Protection of Power Systems: 6. Reclosers and Fuses

Protection of Power
Systems
6. Reclosers and Fuses

 Automatic circuit reclosers are commonly used for
distribution circuit protection.
 A recloser is a self-controlled device for automatically
interrupting and reclosing an ac circuit with a preset
sequence of openings and reclosures.
 Unlike circuit breakers, which have separate relays to
control breaker opening and reclosing, reclosers
have built-in controls.
 More than 80% of faults on overhead distribution
circuits are temporary, caused by tree limb contact,
by animal interference, by wind bringing bare
conductors in contact, or by lightning.
 The automatic tripping-reclosing sequence of
reclosers clears these temporary faults and restores
service with only momentary outages, thereby
significantly improving customer service.
 A disadvantage of reclosers is the increased hazard
when a circuit is physically contacted by people—for
example, in the case of a broken conductor at ground
level that remains energized.
 Also, reclosing should be locked out during live-line
maintenance by utility personnel.
 Figure 10.18 shows a common protection scheme for
radial distribution circuits utilizing fuses, reclosers,
and time-delay overcurrent relays.
 Data for the 13.8-kV feeder in this figure is given in
Table 10.7.
 There are three load taps protected by fuses.
 The recloser ahead of the fuses is set to open and
reclose for faults up to and beyond the fuses.
 For temporary faults the recloser can be set for one
or more instantaneous or time-delayed trips and
reclosures in order to clear the faults and restore
service.
 If faults persist, the fuses operate for faults to their
right (downstream), or the recloser opens after time
delay and locks out for faults between the recloser
and fuses.
 Separate time delay overcurrent phase and ground
relays open the substation breaker after multiple
reclosures of the recloser.
 Coordination of the fuses, recloser, and time-delay
overcurrent relays is shown via the time-current
curves in Figure 10.19.
 Type T (slow) fuses are selected because their time-
current characteristics coordinate well with reclosers.
 The fuses are selected on the basis of maximum
loads served from the taps.
 A 65 T fuse is selected for the bus 1 tap, which has a
60-A maximum load current, and 100 T is selected
for the bus 2 and 3 taps, which have 95-A maximum
load currents.
 The fuses should also have a rated voltage larger
than the maximum bus voltage and an interrupting
current rating larger than the maximum asymmetrical
fault current at the fuse location.
 Type T fuses with voltage ratings of 15 kV and
interrupting current ratings of 10 kA and higher are
standard.
 Standard reclosers have minimum trip ratings of 50,
70, 100, 140, 200, 280, 400, 560, 800, 1120, and
1600 A, with voltage ratings up to 38 kV and
maximum interrupting currents up to 16 kA.
 A minimum trip rating of 200–250% of maximum load
current is typically selected for the phases, in order to
override cold load pickup with a safety factor.
 The minimum trip rating of the ground unit is typically
set at maximum load and should be higher than the
maximum allowable load unbalance.
 For the recloser in Figure 10.18, which carries a 250-
A maximum load, minimum trip ratings of 560 A for
each phase and 280 A for the ground unit are
selected.
 A popular operation sequence for reclosers is two
fast operations, without intentional time delay,
followed by two delayed operations.
 The fast operations allow temporary faults to self-
clear, whereas the delayed operations allow
downstream fuses to clear permanent faults.
 Note that the time-current curves of the fast recloser
lie below the fuse curves in Figure 10.19, such that
the recloser opens before the fuses melt.
 The fuse curves lie below the delayed recloser
curves, such that the fuses clear before the recloser
opens.
 The recloser is typically programmed to reclose ½ s
after the first fast trip, 2 s after the second fast trip,
and 5–10 s after a delayed trip.
 Time-delay overcurrent relays with an extremely
inverse characteristic coordinate with both reclosers
and type T fuses.
 A 300 :5 CT ratio is selected to give a secondary
current of 250(5/300) = 4.71 A at maximum load.
 Relay settings are selected to allow the recloser to
operate effectively to clear faults before relay
operation.
 A current tap setting of 9 A is selected for the CO-11
phase relays so that minimum pickup exceeds twice
the maximum load.
 A time-dial setting of 2 is selected so that the delayed
recloser trips at least 0.2 s before the relay.
 The ground relay is set with a current tap setting of 4
A and a time-dial setting of 1.

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