UNIT-1

School of EEE
WHAT ARE FUSES?

• Fuses are the protectors, these are the safety devices which are used to protect the home appliances like
televisions, refrigerators, computers with damage by high voltage.
• The fuse is made up of thin strip or strand of metal, whenever the heavy amount of current or an excessive
current flow is there in an electrical circuit, the fuse melts and it opens the circuit and disconnects it from the
power supply.
• Their strips are made up of aluminum, copper, zinc & it is always connected in series with the circuit to
protect from overcurrent in the running cables. Here is the basic circuit diagram & symbol of the fuse.

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WHY DO WE NEED FUSE?
• Fuses are used for the prevention of home appliances from the short circuit and damage by overload or

high current etc. If we don’t use fuses, electrical faults occur in the wiring and it burns the wire and electric

appliances and may starts fire at home.

• The lives of television, computers, radios and other home appliances may also put at risk. When the fuse

goes, a sudden spark occurs which may lead to turning your home into sudden darkness by disconnecting

the power supply .

• That’s why we need fuses to protect our home appliances from harm.

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HOW DOES FUSE WORK?
• The fuses work on the principle of the heating effect of the current. It’s made up of thin strip or strand of
metallic wire with noncombustible material. This is connected between the ends of the terminals. Fuse is
always connected in series with the electrical circuit.

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CHARACTERISTICS OF FUSE ELEMENT:

1.low melting point e.g., tin, lead.

2.high conductivity e.g., silver, copper.

3.free from deterioration due to oxidation e.g., silver

4.low cost e.g., lead, tin, copper.

Fusing factor: It is the ratio of minimum fusing current to the current rating of the fuse element i.e.

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CUTOFF CHARACTERISTICS OF FUSE

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CUTOFF CHARACTERISTICS OF FUSE
Prospective Current: The fault current would normally have a
very large first loop, but it actually generates sufficient energy
to melt the fuseable element well before the peak of this first
loop is reached. The r.m.s. value of the first loop of fault current
is known as prospective current. Therefore, prospective current
can be defined as under:

Cut-off current: It is the maximum value of fault current

actually reached before the fuse melts. The cut off value
depends upon.
•current rating of fuse
•value of prospective current
•asymmetry of short-circuit current

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CUT-OFF CHARACTERISTICS OF FUSE

Pre-arcing time: It is the time between the commencement of

fault and the instant when cut off occurs.

Arcing time: This is the time between the end of pre-arcing

time and the instant when the arc is extinguished.

Total operating time: It is the sum of pre-arcing and arcing

times.

Breaking 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.

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CHARACTERISTICS OF FUSES
Current Rating: The continuously conducting maximum amount of current holds the fuse without melting it
is termed as current ratings. It is the current carrying capacity, which is measured in Amperes. This is the
thermal characteristics.

Voltage Rating: In this characteristic, the voltage connected in series with fuse does not increase voltage
rating. i.e.

•I2t Rating: This is the amount of energy which is carried by fuse element when there is an electrical fault or
some short circuit happens. It measures the heat energy(energy due to current flow) of fuse & it is generated
when fuse has blown.

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CHARACTERISTICS OF FUSES

Interrupting or Breaking Capacity: It is the maximum rating of current without harm interrupt by the fuse is
known as breaking or interrupting capacity of the fuse.

Voltage Drop: When excessive current flows, the fuse element melts and opens the circuit. Due to this
resistance change and the voltage drop will become lesser

Temperature: In this, the operating temperature will be higher, therefore the current rating will be lesser, so
the fuse melts.

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CHARACTERISTICS OF FUSES

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DIFFERENT TYPES OF FUSES

DC Fuses: DC fuses have larger in size. DC supply has constant value above 0V so it is hard to neglect and turn
off the circuit and there is a chance of an electric arc between melted wires. To overcome this, electrodes placed
at larger distances and because of this the size of DC fuses get increased.

AC Fuses: AC fuses are smaller in size. They oscillated 50-60 times in every second from minimum to
maximum. So there is no chance of Arc between the melted wires. Hence they can be packed in small size.

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 LOW VOLTAGE FUSE

Cartridge Type Fuses: It is the type of fuses in which they •Switch Type Fuses:- In this type of fuse,
have totally closed containers & has the contact i.e., metal basically metal enclosed of a switch and a fuse
besides. and is far used for low and medium voltage
level.
Rewireable/ Kit-Kat Type:- In this type of fuse, the main
advantage is that the fuse carrier is easier to remove without Drop Out Fuses:- In this type of fuse, the
having any electrical shock or injury. The fuse base acts as an melting of fuse causes the element to drop
incoming and outgoing terminal which is made up of porcelain under gravity about its lower support. They
& fuse carrier is used to hold the fuse element which is made up are made for the protection of outdoor
of tin, copper, aluminum, lead, etc. This is used in domestic transformers
wiring, small industries etc.

