Earthing and Protection
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Earthing and EARTHING AND PROTECTION System Protection While the use of electricity is a boon to us, its misuse, any fault in the system can be a curse, indeed, it could lead to complete damage of the equipment and subsequently can damage the entire system and can also cause major accidents, including fatal ones. Hence, we have to cautions. In practical sense, we need to provide for safe use of electricity. As we shall learn, earthing is the most important factor in this regard. Of course, earthing may also serve other purposes in the electrical system. Protection of the electrical equipment and the network is another safety measure, as it helps save not only our investment in the electrical system, but also, it may help prevent accidents related to electricity. You shall be introduced to ‘Earthing and System Protection’ in this second part (Block 2) of this Course 1 : Electricity and Safety Measures as most useful and necessary and critical component of power system. The first part introduces you to electrical Earthing. In this part, you will be acquainted with importance of earthing, earthing classification, line and pole earthing, measurement of earth resistance. It also touches upon the treatment for minimizing the earth resistance values, maintenance of earthing system, definitions of general earthing terms. Thereafter, in the second part you will be introduced to the Electrical System Protection. In this part, you will learn about the objectives of protection, equipment for system protection, protective relays, functional requirements of relays, distribution system protection, substation protection where you will be introduced to principle of differential relay operation, transformer protection, bus protection. In the last section, you will learn about current and voltage transformers. We hope that the concepts and information presented in this block would help you in improving your knowledge and performance of the power distribution system. We wish you all the very best! 39 Contents EARTHING AND PROTECTION Unit 4 Earthing 7 4.1 Introduction 9 4.2 Importance of Earthing 9 4.3 Classification of Earthing 10 Equipment Earthing 11 Discharge Earthing 13 System Earthing 13 4.4 Line and Pole Earthing 14 4.5 Points of Equipment to be Earthed and Purpose 17 4.6 Guidelines for Providing Earthing Arrangements 18 4.7 Measurement of Earth Resistance 19 4.8 Standard Earth Resistance Value 21 4.9 Treatment for Minimise Earth Resistance Values 21 4.10 Maintenance of Earthing System 22 4.11 Definitions of General Earthing Terms 23 4.12 Summary 24 4.13 Terminal Questions 25 4.14 Answers to Check Your Progress 25 4.15 Answers to Terminal Questions 26 Unit 5 Electrical System Protection 27 5.1 Introduction 29 5.2 Types and Objectives of Protection 29 5.3 Classification of Earthing 30 Protective Relays 31 5.4 Functional Requirements of the Relays 33 5.5 System Protection Concepts 33 5.6 Distribution System Protection 35 Overcurrent and Reclosing Relays 35 Underfrequency Relays 36 5.7 Substation Protection 37 Principle of Differential Relay Operation 37 Transformer Protection 37 Bus Protection 37 5.8 Instrument Transformers 38 Current Transformer (CT) 38 Voltage Transformer 40 5.9 Summary 40 5.10 Terminal Questions 41 5.11 Answers to Check Your Progress 41 5.12 Answers to Terminal Questions 42 Earthing 4.1 INTRODUCTION God has given us earth soil in abundance, available throughout the world. This is a natural gift used in plenty of ways, i.e. planting, excavation for a building foundation, houses and roads, etc. Earthing soil has an unique electrical property in the form of conductivity that is put to practical use in everyday life in power plants and electrical utilities. Earthing is of foremost importance for the safety of human beings, animals, consumer property and utilities’ equipment. In this unit, we shall learn the importance of earthing/requirement of good earthing. Broadly speaking, earth resistance is the resistance of the soil to the passage of current, which may not be as low as that of a conductor like copper. But, since the cross-section area of the path for the current is very large, the actual resistance is normally, quite low and, hence, earth can be used as a reasonably efficient conductor. Earthing is generally to be carried out in accordance with the requirements of Indian Electricity Rules, 1956 and IS : 3043-1987, at generating stations, transmission/distribution substations and consumers premises. Indeed, any equipment or device drawing or feeding power to the public power network, makes use of earth connectivity. Objectives After studying this unit, you should be able to describe the importance of earthing, list the various types of requirement of earthing, explain different types of earthing, explain different methods of earthing, and list the purpose of earthing in different points of equipment. 