SUTANU BANERJEE

S.D.E(E), CRITL
DVC, MAITHON

JANUARY 2016

What is Busbar Protection ?

Bus Bar Protection scheme aims to protect the

whole Bus of a Switchyard by tripping of all the

associated Bays (connected to that particular Bus)
in case of fault in a Bus itself, without waiting for
tripping from other end/backward looking
protection and thereby ensures Faster clearance of
the Bus fault.
In case of Multiple Bus arrangement it also ensures
isolation of the faulty Bus only and thereby
avoiding TPF at the station. It is beneficial for both
Power System Stability and Commercial aspect.

Need for Busbar Protection

Need For Busbar Protection
In its absence fault clearance takes place in zone II
of distance relay by remote end tripping.
This means slow and unselective tripping and wide
spread black out with commercial implications.
Effect of delayed clearance
Greater damage at fault point
Chance of Failure of CT and other collateral
damages
Shock to connected costlier equipments like
Generator ,transformer.

Requirements of Busbar Protection

Must have very fast fault Clearance time.
Must be able to detect internal faults (sensitivity).
Must be absolutely stable to external faults

(stability).
Must be able to detect and trip only faulty part of
Busbar system (selectivity)
Must be secure against mal operation due to
auxiliary contact failure / CT secondary circuitry
problem etc.

CAUSES OF BUS ZONE FAULTS

Deterioration of Insulating Material.
Flashover of insulators due to lightning or System

Over Voltages.
Wrong application/operation of /or failure to
remove temporary earth connections.
Short circuits caused by birds, monkeys, snake etc.
Short circuits caused by construction machinery.

How it operates ?
The basic operating principal of Bus Differential Protection is
based on Kirchhoff's Current Law (KCL) principal i.e. sum of
all the currents (entering or exit) in a particular node is Zero.
Here the node is Bus Bar itself and the associated currents
are the currents of all the Bays connected to that particular
Bus .
Although it is quite obvious that KCL is applicable for all the
faults whether it is Bus fault or an external/through Fault,
detection of Bus fault depends on the fact that all the fault
currents are being measured by the CTs in case of a through
fault and in case of a Bus Fault, the Bus fault current remains
unmeasured causing B/D protection to operate.
However, the most important factor here is the proper
connection of the CTs (Both Polarity and Ratio) used for Bus
Bar Protection

Busbar Protection Current distribution for a through

Fault :

For an external fault at Fdr#5, B/D Relay current :

I1+I2+I3+I4+ (-) I5 (or IF) = 0 (as I1+I2+I3+I4= I5 OR IF)
(CONSIDERING + VE SIGN FOR CURRENT IN AND - VE SIGN FOR
CURRENT OUT THROUGH A FFEDER )
THEREFORE THE RELAY WILL REMAIN STABLE DURING A THROUGH
FAULT

Busbar Protection Current distribution for a Bus

Fault :

For a Bus fault, B/D Relay current :

I1+I2+I3+I4+ I5 0 (as I1+I2+I3+I4 +I5 = IF )
(CONSIDERING + VE SIGN FOR CURRENT IN AND - VE SIGN FOR
CURRENT OUT THROUGH A FFEDER )
THEREFORE THE RELAY WILL OPERATE SENSING FAULT CURRENT

Types of Busbar Protection

Busbar protection may be divided into two groups
Low impedance scheme :
Low impedance scheme uses the principal of Biased
Differential Relay to attain stability in case of CT
Saturation/ CT error/through fault.
i. It may be Centralised Unit Scheme or
ii. Distributed Peripheral Unit with Central Unit Scheme
High impedance Scheme:
High impedance scheme uses a stabilizing resistor in series
with basic O/C Relay to attain the stability for CT
Saturation/ through fault.

DISTRIBUTED LOW IMPEDANCE B/B PROTECTION

STRUCTURE :

HIGH IMPEDANCE B/B PROTECTION STRUCTURE :

Busbar Schemes used in DVC

In DVC both High Impedance and Low impedance

Busbar scheme had been adopted. Earlier only Electromechanical/Static type Relays for High Impedance
Busbar protection were used mainly in the 220kV
Switchyard of Power Houses and Substations. Now a
days with the advent of the Numerical Relays Low
impedance Busbar Protections had been adopted in the
400kV Switchyard and also in new 220/132 KV S/Stn
such as Giridih (New), Dhanbad.
In the 400kV Switchyard Busbar protection Main-1 and
Main-2 Protection philosophy had been adopted

Bus configuration and Protection Schemes

Depending on the Bus configuration such as 1 Main Bus 1Transfer
Bus (mainly in 132kV Switchyard), 2 Main Bus 1Transfer Bus (mainly
in 220kV Switchyard, 400 kV MTPS New) and One and half Breaker
system (400 kV Switchyards except MTPS New) , different CT
secondary and DC Circuitry arrangement is required.
In case of Single Main Bus system, Bus Bar Protection scheme is
less complicated in respect of both CT and DC circuitry as this
does not require any selectivity for Bus Current measurement
and tripping.
In case of Double Main Bus system, selectivity is required for
detection/isolation of the faulty Bus from the healthy one.
Separate CT switching Relays are required for this purpose. In
case of Numerical Relay this function is in built, therefore, no
separate Relay is required. However in both the cases Main Bus
1&2 (and also of TB side ) Isolator contacts (open and Close) are
required for individual Bus current matching as well as tripping
circuit. The scheme gets more complicated with Transfer Bus
and Bus Section (multiple Bus coupler) arrangements.

