Protection System- Introduction

Protection System
• Idea is to restrict the disturbance during failures to a limited area and
continue power distribution in the balance area.
• The special equipment adopted to detect such possible faults is referred to
as protective equipment or protective relay and the system that uses such
equipment is termed as protection system
Protection System: main requirements
1. Safeguard the entire system to maintain continuity of power supply
2. Minimize damage to equipment
3. Ensure safety of personnel
Why use protection?
1. Isolation of a circuit for maintenance
2. Isolation of a faulty circuit
3. Prevent damage to equipment
4. Protect oi n against electrical shock
Fault: an abnormal condition or defect at the component, equipment or sub
system level which may lead to failure ISO
How faults develop?
• Natural wear and tear
• Incorrect operation
• Accidental damage
• Human factor - neglect

Marine Electrical Engineering Department- CINEC CAMPUS

Ranjith Gunawardena.
 Protection System- Introduction
Are faults dangerous?
• Yes they are.
How?
• Faults cause disruption of power supply
• Power failure to essentials makes ship vulnerable to operate safely
• Fire Hazard
Protection System design feature
• Ship’s power distribution network is connected with various loads at the
same time
• A fault can occur in any part of the system
• A fault then needs to be detected
• After the fault has been detected, faulty circuit needs to be taken off
service
• The ability of a protection system to disconnect only the faulted circuits and
to maintain the electrical supplies to healthy circuits is called Protective
Discrimination

Marine Electrical Engineering Department- CINEC CAMPUS

Ranjith Gunawardena.
 Protection System- Introduction
Relay circuit‐breaker combination

Marine Electrical Engineering Department- CINEC CAMPUS

Ranjith Gunawardena.
 Protection System- overcurrent
What is a relay?
• are the devices which monitor the conditions of a circuit and give
instructions to open a circuit under unhealthy conditions
• They monitor voltage, current, frequency and power
What is Overcurrent?
• All electrical loads have current rating
• Current rating describes safe current that a load should draw for its safe
and proper operation at full load
• If a load draws more current then it’s rated – it increases the risk of damage
to the appliance and is unsafe
Overcurrent refers to a relatively small increase over the full load current (FLC)
• An appliance may draw more current than its FLC because of mechanical
overloading
• In case of a short circuit the same appliance would draw massive amount of
current
Overcurrent → small increase (10%) over FLC
Short circuit current →massive increase over FLC
Overcurrent Protection
• Circuit breakers provide Overcurrent protection by means of Overcurrent
relays
• Types of Overcurrent relays are;
1. Thermal
2. Magnetic
3. Electronic
A protective relay is the device, which gives instruction to disconnect the faulty
part of the circuit.
Marine Electrical Engineering Department- CINEC CAMPUS
Ranjith Gunawardena.
 Protection System- overcurrent
Overcurrent Relays
• All the relays have an inverse current-time characteristic called over current
inverse time (OCIT)
• Which means bigger the current faster the action
• For precise action of the relay at very high fault currents, they are arranged
to operate at a definite minimum time
• Such a type is known as OCIDMT (over current inverse and definite
minimum time)
• For even faster action they are combined with instantaneous trip

Marine Electrical Engineering Department- CINEC CAMPUS

Ranjith Gunawardena.
 Protection System- overcurrent
Magnetic Relay
• A magnetic relay directly converts the current into an electromagnetic force
to operate the trip switch

Marine Electrical Engineering Department- CINEC CAMPUS

Ranjith Gunawardena.
 Protection System- overcurrent
Thermal Relay
• A thermal relay utilizes the bending action of a bimetallic bar (one per
phase) to open a normally closed contact which then trips contact or circuit-
breaker.
• They are two types – directly heated and indirectly heated.
• Directly heated type allows small currents to flow directly through
bimetallic strip
Thermal Relay
• In case of larger currents, overcurrent is passed through a heater coil
surrounding the bimetallic strip
• In three phase systems, there are three metallic strips for each phase. All
the strips bend in the same direction to cause a trip.
Thermal Relay

Marine Electrical Engineering Department- CINEC CAMPUS

Ranjith Gunawardena.
 Protection System- overcurrent
Thermal Relay

Electronic Relay
• This type of relay measures the overcurrent and converts it into a
proportional voltage.
• Proportional voltage is then compared with a set voltage level within the
monitoring unit
Advantages of Fuses
• Very simple
• Less expensive
• Reliable
• Very high speed of operation – faster than CB

Marine Electrical Engineering Department- CINEC CAMPUS

Ranjith Gunawardena.
 Protection System- overcurrent

Disadvantages
• Insensitive to small overcurrent
• An HRC will blow at currents as low as 25% overload – but only after 4
hours
Marine Application of Fuses
• Wire type fuses are not recommended
• Because they re-wire able – prone to abuse (wrong size of fuse wire)
• High Rupturing Capacity “HRC” (e.g. 80 kA)
• They are cartridge type
Fuses for Motor
• Motors draw large amount of current when started – 6 times FLC
• For this reason fuses for motors are typically rated 2-3 times motor FLC to
withstand starting current surge
• Fuses for motor circuits could be designated as “32M63”
• 32A = continuous rating, 63A = for the brief starting period
Fuses: Important Considerations
• Before a fuse link is replaces, in case of fuse blowing, investigate the fault
first
• Replace with the correct type of fuse link, e.g. Current rating, grade etc.
• In a three phase supply, replace all three fuses even if only one of them is
found blown – others may be seriously weakened.

