may be slower than would normally be expected. The Total Current Accumulator (I^ counter) cumulatively stores
the total value of the current broken by the circuit breaker providing a more accurate assessment of the circuit
breaker condition.
The dielectric withstand of the oil generally decreases as a function of I
2
t, where ‘I’ is the broken fault current and
‘t’ is the arcing time within the interrupter tank. The arcing time cannot be determined accurately, but is generally
dependent on the type of circuit breaker being used. Instead, you set a factor (Broken I^) with a value between 1
and 2, depending on the circuit breaker.
Most circuit breakers would have this value set to '2', but for some types of circuit breaker, especially those
operating on higher voltage systems, a value of 2 may be too high. In such applications Broken I^ may be set
lower, typically 1.4 or 1.5.
The setting range for Broken I^ is variable between 1.0 and 2.0 in 0.1 steps.
Note:
Any maintenance program must be fully compliant with the switchgear manufacturer’s instructions.
5.8.2
SETTING THE THRESHOLDS FOR THE NUMBER OF OPERATIONS
Every circuit breaker operation results in some degree of wear for its components. Therefore routine maintenance,
such as oiling of mechanisms, may be based on the number of operations. Suitable setting of the maintenance
threshold will allow an alarm to be raised, indicating when preventative maintenance is due. Should maintenance
not be carried out, the device can be set to lockout the autoreclose function on reaching a second operations
threshold (No. CB ops Lock). This prevents further reclosure when the circuit breaker has not been maintained to
the standard demanded by the switchgear manufacturer’s maintenance instructions.
Some circuit breakers, such as oil circuit breakers (OCBs) can only perform a certain number of fault interruptions
before requiring maintenance attention. This is because each fault interruption causes carbonising of the oil,
degrading its dielectric properties. The maintenance alarm threshold (setting No. CB Ops Maint) may be set to
indicate the requirement for oil dielectric testing, or for more comprehensive maintenance. Again, the lockout
threshold No. CB Ops Lock may be set to disable autoreclosure when repeated further fault interruptions could
not be guaranteed. This minimises the risk of oil fires or explosion.
5.8.3
SETTING THE THRESHOLDS FOR THE OPERATING TIME
Slow CB operation indicates the need for mechanism maintenance. Alarm and lockout thresholds (CB Time Maint
and CB Time Lockout) are provided to enforce this. They can be set in the range of 5 to 500 ms. This time relates to
the interrupting time of the circuit breaker.
5.8.4
SETTING THE THRESHOLDS FOR EXCESSSIVE FAULT FREQUENCY
Persistent faults will generally cause autoreclose lockout, with subsequent maintenance attention. Intermittent
faults such as clashing vegetation may repeat outside of any reclaim time, and the common cause might never be
investigated. For this reason it is possible to set a frequent operations counter, which allows the number of
operations Fault Freq Count over a set time period Fault Freq Time to be monitored. A separate alarm and lockout
threshold can be set.
Chapter 17 - Monitoring and Control P543i/P545i
442 P54x1i-TM-EN-1
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