SWITCHING SURGES DURING PF CONTROL

PROJECT REPORT: CONTROLLING SWITCHING SURGES DURING POWER FACTOR CONTROL

-Under Guidance of Prof. Rahul T. Dahatonde

GROUP MEMBERS: Ranjana Bagade Kalhan Bhan

Roll No.2 Roll No.9

Janhavi Devarajan Roll No.19

INDEX
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1.

Introduction..Pg.3

2.

Need for PF control..Pg.4

3.

Methods currently in use..Pg.6

4.

Thyristors.Pg.8

5.

Components used in the circuit....Pg.11

6.

....Pg.12

7.

Pg.14

8.

..Pg.15

9.

..Pg.17

10. ReferencesPg.18

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INTRODUCTION
The power factor of an AC electric power system is defined as the ratio of the real power flowing to the load to the apparent power, and is a dimensionless number between 0 and 1. Power (KVA) Supplied by Electricity Boards consist of Real Power (KW), which produce energy & reactive power (KVAR) generated by Inductive Loads, which decreases the loading capacity & the efficiency of the Supply System.Electricity Boards charge heavy Penalty to H.T. Consumer, if the Power Factor of the system is below a required minimum average value. Power Factor of the System can be improved by switching Capacitors as per KVA demand with the help of Automatic Power Factor Controllers. Modern Industries use Large Nos. of AC Motors, DC Drives, Rectifiers, Invertors, Compressors, Inductive Furnaces and Welding Machines, causing poor Power Factor of the System. The Reactive Power requirement in such Industries varies rapidly within every few cycles. The response speed of the conventional Power Factor Controller is not suitable to take care of rapid switching cycle. The Conventional Power Factor Control System incorporates Electromechanical Switches to Switch Capacitors and or not suitable for Fast switching where the load is rapidly changing. Thyristorised Automatic Power Factor Correction System is a modern powerful system constituting a Technological Breakthrough in the field of power factor Control. This new modern system utilizes Electronic Switching element that switch power capacitor banks into the new worth without creating switching transients. Connection to the network is performed with the help of ZERO-CROSSING Detector, providing smooth connection to the Capacitor Banks. There is no limit to the no. of switching operations, since the electronic switching elements do not wear out or deteriorate during the switching process.

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NEED FOR POWER FACTOR CONTROL

Power Factor is a measure of how efficiently electrical power is consumed. In the ideal world Power Factor would be unity (or 1). Unfortunately in the real world Power Factor is reduced by highly inductive loads to 0.7 or less. This induction is caused by equipment such as lightly loaded electric motors, luminaire transformers and welding sets, etc. In a 3 phase supply, kW consumed is (VOLTS x AMPS x 1.73 x Power Factor) / 1000. The Electricity Company supply us VOLTS x AMPS and they have to supply extra to make up for the loss caused by poor Power Factor. When the power factor falls below a set figure, the electricity supply companies charge a premium on the kW being consumed, or, charge for the whole supply as kVA. Inductive loads cause the current to lag behind the voltage. The wave forms of voltage and current are then out of phase with each other. The more out of phase they become then the lower the Power Factor. Power Factor is usually expressed as cos(Phi). In 3 phase power supplies the "power" can be measured as a triangle. ACTIVE Power is the base line and is the real usable power measured in kW. REACTIVE power is the vertical or that part of the supply which causes the inductive load. The reactive power in is measured in kVAr (kilo volt-amperes reactive) APPARENT Power is the hypotenuse. This is the resultant of the other two components and is measured in kVA

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The introduction of Power Factor Correction capacitors is a widely recognized method of reducing an electrical load, thus minimizing wasted energy and hence improving the efficiency of a plant and reducing the electricity bill. It is not usually necessary to reach unity, i.e. Power Factor 1, since most supply companies are happy with a PF of 0.95 to 0.98. By installing suitably sized switched capacitors into the circuit, the Power Factor is improved and the value becomes nearer to 1 thus minimizing wasted energy and improving the efficiency of a plant. Power factor in a single-phase circuit (or balanced three-phase circuit) can be measured with the wattmeter-ammeter-voltmeter method, where the power in watts is divided by the product of measured voltage and current. The power factor of a balanced polyphase circuit is the same as that of any phase. The power factor of an unbalanced polyphase circuit is not uniquely defined.