Striker Type Fuses:- In this type of fuse, it is used for closing

and tripping the circuit. They are having enough force and
displacement.

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LOW VOLTAGE FUSE

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 HIGH VOLTAGE FUSE

•Cartridge Type HRC Fuses:- It is similar to low voltage type, only some designing features are
different.

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 HIGH VOLTAGE FUSE
•Liquid Type HRC Fuses:- These are used for circuit up to 100A rated current & systems up to 132Kv. These
fuses have the glass tube filled with carbon tetrachloride. The one end of the tube is packed and another is fixed
by phosphorous bronze wire. When fuse operation starts, the liquid uses in the fuse extinguish the arc. This
increase the short circuit capacity.

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 HIGH VOLTAGE FUSE
Expulsion Type HRC Fuses:- It is the escapable fuse, in which expulsion effect of gases produced by
internal arcing. In this, the fuse link chamber is filled with boric acid for expulsion of gases.

Resettable Fuses:- It is the type of fuse, commonly known as self-resetting fuses which uses a
thermoplastic conductive type thermistor known as Polymeric Positive Temperature Coefficient (PPTC).
If a fault occurs. Current increases, temperature also increase. The increase in resistance is due to
increase in temperature. The applications where it is used are military and aerospace where replacement
is not possible.

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 APPLICATIONS

•They are used in home distribution boards, general electrical appliances, and devices.

•They are used in gaming consoles and all automobiles such as car, trucks and other vehicles.

•They are also used in laptops, cell phones, printers, scanners, portable electronics, hard disk drives.

•In the electrical distribution system, you will find fuses in capacitors, transformers, power converters,

motor starters, power transformers.

•They are used in LCD monitors, battery packs, etc.

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HRC FUSE
• HRC fuse (high rupturing capacity fuse) is one kind of fuse, where the fuse wire carries a short circuit
current in a set period. If the fault occurs in the circuit then it blows off. The HRC fuse is made with glass
otherwise some other kind of chemical compound.

• HRC fuse is consistent & it has the feature like if it has a high fault current then break time is low.
Similarly, if the fault current is not high, then break time is long.

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WORKING PRINCIPLE OF HRC FUSE
• In normal conditions, the flow of current through the fuse doesn’t provide sufficient energy to soften the
element. If the huge current flows through the fuse then it melts the element of the fuse before the fault
current achieves the climax.
• When the fuse is in an overload condition, then the element of the fuse will not blow-off however if this
condition exists for an extended period, then the material like Eutectic will dissolve & break the element of
the fuse. When the fuse is in short circuit condition, then the thin parts of the fuse element is less area will
dissolve quickly & will smash before the eutectic material.

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WORKING PRINCIPLE OF HRC FUSE

• The internal space of the fuse body is filled by a filling powder material. Here the material used in this
is quartz, plaster of Paris, dust, marble, chalk, etc. So this is the reason the flow of current cannot
overheat. The generated heat vaporizes the melted element.
• Generally, copper or silver is used as the fuse element because of its low specific resistance. This
element has normally two or more sections. The fuse element normally has two or more sections that
are connected through tin joints. The melting point of tin is 2400 C that is lesser than silver’s melting
point of 980o C. Thus the melting point of tin joints stops the fuse from getting high temperatures in the
short circuit and overload conditions.

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TYPES OF HRC FUSE
NH Type Fuse
• This kind of fuse gives the protection of short circuit and
overload for low & medium voltage.
• These fuses give protection for starters of the motor as well
as other devices which are against overload and short circuit.
These fuses are available in less weight with a solid
Blade Type Fuse
dimension.
This type of fuse is also called plug-I or spade.
Din Type Fuse These are available with plastic body & two
These are accessible in a broad range of rated currents and are metal caps to arrange within the socket.
used in different fields for different reasons including their
feature at different temperature states. These are accessible to
different levels of voltages and used to protect the transformer.

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ADVANTAGES
These are cheaper as compared with other types
• Easy to design and very simple
• Maintenance is not necessary
• High breaking capability
• The performance of this is consistent.
• Easy operation
• The inverse time characteristic is suitable for overload protection

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DISADVANTAGES

• These cannot be reused once they blew out.

