21, rue d'Artois, F-75008 Paris

http://www.cigre.org 13-203 Session 2002

© CIGRÉ

Motor Drive with Electronic Control for HVAC Circuit-Breakers

A Bosma∗
(Sweden)
Franz-Josef Koerber Roberto Cameroni Richard Thomas
(Germany) (Italy) (Sweden)
ABB Power Technology Products

1 Introduction endurance testing and field experience have

all contributed to raising the performance level
The development of transmission circuit- of circuit -breaker drives. Nevertheless, ever-
breakers is most often described in terms of increasing demands for power system
the evolution of interrupter technologies and availability require that equipment availability
the insulating media they employ. The 1950’s be continually improved. Currently, there is
to 1970’s were dominated by minimum oil and greater focus on increasing the functionality of
air-blast designs. During the 1970’s, sulphur power system apparatus to improve electrical
hexafluoride (SF6 ) gas interrupt ers continued a power quality and facilitate better system asset
trend of providing higher ratings per management. Unfortunately, conventional
interrupter, thus simplifying the construction of mechanical drives are inherently limited in
the main circuit of circuit -breakers. their functional flexibility.

Over the last twenty-five years, substantial In order to overcome the limitations of
progress has been made in increasing the conventional dri ves and meet current and
reliability and reducing the maintenance future functionality demands, it is necessary to
requirements of SF6 circuit -breakers. The most employ new principles. Now a new operating
successful approaches in these respects have mechanism technology, “Motor Drive”, has
focussed on modular designs which reduce the been developed; built on collective experience
number of components in the interrupter [1]. and intended for application on live tank, dead
tank, PASS (Plug and Switch System), GIS
In contrast to the major leaps in performance and generator circuit -breaker applications.
made in interrupter technologies, circuit- This new technology, based on an electrical
breaker operating mechanism (or drive) system design, offers additional benefits and
designs have seen less dramatic development functional possibilities compared with
in core functional performance during the past conventional operating mechanisms.
fifty years. There have been major differences
in the type of operating principles applied (i.e. This paper briefly discusses the benefits and
pneumatic, hydraulic and spring), but while limitations of conventional circuit-breaker
there may appear to be wide range in these drives and introduces the design of the new
traditional techniques, they all share a “Motor Drive” operating mechanism, including
common basis in being relatively complex its features and the testing performed to prove
mechanical designs and essentially only its capabilities.
perform the core functions of closing and
opening the circuit -breaker. 2 Keywords

From a statistical point of view, most major Operating mechanism – Motor drive – Circuit-
and minor circuit -breaker failures can be Breaker.
traced to the operating mechanism [2].
Modular design, extended mechanical

———————
∗ Dept. High Voltage Products, 771 80 Ludvika, Sweden
3 Current Technology Following the CIGRE second international
enquiry on t he reliability of high-voltage circuit-
As outlined above, circuit -breaker drives in use breakers [2], spring drives have gained
today are of the conventional, mechanical increasing acceptance as the most reliable
designs using spring, hydraulic or pneumatic form of operating mechanism. Major failure
technologies. rates on spring operated circuit -breakers are
Pneumatic drives arose largely as a direct extremely low, typically less than 0.3% per 100
result of the application of air-blast interrupter circuit-breaker years.
technology. Hydraulic drives were Today’s ’ conventional spring operating
implemented on minimum oil and early SF6 mechanisms are generally characterised by:
circuit-breakers. Spring drives have been used
throughout the history of transmission circuit- a) extended mechanical endurance
breakers, although their dominance as the capability of 10 000 no-load operations;
preferred type of operating mechanism design
arose fairly recently in conjunction with the b) over 30 year service life;
expanding application of SF6 interrupters. c ) operation in all environments;
While a range of mechanical drive solutions d) very low maintenance
exists, essentially all designs address the
same basic core functions required for the e) modular core designs
operation of a circuit -breaker. Five major core
functions can be identified when comparing Modular designs permit the employment of
both the conventional mechanical and the new common parts and allow one drive to be
electrical design solutions: adaptable to a broad range of applications. For
example, by changing on the strength of
a) Energy Charging – conversion of electrical number of springs in a spring drive, a single
to potential energy; drive can be used on a range of different
circuit-breakers.
b) Energy Storage / Buffering;
Spring drives have additional advantages due
c ) Energy Release – conversion of potential to the nature of their design. Because springs
energy to kinetic energy are unaffected by ambient conditions such as
d) Energy Transmission – to move the main changing temperature, they deliver consistent
contacts; operating energy. This is not the c ase of
hydraulic or pneumatic drives in which
e) Control & Signalling changes in fluid or gas viscosity can produce
inconsistency in energy delivered at different
The first four functions relate to the need to temperatures. Since the energy delivered by a
provide some form of operating energy to spring drive is so consistent, the operating
move the circuit -breaker contacts. The variety speeds of such drives are also very consistent,
of conventional drive designs largely arises making spring drives ideal of applications with
from different methods of addressing these controlled switching. It is advantages such as
first four functions. As the circuit -breaker forms these that have made all major manufacturers
an essential and integral part of the overall use spring drives on their SF 6 circuit -breakers.
power system control, there must also be a
reliable means of communication between the 3 . 2 Limitations of Conventional Operating
drive and the substation control and protection Mechani sms
system.
While conventional drive designs have worked
The total system must be highly reliable in well, they still have a number of inherent
order to support the core reliability of the limitations due to their highly mechanical
circuit-breaker. nature. These can be summarized as follows:

3 . 1 Benefits of Conventional Drives a) relatively high complexity;

While operating principles used in b) limitations on flexibility of interrupter

conventional mechanical drives have not motion for different switching applications;
evolved substantially over the past fifty years,
modern drives have been refined to a point c ) tendency towards operation that exposes
where they offer an acceptable level of parts to impact – usually requiring dampers
performance. to control the energy;

d) excessive operating energies;

e) high operating noise levels; 4 . 1 Motor and resolver

f) high, transient auxiliary power 4.1.1 Motor

requirements;
The motor replaces the traditional energy
g) limited scope for condition monitoring; transfer such as chains, hydraulic fluid,
compressed gas, valves and pipes.
4 Design of the Motor Drive
The motor is a three-phase brushless
To overcome the limitations of conventional synchronous motor with permanent magnet
drives, it is necessary to look towards a new rotor. The motor id specially adapted for its
technology that can not only provide the use as circuit -breaker actuator.
essential circuit-breaker drive functions, but
also provide a platform for more advanced
circuit-breaker applications. A solution to
achieving a better circuit -breaker drive can be
found by utilizing the benefits of today’s digital
technology coupled with the proven reliability
and simplicity of an electric motor. Motor Drive
has been designed to meet all the core
requirements of a transmission circuit-breaker
drive and offers many new advantages in
terms of performance and functionality.
Figure 2 – Motor with integrated resolver
The basic design of the Motor Drive is one in
The angle rotation is adapted to the type of
which a motor, controlled via electronics, is
circuit-breaker used and is not more than
used to directly drive the operating shaft of a
180°. Advantages of this limited rotation angle
circuit-breaker. The Motor Drive consists of a
are:
number of units. The motor id fed from an
energy buffer through a converter. The energy - optim al travel curve;
buffer is charged by a charging unit (the power
supply unit). Control of the speed and - eliminates the need for open/close
monitoring are facilitated by a microprocessor dampers (see 4.5);
based control unit. Access to the Motor Drive
is facilitated through an input/output (I/O) - easily adjusted to fit the specific circuit -
interface. Figure 1 shows how the different breaker.
units are connected. 4.1.2 Resolver

The motor is fitted with a resolve r , a device

that sends information about the rotor angle to
the control unit (see also 4.4).
4 . 2 Energy Buffer

Supplying the required current (several tens of

amperes) required for operation of the motor
could cause potential difficulties for the
substation power supply. Therefore, the Motor
Drive incorporated and energy buffer. The
energy buffer minimises the peak transient
drainage from the station batteries and/or a.c.
Figure 1 – Design of the Motor Drive supply during operation of the circuit -breaker.
Unit Core drive function It replaces the traditional energy storage units
such as springs or compressed gas.
Motor and resolver Energy transmission

