Bus Bar Protection

Bus bars are large current carrying conductors to which all

equipment circuits of Generators, Transformers, feeders etc.
are connected for inter current flows
Bus bars could be Indoor/ Out door, Air insulated / Gas
Insulated
In different configurations of Single bus, Double bus,
sectionalized buses, one main and Transfer, two main and
Transfer, one and half breaker system, double breaker system
etc.
Configuration selected depending on reliability requirement,
isolatable sections required, size and voltage rating, Cost
considerations, space requirement etc.
Bus PTs, CVTs, CTs connected to bus with no breaker in
between, bus side isolators and breaker terminals towards bus
side and associated aux. bus conductors etc also include in the
bus zone
Bus Bar Protection

Function of bus bar protection

Detect ph-ground and ph-ph faults in the bus bar and connected
equipments and provide fast tripping of all connected breakers to the
faulty section
Bus bar protection is only selectively provided because
Bus bar faults are rare since they are simple set of conductors
supported on insulators unlike equipments like transformers,
generators, motors etc. and are located in controlled and protected
area
Even on occurrence of a bus fault the fault isolation is carried out by
the back up protection of all respective equipments / lines connected
to the bus
Bus bar protection if mal operates results in large scale outage and
system disturbance
Cost implications
Bus Bar Protection

However for EHV systems, Generating stations, large receiving

stations separate bus bar protections are to be provided because

Bus faults involve highest fault currents in the system and require
quick clearance
With out bus bar protection fault is to be cleared by back up
protections of equipments and lines. This involves time delay of up to
0.5 sec. which is for Zone 2 delay of line at far end and up to 0.8
sec.for Generator / Transformer back up protections. This delay with
high fault currents results in loss of system stability, danger to
equipments feeding the faults etc.
When fault is isolated on back up protections all equipments and
lines connected to entire bus system will trip out and cause large
scale outage which may result in system black outs. Bus
sectionalizing, double bus etc arrangements will not be put to full
use.
When bus bar protection is provided only faulty isolatable section of
the bus is isolated retaining other sections minimizing the outage
Bus Bar Protection

Bus faults can occur because of

Failure of direct bus connected equipments like PT etc
Flash over of bus support insulators
Snapping of jumpers and connecting loops in the bus system
Wrong on load operation of isolators resulting in heavy arcing and
ionization
Inadvertently leaving safety earths on the bus after maintenance
work
Requirements of bus bar protections
High speed operation less than 2 cycles for clearance
High stability for external faults which is most important considering
the major outage a mal operation of bus bar protection can cause
Security by requirement of one more function operation in addition to
main protection like check zone, over current, directional
Bus Bar Protection

Requirements of bus bar protections

Continuous supervision of all CT circuits involved and to take out bus
bar protection in the event of any CT open circuit
Provision for intentional taking out of bus bar protection during
specific operations like bus change over, maintenance testing etc.
Types of bus bar protections
Phase comparison protection
Frame- Earth protection
Current differential protection
Only current differential protection is used and the other two types
are obsolete.
Frame Earth leakage protection requires mounting of complete
bus on insulated supports and earthing at one point and detecting
earth fault current through this earthing
 Zone of Zone of
L1 Prot. L2 Prot.

Bus Bar

Breaker

CTs

zone of Gen
&Gen Trans. Zone of Busbar Prot. Zone of Tr.
Protection Protection

To Gen & Gen

Tr. To Stn Tr.
Bus bar protection zone vis--vis zones of Protection in a substation
Zones defined by CT locations
Bus Bar Protection

Current differential protection principle

The vectorial sum of currents in to the bus is equal to vectorial sum
of currents out going from the bus at all instants during no fault and
external fault conditions
During internal faults vectorial sum of currents in to the bus is very
much more than vectorial sum of the currents out going from the bus
of the faulted phase and section and the balance is up set which is
detected by the relay
All circuit CTs having same ratio are connected in such polarity that
when they carry currents in the same direction as in to the bus or out
of bus the currents get subtracted
Types of current differential protection
High Impedance current differential
Medium / low impedance differential
CIRCULATING CURRENT DIFF.PROTN.
CURRENT DISTRIBUTION FOR EXTERNAL FAULT

