DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM PROECTION

Definitions:-
Switch: A device for making, breaking, or changing the connection in an electric current.
Disconnect switch: A switch designed to disconnect power devices at no-load conditions.
Load-break switch: A switch designed to interrupt load currents but not (greater) fault currents.
Circuit breaker: A switch designed to interrupt fault currents.
Automatic circuit reclosers: An overcurrent protective device that trips and recloses a preset
number of times to clear transient faults or to isolate permanent faults.
Automatic line sectionalizer: An overcurrent protective device used only with backup circuit
breakers or reclosers but not alone.
Fuse: An overcurrent protective device with a circuit-opening fusible member directly heated
and destroyed by the passage of overcurrent through it in the event of an overload or short-
circuit condition.
Relay: A device that responds to variations in the conditions in one electric circuit to affect the
operation of other devices in the same or in another electric circuit.
Lightning arrester: A device put on electric power equipment to reduce the voltage of a surge
applied to its terminals.
OVER CURRENT PROTECTION DEVICES:
FUSE:
A fuse is an overcurrent device with a circuit-opening fusible member (i.e., fuse link)
directly heated and destroyed by the passage of overcurrent through it in the event of an
overload or short-circuit condition. Therefore, the purpose of a fuse is to clear a permanent
fault by removing the defective segment of a line or equipment from the system.
A fuse is designed to blow within a specified time for a given value of fault current. The time–
current characteristics (TCCs) of a fuse are represented by two curves:
1) The minimum-melting curve &
2) The total-clearing curve.
The minimum-melting curve of a fuse is a plot of the minimum time versus current required
to melt the fuse link.
The total-clearing curve is a plot of the maximum time versus current required to melt the
fuse link and extinguish the arc.
AUTOMATIC CIRCUIT RECLOSER
The automatic circuit recloser is an overcurrent protective device that automatically
trips and recloses a preset number of times to clear temporary faults or isolate permanent faults.
It also has provisions for manually opening and reclosing the circuit that is connected.
Reclosers can be set for a number of different operation sequences such as
 1) two instantaneous (trip and reclose) operations followed by two time-delay trip
operations prior to lockout,
2) one instantaneous plus three time-delay operations,
3) three instantaneous plus one time delay operations,
4) four instantaneous operations, or
5) four time-delay operations.
The instantaneous and time-delay characteristics of a recloser are a function of its
rating. Recloser ratings range from 5 to 1120 A for the ones with series coils and from 100 to
2240 A for the ones with nonseries coils.
The minimum pickup for all ratings is usually set to trip instantaneously at two times
the current rating. Reclosers are designed and built in either single-phase or three-phase units.
Single-phase reclosers inherently result in better service reliability as compared to three-phase
reclosers. If the three phase primary circuit is wye connected, either a three-phase recloser or
three single-phase reclosers are used.
AUTOMATIC LINE SECTIONALIZER
The automatic line sectionalizer is an overcurrent protective device installed only with
backup circuit breakers or reclosers. It counts the number of interruptions caused by a backup
automatic interrupting device and opens during dead circuit time after a preset number (usually
two or three) of tripping operations of the backup device.
Zimmerman [1] summarizes the operation modes of a sectionalizer as follows:
1) If the fault is cleared while the reclosing device is open, the sectionalizer counter will
reset to its normal position after the circuit is reclosed.
2) If the fault persists when the circuit is reclosed, the fault-current counter in the
sectionalizer will again prepare to count the next opening of the reclosing device.
3) If the reclosing device is set to go to lockout on the fourth trip operation, the
sectionalizer will be set to trip during the open-circuit time following the third tripping
operation of the reclosing device.
The application of sectionalizers entails certain requirements:
1) They have to be used in series with other protective devices but not between two
reclosers.
2) The backup protective device has to be able to sense the minimum fault current at the
end of the sectionalizer’s protective zone.
3) The minimum fault current has to be greater than the minimum actuating current of the
sectionalizer.
4) Under no circumstances should the sectionalizer’s momentary and short-time ratings
be exceeded.
5) If there are two backup protective devices connected in series with each other and
located ahead of a sectionalizer toward the source, the first and second backup devices
should be set for four and three tripping operations, respectively, and the sectionalizer
should be set to open during the second dead circuit time for a fault beyond the
sectionalizer.
6) If there are two sectionalizers connected in series with each other and located after a
backup protective device that is close to the source, the backup device should be set to
 lockout after the fourth operation, and the first and second sectionalizers should be set
to open following the third and second counting operations, respectively.

