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What Is Busbar Protection?

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A busbar is a metallic strip that distributes local high

electrical power. It is housed inside switchgear, panel
board, and busway enclosures. The main purpose of
a busbar is to collect electric power from feeders and
transfer it to outgoing feeders. It collects electrical
power in one station or location.

On the other hand, busbar protection is a plan aimed

at protecting the busbar from any electrical faults.
The protection scheme is mainly for a high electrical
power system. Any interruption in this kind of system
can cause a mechanical problem that will affect all
feeders to the busbar. Usually, the busbar is left
without any protection. They are assumed to be
reliable, and if they had any protection, they might
mal-operate and end up affecting the whole system.
This article covers all the necessary information
about busbar protection schemes, the best way to
detect faults, and the way they operate.

How to Detect a Busbar Fault

Years ago, to detect a busbar fault, the clearance of
the busbar fault was done by a time-delayed distance
relay and an overcurrent relays.
This method resulted in a long extension of faults for
a longer time. In the current time, however, with an
increase in technology, there are high interconnected
feeders each having different line sections of different
lengths.

To maintain the system stability, and reduce fault damage due to high electrical faults, time-
delayed tripping for busbar faults is not acceptable. Therefore, to detect a bus bar fault, it is
easier to identify the fault within each unit form of the protection system or scheme.

Faults in a Busbar

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Several faults might occur in a busbar. These faults include deterioration during installation of
busbar material, failure in circuit breaker, foreign bodies that might have fallen on the busbar,
mechanical damage caused by earthquakes, failure of support by insulator hence causing earth
fault, and error during operation and maintenance, especially in switchgear.
In this article, we review What is Cable Bus? Superior Cable Bus Explained.

How Busbar Protection Works

Busbar protection schemes work in such a way that it incorporates differential relays. The relay
might be either a high impedance differential relay or a low differential relay. High differential
relay when used is also referred to as high impedance busbar protection. Same to as low
deferential relay also known as low impedance busbar protection. The busbar protection must
be stable, reliable, and fast.

The Most Common Methods Used In Protection Schemes

Back-Up Protection Scheme
It is the easiest and the simplest way of protecting busbar from any faults. Since the busbar is
the one supplying to the system, it is obvious it might have some faults. So, backup protection
is provided to the supply system. This kind of protection system has disadvantages for instance
the protection system is usually slow. Its main purpose is to protect the transmission lines.
However, for the advantages, it is economical hence its use in busbar protection.

Current Differential Protection

This type of protection has a guiding principle that states that the current that enters into the
busbar should be equal to the one leaving. The total incoming and outgoing current should be
equal to zero. If the total does not add up to zero, then there is a fault in the system. This
method of protection is used in both the ground fault and the phase-to-phase fault.

Fault Bus Protection

Fault bus protection is a method of protection that insulates the bus structure and the
switchgear from the ground connecting all the circuit breakers. It provides a single connection to
the ground tank through a feeder known as CT that feeds an overcurrent relay. The overcurrent
relay controls all the relays that trip all the breakers that are connected to the bus. Under
normal conditions or operating status, the relay is usually not in operation. However, any fault

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that involves the connection between a conductor and the supporting structure will cause the
flow of currents to the ground causing the relay to operate.
We cover Electrical Grids: What are Bus and Busbar? in this article.

Testing Busbar Protection

A current source is used to test for the busbar protection. It is used to test for the differential
busbar relay.

The above information is a highlight of everything you need to know about busbar protection.
From what causes the faults and the way it works. Furthermore, there are various methods
used in busbar protection. The above list is just a few of them. With research, you can find other
methods. Busbars are important as they enable a stable and fast supply of electric current flow.
Without protection, consequences are bound to happen.

Questions? Call us 253-579-4473 or contact us now to discuss

your project.

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