Circuit Breakers

A circuit breaker is defined as a piece of equipment which can do any one of thefollowing tasks:
 Makes or breaks a circuit either manually orby remote control under normal conditions
 Breaks a circuit automatically under faultconditions
 Makes a circuit either manually or byremote control under fault conditions

Switching Function
 Thus a circuit breaker is used for incorporating manual as well as automatic control for the
switching function.
 The automatic control of the circuit breaker is incorporated with the help of relays.
 The automatic control is only done in case of fault conditions.

Advantage over Fuse

 A fuse operates once and then has to be replaced.
 The main advantage associated with the use of circuit breaker isthat a circuit breaker can be
reset (either manually or automatically) to resume normal operation.

CIRCUIT BREAKER
 A circuit breaker is an automatically operated electrical switch designed to protect an electrical
circuit from damage caused by excess current, typically resulting from an overload or short circuit. Its
basic function is to interrupt current flow after a fault is detected. An automatically-operated electrical
switch designed to protect an electrical circuit from damage caused by overload of electricity or short
circuit. A circuit breakers function is to detect a fault condition and, by interrupting continuity, to
immediately discontinue electrical flow. A properly designed electrical system is very safe. However,
when problems occur, electricity can generate dangerous heat and can be fatal to people and animals.
Circuit breakers can cut the electricity supply when a fault is detected. The function of a circuit breaker
is to cut off electrical power if wiring is overloaded with current. They help prevent fires that can result
when wires are overloaded with electricity.

What is fuse?
•A fuse is a short piece of metal inserted in a circuit, which melts when excessive current flows through it
and thus break the circuit.
•The fuse element is generally made of materials having low melting point, high conductivity and least
deterioration due to low oxidation e.g, silver, copper etc
•Under normal conditions the fuse element is at a temperature below its melting point.
•When a short-circuit or overload occurs, the current through fuse increase beyond its rating this melt the
fuse.

Function:
A fuse is generally inserted into an electrical circuit for 1 of 2 reasons, either to protect the power
source which includes the wire that connects the power supply to the electrical device, or to protect
the electronic equipment. The electronic equipment manufacturers specify a fuse rated to open the
electrical circuit before damage can be done to the device or open the circuit if the electronic device
fails in some way (electronic devices may pull excessive current when they fail). If a fuse larger than
the specified fuse is used, a small mistake when installing the equipment may cause catastrophic
failure of the equipment.
Advantages
•It is the cheapest form of protection available.
•It requires no maintenance.
•Operation is completely automatic.
•It can break heavy short-circuit currents without noise or smoke.
•The inverse time-current characteristic of a fuse make it suitable for overcurrent protection.
•Time of operation shorter than circuit breakers
 Disadvantages
•Time is lost in rewiring or replacing a fuse after operation.
•On heavy short-circuits discrimination between fuses in series cannot be obtained.
•The current-time characteristic of fuse cannot always be co-related with that of protected
apparatus.
CUT-OUT FUSE
In electrical distribution, a fuse cutout or cut-out fuse is a combination of a fuse and a switch, used in
primary overhead feeder lines and taps to protect distribution transformers from current surges and
overloads. An overcurrent caused by a fault in the transformer or customer circuit will cause the fuse
to melt, disconnecting the transformer from the line. It can also be opened manually by utility
linemen standing on the ground and using a long insulating stick called a "hot stick". A fuse cutout is
an electrical protection device utilized on overhead line systems to prevent distribution transformers
from being damaged by power surges. These devices function by placing a fuse link in series with the
transformer feed cables. The link passes through a hinged tubular fuse holder in such a way that it
secures the fuse holder in position on the cutout body. Should the link melt and separate
under overcurrent conditions, the fuse holder will drop free under its own weight, pivot down on the
hinge and hang vertically, giving a clear visual indication of its status. Most fuse cutout designs also
incorporate a metal ring on the fuse holder, which allows maintenance and repair personnel to
manually disconnect the fuse should they be required to work on the transformer.

LIGHTNING ARRESTER

 A lightning arrester is a device used on electrical power systems to protect the insulation on
the system from the damaging effect of lightning.
 Metal oxide varistors (MOVs) have been used for power system protection since the mid
1970s.
 The typical lightning arrester also known as surge arrester has a high voltage terminal and a
ground terminal.
  When a lightning surge or switching surge travels down the power system to the arrester,
the current from the surge is diverted around the protected insulation in most cases to earth.

