Safety Measures

 Rubber Mats
 Switch Gear
 Circuit Breaker
 Current Transformer
 Potential Transformer
 Fuses
Switchgear

 In an electrical power system

,switchgear is the combination of
electrical disconnect
switches,fuses or circuit breakers
used to control,protect an isolate
electrical equipment
 Switchgear is used both to de-
energize equipment to allow work
to be done and to clear faults
downstream
 This type of equipment is directly
linked to the reliability of the
electricity supply
Circuit Breaker
 A circuit breaker is an
automatically operated electrical
switch designed to protect an
electrical circuit from damage
caused by excess current from an
overload or short circuit
 Its basic function is to interrupt
current flow after a fault is
detected
Working principle of circuit breaker

 Circuit breaker essentially consist of fixed and

moving contacts.These contcts are touching
each other and carrying the current under
normal conditions when the circuit is
closed.When the circuit breaker is closed,the
current carrying contacts,called the
electrodes,engaged each other under the
pressure of a spring.
 During the normal operating conditions,the
arms of the circuit breaker can be opened or
closed for a switching and maintenance of
the system.To open the circuit breaker ,only a
pressure is required to be applied to a trigger
 When a fault occur on any part of the system,the trip coil of the breaker
gets energized and the moving contacts are getting apart from each by
some mechanism,thus opening the circuit
Types of circuit breaker

 Oil circuit breaker

 Vacuum circuit breaker
 Air blast circuit breaker
 SF6 circuit breaker
Oil circuit breaker

 It is designd for 11kV-765kV

 These are of two types
1-BOCD(Bulk oil circuit breaker)
2-MOCD(Minimum oil circuit
breaker)
 The contacts are immersed in oil
bath
 Oil provide cooling by hydrogen
created by arc
Advantages
Oil has good dielectric strength
Low cost
Oil is easily available
It has wide range of breaking capacity

Disadvantages
Slower operation,takes about 20 cycles for arc quenching
It is highly inflmmeable,so highly risk of fire
High maintenance cost
Vaccum circuit breaker

 It is designed for medium voltage

range 3.3kV-33kV
 This consists of vaccum of
pressure(1*10^-6) insde arc
extinction chamber
 The arc burns in metal vapour when
the contacts are disconnected
 At high voltge,its rate of dielectric
strength recovery is very high
 Due to vaccum arc extinction is
very fast
 The contacts loose metals gradually
due to formation of metal vapours
Advantages
 Free from arc and fire hazards
 Low cost for maintenance & simple mechanism
 Low acying time & high contact life
 Silent and less vibrational operation
 No byproducts formed

Disadvantages
High initial cost due to creation of vaccum
High cost & size required for high voltage breakers
Air blast circuit breaker

 This operates using high velocity

blast of air which quenches the arc
 It consist of blast valve,blast tube &
contacts
 Blast valve contains air at high
pressure
 Blast tube carries the air at high
pressure & opens the moving
contact attaches to spring
 There is no carbonization of surfaces
as in VCB
 Air should be kept clean & dry to
operate it properly
Advantages
 High speed operation as compared to Oil circuit breaker
 Ability to withstand frequent switching
 Less maintenance as compared to Oil circuit breaker

Disadvantages
Little moisture content prolong arcing time
Pressure should be checked frequently for frequent operation
Risk of fire hazards due to over voltages
SF6 circuit breaker

 It contain an arc interruption

chamber containing SF6 gas
 In closed position the contacts
remain surrounded by SF6 gas at
a pressure of 2.8kg/cm^2
 During opening high pressure SF6
gas at 14kg/cm^2 from its
reservoir from towards the
chamber by valve mechanism
 SF6 rapidly absorbs the free
electrons in the arc path to form
immobile negative ions to built up
high dielectric strength
Fuse

 Fuse is an electronic device,which is

used to protect circuits from over
current,overload and makr sure the
protection of the circuit
 Fuse consists of a low resistance of
metallic wire enclosed in a non
combustible material
 Whenever a short circuit,over
current and mismatched load
connection occurs,then the thin
wire inside the fuse melts because
of the heat generated by the
heavy current flowing through it
 Therefore it disconnects the power
supply from the connected system
Types of Fuses

 Fuses are used in AC as well as DC circuits

 Fuses can be divided into two main categories according to the type of
input supply voltage

1-AC fuses
2-DC fuses
AC Fuses

 In the AC system,voltage with 60Hz or 50Hz frequency changes it amplitude

from 0 to 60 times every second,so arc can be extinct easily
 AC fuses are little bit small in size
DC fuses

 In a DC system,when the metallic wire melts because of the heat

generated by the over current,then arc is produced and it is very difficult to
extinct this arc because of DC constant value
 In order to minimize the fuse arcing,DC fuses are little bigger than an AC
fuse
Current Transformer

 A current transformer is an
instrument transformer,used along
with measuring or protective
devices,in which the secondary
current is proportionl to the
primary current and differs from it
by an angel that is approximately
zero
Function

 Current transformer supply the protective relays with currents of magnitude

proportional to those of power circuit but sufficiently reduced in magnitude
 A current transformer also isolates the measuring instruments from high
voltage circuits
 Current transformer used as protection equipments such as trip coils,relays
etc
Power Factor
 Normally,the power factor of the whole load on a large generating
station is in the region of 0.8 to 0.9
 However,sometimes it is lower and in such cases it is generally
desirable to take special steps to improve the power factor
 This can be achived by:
 1-Static Capacitor
 2-Synchronous Condenser
 3-Phase Advanser
In chase up,capacitor banks are used to improve power factor
 Bus Bar

Magnetic
Contactor

Circuit Breaker

Capacitor Banks
Power factor of Chase up mall is 0.97