Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Wesley R. Speed
TXU Electric USA
SUMMARY
Over the years utilities have experienced problems with slow operation, failure to trip
or failure to close of circuit breakers. In recent years many of these problems have been
traced to faulty lubrication of the circuit breaker operating mechanisms. While traditional
diagnostic testing procedures are useful in determining the condition of the breaker
insulation, contact resistance and operating time, they are not adequate to fully evaluate
the condition of the breaker operating mechanism. The concept of measuring the control
circuit characteristics of the circuit breaker during operation to evaluate breaker operator
performance has been around for some time, but only in recent years has it become
available in a lightweight, portable package that allows quick capture of data and analysis
of results. TXU Electric has found circuit breaker operator signature analysis to be an
extremely beneficial tool for evaluating the condition of breaker operating mechanisms,
prioritizing the maintenance of circuit breakers, and minimizing equipment outages.
BACKGROUND
For many years electric utilities have relied on traditional diagnostic testing
procedures (power factor, megger and time) to evaluate the condition of their circuit
breakers. These tests provide information concerning the integrity of a breakers
insulation system, contact resistance and main contact operating times. However, these
procedures do not give meaningful insight into the condition of the operating mechanism
except for overall speed. Since a large percentage of breaker problems can be attributed
to the operator and related components, we were in effect looking for problems in the
wrong places.
Situations such as these may indicate a failure of the circuit breaker operating
mechanism lubrication. Circuit breaker operators contain numerous mechanical
components that rely on proper lubrication for their successful operation. However,
many enemies of the lubrication, including age, temperature, airborne contaminates and
improper or infrequent maintenance practices have left many circuit breaker operators
prone to failure.
The Lubrication Guide of the Doble Circuit Breaker Committee [1] discusses these
issues of lubrication and maintenance practices at length. An excerpt is taken from this
guide as follows:
The Lubrication Guide of the Doble Circuit Breaker Committee [1] also goes on to
explain how the use of synthetic greases in lieu of petroleum based greases should
provide longer service life of the breaker operator between lubrications.
Since traditional diagnostic testing procedures fall short of providing thorough data
regarding the breaker operating mechanism, another means is necessary to provide this
information.
One such product currently available which accomplishes the above is the Kelman
Profile P1 CB Analyzer. TXU Electric purchased this product and initiated a program to
test system circuit breakers. The remainder of this paper discusses the experiences gained
from utilizing this piece of test equipment.
IMPLEMENTATION
Connection
The connection of the breaker analyzer is extremely simple, consisting only of four
leads, as indicated the Figure 1. First, two leads are attached to the DC voltage supply to
the circuit breaker. Then, an AC clamp-on is connected to the secondary of one phase of
the current transformers (providing main contact operating time). Finally, a DC clamp-on
is connected to the trip and/or close circuit (providing DC current amplitude over time).
A typical shot obtained from the breaker analyzer is shown in Figure 2. There are
three main features the main contact time, the DC supply voltage, and the trip / close
coil current during the operation of the breaker. How the mechanical movement of the
operator corresponds to the electrical trace is indicated in the Figure 2. When a trip signal
is initiated to the breaker, the DC current through the trip coil starts to rise, moving the
plunger inside the coil. The plunger moves until its hits the trip latch of the breaker. This
is indicated on the electrical trace by the valley after the first hump on the curve. Up to
this point, the breaker is stationary. For a proper breaker operation, the trip latch is
released, the energy in the stored energy mechanism starts in motion, and the breaker
contacts start to move. At some point the main contacts break the current through the
breaker, and an auxiliary contact opens and breaks the current in the trip circuit.
Meanwhile, the DC supply voltage is measured during the shot.
a Contact Opens
DC Supply
to Breaker
Initial Program
For our initial program we tested 15kV, 25kV and 69kV circuit breakers. These
voltage classes were selected because breakers of these voltages historically caused us the
most problems. In phase 1 of this program, we were successful in identifying breakers in
failure mode, and corrective action was taken. We feel that numerous equipment outages
were avoided as a result of performing breaker analyzer testing. About six months later
we initiated phase 2 of the program. During this time we refined our data collection and
storage techniques, utilized the data to prioritize maintenance, documented healthy
breaker operators, identified bad actors by breaker type, and expanded our programs to
include 138kV circuit breakers.
Examples of problems found while using the breaker analyzer were failed operating
mechanism lubrication, damaged trip and close coils, dirty auxiliary switches, loose
connections in the control circuitry, substation battery or battery charger problems,
improper control cable sizing and tailsprings out of adjustment. In addition, while trip
testing these breakers we found problems with reclosing relays, breaker closing motors,
and RTUs.
To perform the testing, we assigned two two-man teams who focused exclusively on
breaker analyzer testing. Each team consisted of a person to run the breaker analyzer and
a patrolman to perform the switching. The process of connecting the breaker analyzer to
the breaker and running the tests took only about 5 minutes, plus time to switch the
equipment out. Average testing, switching and travel time for each team was around 23
minutes per breaker. They averaged over 20 breakers per day, accomplishing testing on
as many 50 breakers in a given day. It took these two teams about two months to test over
700 circuit breakers.
