EEE 471 Switchgear and Protection (Credit: 3.

0)
Lecture1, Version 2, Date: May 2, 2019
Presented by: Dr. Nur Mohammad
https://classroom.google.com/ Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering,
Class code: ndpkocx Chittagong University of Engineering and Technology,
x2252sv Chittagong-4349
Learning Objectives/Scope
 Protection fundamental and necessity
 Objective of power system protection
 Overview of power system, substation equipment

Questions/Answers
 Q1. What is switchgear?.
 Q2. What is power system protection?
 Q3. Why protection in power system requires?
 Q4. Discuss in details circuit interruption/breaker switching.
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IEEE 471 Switchgear and Protection Syllabus
Purpose of power system protection, Introduction to circuit interruption
and protection. Terminologies and general characteristics of relays and breakers.
Circuit breakers: control systems, arc extinction, recovery voltage. Air, oil, air blast,
vacuum, SF6 and high voltage DC circuit breakers. Selection criteria, testing of circuit
breakers.
Relays: overcurrent, directional, differential, distance, sequence, pilot-wire and carrier
current protection. Busbar arrangement, grounding. Unit protection: generator, motor,
transformer, bus and line protection.
Static Relays: Introduction to Analogue and Digital static relays. Static overcurrent,
differential and distance protection.
Microprocessor based relays.

EEE 472 Switchgear and Protection Sessional (Credit: 0.75)

Experiments based on syllabus of EEE 471

Suggested Reading:
1) Sunil S. Rao, Switchgear Protection and Power Systems, Khanna, 2003, 2010.
2) Badriram and Viswakarma, Power System Protection and Switchgear,
Tata McGraw Hill, 2004
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What is Switchgear?
 Switchgear is a combination of electrical disconnect
switches, fuses or circuit breakers used to control,
protect and isolate electrical equipment.
 Switches are safe to open under normal load current,
while protective devices are safe to open under fault
current.
 Failures may occur in different part, such as insulation
failure, fallen or broken transmission lines, incorrect
operation of circuit breakers, short circuits and open
circuits.
 Protection devices are installed with the aims of
protection of assets, ensure safe and continued
supply of energy.
What is Power System Protection?
 The purpose of an Electric Power System is to generate,
transmit and supply of electrical energy to the
consumers.
 In each of these stage, the power delivery should be reliable,
secure, and economic, and uninterruptable which
necessitate power system protection.
 Power-system protection is a branch of electrical power
engineering that deals with the protection of electrical
power systems from faults through the isolation of faulted
parts from the rest of the electrical network.

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A Typical Power System

Generation-typically at 4-20kV

Transmission-typically at 230-765kV

Receives power from transmission system and

transforms into sub-transmission level
Sub-transmission-typically at 69-161kV
Receives power from sub-transmission system and
transforms into primary feeder voltage

Distribution network-typically 2.4-69kV

Low voltage (service)-typically 120-600V

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Substation Switchgear Equipment

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Objective of A Protection Scheme
 The objective of a protection scheme is to keep the
power system stable by isolating only the components
that are under fault, whilst leaving as much of the network
as possible still in operation.
 The protection schemes must apply
 i) automatic switching during abnormal and faulty
operating condition such as short circuits, under-voltage,
overloads.
 ii) normal routine switching, control and monitoring
purpose.

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Necessity of Power System Protection
 An Electric Power System consists of large number of
equipment like supply-side generators,
transformers and associated transmission and
distribution-side network having different types
of loads and distributed energy resources.
 Interconnected Power System Operation is complex
and vary in sizes and configurations.
 The technical analysis of transmission line,
network calculations, and load flows are routinely
done to know its performance.

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Necessity of Power System Protection
 Short circuits and other abnormal conditions
often occur on a power system, leads to heavy
faults resulting damage of the power apparatus.
 Hence it is mandatory for an Electrical Engineer to be
aware of importance and operation of
protection system and devices.
 This course introduces varieties protection device
such as circuit breakers and relays for protection
of generators, transformers and feeder, bus bars from
over voltages, fault/short currents and other hazards.

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 Circuit Interruption/Breaker
Switching
 The main function of the circuit breaker is
to break and make the circuit. So
theoretically a circuit breaker is a switch.
 The breaker is rated and capable to make,
carry and break load current during normal
operation and interrupt large fault current
in abnormal conditions.
 When fault in the line takes place, the
fault current associates with the secondary
current in current transformer (CT).

 This will actuate the relay and relay contact closes. Now as the tripping
circuit of the breaker is complete, the trip coil is energized.
 The energized trip coil initiates breaker mechanism by displacing a moving
contact away from fixed contact.
 The Arc formed between the moving contact and fixed contact is extinguished
by breaker arc extinguishing mechanism.
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Summary

 What is switchgear?
 Protection fundamental and necessity.
 Overview of power system - generation,
transmission and distribution.
 Objective of power system protection.
 Necessity of power system protection.
 Circuit Interruption/Breaker Switching

The End
Thank you for Attention
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