Energy buffer Energy storage/buffering

The energy buffer consists of a bank of
electrolytic capacitors (see Figure 3). The
Converter unit Energy release number of capacitor units varies depending on
Control unit Energy release the application (e.g. three-pole or single pole
operated circuit-breaker).
Charging unit Energy charging
When fully discharged, it takes approximately
Input/output (I/O) unit Control and signalling 3 min to fully charge the capacitor bank
(depending on its size) and the current 4 . 4 Converter
drawing from the substation auxiliary supply
during charging is less than 2A, which is The converter transmits the energy from the
considerably less than that of a conventional capacitor bank to the motor. It converts the
drive system. stored d.c. voltage to a switched a.c. voltage.

The storage capacity of the capacitor bank is 4 . 5 Control Unit

sufficient for an O-0 . 3-CO or a CO-15sec -CO
The microprocessor-based control unit is the
operating cycle without need to recharge. In
brain of the drive. It collects data from the
Table 1 typical recharging times are given as a
function of various operating sequences. units indicated in Figure 1. Th e control unit is
fitted with an additional data storage device
Operation Time to recharge that contains data such as the circuit-breaker
travel curve and memory for historic
(s)
monitoring.
O 20
The control unit interfaces with the motor
C 15 through the resolver (see 4.1.2). The resolver
C- O 30
indicates the exact angular position of the
rotor. If the resolver indicates that the travel
O-0,3 s - CO 50 curve of the circuit-breaker is deviating from
the pre-programmed travel curve, the control
Table 1 – Typical Charging Times vs. unit will send a signal to the converter. The
Operations signal will result in modified a.c. supply to the
The voltage on the capacitor bank is monitored motor to correct the deviation. By using such a
for the purpose of operational interlocking. The feed-back control loop, it is ensured that the
continuous load drawing by the capacitor bank circuit-breaker always follows the required
and electronics (additional heaters excluded) travel curve.
is less than 100 W. Damping of the moving system is easily
In the case maintenance is required on the accomplished by reversing the current to the
circuit-breaker, the energy buffer can be motor. There is no need for additional
discharged through a resistor by turning a dampers.
discharge switch on the module. Monitoring of motor current, memory and
4 . 3 Charging Unit processor are an inherent part of the control
process.
The energy buffer is charged by a charging
unit. It has redundant power supply inputs. The The electronics and software of the Motor
main supply is a.c. to minimise loading on Drive are monitored continuously by a
substation batteries. Back -up supply is d.c. watchdog.
from the substation batteries. 4 . 6 Input/output (I/O) Unit
The charger switches automatically to the
The I/O unit is the link between the Motor
back -up supply and sends an alarm signal on
Drive and the user (see Figure 3).
supply failure. When main supply is restored, it
will automatically switch back to main supply.
In the unlikely event that all supplies are lost,
it is possible to perform a pre-programmed
opening operation, after which the circuit-
breaker is blocked from further operation.

When the circuit -breaker is operated, power is

drawn from the capacitor bank and its voltage
decreases. The power supply is activated and
the capacitor bank is recharged. The current
associated with charging is less than 2.0 A.
This means there are no current surges on the
a.c. and/or d.c. supply.

