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Open Circuit Faults: Why Reactor Is Necessary in Power System?

Types of faults in a power system include open and short circuit faults, which can be symmetrical or unsymmetrical. Open circuit faults occur due to failures of conductors or circuit breakers and result in one or more phases being open. Current limiting reactors are used to reduce short circuit currents during fault conditions by increasing the reactance between the source and the fault point. This helps limit the fault current to safe levels and prevent equipment damage.

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Soumajit Poddar
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41 views

Open Circuit Faults: Why Reactor Is Necessary in Power System?

Types of faults in a power system include open and short circuit faults, which can be symmetrical or unsymmetrical. Open circuit faults occur due to failures of conductors or circuit breakers and result in one or more phases being open. Current limiting reactors are used to reduce short circuit currents during fault conditions by increasing the reactance between the source and the fault point. This helps limit the fault current to safe levels and prevent equipment damage.

Uploaded by

Soumajit Poddar
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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State the different types of fault and there causes in an electrical power system.

Ans. Types of faults & their causes: Electrical faults in three-phase power system mainly classified into two
types, namely open and short circuit faults. Further, these faults can be symmetrical or unsymmetrical faults.
Open Circuit Faults
These faults occur due to the failure of one or more conductors. The figure below illustrates the open circuit
faults for single, two and three phases (or conductors) open condition.
The most common causes of these faults include joint failures of cables and overhead lines, and failure of one or
more phase of circuit breaker and also due to melting of a fuse or conductor in one or more phases.
Open circuit faults are also called as series faults. These are unsymmetrical or unbalanced type of faults except
three phase open fault.

Why reactor is necessary in power system?


Current limiting reactors can reduce short-circuit currents. "A current limiting reactor, also called a series
reactor, is a coil which has high inductive reactance as compared to its resistance."
These reactors are used to limit the short circuit current and the effect of resulting voltage disturbances during
fault conditions. The short circuit currents depend upon the generating capacity, voltage at the fault point and
the total reactance between the generators and the fault point.
In large interconnected systems, the total rating of the generators is very high and also, when the system is
extended by the addition of more generating units, the fault currents are also increased. So the fault current to be
interrupted by the same circuit breaker will become greater than the earlier value. These short circuit currents
may be large enough to cause damage to the line and other equipment of the power system network.
The short circuit current can be kept within safe limits by increasing the reactance between the source and the
fault. Thus, there is a need of providing a protective reactor. By including a reactor or few reactors at strategic
locations, the short circuit currents at different points in the power system can be reduced.
c. A generating station has two alternators of rating 4000KVA and 6000KVA having percentage reactance are
10% and 8% respectively connected to a common bus bar.From the bus bar load is transfer through 12000KVA
transformer of 5% reactance to the 33KV transmission line having resistance 5 ohm and the reactance of 20
ohm. Calculate the short circuit KVA HV side of transformer and the load end of the transmission line.

Draw the time current characteristics curve of a fuse.


c. Define the following terms in respect of fuse prospective current,cut off current,fusing
factor ,rupturing capacity.

Ans:

prospective current- It is the r.m.s. value of the first loop of the fault current obtained if the fuse is replaced by
an ordinary conductor of negligible resistance.
Cut off current- It is the maximum value of fault current actually reached before the fuse melts
Fusing factor: It is the ratio of minimum fusing current to the current rating of the fuse element i.e.
Fusing factor = Minimum fusing current /Current rating of fuse .Its value is always more than one.
Braking capacity: It is the r.m.s. value of a.c. component of maximum prospective current that a fuse can deal
with at rated service voltage.

d. Draw only the neat labeled diagram of HRC fuse.

4. a. Give the two methods of arc extinction in CB.


Ans- Methods of arc extinction:
There are two methods of extinguishing the arc in circuit breakers 1. High resistance method. 2. Low
resistance or current zero method.
High resistance method:
In this method, arc resistance is made to increase with time so that current is reduced to a value insufficient to
maintain the arc. Consequently, the current is interrupted or the arc is extinguished. The principal disadvantage
of this method is that enormous energy is dissipated in the arc. Therefore, it is employed only in D.C. circuit
breakers and low-capacity a.c. circuit breakers.
Low resistance or Current zero method:
In this method is employed for arc extinction in a.c. circuits only. In this method, arc resistance is kept low until
current is zero where the arc extinguishes naturally and is prevented from restriking in spite of the rising voltage
across the contacts. All Modern high power a.c. circuit breakers employ this method for arc extinction

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