Technical Specifications for Low Voltage Air circuit-breakers

PART 1 GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS

1) Conformity with Standards
ACBs used in low voltage panels should conform to the International Standards IEC
60947, EN 60947, CEI EN 60947 and IEC 61000 and conform to the relevant EC
directives:
- Low voltage directive (LVD) No. 73/23 EEC
- Electromagnetic Compatibility Directive (EMC) No.89/336 EEC

2) Functional characteristics
- The circuit-breakers must have a rated service voltage of 690V a.c. and a rated insulation
voltage of 1000V. The circuit-breakers must have a rated impulse withstand voltage Uimp
12kV.
- The rated uninterrupted current must be between 800 and 6300A with the possibility of
mounting current transformers with nominal current starting from 250A.
- The circuit breakers shall enable short circuit protection with Icu from 42KA to 150KA.
- The circuit-breakers must be able to be supplied both from the top and bottom terminals
without derating their performances and without jeopardizing their functionality.
- The circuit-breakers with Higher Electrical & Mechanical life shall be preferred.

3) Environmental characteristics
- Operating temperature: -25C...+70C (-13F...158F)
- Altitude: operation without derating up to 2000m a.s.l.
- Suitability for being used in hot humid ambient. To this regard, the circuit-breakers must
undergo a Tropicalization process which makes them suitable for use in a hot-humid
ambient, in accordance with the international IEC 60068-2-30 Standards.

4) Construction characteristics
- All the models should be available in 3 and 4 pole versions both in fixed version and
withdrawable versions
- The circuit-breaker structure must be made of steel sheet.
- In order to ensure maximum operator safety it is necessary to have total segregation
between the power circuit and control circuit, thus making double insulation necessary.
- Total segregation between the phases should be guaranteed for safety reasons.
- Key locks or padlock devices should be provided in order to control enabling of opening
and closing operations and/or racking in and out.(wherever specified)
- The main contacts should be separate from the arc-breaking contacts.
- It should be easily possible to inspect the arcing chamber and the wear of the main
contacts of the air circuit-breaker in its racked-out position, by removing the arcing
chambers.
- All the circuit-breakers in the range should have the same depth and height with the aim
of standardizing the support structures of the switchboards and the switchboards
themselves as much as possible.

- On the front, the circuit-breakers must indicate the exact position of the main contacts
and the condition of springs charged/discharged by means of certain and reliable signals.
- The operating mechanism should be of the stored energy type, operated using precharged springs and fitted with an anti-pumping device. The springs are charged manually
by operating the front lever or using a motor operator.
- The entire range of air circuit-breakers should be equipped with microprocessor-based
overcurrent protection releases .
Particular details for withdrawable versions
- There must be three positions of the moving part in relation to the fixed part:
- connected
- test (main contacts isolated, auxiliary contacts connected)
- isolated
- The circuit-breakers in the withdrawable version must be fitted with anti-racking-in locks
to prevent a moving part with a different nominal current being racked-into a fixed part.
- In the case of a withdrawable version, the presence of a device will prevent racking out or
racking in with the circuit-breaker closed.
- The withdrawable version circuit-breaker must allow racking out and racking in of the
circuit-breaker into its fixed part with the switchboard door closed.
- Insulating shutters must be provided on the main input and output circuits so that the
energized parts are suitably segregated with the circuit-breaker withdrawn of under test.
When in the closed position, these shutters can be closed with a padlock.

5) Accessories
The following accessories must be common to the whole range:
Electrical accessories(wherever specified)
- Shunt opening/closing release
- Control/Monitoring Test Unit, allows continuity of shunt opening release to be checked
- Undervoltage release
- Time delay device for undervoltage release, used for allowing delayed trip of the release
with adjustable preset times
- Geared motor for automatic charging of closing springs
- Mechanical and electrical signaling of overcurrent trip units tripped
- Auxiliary contacts which enable the state of the circuit breaker to be signalled
- Current trasformer for the neutral conductor outside the circuit-breaker
- Homopolar toroid for the main power supply grounding conductors (star centre or
the transformer)
Mechanical accessories(Wherever specified)
- IP 54 (NEMA 3/3S/13) transparent protective cover
- Interlocks between circuit breakers, for interlocking two or three circuit breakers
both in horizontal and vertical position using flexible cables

PART 2 RELEASES
Incomer ACBs - Release (Protection, control, network value and quality of
the energy measurement functions)
- The trip unit should not normally require an external power supply, being self powered
using the current transformers installed on the circuit-breaker. For measuring,
programming at very low currents, a 24Vdc input for auxiliary supply shall be available.
Main Protection functions & Setting Values
Function

Threshold
steps
0.01 x In

Trip Time
3s144s

Time
step
3s

Selective
short-circuit 0.6 to 10 x In
Protection
I Instantaneous short-circuit 1,5.15 x In
protection
G Earth fault protection
0.21 x In

0.1 x In

0.05 s0.75s

0.01s

0,1 x In

Instantaneous

0.02 x In

0.1s.1s

0.05s

D Directional short-circuit 0.610 x In

protection
U-Phase unbalance protection
10%90%

0.1 x In

0.20s0.75s

0.01s

10%

0.5s.60s

0.5s

Instantaneous

0.1s5s

0.1s

L - Overload Protection

Trip
Threshold
0.4 to 1 x In

OT-Protection
against
over May not be set
temperature
UV-Under voltage Protection
0.60.95x Un 0.01 x In
OV-Over voltage protection
RV-Residual voltage protection
RP-Reverse Power Protection
Harmonics Calculation

1.051.2x Un 0.01 x In
0.1s5s
0.1s
0.10.4 x Un 0.05 Un
0.5s30s
0.5s
-0.3-0.1x Pn 0.02 Pn
0.5s25s
0.1s
th
Upto 20 Harmonic - with Wave form

All the Protection functions except the one for protection against overload must be
excludable.
The following functions shall also be available:
- Thermal memory for L and S functions
- Neutral protection
It is possible to set neutral protection at 50%, 100%, 150%, and 200%.