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METHODS CURRENTLY IN USE

The most widespread method so far is by connecting capacitors across the loads as capacitors provide a leading power factor which increases the overall power factor by reducing the (Xl-Xc) quantity which is responsible for the low power factor. The power factor angle phi is given by: Phi=tan(inv((Xl-Xc)/R)); As the angle needs to be reduced, either Xl-Xc should be reduced or R must be increased. Since increasing R will result in increased copper losses, we concentrate on reducing the Xl-Xc quantity or indirectly by increasing Xc. However, while switching these capacitances into the circuits, there is heavy flow of inrush currents and also resulting in transients which can damage the system and reduce the life of the system thereby increasing maintenance cost. Utility capacitor bank switching can have negative impacts on power quality. AC and DC drives, along with other electronic equipment, can be very sensitive to transient voltages. Capacitor bank switching transients can be magnified at low voltage capacitor locations on power systems, causing drives to trip and production and other processes to stop. There are a number of important transient-related concerns when transmission voltage level capacitor banks are applied. Transmission system concerns include insulation withstand level, switchgear capabilities, energy duties of protective devices, and system harmonic considerations. These considerations must be extended to also include distribution systems. The capacitor bank energizing transient is important because it is one of the most frequent utility system switching operations. It can produce high phase-to-phase overvoltages on a terminating transformer; excite circuit resonances resulting in transient voltage magnification in secondary voltage networks, or cause problems with sensitive electronic equipment. Power quality symptoms related to utility capacitor bank switching include:equipment damage or failure (due to excessive overvoltage); nuisance tripping of adjustable-speed drives or other process equipment shutdown (due to dc bus overvoltage); transient voltage surge suppressors failure and computer network problems (e.g., UPS cycling).

D-VAR product, which comprises an integrated array of PowerModule power converters, offers a powerful yet cost-effective way of regulating and stabilizing voltage levels by injecting dynamic reactive power (VARs) into the power grid at precise locations where voltage problems can occur. D-VAR systems can be utilized in a wide range of applications including, voltage regulation and instability, var support for wind farm interconnection to the grid, and optimizing power transfer on stability limited transmission networks.
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D-VAR (Dynamic VAR) reactive compensation systems provide a powerful and cost-effective source of dynamic VARs for a wide range of operational needs. They can correct voltage instability problems on transmission networks; provide dynamic steady-state voltage and power factor control and regulation on transmission and distribution networks; protect industrial facilities requiring premium power quality; and support a stable point of interconnection for distributed generation facilities and large-scale wind farms. Classified as Flexible AC Transmission System (FACTS) devices, D-VAR has an advanced control and monitoring system that detects and instantaneously compensates for voltage disturbances by injecting leading or lagging reactive power, measured in VARs (volt amperes reactive), precisely where it is needed on the grid. D-VAR systems are extremely flexible and scalable, ranging from 2 MVAR to hundreds of MVAR

THYRISTORS

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A thyristor is a solid-state semiconductor device with four layers of alternating N and P-type material. They act as bistable switches, conducting when their gate receives a current pulse, and continue to conduct for as long as they are forward biased.

FUNCTION
The thyristor is a four-layer, three terminal semiconducting device, with each layer consisting of alternately N-type or P-type material, for example P-N-P-N. The main terminals, labeled anode and cathode, are across the full four layers, and the control terminal, called the gate, is attached to p-type material near to the cathode. (A variant called an SCSSilicon Controlled Switch brings all four layers out to terminals.) The operation of a thyristor can be understood in terms of a pair of tightly coupled bipolar junction transistors, arranged to cause the self-latching action:

Thyristors have three states: 1. Reverse blocking mode Voltage is applied in the direction that would be blocked by a diode 2. Forward blocking mode Voltage is applied in the direction that would cause a diode to conduct, but the thyristor has not yet been triggered into conduction 3. Forward conducting mode The thyristor has been triggered into conduction and will remain conducting until the forward current drops below a threshold value known as the "holding current"

FUNCTION OF THE GATE TERMINAL

The thyristor has three p-n junctions (serially named J1, J2, J3 from the anode).