• It causes overheating for nearby contacts.
• The possibility of interlocking is larger
• After every action, they have to be changed.
• Heat is generated through the arc may influence the connected switches

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BASIC PRINCIPLE OF OPERATION OF CB
• During the operation of power system, it is often desirable and necessary to switch on or off the
various circuits (e.g., transmission lines, distributors, generating plants etc.) under both normal and
abnormal conditions.

• With the advancement of the power system, the lines and other equipment operate at very high voltages
and carry large currents. The arrangement of switches along with fuses cannot serve the desired function
of switchgear in such high capacity circuits. This necessitates to employ a more dependable means of
control such as is obtained by the use of circuit breakers.

• A circuit breaker can make or break a circuit either manually or automatically under all conditions viz.,
no-load, full-load and short-circuit conditions. This characteristic of the circuit breaker has made it a very
useful equipment for switching and protection of various parts of the power system.

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WORKING PRINCIPLE, A CIRCUIT BREAKER:
• A circuit breaker essentially consists of fixed and moving contacts, called electrodes. Under normal
operating conditions, these contacts remain closed and will not open automatically until and unless the
system becomes faulty.
• When a fault occurs on any part of the system, the trip coils of the circuit breaker get energized and the
moving contacts are pulled apart by some mechanism, thus opening the circuit.

• When the contacts of a circuit breaker are separated under fault conditions, an arc is struck between them.
The current is thus able to continue until the discharge ceases. The production of arc not only delays the
current interruption process but it also generates enormous heat which may cause damage to the system or
to the circuit breaker itself. Therefore, the main problem in a circuit breaker is to extinguish the arc within
the shortest possible time so that heat generated by it may not reach a dangerous value.

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ARC PHENOMENON:

• When a short-circuit occurs, a heavy current flows through the contacts of the ‘circuit
breaker, before they are opened by the protective system. At the instant when the contacts
begin to separate, the contact area decreases rapidly and large fault current causes increased
current density and hence rise in temperature.
• The heat produced in the medium between contacts (usually the medium is oil or air) is
sufficient to ionise the air or vapourise and ionise the oil. The ionised air or vapour acts as
conductor and an arc is struck between the contacts. The p.d. between the contacts is quite
small and is just sufficient to maintain the arc. The arc provides a low resistance path and
consequently the current in the circuit remains uninterrupted so long as the arc persists.

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ARC PHENOMENON:

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ARC PHENOMENON:
During the arcing period, the current flowing between the contacts depends upon the arc resistance. The
greater the arc resistance, the smaller the current that flows between the contacts. The arc resistance
depends upon the following factors :

Degree of ionisation – the arc resistance increases with the decrease in the number of ionised
particles between the contacts.

Length of the arc – the arc resistance increases with the length of the arc i.e., separation of contacts.

Cross-section of arc – the arc resistance increases with the decrease in area of X-section of the arc.

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PRINCIPLES OF ARC EXTINCTION:
Before discussing the methods of arc extinction, it is necessary to examine the factors responsible for the
maintenance of arc between the contacts. These are :

• p.d. between the contacts

• ionised particles between contacts

• When the contacts have a small separation, the p.d. between them is sufficient to maintain the arc. One way to
extinguish the arc is to separate the contacts to such a distance that p.d. becomes inadequate to maintain the arc.
However, this method is impracticable in high voltage system where a separation of many metres may be
required.
• The ionised particles between the contacts tend to maintain the arc. If the arc path is deionised, the arc extinction
will be facilitated. This may be achieved by cooling the arc or by bodily removing the ionised particles from the
space between the contacts.

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METHODS OF ARC EXTINCTION:
• Lengthening the arc: The resistance of the arc is directly proportional to its length. The length of the arc can be
increased by increasing the gap between contacts.
• Cooling the arc: Cooling helps in the deionisation of the medium between the contacts. This increases the arc
resistance. Efficient cooling may be obtained by a gas blast directed along the arc.
• Reducing X-section of the arc: If the area of X-section of the arc is reduced, the voltage necessary to maintain
the arc is increased. In other words, the resistance of the arc path is The cross-section of the arc can be reduced
by letting the arc pass through a narrow opening or by having smaller area of contacts.
• Splitting the arc: The resistance of the arc can be increased by splitting the arc into a number of smaller arcs in
series. Each one of these arcs experiences the effect of lengthening and cooling. The arc may be split by
introducing some conducting plates between the

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LOW RESISTANCE OR CURRENT ZERO METHOD:
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 inspite of the
rising voltage across the contacts. All modern high power a.c. circuit breakers employ this method for arc
extinction.

