High Voltage Switchgear

Under Electrical Switchgear The power system deals with voltage above 36KV, is
referred as high voltage. As the voltage level is high the arcing produced during
switching operation is also very high. So, special care to be taken during designing of
high voltage switchgear. High voltage circuit breaker, is the main component of HV
switchgear, hence high voltage circuit breaker should have special features for safe
and reliable operation. Faulty tripping and switching operation of high voltage circuit
are very rear. Most of the time these circuit breakers remain, at ON condition, and
may be operated after a long period of time. So CBs must be reliable enough to ensure
safe operation, as when required. High voltage circuit breaker technology has changed
radically in the last 15 years.
Minimum oil circuit breaker, air blast circuit breaker and SF6 circuit breaker are
mostly used for high voltage switchgear. Vacuum circuit breaker is rarely used for this
purpose as till date vacuum technology is not adequate for interrupting very high
voltage short circuit current. There are two types of SF6 circuit breaker, single
pressure SF6 breaker and two pressures circuit breaker. The single pressure system is
the state of art for high voltage switchgear system, in present time. Now days SF6 gas
as arc quenching medium, has become most popular for high and extra high voltage
electrical power system. Although, SF6 gas has strong impact on the greenhouse
effect. It has 23 times stronger impact on the greenhouse effect, than that of CO 2.
Hence, leakage of SF6 gas during the service life of circuit breaker must be prevented.
In order to minimize the emission of SF6 gas, the N2 - SF6 and CF4 - SF6 gas mixture,
may be used in circuit breaker in future, as substitute of pure SF 6. It must always be
taken care of that, no SF6 gas comes out in atmosphere during maintenance of the CB.
On the other hand, SF6 circuit breaker has the major advantage of low maintenance.
High voltage switchgears are categorized as,
1) Gas insulated indoor type, 2) Air insulated outdoor type.

Again, outdoor type air insulated circuit breakers are classified as,
1) Dead tank type circuit breaker 2) Live tank type circuit breaker
In dead tank type CB, the switching device is located, with suitable insulator supports
inside a metallic vessel(s) at ground potential filled with insulating medium.
In live tank circuit breaker, the interrupts are located in an insulated busing, at the
system potential. The live tank circuit breakers are cheaper and required less mounting
space.
There are mainly three types of circuit breaker, as we said earlier, used in high voltage
switchgear system i.e. air blast circuit breaker, SF6 circuit breaker, oil circuit breaker.
And vacuum circuit breaker is rarely used.
Air Blast Circuit Breaker
In this design, a blast of high pressure compressed air is used to quench arc between
two detaching contacts, when the arc column ionization is least at currents zero.
Oil Circuit Breaker
This is further classified as bulk oil circuit breaker (BOCB) and minimum oil circuit
breaker (MOCB). In BOCB, the interrupting unit is placed inside an oil tank of earth
potential. Here oil is used as both insulating and interrupting medium. In MOCB on
the other hand, the oil requirement can be minimized by placing the interrupting units
in an insulating chamber at live potential on an insulator column.
SF6 Circuit Breaker
SF6 gas is widely used as arc quenching medium in HV applications today. Sulfur
hexafluoride gas is a high electronegative gas having excellent dielectric and arc
quenching properties. High dielectric and insulating properties of SF 6, make it
possible to design high voltage circuit breaker with smaller overall dimension, shorter
contact gap. Excellent insulating property helps to design and construct indoor type
high voltage switchgear.
Vacuum Circuit Breaker
In vacuum, there is no further ionization between two separated current carrying
contacts, after current zero. The initial arc is caused by it will die as soon as next zero
crossing but as there is no provision of further ionization once the current is crossed
its first zero, the arc quenching is completed. Although the arc quenching method is

very fast in VCB, but till it is not a suitable solution for high voltage switchgear, as
VCB made for very high voltage level is not economical at all.
The essential features to be provide in high voltage circuit breaker, to ensure safe and
reliable operation the breakers used in high voltage switchgear, must be capable of
being operated safely for,
1) Terminal faults. 2) Short line faults. 3) Transformer or reactors magnetizing current.
4) Energizing long transmission line. 5) Charging capacitor bank. 6) Switching of out
of phase sequence.
Terminal Fault
Generally the load connected to the power system is inductive in nature. Due to this
inductance, when short circuit current is just interrupted by a circuit breaker, there is a
chance of high restriking voltage of high frequency oscillation in order of few
hundred Hz. This voltage has two parts 1) Transient recovery voltage with high
frequency oscillation immediately after the arc extinction. 2) After die down this high
frequency oscillation, power frequency recover voltage appears across the CB
contacts.
Transient Recovery Voltage
Just after extinction of arc transient recovery voltage appears across the CB contacts,
with high frequency. This transient recovery voltage ultimately approaches to open
circuit voltage.

This

recovery

voltage

can

be

represented

as

The frequency of oscillation is governed by the circuit parameter L and C.

The resistance present in the power circuit damps out this transient voltage. The
transient recovery voltage has not a single frequency, it is combination of may
different frequencies due to complexity of the power network.
Power Frequency Recovery Voltage
This is nothing but open circuit voltage appears across the CB contacts, just after the
transient recovery voltage damped out. In three phase system the power frequency
recovery voltage differs in different phase. It is highest in first phase. If the network
neutral is not earthed, the voltage across the first pole to be cleared is 1.5U where U is
the phase voltage. In an earthed neutral system it will be 1.3U.
By using damping resistor, the magnitude and rate of rise of transient recovery voltage
can be limited. The dielectric recovery of the arc quenching medium and rate of rise
of transient recovery voltage has great influence on the performance of the circuit
breaker used in high voltage switchgear system.
In air blast circuit breaker, once ionized air is deionized very slowly, thus air takes
long time to recover dielectric strength. That is why it is preferable to used low value

breaker resistor to slow down rate of rise of recovery voltage. On the other hand
ABCB is less sensitive to the initial recovery voltage because of high arc voltage in
SF6 circuit breaker, the interrupting medium (SF 6) has faster rate of recovery of
dielectric strength, than air. Lower arc voltage, makes SF 6 CB more sensitive to the
initial recovery voltage.
In oil circuit breaker, during arc having pressurized hydrogen gas (produced during
recombination of oil due to arc temperature) provides quick recovery of dielectric
strength immediate after current zero. Hence OCB is more sensitive to rate of rise of
recovery voltage. It is also more sensitive to initial transient recovery voltage.
Short Line Fault
Short line fault in transmission network is defined as the short circuit faults occurred,
within 5km of the line length.
Double frequency being impressed on the circuit breaker and the difference of source
and line side transient recovery voltage. Both voltages start from instantaneous values
at the opposition of the circuit breakers prior to the interruption. On the supply side
the voltage will oscillate at supply frequency and ultimately approaches to open
circuit voltage. On the line side, after interruption, trapped charges initial traveling
waves through the transmission line, since there is no driving voltage on the driving
side, the voltage ultimately becomes zero because of the line losses. The network
diagram and the line side and supply side voltage wave forms are shown in the figure
below.