- Start-up function
The release shall have two sets of thresholds for S, I, G and D protections: the first set
during a time interval (adjustable from 100ms to 1.5s step 0,05s) starting from the "startup", the second set in normal operation conditions.
- Zone selectivity
The fault area to be isolated, only isolating the installation at the nearest level to the fault,
keeping the rest of the installation operative. Zone selectivity can be applied on both S and
G protections or, as alternative, on D protection.
- Self Control function
- Test function
User interface and indication LEDs
- The release will allow parameterization by means of keys and LCD.
- Access to control and configure the unit by password (EDIT mode).
- Auxiliary power supply present LED
- Temporary or permanent microprocessor fault present LED
- Over temperature signaling LED
- Trip LED
- Events indicated by the warning LED:

Presence of one or more phases

Presence between two or three phases of an unbalance greater than the value
programmed during the configuration, with protection trip disabled

Presence of Distorted Wave form

Contact wear higher than 80%

Warning Thresholds exceeded

Circuit-breaker status error

Frequency outside range

- Events indicated by emergency LED:

Presence of one or more phases in overload

Timing in progress for protection function S

Timing in progress for protection function I

Timing in progress for protection function G

Timing in progress for protection function D

Timing in progress for voltage protection functions (UV, OV, RV)

Timing in progress for reversal of active power protection function (RP)

Timing in case of unbalance between the phases higher than the value set in the
configuration with protection trip set to on

Contact wear at 100 %

CTs disconnected

Opening solenoid disconnected

- Permanent indicators for:

Protection * tripped due to undervoltage, overvoltage, residualvoltage, reversal

of active power, phase unbalance, over-temperature

Protection L tripped

Protection S tripped

Protection I or Iinst tripped

Protection G tripped

The signals given by the permanent indicators must guarantee maximum reliability. They
must remain for an indefinite time even without auxiliary or battery voltage supply and also
be activated in the case of reclosing on a fault.
The RESET pushbutton should allow local resetting of the permanent indicators.
Electrical signaling contacts:

2 Configurable Contacts

Protection trip Contact

Microprocessor fault Contact

Measuring function
- Current measurements
- Voltage measurements
- Power measurements
- Power factor measurements
- Frequency measurements and peak factor
- Energy measurements
- Display of Wave form and Harmonic calculation up to the 20 th harmonic.
- Historical measurements
Storage of opening data
- The unit should memorize, in presence of external power supply, the opening data (TRIP
= opening for protection)

Communication Functions (wherever specified)

In addition to the above , the communication function is implemented on this release.
- The unit supports Modbus RTU standard communication protocol. The physical mean of
data transmission is EIA RS485 2-Wire Twisted Pair, Bus topology, 19200bps max speed.
- It should be possible to set the release in remote operating mode or in local operating
mode, with this last one it will not be possible to transmit data from the system to the
release.
- The communication system will operate when the release is connected to an auxiliary
24Vdc voltage supply source.
Data transmitted from the release to the system:
- Protection parameters (curves and thresholds) settings
- Communication parameters settings
- Phase and Neutral currents
- Voltages
- Power factor (for each phase and total)
- Active, reactive and apparent Power
- Line frequency
- Breaker status (open-close)
- Breaker position (connected-isolated)
- Springs status (charged-discharged)
- Number of operations, number of trips (total and for each protection function)
- Last interrupted current, voltage and power

- Current, voltage and energy storage

- Contact wear
- L, S, I, G, T, UV, OV, RV, RP, D protection status (pre-alarm, alarm, timing, trip)
- Over temperature protection
- Internal bus status
-Opening solenoid and current sensor connection automatic check
Data transmitted from the system to the release
- Protection parameters
- Open/Close command
- Alarm reset
Additional indication LEDs
- Microprocessor fault LED relevant to dialogue unit microprocessor.
- Network LED relevant to network communication activity.

Outgoing ACBs
1) Release (Protection functions)
- The trip unit should not require an external power supply, being self powered using the
current transformers installed on the circuit-breaker.
- The signals given by the release must not operate with a power supply provided by
internal batteries.
- The releases should allow: inverse long time-delay trip overload protection (L) and
instantaneous short-circuit protection (I), while in addition (wherever specified) the release
should have:
- short-circuit protection with adjustable delay (S)
- earth fault protection with adjustable delay (G)
Main Protection functions & Setting Values
Function

Trip time

L - Overload Protection

Trip
Threshold
0.4 to 1 x In

S Selective short-circuit Protection

1 to 10 x In

0.05s0.5s

3s.18s

I Instantaneous short-circuit protection 1.5.12 x In

Instantaneous

G Earth fault protection

0.1s0.8s

0.21 x In

All the Protection functions except the one for protection against overload must be
excludable.