In an a.c. system, current drops to zero after every half-cycle. At every current zero, the arc extinguishes for a brief
moment. Now the medium between the contacts contains ions and electrons so that it has small dielectric strength
and can be easily broken down by the rising contact voltage known as restriking voltage. If such a breakdown does
occur, the arc will persist for another half-cycle. If immediately after current zero, the dielectric strength of the
medium between contacts is built up more rapidly than the voltage across the contacts, the arc fails to restrike and
the current will be interrupted. The rapid increase of dielectric strength of the medium near current zero can be
achieved by :

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IMPORTANT POINTS TO BE REMEMBER:
1. Arc voltage: It is the voltage that appears across the contacts of the circuit breaker during the
arcing period.
As soon as the contacts of the circuit breaker separate, an arc is formed. The voltage that appears
across the contacts during arcing period is called the arc voltage. Its value is low except for the
‘period the fault current is at or near zero current point.

2. Restriking Voltage: It is the transient voltage that appears across the contacts at or near current
zero during arcing period.

3.Recovery voltage: It is the normal frequency (50 Hz) r.m.s. voltage that appears across the
contacts of the circuit breaker after final arc extinction. It is approximately equal to the system
voltage.

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INITIATION, MAINTENANCE AND INTERRUPTION OF ARC.
• The electric arc is a type of electric discharge between the contacts of the circuit
breaker. Arc plays an important role in the behavior of an electric circuit breaker. A
circuit breaker should be capable of extinguishing the arc without getting damaged.
• As the contacts of a circuit breaker begin to separate, the voltage is appreciable and
the distance of separation is very small. Therefore, a large voltage gradient occurs at
the contact surface. When the voltage gradient attains a sufficiently high value (10^6
V/cm) electrons are dragged out of the surface causing ionization of the particles
between the contacts. The emission of electrons because of the high value of voltage
gradient is known as field emission.

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INITIATION, MAINTENANCE AND INTERRUPTION OF ARC.
• Although this high voltage gradient exist only for a fraction of micro-seconds, but a large
number of electrons are liberated from the cathode because of this.
• These electrons move towards the positive contact i.e. anode at a very rapid pace. On their
way to anode, these electrons collide with the atoms and molecules of the gases and vapour
existing between the contacts. Hence, each liberated electron tends to create other electrons.
If the current is high, which is certainly in case of an electric fault, the discharge attains the
form of an arc.
• The temperature of arc is high enough and causes thermal ionization. The liberation of
electrons because of high temperature is called thermal emission. Thus, in an electric circuit
breaker, an arc is initiated because of field emission but is maintained due to thermal
ionization.
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THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN AC AND DC CIRCUIT BREAKERS.
• The main difference between DC circuit breakers and AC circuit breakers is the ability
to de-energize.
• As the difference of the arcing and arc extinguishing process between Ac and DC
circuit breaker, the same rating of the AC and DC circuit breaker is not exactly the same
ability to turn on and off the DC power supply, the use of AC circuit breakers instead of
DC circuit breakers or AC and DC circuit breakers mixed is one of the main reasons for
the protection of cross-level misoperation.

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THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN AC AND DC CIRCUIT BREAKERS.

Because AC has a zero-crossing point at every cycle, it is easy to extinguish the arc
at the crossing point, while the DC switch does not have a zero-crossing point, the
ability to extinguish the arc is very poor, so it is necessary to add an additional arc
extinguishing device. In short, DC is difficult to extinguish the arc, while AC is easy
to extinguish the arc with an overshoot of zero.

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THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN AC AND DC CIRCUIT BREAKERS.

• The different number of main contacts, two for DC and three for AC.
• The structure of the arc extinguishing device is different between the main contact of DC
and AC electrical appliances, the DC contact arc extinguishing structure is mainly magnetic
blowing type, the AC contact arc extinguishing structure is mainly grid type.
• Generally, the same grade DC open can be used temporarily for AC occasions, but the AC
open should not be used casually for DC occasions, a short circuit is likely to produce larger
sparks. So when we don't have an AC circuit breaker on hand, we can use a DC circuit
breaker to temporarily fill the gap, but we can't always use it, because the DC kairos ability
requires high.