The advantages of using automatic line sectionalizers are as follows:

1) When employed as a substitute for reclosers, they have a lower initial cost and demand
less maintenance.
2) When employed as a substitute for fused cutouts, they do not show the possible
coordination difficulties experienced with fused cutouts due to improperly sized
replacement fuses.
3) They may be employed for interrupting or switching loads within their ratings.
The disadvantages of using automatic line sectionalizers are as follows:
1) When employed as a substitute for fused cutouts, they are more costly initially and
demand more maintenance.
2) In general, in the past, their failure rate has been greater than that of fused cutouts.
OBJECTIVE OF DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM PROTECTION
The main objectives of distribution system protection are (1) to minimize the duration
of a fault and (2) to minimize the number of consumers affected by the fault.
The secondary objectives of distribution system protection are
1) to eliminate safety hazards as fast as possible,
2) to limit service outages to the smallest possible segment of the system,
3) to protect the consumers’ apparatus,
4) to protect the system from unnecessary service interruptions and disturbances, &
5) to disconnect faulted lines, transformers, or other apparatus.
The overhead distribution systems are subject to two types of electric faults, namely,
transient (or temporary) faults and permanent faults.
Depending on the nature of the system involved, approximately 75%–90% of the total
number of faults are temporary in nature. Usually, transient faults occur when phase conductors
electrically contact other phase conductors or ground momentarily due to trees, birds or other
animals, high winds, lightning, flashovers, etc.
Permanent faults are those that require repairs by a repair crew in terms of (1) replacing
burned-down conductors, blown fuses, or any other damaged apparatus; (2) removing tree
limbs from the line; and (3) manually reclosing a circuit breaker or recloser to restore service.
Here, the number of customers affected by a fault is minimized by properly selecting and
locating the protective apparatus on the feeder main, at the tap point of each branch, and at
critical locations on branch circuits. Permanent faults on overhead distribution systems are
usually sectionalized by means of fuses. For example, permanent faults are cleared by fuse
cutouts installed at submain and lateral tap points.
Figure 1 shows a protection scheme of a distribution feeder circuit. As shown in the
figure, each distribution transformer has a fuse that is located either externally, that is, in a fuse
cutout next to the transformer, or internally, that is, inside the transformer tank as is the case
for a completely self-protected (CSP) transformer.
 Figure 1: A distribution feeder protection scheme
As shown in Figure 1, it is a common practice to install a fuse at the head of each lateral
(or branch). The fuse must carry the expected load, and it must coordinate with load- side
transformer fuses or other devices. As shown in the figure, a recloser, or circuit breaker A with
reclosing relays, is located at the substation to provide a backup protection. It clears the
temporary faults in its protective zone. At the limit of the protective zone, the minimum
available fault current, determined by calculation, is equal to the smallest value of current
(called minimum pickup current), which will trigger the recloser, or circuit breaker, to operate.
However, a fault beyond the limit of this protection zone may not trigger the recloser, or circuit
breaker, to operate. Therefore, this situation may require that a second recloser, with a lower
pickup current rating, be installed at location B, as shown in the figure.
COORDINATION OF PROTECTIVE DEVICES
The process of selecting overcurrent protection devices with certain time–current
settings and their appropriate arrangement in series along a distribution circuit in order to clear
faults from the lines and apparatus according to a preset sequence of operation is known as
coordination. When two protective apparatus installed in series have characteristics that
provide a specified operating sequence, they are said to be coordinated or selective. Here, the
device that is set to operate first to isolate the fault (or interrupt the fault current) is defined as
the protecting device. It is usually the apparatus closer to the fault.
The apparatus that furnishes backup protection but operates only when the protecting
device fails to operate to clear the fault is defined as the protected device. Properly coordinated
protective devices help
 1) to eliminate service interruptions due to temporary faults,
2) to minimize the extent of faults in order to reduce the number of customers
affected
3) to locate the fault, thereby minimizing the duration of service outages.
Since coordination is primarily the selection of protective devices and their settings to
develop zones that provide temporary fault protection and limit an outage area to the minimum
size possible if a fault is permanent, to coordinate protective devices, in general, the distribution
engineer must assemble the following data:
1) Scaled feeder-circuit configuration diagram (map)
2) Locations of the existing protective devices.
3) TCC curves of protective devices
4) Load currents (under normal and emergency conditions)
5) Fault currents or megavoltamperes (under minimum and maximum generation
conditions) at every point where a protective apparatus might be located.
A general coordination procedure, regardless of whether it is manual or computerized,
can be summarized as follows
1) Gather the required and aforementioned data.
2) Select initial locations on the given distribution circuit for protective (i.e.,
sectionalizing) devices.
3) Determine the maximum and minimum values of fault currents (specifically for
threephase, line-to-line [L–L], and line-to-ground faults) at each of the selected
locations and at the end of the feeder mains, branches, and laterals.
4) Pick out the necessary protective devices located at the distribution substation
in order to protect the substation transformer properly from any fault that might
occur in the distribution circuit.
5) Coordinate the protective devices from the substation outward or from the end
of the distribution circuit back to the substation. 6. Reconsider and change, if
necessary, the initial locations of the protective devices.
6) Reexamine the chosen protective devices for current-carrying capacity,
interrupting capacity, and minimum pickup rating.
7) Draw a composite TCC curve showing the coordination of all protective devices
employed, with curves drawn for a common base voltage (this step is optional).
8) Draw a circuit diagram that shows the circuit configuration, the maximum and
minimum values of the fault currents, and the ratings of the protective devices
employed.
There are also some additional factors that need to be considered in the coordination of
protective devices (i.e., fuses, reclosers, and relays) such as (1) the differences in the TCCs and
related manufacturing tolerances, (2) preloading conditions of the apparatus, (3) ambient
temperature, and (4) effect of reclosing cycles. These factors affect the adequate margin for
selectivity under adverse conditions.
FUSE TO FUSE COORDINATION
The selection of a fuse rating to provide adequate protection to the circuit beyond its
location is based upon several factors. First of all, the selected fuse must be able to carry the
expanded load current, and, at the same time, it must be sufficiently selective with other
protective apparatus in series. Furthermore, it must have an adequate reach; that is, it must have
the capability to clear a minimum fault current within its zone in a predetermined time duration.
A fuse is designed to blow within a specified time for a given value of fault current.
The TCCs of a fuse are represented by two curves: the minimum-melting curve and the total-
clearing curve, as shown in Figure 2. The minimum-melting curve of a fuse that represents the
minimum time, and therefore it is the plot of the minimum time versus current required to melt
the fuse. The total-clearing (time) curve represents the total time, and therefore it is the plot of
the maximum time versus current required to melt the fuse and extinguish the arc, plus
manufacturing tolerance. It is also a standard procedure to develop “damaging” time curves
from the minimum-melting-time curves by using a safety factor of 25%. Therefore, the
damaging curve (due to the partial melting) is developed by taking 75% of the minimum-
melting time of a specific-size fuse at various current values. The time unit used in these curves
is seconds.

Figure 2. Coordinating fuses in series using TCC curves of the fuses connected in
series.
Fuse-to-fuse coordination, that is, the coordination between fuses connected in series,
can be achieved by two methods:
1) Using the TCC curves of the fuses
2) Using the coordination tables prepared by the fuse manufacturers.
In the first method, the coordination of the two fuses connected in series, as shown in
Figure 2, is achieved by comparing the total-clearing-time–current curve of the “protecting
fuse,” that is, fuse B, with the damaging-time curve of the “protected fuse,” that is, fuse A.
Here, it is necessary that the total-clearing time of the protecting fuse not exceed 75% of the
minimum-melting time of the protected fuse. The 25% margin has been selected to take into
account some of the operating variables, such as preloading, ambient temperature, and the
partial melting of a fuse link due to a fault current of short duration. If there is no intersection
between the aforementioned curves, a complete coordination in terms of selectivity is achieved.
However, if there is an intersection of the two curves, the associated current value at the point
of the intersection gives the coordination limit for the partial coordination achieved.
In the second method of fuse-to-fuse coordination, coordination is established by using
the fuse sizes from coordination tables developed by the fuse link manufacturers.
RECLOSER TO RECLOSER COORDINATION
The need for recloser-to-recloser coordination may arise due to any of the following
situations that may exist in a given distribution system:
1) Having two three-phase reclosers
2) Having two single-phase reclosers
3) Having a three-phase recloser at the substation and a single-phase recloser on
one of the branches of a given feeder.
The required coordination between the reclosers can be achieved by using one of the
following remedies:
1) Employing different recloser types and some mixture of coil sizes and operating
sequences
2) Employing the same recloser type and operating sequence but using different
coil sizes
3) Employing the same recloser type and coil sizes but using different operating
sequences.
In general, the utility industry prefers to use the first remedy over the other two.
However, there may be some circumstances, for example, having two single-phase reclosers
of the same type, where the second remedy can be applied.
When the TCC curves of the two reclosers are less than 12 cycles separate from each
other, the reclosers may do their instantaneous or fast operations at the same time. To achieve
coordination between the delayed- tripping curves of two reclosers, at least a minimum time
margin of 25% must be applied.
RECLOSER TO FUSE COORDINATION
In Figure 3, curves represent the instantaneous, time-delay, and extended time- delay
(as an alternative) tripping characteristics of a conventional automatic circuit recloser. Here,
curves A and B symbolize the first and second openings and the third and fourth openings of
the recloser, respectively.

