADED PROTECTION FOR PARALLEL FEEDERS Where continuity of supply is absolutely necessary, two feeders are run in parallel. If a fault occur on one feeder, the supply can be maintained from the other feeder, disconnecting the faulty feeder. Fig shows the system where two feeders are connected in parallel between generating station and sub-station. All the generating station, non-directional over current relays are connected whereas directional over current instantaneous relays are connected at sub-station end.‘an earth fault occurs on feeders at point F as shown the fault is fed;(a) directly from feeder 2 via relay B. (b) from feeder I via A, P and sub-station Q as shown in fig by the dotted arrows. This clearly shows that directional relay P carries the current in normal direction whereas directional relay carries the current in reverse direction momentarily. This operates the relay Q instanteously. The relay B having inverse time characteristic also operates because of heavy flow of current but the relay A remains inoperative as it carries less current. Thus, the faulty feeder is isolated and the supply is maintained through the other feeder. fig.eS PROTECTION ue (SFU The system in which various power stations or sub- stations are inter-connected by number of feeders forming a closed circuit is called a ring-main system. In this system of protection, non-directional over current relays having inverse time characteristic are employed. Whereas directional or reverse power relay are employed on both sides of each substation. The minimum definite time or all the relay are set properly as shown in fig. Whenever fault occurs on any of the section (say G H in this case). only corresponding relays (relay G and H in this case) will operate without disturbing the other relays of the network. Thus, the faulty section is isolated and 3 saad angen ae ic sane oat wiciany Sani ong AL ata bi an seein wean oon ie aoe einerS.S1DIFFERENTIAL PROTECTION TRANSLAY SCHEME) eThe Translay Scheme in basically a voltage balance differential protection scheme. But in this scheme, voltages induced in the secondary windings wound on the relay magnets is compared in place of secondary voltages of the line current transformers. The schematic diagram of a Tranley Scheme for the protection of 3-phase feeder (line) is shown in fig. He relays used in the scheme are essentially overcurrent induction type relays. The central limb of the upper magnet (U.M) carries a winding (A or A') which is energised by the sum of secondary current CTs placed on feeder to be protected. The central limbs of upper magnet also carries a secondary winding (B or B’) which is connected in series with the operating winding (C or C’) placed on the lower magnets (L.M). In between the two magnets, an aluminium disc D is placed which is free to rotate . The spindle of the disc carries the moving contact which closes the trip circuit under fault conditions. 3sPILOT WIREShe-currents at 1 the feeder are equal so that the secondary current in both sets of CTs are equal. Consequently, the [Link]. induced in the secondary windings C and C’ are equal and opposite and no current flows through the closed circuited secondaries. However, when fault occurs on the feeder system say at point F the voltage induced in C and C" will no longer remain equal. Therefore, current flows through this winding and torque is developed in the disc remain equal. Hence the discs of both the relays rotate and close the trip circuits. 7g " ROTECTION The Time-graded Over-current Protection Scheme suffers from the disadvantage that when the long feeder is required to be protected which has four or five sections, there is long time delay in clearing the fault at the generating station. Whereas, the Translay scheme requires long pilot wires which makes the scheme very expensive. Therefore, distance protection is invariably employed for the protection of long feeders.A long feeder (transmission line) is shown in fig. in which power can flow only in one direction. At the sub-stations A, B C and D relays are placed which are set to operate for impedance less than Z1,Z2, Z3 and Z4 respectively. If a fault occurs at point F in between the sub-station C and D, then the fault impedance at station A, B and C will be (Z1+ Z2+Z ), (Z2+Z) and Z respectively. Since the relay placed at sub station A, B and C can only operate if the fault impedance is less than Zl, Z2, and Z3_ respectively. Therefore, only the relay placed at sub-station i.e. A and B will remain intact. In this manner instantaneous protection can be obtained.