Figure 3 – I/O unit

The I/O unit sends monitoring signals (charge - temperature of the control unit;
level, charger supply status, watchdog, etc.)
from the Motor Drive to the user. Signals - watchdog status.
received from the control room (e.g. trip and
close) are sent from the I/O unit to the control
unit. SF6 monitoring is also connected to the Additional to the monitoring functions
I/O unit for purposes of blocking operation on described above, a further advanced feature is
low SF6 density. under development – “micromotion”. This
involves moving the rotor (and thus the circuit-
Other functions wired to the I/O unit include: breaker) a very mm back and forth in a few
m s , t o actively check the entire system from
- operating panel with local/remote switch, the I/O unit right through to the circuit-breaker
local open/close switch, indicating lamps, contact system. During this micromotion the
operation counter, etc.; circuit-breaker contacts never separate, so the
test may be done “on-line” without taking the
- auxiliary relays. The auxiliary contacts
circuit-breaker out -of-service. Such an
have been replaced by bistable relays, that
advanced dynamic test is not possible using
are activated once the rotor has reached a
conventional mechanical circuit -breaker drives.
specified angle (depending on whether
they are “a” or “b” contacts);
6 Field Experience – Circuit-Breakers
- dual trip input;
Equipped with Motor Drive
- dual close input;
The Motor Drive is being progressively
- continuous trip signal block. implemented on live tank, dead tank, PASS,
GIS and generator circuit -breaker applications.
5 Condition Monitoring To date (January 2002), the following circuit-
breakers fitted with Motor Drive have been
The Motor Drive collects and stores an installed and placed in active service:
extensive array of data that can be retrieved
via a modem connection. In its basic design, - a three-pole operated 145kV PASS M0 unit
the following information can be retrieved from in Italy (since July 2000);
the Motor Drive: - a three-pole operated 145kV live tank
- position indication (open or closed); circuit-breaker in Sweden (since November
2000);
- alarms;
- a single-pole operated capacitor bank live
- energy level; tank circuit -breaker with controlled
switching in Sweden (since October, 2001)
- internal failure;
- a single-pole operated capacitor bank live
- phase discrepancy detected (in case of tank circuit -breaker wit h controlled
single phase operation); switching in Australia (since November
,2001).
More advanced monitoring is possible by using
an optional HMI (Human Machine Interface), The above circuit -breakers are installed in
including: environments ranging from extreme cold (-50
°C) to tropical (+45 °C) and all have performed
- contact travel; reliably.

Figures 4a and 4b show two of the above field

- opening and closing times (measured from
inst allations with the motor (1) and central
command impulse to a defined resolver
electronics cubicle (2) indicated.
position);

- energy consumption during an operation;

- capacitor discharging characteristics;

- motor currents;
 - condition monitoring is inherently possible
without need of additional sensors

- platform for advanced on-line monitoring

(e.g. “microm otion”)

- serial communication port for external

monitoring surveillance

1 - no mechanical auxiliary contacts needed;

- low power demand, no high transient loads

2
- low mechanical stress and noise levels
Fig 4a: PASS M0 Fig 4b: LTB - modular des ign
3-pole operated 1-pole operated
The Motor Drive can easily be adapt ed for
with Motor Drive with Motor Drive special applications such as controlled
switching, where consistency of timing is
7 Tests essential. Another application is series
capacitor by -pass switches, that operate in
The Motor Drive has been subjected to reverse functions (clos ing is most important),
numerous tests to verify its performance. where short closing times are beneficial for the
Some of the tests performed include: whole series capacitor installation.

Motor Drive clearly presents a significant leap

- extensive EMC tests in accordance with forward in circuit -breaker development and
IEC 60694 [3] and IEC 60255 [4]. Beyond shall provide a reliable and flexible platform for
the EMC tests required by the standards, a use on all HV circuit -breaker applications.
capacitor bank inrush current switching
and shunt reactor switching tests were 9 References
performed. The latter two tests were used
to simulate actual field conditions; [1] BOSMA, A. and SCHREURS, E., Cost
optimisation versus function and reliability of
HVAC circuit -breakers, CIGRE session 200,
- extended mechanical endurance test on a
13-102
live tank circuit -breaker with Motor Dri ve
comprising 20 000 operations; [2] CIGRE Technical brochure 83: final report
of the second international enquiry on high-
- high and low temperature tests in voltage circuit -breaker failures and defects in
accordance with IEC 62271-100 [ 5] on a service, June 1994
live tank circuit -breaker with Motor Drive
[3] IEC 60694, 1995: Common specifications
from –50 °C to +70 °C;
for high-voltage switchgear and controlgear
standards
- making an breaking tests in accordance
with IEC 62271-100 [5] comprising test [4] IEC 60255: Electrical relays (in applicable
duties T100s, T100a. parts)
[5] IEC 62271-100, 2001: High-voltage
8 Conclusions switchgear and controlgear – Part 100: High-
voltage alternating current circuit -breakers
The Motor Drive offers a totally new and
versatile way to operate HV circuit -breakers
for all applications. It has the following
advantages :

- only one moving part, simple and reliable;

- optimal pre-programmed travel curve;

- contact travel is independent of ageing and

change in ambient temperature;