Bus configuration and Protection Schemes

(Continues)
In One Half Breaker System in DVC, Numerical Relays

with Low Impedance Busbar Scheme had been used. In

DVC both Distributed Numerical Relay Busbar Scheme
(400 kV MTPS New, 400 kV DSTPS, 400 kV KTPS
Switchyard) and Centralized Numerical Relay Busbar
Scheme (400kV RTPS S/Y) is in service. Also Two set of
independent Busbar Scheme (Main-1 and Main-2) is
used in 400kV/One and half Braeker Scheme.

1 MB AND 1TB RRANGEMENT

TRIPPPING IN CASE OF BUS FAULT

2 MB AND 1 TB CONFIGURATION

TRIPPING IN CASE OF BUS FAULT

ONE AND HALF BREAKER CONFIGURATION

TRIPPING IN CASE OF BUS FAULT

What is Main Zone and Check Zone Protection :

Main Zone Protection : In case of multiple Bus Bar arrangement each
Bus comes under Main zone protection. The current of all the Bays
associated with the Bus are added with proper polarity to form the Bus
Differential protection of the said Bus. It uses Isolator Status(through
auxiliary contacts of Isolator) for segregation of each Bus Zone. It
isolate the faulty Bus only in case of Bus fault in Multiple Bus
arrangement.
Check Zone Protection : Check Zone basically covers all the Buses under
Bus Bar Protection Scheme. This is summation of currents of all the
Bays connected to the multiple Buses. As the Check Zone does not
require any selectivity, this is independent of Isolator Status (Auxiliary
Contacts) and therefore more reliable though not selective . For this
reason each Main zone Protection tripping is ANDed with Check Zone
protection for individual BUS tripping. If only Check Zone Protection is
in Service, in case of Bus fault it will initiate tripping to all the Buses
creating TPF at the Station.

BUS DIFFERENTIAL ZONES :

WHAT IS CT SWITCHING RELAY ?

In case Multiple Main Bus configuration like Two Main

Bus One Transfer Bus Scheme any Bay can be

connected to either Main Bus-1 or Main Bus-2 .The
same is true in the diverted condition also. Therefore,
it is essential to identify in which Bus the particular
Bay is connected and distribute the current
accordingly in the Bus Differential Circuit and also
initiating tripping accordingly. This is achieved by CT
Switching Relay. CT Switching Relay is basically
electrically Set / Reset type of Relay and Relevant
Isolator Contacts are used to Set / Reset the Relay .

CT SWITCHING RELAY CONFIGURATION

BUS WIRE FORMATIN FOR CT CIRCUT

CT Supervision Relays
This is a three phase monitoring Relay/Feature used in Bus
Differential protection scheme (for each and every Zone i.e
main Zones and Check Zone) to avoid mal tripping and
detection of any Open circuit/Short circuit in the CT Secondary
Circuit. The Relay operates on the principal that in case of such
fault in CT Secondary Circuit, there will be some mismatch
current in that particular Bus current summation(which may or
may not be as high as to operate the Protection). This mismatching
current is utilized to detect any problem in CT Secondary Circuit
with adequate Time Delay ( 5-8 Sec.) so that it does not interfere
with the main protection (which also operates due to current
mismatch) and also ensures sustaining nature of the fault. If CT
supervision Relay operates, it will block the Bus Differential
protection of that very Zone to avoid malt ripping.

COMBINED LBB & B/D SIMPLIFIED DC CIRCUIT

Generator Status after B/B Relay(96) optd :

In 210 MW Units though having Class C Protection,

in case of B/B Protection operation Unit will trip

through Class A Lock-outs
In 250 MW/500MW Units if Bus Bar Operates Class C
Lock-outs operates so that the Unit may run in the
House load .
Note : In most of the Power Houses it was not possible
to run the Unit only in House load condition (mainly
due to turbine Over speeding), therefore , the original
scheme had been modified and Class-A tripping had
been provided in case of 96 Relay operation.

Breaker Failure Protection (LBB)

In modern networks the critical fault clearing time may be
less than 200ms. Hence, if the fault is not cleared due to
failure of the primary protective relays or their associated
circuit breaker, a fast acting back-up protective relay must
clear the fault.
LBB is a protection designed to clear a system faulty by
initiating tripping other circuit breaker(s) in the case of
failure to trip of the appropriate circuit breaker due to
problem in the Breaker itself or the associated DC Circuit.

LBB TRIP LOGIC

LBB RELAY DWG IN MTPS U#5&6 (250MW)