Have you ever wondered what causes power to go out for a few seconds? There is a saying that, good with good and bad with bad. Electricity maintains this law. This electricity for the welfare of the people but if you can’t control this electricity tragedy can be happened.
The Zoo and Switchgear System
Let us assume, you have come to visit the zoo situated at Mirpur. There you saw that people are being entertained just by seeing the lion inside the cage. You on the other hand are no different. You are also watching the wildest animals and having joy in the process. Now, if we consider that the wild animals are not caged or are free to move around, then what would be the state of all the visitors be?
The animals are inside a cage. So you can enjoy the zoo without any risk. In the same way, for the protection from the electricity some controlling and protective devices are used. These give you safety. As a result, People of the houses with proper switchgear systems can have a calm night’s sleep.
The Switchgear Protection System for realizing the fact
In a power system, the importance of controlling and protective devices is immense. This topic has given the whole concept of “Switchgear and protection”. In order to maintain the whole power system, the switchgear system is established with well planning. Circuit breaker, surge arrester, lightning arrester, auto-recloser, fuse, relay, isolator, alarm circuit with relay, different types of switch these are the devices that ensure your safety from electricity and gives guarantee of its maintenance.
As a result, these are in all the corners of your house. Not only in your house but also they are an important part of the power generation system, transmission system and distribution system. On a whole, they are part & parcel of the whole power system. The protective devices are the safeguards of our house and the controlling devices are slaves of command.
The Controlling and Protection System
The controlling device helps in the process of turning the line on or off. Again, the protective device instantly disconnects the line if there is any fault in the whole system (overload, short circuit, etc.). As a result, if there is any fault in the system, the circuit breaker automatically disconnects the line. In this process, the relay helps the circuit breaker. If there is any fault in the system, it is the main function of the relay to find out the problem in the system. Just after finding out the problem, the relay immediately informs the circuit breaker to disconnect the line. Sometimes, you might have noticed that there is an alarm circuit connected with the relay. This relay awakens the alarm circuit immediately after finding out the problem.
How auto-recloser plays role in detecting transient fault behind the fact
The protective devices are available throughout the whole electric line system. These protective devices remove the faulty parts from the good parts. This is kind of like a tumor operation. Thunder provides surge voltage. The lightning arrester protects the expensive equipments of the power system from the surge voltage. In order to protect the transformer from any faults, the usage of the Buchholz relay is inevitable. In order to protect the distribution transformer, we tend to use the drop out fuse. To analyze the current & voltage of high voltage line the instrument transformer CT and PT is crying need.
And, their other partner is Auto-recloser. Now, because of this auto-recloser, the electricity goes out for a minute and again comes back. I could’ve very easily told that auto-recloser is responsible for the irregularities of the electricity. But, I chose to tell you about all the switchgear system in brief. This enables you to deeply understand the whole concept.
Why auto-recloser is used?
In the generation and supply of electricity, most of the fault of the overhead transmission is transient type.
What do you mean by transient fault?
In the power system, the transient fault is the type of fault that takes place for a short amount of time.
Suppose, you have an exam tomorrow. You are studying with a lot of concentration on your reading table. Stormy winds are blowing outside. Suddenly, you heard a thunderstrike and then immediately the power is cut off. Within a few minutes, the power came back also. Actually, what is happened here? Usually, Tension in the power line due to thunder strike, birds, trees, etc can immediately cure itself.
Because, the transient type of faults can very easily be handled by auto recloser. They most of the time cure themselves. In this case, if a general circuit breaker is used, the moment a fault is detected, the system trips and can very easily recover itself. But, in order to initiate the system again, there is a need for external help. As a result, the use of auto-recloser is only to overcome this delay. This provides the certainty of the continuous flow of electricity.
The working procedure of the auto-recloser
You need to know about auto-recloser before learning about what causes power to go out for a few seconds? Auto-recloser is like the people with the presence of mind. They can very easily solve any kind of problem or fault in quite the considerable amount of time. But, in this case, if the person can’t solve the problem after trying a couple of times, then that person loses interest to do the job again. In the same manner, the auto-recloser in some amount of time ( 0.3 seconds ) solves the problem and restarts the system.
But, just like the person, after trying 3 times to solves the problem, if the fault still persists then the auto-recloser doesn’t reconnect the system. Then, it is told that a big fault is detected and now, extra manpower is required to solve the problem. During this time, in the presence of an expert, the installation of a circuit breaker takes place. But keep one thing in that this process doesn’t take much time and thus, it doesn’t come in the vision of the general people. Mainly, its use is extensive for Grameen supply or in L.T line. Usually, there are the use of two types of reclosing, single-phase auto-reclosing and, three-phase auto-reclosing.
Check more articles:
