EW Brown Transmission Overview and Substation tour

Kumar Tuesday, March 13

The technologies that I found most interesting during the Transmission Substation visit are as
follows:
Breaker and a half scheme
This configuration is very flexible, highly reliable and economical compared to other schemes.
This scheme requires more space in comparison to other schemes to accommodate more
equipment.

The configuration uses two main buses, both of which are normally energized with three
breakers connected between the buses. In this bus configuration, three breakers are required for
every two circuits - hence the "one and half" name. The middle breaker is shared by both
circuits.
Any circuit breaker can be isolated and removed for maintenance purposes without interrupting
supply to any of the other circuits. Additionally, one of the two main busses can be removed for
maintenance without interruption of service to any of the other circuits.
If a middle circuit breaker fails, the adjacent breakers are also tripped to interrupt both circuits. If
a breaker adjacent to the bus fails, tripping of the middle breaker will not interrupt service to the
circuit associated with the remaining breaker in the chain. Only the circuit associated with the
failed breaker is removed from service.
ADVANTAGES:
 During fault on any one bus, the system will remain healthy by feeding power through
another bus.
 Even if both the buses are out of service, power can flow directly from one side/ feeder to
another through tie bay.
 Breaker or bus maintenance is possible without the shutdown of the feeders.
 Differential Protection of Generator/ Alternator
I found this to be very interesting because the Differential protection of alternator or Merz-Price
circulating current protection system is the only protection system that protects alternator stator
from burning through at least 80% of it.
In this protection scheme, currents at the two ends of the protected section are compared. Under
the normal operating conditions, these currents are equal but may differ on the occurrence of fault
in the protected section. The difference of the current under the faulty condition is made to flow
through the relay operating coil. The relay then closes its contacts and makes the circuit breaker to
trip and thus isolate the protected section from the fault.
Differential protection for a generator is mainly employed for the protection of stator windings of
generator against earth faults and phase-to-phase faults. The stator winding faults are very
dangerous, and it causes considerable damage to the generator.
For alternator the most severe outcome of fault is the damage of stator. Other faults of alternator
like reverse power, stator inter turn, excitation circuit protection is either rare or can be detected
easily. The core concept of alternator stator protection is to save 85% of its coil from damage due
to fault.

There are two sets of current transformers one CT is connected to the line side of the generator
and other is connected to the neutral side of the generator in each phase. Under normal condition
there will be no current difference in two sides of protected zone, hence two CT’s in a phase will
conduct same current. Thus, currents from two CT’s will be balanced as current entering in same
point of same value from opposite direction is vectorially summed up as zero (Kirchhoff current
law).
 Circuit Breakers
The two different types of circuit breakers that I saw at the transmission substation and found
interesting are:
Gas Circuit Breaker
SF6 is a gas which satisfy the requirements of an ideal arc interrupting medium. So SF6 is
extensively used these days as an arc interrupting medium in circuit breakers ranging from 3kV up
to 765kV class. SF6 is also used in many electrical equipment for insulation.
Some of the essential properties of SF6 which is the reason of its extensive use in CB’s are:
 SF6 gas has high dielectric strength which is the most important quality of a material for
use in electrical equipment and in particular for breaker it is one of the most desired
properties.
 High Rate of Rise of dielectric strength after arc extinction, much sought property for a
circuit breaker to avoid restriking.
 SF6 is colorless, odorless and nontoxic gas.
 SF6 is an inert gas. So, in normal operating condition the metallic parts in contact with the
gas are not corroded. This ensures the life of the breaker and reduces the need for
maintenance.
 SF6 has high thermal conductivity which means the heat dissipation capacity is more. This
implies greater current carrying capacity when surrounded by SF6.
 The gas is quite stable. However, it disintegrates to other fluorides of Sulphur in the
presence of arc. but after the extinction of the arc the SF6 gas is reformed from the
decomposition.
 SF6 being non-flammable so there is no risk of fire hazard and explosion.
Air Circuit Breaker
Air Circuit Breaker (ACB) is an electrical device used to provide Overcurrent and short-circuit
protection for electric circuits over 800 Amps to 10K Amps. These are usually used in low voltage
applications below 450V. Air circuit breaker is circuit operation breaker that operates in the air as
an arc extinguishing medium, at a given atmospheric pressure.
Air circuit breakers operate with their contacts in free air. They are always used for a low-voltage
interruption and now tends to replace high-voltage oil breakers.

Air Circuit Breaker Working

Air Circuit breakers generally have two pairs of contacts. The main pair of contacts (1) carries the
current at normal load and these contacts are made of copper metal. The second pair is the arcing
contact (2) and is made of carbon. When the circuit breaker is being opened, the main contacts
open first. When the main contacts opened the arcing contacts are still in touch with each other.
As the current gets a parallel low resistive path through the arcing contact. During the opening of
main contacts, there will not be any arcing in the main contact. The arcing is only initiated when
finally the arcing contacts are separated. The each of the arc contacts is fitted with an arc runner
which helps. The arc discharge to move upward due to both thermal and electromagnetic effects.
As the arc is driven upward it enters in the arc chute, consisting of splatters.

The arc in the chute will become colder, lengthen and split hence arc voltage becomes much larger
than the system voltage at the time of operation of air circuit breaker, and therefore the arc is
extinguished finally during the current zero.

The desirable features of CB’s found in Air Circuit Breakers are

 High Speed Operation

 Facility of high speed recloser
 Negligible maintenance
 Reduced size
 Elimination of fire hazard
The "three key questions" mentioned in the report specification, which you will have to answer as
part of this report are:

1) What is the main reason for placing the bushing (insulators) at an angle (slanted) on
the circuit breakers?
The main reason for placing the bushing at an angle on the circuit breakers for more air
clearance. The other reasons being: maintaining practically uniform voltage stress upon
insulation and a static shield at the end of the casing minimizes corona and increases the
flashover voltages.

2) What is the highest voltage for transmission lines in the state of Kentucky and
where is this located?
Kentucky is bordered on the south by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) power
system, which uses 500 kV transmission. There are three 500 kV lines in Kentucky that
tie to the TVA system.
On the far eastern parts of Kentucky, American Electric Power(AEP) has a strong 765kV
EHV grid comprising of one 765kV from Kentucky to Virginia, one to West Virginia,
and one to Ohio.
https://psc.ky.gov/order_vault/Orders_2001/20000387_122001apx.pdf

First 765-kV transmission line, between Baker and Marquis stations in

1969
Kentucky and Ohio, respectively.
http://www.aep.com/about/transmission/transmissionfirsts.aspx

3) How can be the corona effect be minimized for electric equipment and substations?

The corona effects can be reduced by the following methods:

(i) By increasing conductor size
By increasing conductor size, the voltage at which corona occurs is raised and hence
corona effects are considerably reduced. This is one of the reasons that ACSR
conductors which have a larger cross-sectional area are used in transmission lines.
(ii) By increasing conductor spacing.
By increasing the spacing between conductors, the voltage at which corona occurs is
raised and hence corona effects can be eliminated. However, spacing cannot be increased
too much otherwise the cost of supporting structure (e.g., bigger cross arms and supports)
may increase to a considerable extent.
(iii) If the conductors are polished and smooth, the corona glow will be uniform
throughout the length of the conductors, otherwise the rough points will appear brighter.