Shot Analysis
The process of analyzing the shots is a somewhat tedious process, but well worth the
time considering the outages that can be prevented from finding problems. A process that
seemed to work well was to first pull up trip shots for a particular breaker utilizing the
breaker analyzer software. We would inspect the shots to see if they fell within the
following general measurement criteria:
Then we looked to see if the second shot was faster than the first. This is a good
indication that the breaker was sluggish on the first shot due to faulty lubrication. The
breaker would trip faster on the second shot since the breaker had been exercised and
limbered up. This provided a good graphical representation (See Figure 3) of why in the
past we would have a suspected slow breaker, trip the breaker to take it out of service to
connect the timing equipment, and the breaker timed within specifications. In taking the
breaker out of service, we were missing the all-important first trip. By using the breaker
analyzer, we now have a means to capture the first trip.
After the breaker was compared to itself, we compared its shots to other breakers of
the same operator type. These families of curves could be compared against each other to
determine a prioritization of which breakers deserved the most immediate attention (See
Figure 4). We would also compare a breaker to one in which we had completely
overhauled the operating mechanism knowing it to be in the best possible shape. Shots
of each breaker are stored so that when future shots are taken we can compare them to the
original baseline of the breaker its signature to see if the operators performance
degrades over time.
Early in the program we focused on the breakers which showed large noticeable
differences in their shots. These were our breakers in a critical failure mode. However,
we began to realize the slight nuances between two shots from the same breaker could be
significant and should not be overlooked. In other words, shots from a healthy breaker
operator should have identical shots not only on their first and second trips, but on their
trip shots compared over months or years of time.
An example of a breaker in which the DC supply voltage dropped more than 10% is
shown in Figure 5. Other problems with the batteries or battery chargers could be picked
in the shots as a 60Hz ripple superimposed on the DC trip current signal (See Figure 6).
In a couple of instances, the breaker analyzer shots indicated loose wires in the control
circuitry (See Figure 7). Another item that can be identified with the breaker analyzer are
a tailspring out of adjustment (fast trip, slow close). Adjustment of the tailspring has been
used on occasion to speed up the trip on a slow circuit breaker, but this overlooks the root
cause of the slow breaker is probably faulty lubrication. Other items found were trip coils
on the verge of failure and dirty auxiliary switch contacts.
Second shot
Voltage trace
Current trace
Loose connections
in control circuit.
For the most meaningful analysis, it is critical that thought be placed into how the
data is managed. We purchased our breaker analyzers with a bar code feature that
proved to be extremely helpful in maintaining consistent data.
In order to obtain the best information about the breaker operator, it is critical to catch
first shot. When a breaker with problems in the operator is not exercised in a
relatively short period of time (as short as one month), the next breaker operation may
be slow and sluggish. Once the breaker has been exercised, it frees up to a point and
as long as the breaker gets off of the latch, the stored energy will mask the bearing
problem temporarily. It is helpful to note the date of last previous operation on a
breaker before using the breaker analyzer.
In order to achieve consistency in where you connect to the breaker each time, and to
make available the breaker analyzer testing duties to a broader range of employee
skill levels, we found it helpful to use tape to color code the placement of the four
leads within each breaker tested.
Most breaker operators would show a difference in speed between the first and
second shots if the lubrication was faulty. However, a few of particular type operators
would be consistent on the shot information, even thought their lubrication was in bad
shape.
The breaker analyzer we used was sensitive to connection of the DC voltage supply
leads to AC. It is a good practice to always check first with a voltmeter.
The breaker analyzer we used had some memory limitations which necessitated
downloading after completing tests on approximately twenty or thirty breakers.
General
The breaker analyzer does not perform all of the functions of a complete breaker
timer (velocity, etc), but it does allow you to catch the first shot which a breaker
timer can not do.
The consequences of faulty lubrication in vacuum breakers seem to be more severe
than in oil breakers. The newer vacuum breakers require less stored energy to perform
the breaker operation than older oil breakers did. However, the reduced stored energy
becomes a disadvantage when bearing lubrication becomes faulty. Once a breaker is
off the trip latch, the older oil breakers have more energy to overcome bearing
problems than the vacuum breakers do.
Manufacturers are still specifying petroleum-based greases in their breakers, and
warranty considerations need to be taken into account when overhauling an operator.
Hopefully manufacturers will consider utilizing synthetic greases in future.
There is benefit in a testing program in just being there. We found many problems
that although they were not found by the breaker analyzer, they surfaced just because
you were doing testing.
The breaker analyzer is an excellent tool to help prevent customer outages.
One disadvantage of the breaker analyzer we used is that it will not give a meaningful
current trace for AC-close circuit breakers. However, the information from the main
contact time and DC supply voltage to the breaker is captured.
Another disadvantage of the breaker analyzer is that it does not easily accommodate
testing of independent pole breakers.
When you are doing your breaker analyzer testing, you will invariably run into
problems that need immediate attention. Therefore, it is advisable to have access to
the proper maintenance personnel during testing.
Trip testing is the best, cheapest maintenance you can do.
Failure mode is not linear for all operator types.
CONCLUSION
REFERENCES
BIOGRAPHY
Wesley R. Speed is the Relay Support Manager at TXU Electric. Mr. Speed received
a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering at Texas A&M University in
1990. He worked six years in engineering as a substation project engineer and three years
in field operations before transferring to System Protection in 1999.