Figure 3 Typical recloser tripping characteristics.

 To provide protection against permanent faults, fuse cutouts (or power fuses) are
installed on overhead feeder taps and laterals. The use of an automatic reclosing device as a
backup protection against temporary faults eliminates many unnecessary outages that occur
when using fuses only. Here, the backup recloser can be either the substation feeder recloser,
usually with an operating sequence of one fast- and two delayed-tripping operations, or a
branch feeder recloser, with two fast- and two delayed-tripping operations. The recloser is set
to trip for a temporary fault before any of the fuses can blow and then reclose the circuit.
However, if the fault is a permanent one, it is cleared by the correct fuse before the recloser
can go on time-delay operation following one or two instantaneous operations.
Figure 4 shows a portion of a distribution system where a recloser is installed ahead of
a fuse. The figure also shows the superposition of the TCC curve of the fuse C on the fast and
delayed TCC curves of the recloser R. If the fault beyond fuse C is temporary, the instantaneous
tripping operations of the recloser protect the fuse from any damage. This can be observed
from the figure by the fact that the instantaneous recloser curve A lies below the fuse TCC for
currents less than that associated with the intersection point b.

Figure 4 Recloser TCC curves superimposed on fuse TCC curves

However, if the fault beyond fuse C is a permanent one, the fuse clears the fault as the
recloser goes through a delayed operation B. This can be observed from the figure by the fact
that the time delay curve B of the recloser lies above the total-clearing-curve portion of the fuse
TCC for currents greater than that associated with the intersection point a. The distance
between the intersection points a and b gives the coordination range for the fuse and recloser.
FUSE TO CIRCUIT BREKER COORDINATION
The fuse-to-circuit-breaker (overcurrent-relay) coordination is somewhat similar to the
fuse-to recloser coordination. In general, the reclosing time intervals of a circuit breaker are
greater than those of a recloser. For example, 5 s is usually the minimum reclosing time interval
for a circuit breaker, whereas the minimum reclosing time interval for a recloser can be as small
as 1/2 s.
Therefore, when a fuse is used as the backup or protected device, there is no need for
heating and cooling adjustments. Thus, in order to achieve a coordination between a fuse and
circuit breaker, the minimum-melting-time curve of the fuse is plotted for a phase-to-phase
fault on the secondary side.
If the minimum-melting time of the fuse is approximately 135% of the combined time
of the circuit breaker and related relays, the coordination is achieved. However, when the fuse
is used as the protecting device, the coordination is achieved if the relay operating time is
150% of the total clearing time of the fuse.
In summary, when the circuit breaker is tripped instantaneously, it has to clear the fault
before the fuse is blown. However, the fuse has to clear the fault before the circuit breaker trips
on time delay operations.
Therefore, it is necessary that the relay characteristic curve, at all values of current up
to the maximum current available at the fuse location, lie above the total-clearing characteristic
curve of the fuse. Thus, it is usually customary to leave a margin between the relay and fuse
characteristic curves to include a safety factor of 0.1 to 0.3 + 0.1 s for relay overtravel time.
RECLOSER TO CIRCUIT BREKER COORDINATION
The reclosing relay recloses its associated feeder-circuit breaker at predetermined
intervals (e.g., 15, 30, or 45 s cycles) after the breaker has been tripped by overcurrent relays.
If desired, the reclosing relay can provide an instantaneous initial reclosure plus three time-
delay reclosures.
However, if the fault is permanent, the reclosing relay recloses the breaker the
predetermined number of times and then goes to the lockout position. Usually, the initial
reclosing is so fast that customers may not even realize that service has been interrupted.
The crucial factor in coordinating the operation of a recloser and a circuit breaker (better
yet, the relay that trips the breaker) is the reset time of the overcurrent relays during the tripping
and reclosing sequence.
If the relay used is of an electromechanical type, rather than a solid-state type, it starts
to travel in the trip direction during the operation of the recloser.
If the reset time of the relay is not adjusted properly, the relay can accumulate enough
movement (or travel) in the trip direction, during successive recloser operations, to trigger a
false tripping.