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Layer diagram of thyristor. When the anode is at a positive potential VAK with respect to the cathode with no voltage applied at the gate, junctions J1 and J3 are forward biased, while junction J2 is reverse biased. As J2 is reverse biased, no conduction takes place (Off state). Now if VAK is increased beyond the breakdown voltage VBO of the thyristor, avalanche breakdown of J2 takes place and the thyristor starts conducting (On state). If a positive potential VG is applied at the gate terminal with respect to the cathode, the breakdown of the junction J2 occurs at a lower value of VAK. By selecting an appropriate value of VG, the thyristor can be switched into the on state suddenly. Once avalanche breakdown has occurred, the thyristor continues to conduct, irrespective of the gate voltage, until both: (a) the potential VG is removed and (b) the current through the device (anodecathode) is less than the holding current specified by the manufacturer. Hence VG can be a voltage pulse, such as the voltage output from a UJT relaxation oscillator. These gate pulses are characterized in terms of gate trigger voltage (VGT) and gate trigger current (IGT). Gate trigger current varies inversely with gate pulse width in such a way that it is evident that there is a minimum gate charge required to trigger the thyristor.

SWITCHING CHARACTERISTICS
in a conventional thyristor, once it has been switched on by the gate terminal, the device remains latched in the on-state (i.e. does not need a continuous supply of gate current to conduct), providing the anode current has exceeded the latching current (IL). As long as the anode remains positively biased, it cannot be switched off until the anode current falls below the holding current (IH).

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V - I characteristics. A thyristor can be switched off if the external circuit causes the anode to become negatively biased. In some applications this is done by switching a second thyristor to discharge a capacitor into the cathode of the first thyristor. This method is called forced commutation. After a thyristor has been switched off by forced commutation, a finite time delay must have elapsed before the anode can again be positively biased and retain the thyristor in the off-state. This minimum delay is called the circuit commutated turn off time (tQ). Attempting to positively bias the anode within this time causes the thyristor to be self-triggered by the remaining charge carriers (holes and electrons) that have not yet recombined. For applications with frequencies higher than the domestic AC mains supply (e.g. 50 Hz or 60 Hz), thyristors with lower values of tQ are required. Such fast thyristors are made by diffusing into the silicon heavy metals ions such as gold or platinum which act as charge combination centers. Alternatively, fast thyristors may be made by neutron irradiation of the silicon

THYRISTORISED SWITCHING-AN OVERVIEW

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Thyristor switched fast response P.F. correction systems

Conventional contactor switching P.F. correction systems

Load P.F. correction is quick and consistently near to the P.F. correction is slow. Total correction takes few minutes. set value. Total P.F. correction is achieved within few hundred milliseconds.

Slow response P.F. correction is not as effective in Fast P.F. correction reduces maximum demand more reducing maximum demand, especially when the load effectively, hence more savings on account of reduction in variations are fast. MD charges.

Capacitors are switched through thyristors at "zero current crossover threshold". Hence the capacitor connection to the mains is always smooth, transient free and absolutely without generation of harmonics and voltage spikes.

Thyristor Switching of capacitors for power factor improvement has many advantages over conventional contactor switching. Thyristor Switching is more reliable, accurate, maintenance free and especially suitable for fast variable loads, where contactor switching systems fail to give desired results. The capacitors are switched at "ZERO CURRENT CROSS OVER THRESHOLD"

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COMPONENTS OF THE CIRCUIT USED FOR POWER FACTOR CORRECTION

1. INDUCTION MOTOR:
An induction motor or asynchronous motor is a type of alternating current motor where power is supplied to the rotor by means of electromagnetic induction. An electric motor turns because of magnetic force exerted between a stationary electromagnet called the stator and a rotating called the rotor. Different types of electric motors are distinguished by how electric current is supplied to the moving rotor. In a DC motor and a slipring AC motor, current is provided to the rotor directly through sliding electrical contacts called commutators and slip rings. In an induction motor, by contrast, the current is induced in the rotor without contacts by the magnetic field of the stator, through electromagnetic induction. An induction motor is sometimes called a rotating transformer because the stator (stationary part) is essentially the primary side of the transformer and the rotor (rotating part) is the secondary side. Synchronous speed To understand the behaviour of induction motors, it is useful to understand their distinction from a synchronous motor. A synchronous motor always runs at a synchronous speed- a shaft rotation frequency that is an integer fraction of the supply frequency. The synchronous speed of an induction motor is the same fraction of the supply.It can be shown that the synchronous speed of a motor is determined by the following formula: ns=(120*f)/p where ns is the (synchronous) speed of the rotor (in rpm), f is the frequency of the AC supply (in Hz) and p is the number of magnetic poles per phase. For example, a 6 pole motor operating on 50 Hz power would have a speed of: 1000 rpm Note on the use of p - some texts refer to number of pole pairs per phase instead of number of poles per phase. For example a 6 pole motor, operating on 60 Hz power, would have 3 pole pairs.The equation of synchronous speed then becomes: with P being the number of pole pairs per phase. Slip Typical torque curve as a function of slip. The slip is a ratio relative to the synchronous speed and is calculated using: Where s is the slip, usually between 0 and 1 nr = rotor rotation speed (rpm) ns = synchronous rotation speed (rpm)