TYPES OF LIGHTNING ARRESTER

 Rod Gap Type

 Expulsion type Lightning Arrester
 Valve Type Lightning Arrester

Rod Gap Type

 This type of protective device is very simple and robust.

 It is, however, rarely used on circuits of some significance because it does not fulfill the basic
requirements of a true protective device.
 It does not cut off power voltage after it has been flashed over by a surge.
 This would mean a short circuit on the system every time a surge causes a flashover across
the rod gap.

In telegraphy and telephony, a lightning arrestor is placed where wires enter a structure,
preventing damage to electronic instruments within and ensuring the safety of individuals near
them. Smaller versions of lightning arresters, also called surge protectors, are devices that are
connected between each electrical conductor in power and communications systems and the Earth.
These prevent the flow of the normal power or signal currents to ground, but provide a path over
which high-voltage lightning current flows, bypassing the connected equipment. Their purpose is to
limit the rise in voltage when a communications or power line is struck by lightning or is near to a
lightning strike.
If protection fails or is absent, lightning that strikes the electrical system introduces thousands of
kilovolts that may damage the transmission lines, and can also cause severe damage to transformers
and other electrical or electronic devices. Lightning-produced extreme voltage spikes in incoming
power lines can damage electrical home appliances or even produce death.

What is Relay?
•A relay is a device that detects the fault and initiates the
operation of circuit breaker to isolate the defective element from
the rest of the system
•A relay is a simple electromechanical switch made up of
an electromagnet and a set of contacts. Relays are found hidden in
all sorts of devices. In fact, some of the first computers ever built
used relays to implement Boolean gates.

A relay is used to isolate one electrical circuit from another. It allows a low current control
circuit to make or break an electrically isolated high current circuit path. The basic relay consists of a
coil and a set of contacts. The most common relay coil is a length of magnet wire wrapped around a
metal core. When voltage is applied to the coil, current passes through the wire and creates a
magnetic field. This magnetic field pulls the contacts together and holds them there until the current
flow in the coil has stopped. The diagram below shows the parts of a simple relay.
Advantages of relays
•Relays can switch AC and DC, transistors can only switch DC.
•Relays can switch high voltages, transistors cannot.
•Relays are a better choice for switching large currents (> 5A).•Relays can switch many
contacts at once.
Disadvantages of relays
•Relays are bulkier than transistors for switching small currents.
•Relays cannot switch rapidly (except reed relays), transistors can switch many times per
second.
•Relays use more power due to the current flowing through their coil.
•Relays require more current than many ICs can provide, so a low power transistor may be
needed to switch the current for the relay's coil.

Protective relay And Construction

•A protective relay is a complex electromechanical apparatus, often with more than one coil,
designed to calculate operating conditions on an electrical circuit and trip circuit breakers when a
fault was found. Design and theory of these protective devices is an important part of the education
of an electrical engineer who specializes in power systems. Today these devices are nearly entirely
replaced (in new designs)with microprocessor-based instruments (numerical relays) that emulate
their electromechanical ancestors with great precision and convenience in application.

OVER CURRENT PROTECTION RELAY

Microprocessor-based digital protection relays now emulate the original devices, as well as
providing types of protection and supervision impractical with electromechanical relays.
Electromechanical relays provide only rudimentary indications of involved phase and zone targets. In
many cases a single microprocessor relay provides functions that would take two or more
electromechanical devices. By combining several functions in one case, numerical relays also save
capital cost and maintenance cost over electromechanical relays. However, due to their very long life
span, tens of thousands of these "silent sentinels" are still protecting transmission lines and electrical
apparatus all over the world. Important transmission lines and generators have cubicles dedicated to
protection, with many individual electromechanical devices, or one or two microprocessor relays.
The theory and application of these protective devices is an important part of the education of
a power engineer who specializes in power system protection. The need to act quickly to protect
circuits and equipment as well as the general public often requires protective relays to respond and
trip a breaker within a few thousandths of a second. In some instances these clearance times are
prescribed in legislation or operating rules. A maintenance or testing program is used to determine
the performance and availability of protection systems.