4.2 IMPORTANCE OF EARTHING Prime objective of earthing is to provide a zero potential surface in and around and under the area where the electrical equipment is installed or erected. In the case of shielded (enclosed) conductors, earthing of the shield isolates the conductor from external interference, and prevents the interference due to the current in the conductor from spreading outside the shield. 9 Earthing To achieve this objective, the normally non-current carrying (but conducting) part and Protection of the electrical equipment is connected to the general mass of the earth, which prevents the appearance of dangerous voltage on the enclosures and helps to provide safety to working staff and public who may come in contact with the equipment. The basis of the use of earthing, as described here, is the fact that all the generating plants in a grid are connected through earthing. Under this system, earthing may be put to use as the return path for electric current, under abnormal conditions. Check Your Progress 1 What is the use of earthing? EARTHING REQUIREMENTS Good earthing should have low resistance. It should stabilize circuit potential with respect to ground and limit overall potential rise. It should prevent, or at least minimize, the damage to the equipment due to flow of eventual heavy fault currents. It should protect men and material from injury or damage due to over-voltage. It should improve the reliability of power supply. It should provide low impedance path to fault currents to ensure prompt and consistent operation of protective relays, surge arrester, etc. It should keep the maximum potential gradient along the surface of the sub-station within safe limits during ground fault. 4.3 CLASSIFICATION OF EARTHING Earthing can be classified into the following categories based on the purpose for which the part of the equipment is connected to the general mass of earth. 10 CLASSIFICATION OF EARTHING Earthing Equipment Earthing Discharge Earthing System Earthing 4.3.1 Equipment Earthing Earthing associated with non-current carrying parts of electrical equipment is called equipment earthing. Safety of the operator, the user and the safety of their property are the main reason for equipment earthing, e.g. outer metallic body of a transformer, metallic body of an electric motor. As stated, for equipment earthing to be effective, it must first be done at the generating plant. Here the neutral of the star-connected three phases is grounded or earthed. METHODS OF CONNECTING NEUTRAL OF THE ELECTRICAL EQUIPMENT TO GROUND Four main methods are as follows : Solid Earthing Resistance Earthing Reactance Earthing Arc-suppression Coil (or) Peterson Coil Earthing These methods of earthing system are shown in Figure 1.1, and are described below. These make use of the 3-phase, 4-wire system. In this system, three wires are provided for the phases and a fourth wire is provided for the neutral. Generator Transformer N N Solid Grounded Neutral Resistance Resistance Grounded N N Reactor Peterson Coil Arc Reactance Grounding Suppression Coil or Earth Fault Neutralizer Resonant Grounding Figure 4.1 : Neutral Connection Methods 11 Earthing Solid Earthing and Protection When the fault current is expected to be low and not likely to cause damage to plant, cables, and loss of stability of system, then earthing may be done directly through metallic conductor from system neutral to the main earthing ring without any impedance in the circuit. It should be ensured that the impedance between the ‘N’ & ‘E’ is so low, so that if an earth fault occurs in one phase of the system sufficient current will flow to operate the protective devices. Resistance Earthing Resistance earthing is generally used when the fault current is likely to be so high as to cause damage to the equipment, mainly transformers. If a resistance is inserted between the Neutral and Earth, quick acting protective devices are also used. The resistors shall comprise metallic resistance units, supported on insulators in a metal frame or shall be a liquid resistor of a weak aqueous solution, either of zinc chloride or sodium carbonate. Metallic resistors have a constant resistance, which does not change with time, while liquid resistors have to be treated frequently specially after the clearance of a fault. Metallic resistors are slightly inductive and this is a disadvantage with overhead lines, since traveling waves and impulses are subject to positive reflection and this is likely to unduly stress the insulation of the equipment and may cause breakdown. Use of liquid resistors is recommended only at voltages above 6.6kV. All neutral earthing resistances are designed to carry their rated current for a short period, usually 30 seconds. The earth resistance is of such a value that, should a fault occurs outside the equipment, the fault current will be restricted to the rated full load current of the equipment. If the earth resistance is too low, for any occurrence of the earth fault the equipment will be subjected to an electrical shock, due to the load resulting from the power loss in the resistor.