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RESTRIKING VOLTAGE
• Restriking voltage is the transient voltage appearing across the breaker contacts
immediately after the opening of breaker contacts. also called Transient Recovery
Voltage.
• When the current across the contact of the circuit breaker is zero, a high-frequency
transient voltage develops in the whole breaker contact and is produced by the
sudden distribution of energy between the electric and magnetic field. This transient
voltage is called restriking voltage.
• The voltage appears across the breaker contacts at the moment of final current has a
serious influence on the arc extinction process. Under the influence of this voltage,
the arc tries to restrike and hence it is named as the restriking voltage.
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 CALCULATION OF RESTRIKING VOLTAGE

Assumptions
• Current interruption is assumed to be taking place at natural current zero.
• Assumed the whole is system is lossless.
• The fault does not involve any arcing. Example, the fault is solid one.

I(f) = Fault Current

V(s) = Supply Voltage
Z(s) = System Impedance as seen from CB contacts

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CALCULATION OF RESTRIKING VOLTAGE

Hence,
V(s) = I(f)Z(s) ………….(1)

V(s) = Vm /s and
Impedance is mainly offered by inductance, this means Z(s) = Ls

Thus from (1),

Vm/s = I(f)Z(s)
I(f) = Vm / Ls2 ………..(2)

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CALCULATION OF RESTRIKING VOLTAGE

Z(s) = [(Ls)(1 / Cs)] / [Ls + 1/Cs]

= Ls / [Ls + 1/Cs]
= (s / C) / [s2 + 1/LC]

V(s) = Voltage across CB contact immediately after opening

= Restriking Voltage
= Transient Recovery Voltage
= I(f)Z(s)
= [(Vm/s)(1/sL) (s / C)] / [s2 + 1/LC]
= Vm [1/s – s / (s2 + 1/LC)]

Taking inverse laplace transform, we get

v(t) = Vm[1 – cosω0t] ………(3)

where ω0 = 1 / √LC and hence f0 = (1/2π√LC)

where f0 is the natural frequency of oscillation.

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RECOVERY VOLTAGE:
• Recovery Voltage – While closing or opening the circuit breaker, the circuit constants play
an important role. It was noticed in practice a circuit breaker that would operate
satisfactorily at one point on a system may not do so at another, showing that the circuit
conditions have some influence on the circuit breaker behavior.

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RECOVERY VOLTAGE:
The transients resulting from switching are caused by
residual energy (either electric or electromagnetic or
both), i.e. energy stored in capacitance C or inductance L
or both, when it undergoes a change from one steady
state to another owing to interruption of circuit.

Recovery voltage: It is defined as the normal frequency

rms voltage appearing between the poles of the circuit
breaker after final arc extinction.

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RECOVERY VOLTAGE:

The RRRV is defined as the slope of the steepest tangent to the restriking voltage curve. It is expressed in
volts per microsecond. For a restriking voltage having a single frequency transient component the RRRV is
obtained by dividing the maximum amplitude of the oscillation by the duration of the first half wave. Higher
values of natural frequencies can be related with higher rates of Characteristics of Rate of Rise of Restriking
Voltage. It is clear that other things being equal, the duty of a circuit breaker is much more severe when used
in a-network of high natural frequency, than on a. network having low natural frequency because the average
RRRV is very much greater in the first case. In the latter case the voltage across the contacts of the circuit
breaker rises slowly thereby giving longer time for building up of the dielectric strength.

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RECOVERY VOLTAGE:

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RECOVERY VOLTAGE:

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RECOVERY VOLTAGE:

• A 50HZ 13.8 KV ,3 PHASE GENERATOR WITH GROUDED NEUTRAL HAS

AN INDUCTANCE OF 15mh/phase and is connected to the bus bar through
a circuit breaker. The capacitance to earth between the generator and the
circuit breaker is 0.05micro farads
• Determine the following 1.Maximum restriking voltage 2.time for
maximum restriking voltage 3.frequency of oscillations

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RECOVERY VOLTAGE:

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RECOVERY VOLTAGE:

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INTERRUPTION OF CAPACITIVE CURRENT

• Circuit breakers operates at current zero, i.e. in a sine wave current goes to zero value in every
half cycle, and at that point circuit breaker opens to clear the fault.
• Now, in case of resestive load, voltage and current are in phase, i.e. at current zero voltage is
also zero. So, while opening the contacts in case of resistive load, only system voltage appears
across circuit breaker’s contact, and this voltage is not sufficient to create the arc again. And
hence, resistive loads are easy to interrupt.
• But, in case of capacitive load (like capacitor banks), voltage and current are not in phase with
each other. And hence, voltage will be of maximum value at current zero, and this could result
in voltage of value 2.0 pu across the breaker contacts while interrupting the fault current.

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INTERRUPTION OF CAPACITIVE CURRENT

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INTERRUPTION OF CAPACITIVE CURRENT

• This high value of voltage can cause arc to re-strike, and that’s why interrupting
capacitive load is more difficult.
• And this is nothing but the capacitive current breaking. Switching a single capacitor bank
or back to back switching of capacitor banks, or cable charging can cause the capacitive
currents.

IEC 62271–100 states that circuit breaker should also have capacity to break these capacitive
currents.
For circuit breaker of voltage rating of 145 kV capacitiv current breaking is 400A as
specified by IEC62271–100.

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CURRENT CHOPPING

• Current Chopping in circuit breaker is defined as a phenomena in which current is forcibly

interrupted before the natural current zero.
• Current Chopping is mainly observed in Vacuum Circuit Breaker and Air Blast Circuit
Breaker. There is no such phenomena in Oil Circuit Breaker.
• Current chopping is predominant while switching Shunt Reactor or unloaded Transformer.

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THEORY OF CURRENT CHOPPING

Generally the arc extinction in a circuit breaker take place at natural current zero. But this is
true if the capacity of the breaker to extinguish the arc is varies with the level of fault current.
This means that, the arc extinction capability of breaker will always ensure that arc extinction is
taking place at natural current zero.

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THEORY OF CURRENT CHOPPING

We know that shunt reactor always takes magnetizing current. This magnetizing current is, of
course, low. Under normal condition, the current flowing through the reactor is I (say) and
hence the stored magnetic energy in it is (LI2 / 2). But as soon as the breaker is open, current
chopping will take place and the current through the reactor becomes zero. Due to this sudden
drop of current through the inductor, a high voltage will be developed across it according to
Faraday’s Law. Therefore, the voltage across the capacitor will also rise. Now, the question
arises, where did the store energy of reactor go?

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THEORY OF CURRENT CHOPPING

The stored energy in the inductance of reactor is basically transferred to the capacitor.
Therefore mathematically we can write as

LI2 / 2 = CV2 / 2

Here V = Voltage across the capacitor

Thus, V = I √(L/C)

This is the prospective voltage across the capacitor during current chopping. Notice that this
prospective voltage is above the natural voltage of the system. This means that there will be a high
voltage stress on the shunt reactor during current chopping. Note that the prospective voltage V is
directly proportional to the value of current chopped and the surge impedance of the reactor.

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THEORY OF CURRENT CHOPPING

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WHAT IS SWITCHGEAR?

Definition: A device that is used to switch, control and protect the circuits as well as devices.
This is anxious about switching as well as interrupting currents under different operating
conditions like normal or abnormal. In an electric power system, it is an arrangement of
electrical disconnect switches, circuit breakers, fuses which are used to protect, control &
separate electrical device. The switchgear diagram is shown below.

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FEATURES OF SWITCHGEAR

The main features of this include the following.

• Manual control provision

• Fast operation
• Completely certain discrimination
• Entire Reliability

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WORKING

Switchgear includes switching & protecting devices like fuses, switches, relays, circuit
breakers, etc. This device allows operating devices like electrical equipment, generators,
distributors, transmission lines, etc. Once the short circuit occurs within the power system,
then a huge current will flow through the devices. So that the equipment can be damaged &
the interruption will occur to the operators. To overcome this problem, it is used to detect
the fault in the power system. In this way, this is works to protect the equipment from the
damage.

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COMPONENTS OF SWITCHGEAR

• It includes two components namely power conducting and control systems. The
components of power conducting include fuses, switches, circuit breakers, lightning
arrestors which are used for interrupting the flow of electric power.
• Control systems like control panels, transformers like potential, current protective relays &
connected circuitry that controls, monitors & protect the components of power
conducting.

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FUNCTIONS OF SWITCHGEAR

The main functions of this equipment include the following.

• It protects the equipment from short-circuits & fault currents.

• This device gives isolation to the circuits from power supplies.
• It increases the availability of the system by allowing more than one source to feed a
load.
• It can open & close the electrical circuits under the conditions of normal & abnormal.
• In normal conditions, it can operate manually so it ensures the safety of the operator &
also proper electrical energy utilization.
• In abnormal conditions, it operates mechanically. Once a fault happens this device
detects the fault & detaches the damaged part in the power system. So it protects the
power system from damage.

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Thank You