CURRENT TRANSFORMER

A current transformer (CT) is a type of transformer that is used to measure alternating current(AC). It
produces a current in its secondary which is proportional to the current in its primary.
Current transformers, along with voltage or potential transformers, are instrument transformers.
Instrument transformers scale the large values of voltage or current to small, standardized values
that are easy to handle for instruments and protective relays. The instrument transformers isolate
measurement or protection circuits from the high voltage of the primary system. A current
transformer provides a secondary current that is accurately proportional to the current flowing in its
primary. The current transformer presents a negligible load to the primary circuit.
Current transformers are the current-sensing units of the power system. Current transformers are
used at generating stations, electrical substations, and in industrial and commercial electric power
distribution. Like any transformer, a current transformer has a primary winding, a core and a
secondary winding, although some transformers, including current transformers, use an air core. In
principle, the only difference between a current transformer and a voltage transformer (normal type)
is that the former is fed with a 'constant' current while the latter is fed with a 'constant' voltage,
where 'constant' has the strict circuit theory meaning.
The alternating current in the primary produces an alternating magnetic field in the core, which then
induces an alternating current in the secondary. The primary circuit is largely unaffected by the
insertion of the CT. Accurate current transformers need close coupling between the primary and
secondary to ensure that the secondary current is proportional to the primary current over a wide
current range. The current in the secondary is the current in the primary (assuming a single turn
primary) divided by the number of turns of the secondary. In the illustration on the right, 'I' is the
current in the primary, 'B' is the magnetic field, 'N' is the number of turns on the secondary, and 'A' is
an AC ammeter.
Current transformers typically consist of a silicon steel ring core wound with many turns of copper
wire as shown in the illustration to the right. The conductor carrying the primary current is passed
through the ring. The CT's primary, therefore, consists of a single 'turn'. The primary 'winding' may be
a permanent part of the current transformer, i.e. a heavy copper bar to carry current through the
core. Window-type current transformers (aka zero sequence current transformers, or ZSCT) are also
common, which can have circuit cables run through the middle of an opening in the core to provide a
single-turn primary winding. To assist accuracy, the primary conductor should be centered in the
aperture.

POTENTIAL TRANSFORMER
The potential transformer may be defined as an instrument transformer used for the transformation
of voltage from a higher value to the lower value. This transformer step down the voltage to a safe
limit value which can be easily measured by the ordinary low voltage instrument like a voltmeter,
wattmeter and watt-hour meters, etc. It is used to step down a primary voltage from a higher
level to lower secondary potential voltages level. This transformer can be easily measured by the
ordinary low voltage instrument like a voltmeter, wattmeter and watt-hour meters, etc. This kind of
transformer is commonly referred to as a "step-down" voltage transformer which lowers the voltage
of a higher voltage circuit to a lower voltage circuit for the intention of measuring voltage. Potential
transformers are connected across or parallel to the line which is being measured.

It is commonly found in electrical metering situations, and is designed to allows it to monitor single-
phase voltages and three-phase voltages. A potential transformer is also a kind of instrument
transformer, known as a voltage transformer (VT). There is still a primary winding and a transformer
secondary winding.
DISTRIBUTION TRANSFORMER
A distribution transformer or service transformer is a transformer that provides the
final voltage transformation in the electric power distribution system, stepping down the voltage
used in the distribution lines to the level used by the customer. The invention of a practical efficient
transformer made AC power distribution feasible; a system using distribution transformers was
demonstrated as early as 1882.
If mounted on a utility pole, they are called pole-mount transformers. If the distribution lines are
located at ground level or underground, distribution transformers are mounted on concrete pads and
locked in steel cases, thus known as pad-mount transformers.
Distribution transformers normally have ratings less than 200 kVA, although some national standards
can allow for units up to 5000 kVA to be described as distribution transformers. Since distribution
transformers are energized for 24 hours a day (even when they don't carry any load), reducing iron
losses has an important role in their design. As they usually don't operate at full load, they are
designed to have maximum efficiency at lower loads. To have a better efficiency, voltage
regulation in these transformers should be kept to a minimum. Hence they are designed to have
small leakage reactance. The purpose of a distribution transformer is to reduce the primary voltage
of the electric distribution system to the utilization voltage serving the
customer. A distribution transformer is a static device constructed with two or more windings used
to transfer alternating current electric power by electromagnetic induction from one circuit to
another at the same
frequency but with different values of voltage and current.