AC and DC Auxilliary Suply

FAULTS & SAFETY MEASURES
General
In an electric power system, a fault is any abnormal flow of electric current.
For example a short circuit is a fault in which current flow bypasses the normal load. An open
circuit fault occurs if a circuit is interrupted by some failure. In three phase systems, a fault may
involve one or more phases and ground, or may occur only between phases. In a ground/earth
fault, current flows into the earth. In power systems, protective devices detect fault conditions
and operate circuit breakers and other devices to limit the loss of service due to a failure.
Active and Passive Faults:
Active Faults
The active fault is when actual current flows from one phase conductor to another (phase to
phase) or alternatively from one phase conductor to earth (phase to earth). Active faults can be
further divided into groups
Solid fault
Incipient fault
Solid Fault
The solid fault occurs as a result of an immediate completely breakdown of insulation as would
happen. In these circumstances; the fault current would be very high resulting in an electrical
explosion.
Incipient Fault
The incipient fault, on the other hand, is a fault that starts as a small thing and gets developed
into catastrophic failure, eventually spreading further and developing into a solid fault.
Passive Faults
Passive faults are not real faults in the true sense of word, but are rather conditions that are
stressing the system beyond its design capacity, so that ultimately active faults will occur (over
loading, over voltage, under frequency etc).

Types of Faults on a Three Phase System:
Transient Faults
A transient fault is a fault that is no longer present if power is disconnected for a short time.
Many faults in overhead power lines are transient in nature. At the occurrence of a fault power
system protection operates to isolate area of the fault. A transient fault will then clear and the
power line can be returned to service (i.e. auto-recloser function). Typical examples are
Momentary tree contact
Bird or other animal contact
Lightning strike
Conductor clash
Persistent faults
A persistent fault does not disappear when power is disconnected. Faults in
underground power cables are often persistent and are due to damage.
Symmetric Faults
A symmetric, symmetrical or balanced fault affects each of the three-phases equally. In
transmission line faults, roughly 5% are symmetric. This is in contrast to an asymmetric fault,
where the three phases are not affected equally. In practice, most faults in power systems are
unbalanced. Analysis of asymmetric faults is built up from a thorough understanding of
symmetric faults.
Asymmetric Faults
An asymmetric or unbalanced fault does not affect each of the three phases equally.
Line-to-line: a short circuit between lines, caused by ionization of air, or when
lines come into physical contact, for example due to a broken insulator.
line-to-ground: a short circuit between one line and ground, very often caused by
physical contact, for example due to lightning or other storm damage
Double line-to-ground: two lines come into contact with the ground and each
other, also commonly due to storm damage.

Safety Measures:
To save electric power systems from failure of service or damage of the equipments, protective
measures are taken generally known as safety measures. Some of the safety measures are
described below.
Protection Schemes
Many protection schemes are made to avoid faults in the grid station. These schemes make use
of CTs, CVTs, circuits breakers and relays etc.
Role of Batteries
The operation of relays and breakers require power sources, which shall not be affected by faults
in the main distribution hence the other essential component in protection scheme is batteries that
are used to ensure uninterrupted power to relays and breaker coils.
Personnel Safety at Grid Stations:
Gravel
Gravel is a layer of high resistive material that protects the persons working in a grid station if a
high fault current flows through the earth.
Concrete Wall
A huge concrete wall is usually built facing the conservator tank side of the Power transformer to
safeguard the workers at the time of explosion or severe damage to the transformer.
Safety from fire
Fire protection surge system with a separate panel is installed in every grid station for safety of
grid station equipments and personnel. Usually following fire protection is used for power/auto
transformer.
Fire protection water sprinkler deluge system.
Nitrogen injection explosion prevention system.

AC and DC Auxilliary Suply

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AC and DC Auxilliary Suply

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FAULTS & SAFETY MEASURES

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