Basics of Power System Protection

Power system protection is an integral part of every power system. All power equipment including power generators, step-up transformers, step-down transformers, transmission lines, power capacitors, electric motors, other loads, etc needs protection. The necessity for protection is incurred by all kinds of contingencies such as equipment failure due to insulation deterioration, lightning strike, short-circuit by nature force or creature-made happenings, inappropriate operation of power system, and other inadvertent incidences. Some power equipment is very expensive such as MW generators which could cost millions of dollars. Furthermore, an outage due to the failure of the power system causes severe damage to the economy and inconvenience to people’s daily life. A properly designed protection can ensure power supply is cut to minimum users yet continue to supply power to other end users in the case that a fault occurs in the system. It is a sophisticated art that needs systematic study in order to master. All these calls for a new module for undergraduate students to learn in the field of power system protection.

Course Outcomes:

After the completion of this course the students will be able to:

 Understand the working of different types of switchgear equipment like circuit breakers

and relays.

 Design the ratings for CT & CB  according to the requirement

 Application of various protection schemes of various power system components like

alternators, transformers and bus-bars