A B C D
DIFF.
S1 RELAY
P1 - - - -
1000/ 1 0.25A 0.45A 0.3A 1A 87
P2 + + + +
S2
1500A 1000A
250A 450A 300A 500A
CIRCULATING CURRENT DIFF.PROTN.
CURRENT DISTRIBUTION FOR BUS FAULT

BUS FAULT

A B C D
DIFF.
S1 RELAY
P1 - - - -
1000/ 1 0.25A 0.45A 0.3A 0.5A 87
P2 + + + +
S2
1.5A
250A 450A 300A 500A

RELAY CURRENT = 0.25 + 0.45 + 0.3 + 0.5 = 1.5 A

Bus Bar Protection

High Impedance differential

Relay branch made High Impedance to limit Diff. Current due
to C.T. errors / Unequal CT saturation on external faults
Requires exclusive C.T. core and C.T. of identical
ratio / ratings
Simple in design and execution
Stabilizing high impedance resistor included in the Diff. Circuit
Setting in terms of voltage drop across the resistor
High knee point voltage for CTs
Bus Bar Protection

LIMITATIONS OF HIGH IMPEDENCE B/B PROT.

Stringent requirements on CTs

Need for dedicated CT cores

Identical CT Ratio, Magnetizing charac.

Aux. CTs for ratio correction unacceptable

Inability to cope with increasing fault current

Not flexible for future expansion

Equivalent circuit of a high imped. Differential with 2 circuit CTs shown and one CT
saturation Magnetizing branch of saturated CT as a short
Bus Bar Protection

Calculation of Relay Voltage Setting

Vs = If (RL + RCT),
Vs relay circuit voltage setting
If steady state secondary through
fault current (A)
RL CT lead loop resistance to relay
tapping point (ohms)
Non linear resistor to limit the peak voltage during IN
ZONE fault
LOW IMPEDENCE BUS BAR PROTECTION
SCHEME
Operating current for external fault varies
as through fault current does unlike in
high impedance relay

Tolerant to CT mismatch & can use shared

core

Comparatively more complex in design &

execution
LOW IMPEDENCE BUS BAR PROTECTION SCHEME

B B

D
I1 I2

Through Current Bias (Restraint) increases diff.

Pick up on external faults to ensure stability.

Diff. Current = I1 I2 Bias current = I1 + I2

(Operate) (Restraint) 2
Restraint Current due to Bias Setting of 30 %
30 % of (10+9) / 2 = 2.85 A
Diff Current is 1.0 A, so Relay restrains
1000/1A
1000/1A
10 A
9A

EX.
B B FAULT
10000A
D 1.0 A
Providing separate restraining winding for each circuit for low impedance biased
bus differential
Principle of rectified current restraint with one common restraining winding
Restraining and operating circuits using rectified CT currents and aux. CTs for each CT input
 Bus
Bus bar diff. for double bus with one B/C--- Concept of CT coupler
switching by isolators for respective zones

Bus 2

Bus 1
87CH
87B2

87B1

Switching relays are stay put type

87 B1 Bus1
CT switching by make before break diff.relay
contacts of Isolators to avoid opening of
87B2- Bus2
CTs
diff.relay
In modern numerical versions Ct
87CH-Check zone
currents are input to respective Zones
diff.relay
 Bus
Bus bar diff. for one main and transfer bus with one B/C--- coupler
Concept of CT switching by isolators for respective zones

Transfer Bus

Main Bus

87CH
87T

87M

Switching relays are stay put type

87 M MainBus diff.relay
CT switching by make before break
87B2- Transfer Bus diff.relay
contacts of Isolators to avoid opening of
CTs 87CH-Check zone diff.relay
In modern numerical versions Ct
currents are input to respective Zones
 Double bus with sectionalisers and 2 bus couplers forming 4 zones of bus protection

87CH

87B1-1 87B2-1 87B1-2 87B2-2

One and half breaker bus arrangement bus protection with two separate zones for 2 buses

