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When we examine electrical protection schemes, the best place to start is

with electrical bus protections, as they are the easiest to protect. They
utilize the fundamental concept of the overcurrent relay (Figure 1). An
overcurrent relay is an electromagnetic device in which current in the coil
surrounding a metal core produces magnetic flux in the core.

The Basics of Electrical Bus Protections (Overcurrent, Differential and Undervoltage) - on photo

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( p),

Two other items are indicated in the diagram. One is the direction of CTs.
If current I1P flows in the primary towards the primary spot mark,
simultaneously output current I1Swill flow out of the CT at the secondary
spot mark.

This is an important concept to remember.

Current Transformers (CTs) transform the current in magnitude,

but retain the same waveform and phase relationship.

One can picture the current going in as I1Pand out as I1Sinstantly reduced
in size by a factor of 2000/5. The second point to note is the CT ratio
(2000/5 A). This is standard notation that 2000 Amps in the primary will
produce 5 Amps on the secondary.

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p y p p
system, as the other phases are identical.

The differential relay is fed by CTs on the outside of the protected

bus. Recalling the spot convention of CTs, one can see in Figure 2
below, that if current I1P flows into the bus, then an equivalent current I1S
will flow in the secondary winding of CT1. Similarly current I2P will flow out
of the bus with a corresponding I2S flowing in the secondary
(note direction).

Note that the current flow in the overcurrent relay is equal to the difference
(where differential relay gets itís name) in the input currents. In this case
they are equal and the differential current is zero.

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If the bus in Figure 2 happens to fault (either phase to phase or phase to

ground fault), the current entering and leaving the bus will not be the
same. Hence the difference seen by the relay (I1S – I2S) will not be zero.

If the fault is of high enough magnitude to pickup the overcurrent relay the
differential protection will operate to trip breakers X and Y, plus block any
reclosure ofthese breakers, initiate breaker failure protection and any other
actions required by that specific protection zone.

Figure 3 shows the current directions for the most severe fault, an internal
bus fault fed from both ends of the bus. If you consider the figure carefully
you will notice that any number of breakers or transformers could be
added to the bus. Care would have to be taken to ensure the CT ratios
and spot marks were correct and that the secondary circuits were added in
parallel.

Figure 4 gives an example of what it would look like if a transformer were

fed off the bus.

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y j p
and B bus protection.Refer to previous Figure 2 for configuration.

Zone protection with duplicate protections and no breaker failure protection

will only work if the breakers never fail. Thus one of the two protections
has to be made into a backup, to cover the case where the breaker might
not open. This creates a larger overlapping zone as shown by Figure 5.

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p pp
off the bus.

Suppose an electrical fault (phase to phase or phase to ground)

or overload occurs on feeder L1. The protection for L1 should operate
to trip breaker X. If breaker X does nottrip within a certain time the
bus backup protection will operate to open supply breaker S and
remove all supply from the bus.

A close-up of the bus backup protection is shown in Figure 6 below.

The overcurrent backup relay will see the total current supplied to
the bus, whereas the differential relay only sees the difference
between supply current and load current as discussed previously. The
relay settings for overcurrent backup protections are somewhat difficult and
usually employ an instantaneous and timed component.

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pp p p pp y

The instantaneous overcurrent setting has to be above the

total expected current inrush or loading expected on the bus, but below the
minimum bus fault level. For coordination, the setting also has to be also
higher than any individual load setting.

If this cannot be obtained the instantaneous element is blocked.

The timed overcurrent setting has to coordinate with all of the loads
fed from the bus to allow the separate protections (Zone L1, L2 in Figure
9) to operate first.

Bus phase to ground faults are far more common than phase to phase or
three phase faults. They are generally due to breakdown of insulation
by some foreign material or moisture. Due to the severe affect on the
connected loads as well as structural damage, these have to be
instantaneously cleared from the electrical system.

The differential relay previously discussed is utilized to protect

the bus against this type of fault.

Bus undervoltage protection (sometimes called no-volt trip) is supplied on

many buses for two reasons:

Many loads, especially motors, are susceptible to low voltage. As the

voltage supply to a motor decreases, the motor will attempt to deliver the
same amount of torque for a given load and will draw higher currents to do
this.

This will result in excessive heating of the motor windings, resulting in

insulation damage and reduced machine life

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y g , g
to a system is restored. Loads are usually introduced slowly to allow the
generator to stabilize its power production before more loads are placed
on the generator (there are thermal limits on rates of loading/unloading
ofturbine-generators anyway, which help in this situation).

If the loads are all automatically reconnected at once to a re-

energized bus, the voltage on that bus will likely drop and the
loads will likely trip again on undervoltage. Another danger of
automatic re-loading if the voltage is quickly restored is that the
supply and load voltages will be out of phase, resulting in current
surges and mechanical stresses on the machine.

Undervoltage protection can be achieved by an electromagnetic

relay (an example is shown in Figure 7). This relay holds the armature
to the coil as long as the voltage remains above the desired
amount, keeping the normally open contacts of the relay closed.

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g p , g
relay contacts will open. In this type of protection, there will also be a
time delay built in (usually by a timer) to prevent operation during
voltage transients (i.e., if the voltage is quickly restored, the trip will
not occur).

The voltage drop and time delay are chosen such that re-energizing the
load will not result in excessive demands on the system.

Reference // Science and Reactor Fundamentals – Electrical | CNSC

Technical Training Group

Electrical engineer, programmer and founder of EEP. Highly specialized for

design of LV/MV switchgears and LV high power busbar trunking (<6300A)
in power substations, commercial buildings and industry fascilities.
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