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The stator consists of wound 'poles' that carry the supply current to induce a magnetic field that penetrates the rotor. In a very simple motor, there would be a single projecting piece of the stator (a salient pole) for each pole, with windings around it; in fact, to optimize the distribution of the magnetic field, the windings are distributed in many slots located around the stator, but the magnetic field still has the same number of north-south alternations. The number of 'poles' can vary between motor types but the poles are always in pairs (i.e. 2, 4, 6, etc.).Induction motors are most commonly built to run on single-phase or three-phase power, but two-phase motors also exist.They would, using the simplified analogy of salient poles, have one salient pole per pole number; a four-pole motor would have four salient poles. Three-phase motors have three salient poles per pole number, so a four-pole motor would have twelve salient poles. This allows the motor to produce a rotating field,allowing the motor to start with no extra equipment and run more efficiently than a similar single-phase motor. There are three types of rotor: 1. Squirrel-cage rotor The most common rotor is a squirrel-cage rotor. It is made up of bars of either solid copper (most common) or aluminum that span the length of the rotor, and those solid copper or aluminium strips can be shorted or connected by a ring or some times not, i.e. the rotor can be closed or semiclosed type. The rotor bars in squirrel-cage induction motors are not straight, but have some skew to reduce noise and harmonics. 2. Slip ring rotor A slip ring rotor replaces the bars of the squirrel-cage rotor with windings that are connected to slip rings. When these slip rings are shorted,the rotor behaves similarly to a squirrel-cage rotor; they can also be connected to resistors to produce a high-resistance rotor circuit, which can be beneficial in starting 3. Solid core rotor A rotor can be made from a solid mild steel. The induced current causes the rotation.
2. CURRENT TRANSFORMER:

In electrical engineering, a current transformer (CT) is used for measurement of electric currents. Current transformers, together with voltage transformers (VT) (potential transformers (PT)), are known as instrument transformers. When current in a circuit is too high to directly apply to measuring instruments,
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a current transformer produces a reduced current accurately proportional to the current in the circuit, which can be conveniently connected to measuring and recording instruments. A current transformer also isolates the measuring instruments from what may be very high voltage in the monitored circuit. Current transformers are commonly used in metering and protective relays in the electrical power industry.Like any other transformer, a current transformer has a primary winding, a magnetic core, and a secondary winding. The alternating current flowing in the primary produces a magnetic field in the core, which then induces a current in the secondary winding circuit. A primary objective of current transformer design is to ensure that the primary and secondary circuits are efficiently coupled, so that the secondary current bears an accurate relationship to the primary current.

The most common design of CT consists of a length of wire wrapped many times around a silicon steel ring passed over the circuit being measured. The CT's primary circuit therefore consists of a single 'turn' of conductor, with a secondary of many hundreds of turns. The primary winding may be a permanent part of the current transformer, with a heavy copper bar to carry current through the magnetic core. Window-type current transformers are also common, which can

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have circuit cables run through the middle of an opening in the core to provide a single-turn primary winding. When conductors passing through a CT are not centered in the circular (or oval) opening, slight inaccuracies may occur.

Current transformers used in metering equipment for three-phase 400 ampere electricity supply Shapes and sizes can vary depending on the end user or switchgear manufacturer. Typical examples of low voltage single ratio metering current transformers are either ring type or plastic moulded case. High-voltage current transformers are mounted on porcelain bushings to insulate them from ground. Some CT configurations slip around the bushing of a high-voltage transformer or circuit breaker, which automatically centers the conductor inside the CT window. The primary circuit is largely unaffected by the insertion of the CT. The rated secondary current is commonly standardized at 1 or 5 amperes. For example, a 4000:5 CT would provide an output current of 5 amperes when the primary was passing 4000 amperes. The secondary winding can be single ratio or multi ratio, with five taps being common for multi ratio CTs. The load, or burden, of the CT should be of low resistance. If the voltage time integral area is higher than the core's design rating, the core goes into saturation towards the end of each cycle, distorting the waveform and affecting accuracy.Care must be taken that the secondary of a
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current transformer is not disconnected from its load while current is flowing in the primary, as the transformer secondary will attempt to continue driving current across the effectively infinite impedance. This will produce a high voltage across the open secondary (into the range of several kilovolts in some cases), which may cause arcing. The high voltage produced will compromise operator and equipment safety and permanently affect the accuracy of the transformer The accuracy of a CT is directly related to a number of factors including: Burden Burden class/saturation class Rating factor Load External electromagnetic fields Temperature and Physical configuration. The selected tap, for multi-ratio CTs For the IEC standard, accuracy classes for various types of measurement are set out in IEC 60044-1, Classes 0.1, 0.2s, 0.2, 0.5, 0.5s, 1, and 3. The class designation is an approximate measure of the CT's accuracy. The ratio (primary to secondary current) error of a Class 1 CT is 1% at rated current; the ratio error of a Class 0.5 CT is 0.5% or less. Errors in phase are also important especially in power measuring circuits, and each class has an allowable maximum phase error for a specified load impedance. Current transformers used for protective relaying also have accuracy requirements
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at overload currents in excess of the normal rating to ensure accurate performance of relays during system faults.

