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 in
magnitude C.Tof currents, it is assumed that there
C.T is
some internal fault and the differential relay operates.
Protected object

Differential
Relay
Single busbar Protection (Healthy condition)
Current
entering
the bus

S P2
2 BUSBAR
ZONE

S P1
1

87 Busbar

S P1
1

P2

Under healthy condition the current S

2

entering the busbar and leaving the

Current
busbar will be same and the CT leaving
the bus
secondary current circulates thru
the secondaries. No current flows
thru the relay. Hence the relay will
remain restrained (non operating).
Single busbar Protection (fault within bus)
Current
entering
to the
bus

S P2
2 BUSBAR
ZONE

S P1
1
Busbar
87

S P1
1

P2
S
2

Under faulty condition all remote

busbars feed into fault and the Current
enters
direction CT secondary currents from the
remote
becomes additive and flows bus

though the rlay.

 Single busbar Protection scheme
K

Rela 87
BUSBAR
y (R)
ZONE
B C

A 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, iR = 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
 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 #1 100 A Feeder #2

100 A

Bus Bus #2
87-1
#1 87-2
Bus
Coupler
Busbar Busbar
Protection Open Protection
Relay Bus- Relay Bus-
1 100 100 2
A A
Trafo #1 Trafo #2

Two number of bus bar protection relays are required for

protection of the double bus system , one for each bus. The
relays will
 Bus coupler closed condition
Feeder #1 Feeder #2
200 A

Feeder #2 CB
open
Bus Bus #2
87-1 #1 87-2
100 Bus
A Coupler
Busbar closed Busbar
Protection Protection
Relay Bus- Relay Bus-
1 100 2
100
A
A
Trafo #1 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
100 A
Bus #1 100 A Bus #2
87-1
87-2
Bus
Coupler
Busbar closed Busbar
Protection Protection
Relay Relay
Bus-1 Bus-2
100 100
A A
Trafo #1 Trafo #2

When the bus coupler bay is included in the bus bar

protection scheme.
The relays will remain stable during normal condition and
 Fault at bus coupler
Feeder #1 Feeder #2

Busbar -1 Busbar -2
Bus
Protection Protection Zone
Zone Coupler
fault
Bus #1 Bus #2
87-1
87-2

Busbar
Busbar
Protection
Protection
Relay fault Relay
100 Bus-2
Bus-1
A
Trafo #1 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 -1 Busbar -2
Protection Zone Protection Zone

Bus
Bus #1 Coupler Bus #2
87-1
87-2

Busbar Busbar
Protection Protection
Relay Relay
Bus-1 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 in the
CT Switching

Bus -1

Bus -2

 CT –Circuits are switched depending upon the position of

busbar disconnectors. The current is either connected to
busbar-1’s or busbar 2’s differential protection. Switching
is performed by using repeat relays controlled via two
 Check Zone Relay

Check Relay
protection Zone

Bus Bus
87- 87-1 #1 #2 87-2
CH Bus
Coupler

87 CH- Check Zone

Relay
Trafo #1 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 units by connecting auxiliary switches to
the busbar
isolator contacts.

In some cases the auxiliary switches did not operate

correctly. This causes
the busbar Protection 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.
 Double bus with Check Zone - Trip Logic

Trip 87-1
Trip 1

Trip 87-2

Trip 2
Trip 87-CH

The TRIP command is issued only when both discriminating

and check-zone system operates. 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 aux.contacts of
the disconnectors helps in activating the switching relays to
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 RESET
TRIP
YES FAULT YES BREAKER
PROTECTION MAIN CLEARED FAILURE
OPERATED BREAKER
SCHEME

NO

YES WAIT FOR

INITIATE &
FAULT
BFR
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 completely.