EEE-481

Power System protection

Lecture 4
Chapter 19
Circuit breaker
Ref. Book. : Principle of power system by V.K. Mehta
Outline:

• Circuit breaker rating

• Numerical Problems
• Auto Recloser

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Circuit breaker rating

Under fault conditions, a circuit breaker is required to perform the following

three duties :
• It must be capable of opening the faulty circuit and breaking the fault
current.
• It must be capable of being closed on to a fault.
• It must be capable of carrying fault current for a short time while another
circuit breaker (in series) is clearing the fault.

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The circuit breakers have three ratings:
(i) breaking capacity ;
(ii) making capacity ; and
(iii)short-time capacity.
Breaking capacity:
It is current (r.m.s.) that a circuit breaker is capable of breaking at given recovery voltage and
under specified conditions (e.g., power factor, rate of rise of restriking voltage).
• The breaking capacity is always stated at the r.m.s. value of fault current at the instant
of contact separation.
• When a fault occurs, there is considerable asymmetry in the fault current due to the
presence of a d.c. component.
• The d.c. component dies away rapidly, a typical decrement factor being 0·8 per cycle.
Referring to Fig.1 , the contacts are separated at DD´.
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• At this instant, the fault current has
x = maximum value of a.c. component
y = d.c. component
Symmetrical breaking current = r.m.s. value of a.c. component=
Asymmetrical breaking current = r.m.s. value of total current=
• Thus, if I is the rated breaking current in amperes and V is the rated service line
voltage in volts, then for a 3-phase circuit,
• Breaking capacity = MVA
• In India (or Britain),It is a usual practice to take breaking current equal to the
symmetrical breaking current.
• However, American practice is to take breaking current equal to asymmetrical
breaking current.
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• When the short-circuit current is flowing, there is only a small voltage across the
breaker contacts, while the service voltage appears across the contacts only after
the current has been interrupted. Thus MVA rating is the product of two quantities
which do not exist simultaneously in the circuit.
Making capacity:
The peak value of current (including d.c. component) during the first cycle of current
wave after the closure of circuit breaker is known as making capacity.
• There is always a possibility of closing or making the circuit under short circuit
conditions.
• It may be noted that the definition is concerned with the first cycle of current wave
on closing the circuit breaker.
• This is because the maximum value of fault current possibly occurs in the first cycle
only when maximum asymmetry occurs in any phase of the breaker.
• Making capacity =2·55 . Symmetrical breaking capacity
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• Short-time rating:
It is the period for which the circuit breaker is able to carry fault current while remaining
closed.
The short-time rating of a circuit breaker depends upon its ability to withstand
(a) the electromagnetic force effects and
(b)the temperature rise.
• Sometimes a fault on the system is of very temporary nature and persists for 1 or 2
seconds after which the fault is automatically cleared.
• In the interest of continuity of supply, the breaker should not trip in such situations.
• This means that circuit breakers should be able to carry high current safely for some
specified period while remaining closed i.e., they should have proven short-time
rating. However, if the fault persists for a duration longer than the specified time
limit, the circuit breaker will trip, disconnecting the faulty section.
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Example 19.1.

A circuit breaker is rated as 1500 A, 1000 MVA, 33 kV, 3-second, 3-phase oil circuit
breaker. Find (i) rated normal current (ii) breaking capacity (iii) rated symmetrical
breaking current (iv) rated making current (v) short-time rating (vi) rated service voltage.
Solution:
(i) Rated normal current = 1500 A
(ii) Breaking capacity = 1000 MVA
(iii) Rated symmetrical breaking current=
(iv) Rated making current = 2·55 . 17496 = 44614 A (peak)
(v) Short-time rating = 17496A for 3 seconds
(vi) Rated service voltage = 33 kV (r.m.s.)
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Example 19.2.

A 50 Hz, 11 kV, 3-phase alternator with earthed neutral has a reactance of 5 ohms per phase
and is connected to a bus-bar through a circuit breaker. The distributed capacitance upto circuit
breaker between phase and neutral in 0·01 μF. Determine
(i) peak re-striking voltage across the contacts of the breaker
(ii) frequency of oscillations
(iii) the average rate of rise of re-striking voltage upto the first peak
Solution:
Inductance per phase,
Capacitance per phase, C = 0·01 μF = F
(i) Maximum value of recovery voltage (phase to neutral)
• Emax =
• Peak re-striking voltage = 2 Emax = 2 . 8·98 = 17·96 kV 9
(ii) Frequency of oscillations is

(iii) Peak re-striking voltage occurs at a time t given by ;

Average rate of rise of re-striking voltage

=0·453 kV/μ sec = 453 kV/sec

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Example 19.3.

• In a short circuit test on a circuit breaker, the following readings were obtained
on single frequency transient :
(i) time to reach the peak re-striking voltage, 50 μ sec
(ii) the peak re-striking voltage, 100 kV
Determine the average RRRV and frequency of oscillations
Solution:
Average RRRV=
Natural frequency of oscillations,

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Example 19.4.

An air-blast circuit breaker is designed to interrupt a transformer magnetizing

current of 11 A (r.m.s.) chops the current at an instantaneous value of 7 A. If the
values of L and C in the circuit are 35·2 H and 0·0023 μF, find the value of voltage
that appears across the contacts of the breaker. Assume that all the inductive
energy is transferred to the capacitance.
Solution:
Voltage across breaker contacts at chopping is

Here, i = 7 A ; L = 35·2 H and C = 0·0023 μF

volts
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• Exercise:
• 1. A circuit breaker is rated 2500 A, 1500 MVA, 33 kV, 3 sec, 3-phase oil circuit
breaker. Determine (i) the rated normal current (ii) breaking current (iii)
making current (iv) short time rating current.
• 2. A circuit breaker is rated at 1500 A, 2000 MVA, 33 kV, 3 sec, 3-phase oil
circuit breaker. Determine (i)the rated normal current (ii) breaking current
(iii) making current (iv) short time rating current.

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Auto Reclosure

Auto reclosing is a phenomenon in which the breaker tries to reconnect the

line between two points with the delay or without delay at the time of the
fault.

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• The goal of the auto reclosing in power lines is to restore the line to service as quickly
as possible after a temporary fault in the transmission line.
• Automatic reclosing can be done as a three pole auto reclosing or a single pole auto
reclosing.
• During a three pole auto reclosing the line will be de-energized completely for all three
phases even for a single phase to ground fault.
• A single pole auto reclosing only de-energizes the faulted phase of a single phase to
ground fault.
• Automatic recloser is a key element in the concept of self-healing grids
• According to statistics, around 85-95% of faults in transmission and distribution
networks are temporary faults.
• These faults disappear a certain time after de-energization of the faulted sections of the
network. Automatic recloser is used to recover the original status of the network without
any human interaction.
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• Auto-reclosing, therefore, provides significant advantages
• Outage times will be short
• Personnel can be saved
• auto reclosing reduces operating costs and improves the reliability of
service of the network.

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