Marine Electrical Engineering Department- CINEC CAMPUS

Ranjith Gunawardena.
 Protection System- over voltage
What are they?
• Under voltage trips are mechanism which provide protection in the event
of severe voltage dip (around 50%).

Where can they be found?

• All the generator breakers
• Some main feeder circuit-breakers
What do they do?
• They trip the breaker in the event of under voltage
How does it work?
• Under normal conditions, generator breaker is closed with the main bus-
bar
• Breaker is kept in closed position by a mechanical latch
• In the event of severe voltage dip, the U/V coil associated with the latch
causes the lifting of the latch
• Breaker’s trip spring comes into action, now, and opens the circuit.

Marine Electrical Engineering Department- CINEC CAMPUS

Ranjith Gunawardena.
 Protection System- over voltage
U/V Trip Relay
 Prevents dead generator (= SC fault on the bus bar) coming online
 Like other relays U/V relay also has time delay characteristic to
prevent tripping during transient voltage dips (up to 15%)
 Relays can be electromagnetic or electronic
 U/V protection can also be found on motor starters
 In case of a voltage dip or loss contactors drop out

Marine Electrical Engineering Department- CINEC CAMPUS

Ranjith Gunawardena.
 Protection System- Preference Tripping
What is a Preferential Trip?
 To maintain generator operation during an overload (110%) a preferential
load shedding arrangement is employed
 This is achieved through a preference trip relay
 If generator overload develops, this relay sets and alarm and also trips
selected non-essential loads
 This relay energizes the timing relay once set overload conditions are met
 Timing relay then operates to disconnect nonessentials in a definite order
at set intervals
Reverse Power Trip
Introduction
 All the generators intended to operate in parallel must have reverse power
protection (RP)
 An RP monitors the flow of direction from generators to the load
 In the event of a reverse power flow due to the failure of the prime-mover,
generator will act as a motor.
 RP detects this fault and trips the generator circuit breaker
Trip settings
• Trips have two type of settings which are adjustable depending upon the
type the prime-mover
• Two adjustable settings are
1. Power pick-up level
2. Time delay

Marine Electrical Engineering Department- CINEC CAMPUS

Ranjith Gunawardena.
 Protection System- Sample questions
Sample questions
a) State THREE reasons for fitting fuse protection in electric circuits
b) Describe, with the aid of a sketch, a high rupturing capacity fuse
c) Describe the necessary actions to be taken when a fuse has ruptured
Suggested Answer (a)
1. Provides protection against short circuits
2. Can operate considerably faster
3. Protects equipment from damage due to high fault currents
4. Provides electrical protection to the personnel
5. Arc and fault energy contained within insulating tube, therefore prevent
damage
6. Fuses are simple, reliable and less expensive electric circuit protective
devices
Suggested Answer (b)
Construction:
An HRC fuse consists of an insulation tube whose both ends are terminated with
end caps. High grade ceramics are chosen for insulating body to withstand high
thermal, mechanical and electrical stresses. Fuse elements, housed inside the
insulation tube, are made from specially profiled silver wire. The fuse interior is
filled with arc quenching material such as quartz. Fuse-link is then sealed at its
both ends.

Marine Electrical Engineering Department- CINEC CAMPUS

Ranjith Gunawardena.
 Protection System- Sample questions
Suggested Answer (b)

Suggested Answer (b)

Operation:
HRC fuse like other fuses provide protection to electric circuits against high fault
current (Shorts). In the event of such a fault occurring on the circuit, the fuse
element melts thereby breaking the flow of fault current. At the same time, the
quartz acts to quench the arc produced due to sudden interruption of high fault
current.
Suggested Answer (c)
 No work is to be carried out on electrical circuits without following safe
working practices
 Electrical Permit to Work (EPTW) must issue – this will ensure that the
circuit is safe to work on by isolating it, locking it, tagging it (if possible) and
then carrying out the live line testing to prove that the circuit is dead

Marine Electrical Engineering Department- CINEC CAMPUS

Ranjith Gunawardena.
 Protection System- Sample questions
 Before a blown fuse is replaced with a new one, the cause of blown fuse is
investigated
 Condition of fuse link holder is checked for security
 Replacement fuse of correct specifications (e.g. current rating etc.)is then
installed
 In a three phase supply, all the three fuses are replaced even if only one of
them was blown as others might have seriously been weakened

Marine Electrical Engineering Department- CINEC CAMPUS

Ranjith Gunawardena.