No CT switching required
One over all check zone
provided (Not shown)
 CB
To bus 2
To bus 1 prot.
CT prot. zone
zone

One and half breaker bus system

CTs for bus prot. zones
High Imp. Bus differential for
double bus with sectionaliser in
main bus
 Principles of DC relaying and trip circuits of bus bar protection for double bus with check zone
- ve
+ ve
Check zone pick up must for tripping and
87CH provides security
96- Selection of respective units for tripping
BC1 is by respective isolators aux.contacts
96- Reliability of isolators aux. contacts is
BC2 the key factor
87B1 89M1-1
96-1 87B1, 87B2, 87CHDiff.
relays of bus1, bus2 and
87B2 89M2-1
check zone respectively
96-1, 96-2 etc.Trip relays of
respective circuits (Units,
transformers, lines)
89M1-2
96-BC1& 96-BC2trip relays
96-2 of bus coupler
89M1-1, 89M2-1 etc.Isolator
contacts of bus1 and bus2
isolators of respective circuits
89M2-2

To other unit circuits

3 phase AC circuit for high imped. Differential for double bus with sectionalising in one bus(M1,M2 and
R zones)
DC circuit for double bus with one sectionaliser 3 zone bus protection (For AC circuit shown in
previous)
Bus Bar Protection

Present day Numerical bus bar protection

Numerical bus zone measuring system in soft ware
Measuring system located in a central unit
All bay units located in field as distributed system
CT currents entering field units is digitised and communicated to
central measuring unit through fiber optic or a similar intra plant data
bus
All isolator and breaker positions in putted as digital in puts and a
plant replica is generated in the central system based on which
respective current in puts to respective zones and related breakers to
be tripped are decided and implemented. No isolator dependent
switching of CT currents and no dependence on many isolator
contacts for relibality.
CT saturation detection by wave form detection and blocking on CT
saturation. Truly low impedance and reduces CT knee point voltage
requirement.
CT Saturation detection principle based on wave form used in some numerical bus protection
relays

CT current rectified and passed through a decay filter

The decay filter out put and rectified out puts are compared continuously and if
decay filter out put is more than rectified, then out put pulses are generated. With no
saturation the pulse width is very less and with saturation the pulse width is more in
which case it is detected as CT saturation and blocking command is given
Local Breaker Back up protection

Function
Whenever the intended breaker on command from the relay fails to
trip to trip all such breakers connected to the same section of the bus
thus isolating the faulted equipment
Also called as Struck breaker protection / Breaker failure relay
The intended breaker may fail to trip due to
Loss of DC supply to breaker, Loss of breaker air or gas supply,
breaker mechanism fault, faulty contact of trip relay
Failure of intended breaker to trip will cause
Continued fault feeding to the equipment and consequent damage to
them
Fire hazards etc.
Hence LBB protection is provided for all EHV and large
equipments / systems
Local Breaker Back up protection

LBB protection also requires tripping of all breakers

connected to the respective bus section. Trip function
is same as when bus bar protection operates. Hence
the DC trip circuit of bus bar protection is used.

This protection also provides coverage for faults

between CB. and CT, which are not cleared by other
protections
DC LOGICS
REQUIREMENTS FOR LBB PROTECTION

Have SHORT operation and drop off times

Have three phase current elements with facility
for phase wise initiation
Have current setting range such that these can
be set at minimum 200 mA for line (for 1A CT
secondary)
Have one common associated timer with
adjustable setting
The relay is separate for each CB and is to be
connected in the secondary circuit of the
CTs associated with that particular CB.
LBB TRIP ARRANGEMENT

For line CBs, direct tripping of remote end

breakers should be arranged on operation of
LBB protection (Transmission of Direct Trip
Signal through PLCC)

For transformer breakers, direct tripping of

breakers on the other side of the transformer
should be arranged on operation of LBB
protection
LBB TRIP ARRANGEMENT

For lines employing Single-phase Auto

Reclosing, LBB relays should be started on a
Single-Phase basis for the Trip Relays.

This is to avoid load currents in the healthy

phases, after single phase tripping, leading
to unwarrented operation of LBB protection,
since the current setting is normally lower
than the load current.