3.capacitor bank:

A capacitor bank is a grouping of several identical capacitors interconnected in parallel or in series with one another.

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These groups of capacitors are typically used to correct or counteract undesirable characteristics, such as power factor lag or phase shifts inherent in alternating current (AC) electrical power supplies. Capacitor banks may also be used in direct current (DC) power supplies to increase stored energy and improve the ripple current capacity of the power supply.

Single capacitors are electrical or electronic components which store electrical energy. Capacitors consist of two conductors that are separated by an insulating material or dielectric. When an electrical current is passed through the conductor pair, a static electric field develops in the dielectric which represents the stored energy. Unlike batteries, this stored energy is not maintained indefinitely, as the dielectric allows for a certain amount of current leakage which results in the gradual dissipation of the stored energy.The energy storing characteristic of capacitors is known as capacitance and is expressed or measured by the unit farads. This is usually a known, fixed value for each individual capacitor which allows for considerable flexibility in a wide range of uses such as restricting DC current while allowing AC current to pass, output smoothing in DC power supplies, and in the construction of resonant circuits used in radio tuning. These characteristics also allow capacitors to be used in a group or capacitor bank to absorb and correct AC power supply faults.

The use of a capacitor bank to correct AC power supply anomalies is typically found in heavy industrial environments that feature working loads made up of electric motors and transformers. This type of working load is problematic from a power supply perspective as electric motors and transformers represent inductive loads, which cause a phenomenon known as phase shift or power factor lag in the power supply. The presence of this undesirable

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phenomenon can cause serious losses in terms of overall system efficiency with an associated increase in the cost of supplying the power.The use of a capacitor bank in the power supply system effectively cancels out or counteracts these phase shift issues, making the power supply far more efficient and cost effective. The installation of a capacitor bank is also one of the cheapest methods of correcting power lag problems and maintaining a power factor capacitor bank is simple and cost effective. One thing that should always be kept in mind when working with any capacitor or capacitor bank is the fact that the stored energy, if incorrectly discharged, can cause serious burns or electric shocks. The incorrect handling or disposal of capacitors may also lead to explosions, so care should always be exercised when dealing with capacitors of any sort.

current source. This type of instrument can be made to register for currents in both directions, giving a 4-quadrant display of power factor or phase angle. Digital instruments can be made that either directly measure the time lag between voltage and current waveforms and so calculate the power factor, or by measuring both true and apparent power in the circuit and calculating the quotient. The first method is only accurate if voltage and current are sinusoidal; loads such as rectifiers distort the waveforms from the sinusoidal shape.

4.MCB:
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A circuit breaker is an automatically operated electrical switch designed to protect an electrical circuit from damage caused by overload or short circuit. Its basic function is to detect a fault condition and, by interrupting continuity, to immediately discontinue electrical flow. Unlike a fuse, which operates once and then has to be replaced, a circuit breaker can be reset (either manually or automatically) to resume normal operation. Circuit breakers are made in varying sizes, from small devices that protect an individual household appliance up to large switchgear designed to protect high voltage circuits feeding an entire city.All circuit breakers have common features in their operation, although details vary substantially depending on the voltage class, current rating and type of the circuit breaker. The circuit breaker must detect a fault condition; in low-voltage circuit breakers this is usually done within the breaker enclosure. Circuit breakers for large currents or high voltages are usually arranged with pilot devices to sense a fault current and to operate the trip opening mechanism. The trip solenoid that releases the latch is usually energized by a separate battery, although some high-voltage circuit breakers are self-contained with current transformers, protection relays, and an internal control power source. Once a fault is detected, contacts within the circuit breaker must open to interrupt the circuit; some mechanically-stored energy (using something such as springs or compressed air) contained within the breaker is used to separate the contacts, although some of the energy required may be obtained from the fault current itself. Small circuit breakers may be manually operated; larger units have solenoids to trip the mechanism, and electric motors to restore energy to the springs. The circuit breaker contacts must carry the load current without excessive heating, and must also withstand the heat of the arc
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produced when interrupting the circuit. Contacts are made of copper or copper alloys, silver alloys, and other materials. Service life of the contacts is limited by the erosion due to interrupting the arc. Miniature and molded case circuit breakers are usually discarded when the contacts are worn, but power circuit breakers and high-voltage circuit breakers have replaceable contacts. When a current is interrupted, an arc is generated. This arc must be contained, cooled, and extinguished in a controlled way, so that the gap between the contacts can again withstand the voltage in the circuit. Different circuit breakers use vacuum, air, insulating gas, or oil as the medium in which the arc forms. Different techniques are used to extinguish the arc including: Lengthening of the arc Intensive cooling (in jet chambers) Division into partial arcs

Zero point quenching (Contacts open at the zero current time crossing of the AC waveform, effectively breaking no load current at the time of opening. The zero crossing occurs at twice the line frequency i.e. 100 times per second for 50Hz and 120 times per second for 60Hz AC) Connecting capacitors in parallel with contacts in DC circuits Finally, once the fault condition has been cleared, the contacts must again be closed to restore power to the interrupted circuit.Miniature low-voltage circuit breakers use air alone to extinguish the arc. Larger ratings will have metal plates or non-metallic arc chutes to divide and cool the arc. Magnetic blowout coils deflect the arc into the arc chute. In larger ratings, oil circuit breakers rely upon vaporization of some of the oil to blast a jet of oil through the arc.[2]
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Gas (usually sulfur hexafluoride) circuit breakers sometimes stretch the arc using a magnetic field, and then rely upon the dielectric strength of the sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) to quench the stretched arc. Vacuum circuit breakers have minimal arcing (as there is nothing to ionize other than the contact material), so the arc quenches when it is stretched a very small amount (<23 mm). Vacuum circuit breakers are frequently used in modern medium-voltage switchgear to 35,000 volts. Air circuit breakers may use compressed air to blow out the arc, or alternatively, the contacts are rapidly swung into a small sealed chamber, the escaping of the displaced air thus blowing out the arc. Circuit breakers are usually able to terminate all current very quickly: typically the arc is extinguished between 30 ms and 150 ms after the mechanism has been tripped, depending upon age and construction of the device.Circuit breakers are rated both by the normal current that are expected to carry, and the maximum short-circuit current that they can safely interrupt. Under short-circuit conditions, a current many times greater than normal can exist (see maximum prospective short circuit current). When electrical contacts open to interrupt a large current, there is a tendency for an arc to form between the opened contacts, which would allow the current to continue. This condition can create conductive ionized gasses and molten or vaporized metal which can cause further continuation of the arc, or creation of additional short circuits, potentially resulting in the explosion of the circuit breaker and the equipment that it is installed in. Therefore, circuit breakers must incorporate various features to divide and extinguish the arc. In air-insulated and miniature breakers an arc chute structure consisting (often) of metal plates or ceramic ridges cools the arc, and magnetic blowout coils deflect the arc into the arc chute. Larger circuit breakers such as those used in electrical power distribution may use vacuum, an inert gas such as sulphur hexafluoride or have contacts immersed in oil to suppress the arc.
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The maximum short-circuit current that a breaker can interrupt is determined by testing. Application of a breaker in a circuit with a prospective short-circuit current higher than the breaker's interrupting capacity rating may result in failure of the breaker to safely interrupt a fault. In a worst-case scenario the breaker may successfully interrupt the fault, only to explode when reset.

Miniature circuit breakers used to protect control circuits or small appliances may not have sufficient interrupting capacity to use at a panelboard; these circuit breakers are called "supplemental circuit protectors" to distinguish them from distribution-type circuit breakers.

REFERENCES

Mr. SOEB FATEHI AT ARROW ENGINEERS, VASAI(E) Mr. UTTAM KHOT AT ARROW ENGINEERS, THANE(W) http://www.ssousa.com: Datasheet of 3083 IC www.technologystudent.com: For thyristors M.H. Rashid, Power Electronics Handbook

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