A GENUINE

ALL-ROUNDER
DATA

PD

46
Testing medium-voltage switchgear requires a broad
range of expertise
Like their testers, medium-voltage influence on its design. When space is standards that dictate the functional,
switchgear are genuine all-rounders. limited, a system with insulating gases quality and safety requirements. One
They operate across a wide voltage is usually used, whereby the insulating of the consequences of applying these
range from 1 kV to over 36 kV and under gas SF6 has been the most frequently standards is having to make sure that
varied ambient conditions and they used to date. However, due to the installations are as safe as they can
must also guarantee a reliable supply of problematic greenhouse effect of SF6, be and that it is becoming easier to
energy to regions, cities, communities more and more manufacturers are now compare them with each other.
and industrial facilities. Numerous fac- offering alternative insulating gases.
tors, which are outlined below have to In the meantime, fully encapsulated
be taken into account during the plan- The environmental conditions can be switchgear have become the industry
ning, operation and testing of these a serious challenge for the operation standard for medium-voltage installa-
installations. This article also describes of switchgear: In a paper mill, for tions, as they offer the highest level of
some appropriate testing solutions. example, the ambient air may become protection for personnel and equip-
enriched with harmful and corrosive ment in the event of an arcing fault.
What are the factors that dictate substances. Extremely high levels of However, gas-insulated switchgear
the design? dust can be present in mines and there have a distinct disadvantage com-
The voltage level and short-circuit re- may be extremely wide fluctuations pared with open air-insulated ones:
sistance play a major role in the design between summer and winter tempera- As the equipment is located in an
of a medium-voltage installation. For tures in a secondary distribution insulated gas compartment, it is very
example, an installation with a short- substation. Depending on the location difficult to access.
circuit resistance of 50 kA in a power of the switchgear, cubicle divisions and
plant will differ significantly from a adequate space for final assembly will In open-style systems, plasterboard
16 kA installation in an urban network. need to be planned well in advance. partitions are oftentimes used for bay
compartmentalization. Although this
As the switching frequency of break- standards and safety makes the equipment more accessible,
ers will also vary strongly depending Medium-voltage switchgear is sub- it is only possible to carry out work
on the application, stress levels will ject to mandatory regulations and on an operational installation if strict
likewise differ accordingly: A breaker
in an industrial installation may trip
several times a day, whereas a feeder
in an urban distribution network may
only be operated a few times over the «The solutions chosen for
span of several decades. Depending on
the maximum load current, the current switchgear testing should be
carrying capacity of all the assets
such as the busbars, must always be safe, reliable and commer-
carefully considered.
cially viable.»
The location and ambient conditions
of an installation also have a huge

Magazine | Issue 2 2019 47

 safety measures are observed. In addi-
tion, any uncontrolled arcing faults in
an open system will frequently affect
other areas of the installation.

Operating equipment in interaction

For the proper functioning of a
medium-voltage switchgear, the tasks
of all equipment must be closely inter-
linked: Current and voltage transform-
ers provide the values for the secondary
equipment, meters count the amount
of transmitted electrical energy and
protection devices validate the mea-
sured data with the parameterized
values to be able to react immediately
in the event of a fault. Various switch-
ing scenarios are handled by disconnec-
tors, breakers and grounding switches.
Modern process control systems allow
all the process data to be visualized and
several switchgear can be controlled
from a central control room.

The operator as an all-rounder

Operators of medium-voltage switch-
gear must ensure that all the equip-
ment is working properly and interact-
ing as expected. This is tested during
factory acceptance and on-site com-
missioning. But even in installations
that are already up and running it must
be continuously ensured that all system
components work correctly despite
«Operators of medium-voltage aging and external disturbances. This
is where the switchgear operator (or
switchgear must ensure the relevant service provider) should
have extensive experience with

that all of the equipment various pieces of equipment, as testing

frequently requires a technical inter-

is working properly and

pretation of the results.

interacting as expected.»
48
secondary testing solutions for the CMControl P front control unit or Primary testing solutions for
medium-voltage switchgear software running on a Windows PC medium-voltage switchgear
The solutions chosen for switchgear or Android tablet. A complete functional test can be
testing should be safe, reliable and carried out on a switchgear as part of
commercially viable. Therefore, we In industry facility often, a large the factory acceptance test or it can
have developed an array of testing number of protective devices needs be done in stages during the commis-
solutions that are capable of satisfying to be tested periodically. Therefore, sioning process. Commissioning is also
various demands and requirements. Test Universe software package fea- the ideal time to carry out a partial
turing the OMICRON Control Center discharge measurement using the
The single-phase COMPANO 100 (OCC) is the right tool of choice. MPD 600 test system in order to make
test set is particularly suitable for sure that the stipulated thresholds
manual testing secondary distribution The investment that goes into creating values are being observed. The result-
substations and industrial facilities. a meaningful test plan pays for itself ing values can be used as a reference
This battery-powered device, which very quickly. For example, Test Universe later on in order to assess the effects
weighs less than 10 kg, is extremely and a CMC 356 can be used to carry of aging on the isolation.
portable and ideal for wiring tests and out extensive automated, in-depth
verifying current transformer ratios. testing at high power levels. This assessment of the installation’s
Operation is carried out directly in the present condition, its reliability, the
device without the need for a separate For determining short-circuit and load aging process and its risk of failure are
software and everything is straight- flow characteristics there is a wide all addressed again during repeated
forward and intuitive. range of user-unfriendly network tests. Ideally, the engineers should be
calculation programs out there. With able to refer back to the measurement
The CT Analyzer, which is specialized our RelaySimTest testing software, we results that were observed during com-
in testing current transformers, checks have adopted an alternative system- missioning. For example, when testing
the standard compliance of current based approach for testing the correct a circuit breaker, the manufacturer’s
transformers across the entire operat- response of the protection system test report can be used to compare
ing range. Therefore, it is even able and the logic as a whole. For example, the original switching times with the
to verify if the current transformer is the intuitive network editor and most recent values measured by the
sending correct values to the protec- the advanced simulation work like a CIBANO 500 test set.
tion system in case of a fault. The “pocket calculator” for quickly calculat-
measuring data that is received can be ing short-circuit currents. The values The Primary Test Manager TM (PTM)
used to carry out simulations with the that are derived from this can then be software is very useful for document-
system-based software RelaySimTest. output directly via a CMC test set. With ing the measured values obtained
For example, whenever a retrofit for this method, medium-voltage protec- from all primary assets (instrument
the protection takes place. tion functions such as ground-fault transformers, circuit breakers, power
protection in insulated or compen- transformers, grounding systems,
The three-phase CMC 310 protection sated networks can be carried out in etc.) and analyzing any changes. All
test set is especially suitable for simple a much easier way. For more complex measurements are stored in a data-
manual tests, e. g., of overcurrent or applications, e. g., distributed differ- base, from where they can be retrieved
mains-decoupling protection relays. ential protection, several CMCs can for comparison purposes and checked
The test set is controlled either from be controlled simultaneously. according to IEEE and IEC standards.

Magazine | Issue 2 2019 49

«Switchgear operators should have extensive
experience with various pieces of equipment,
as testing frequently requires a technical
interpretation of the results.»

This way it is easier to spot any measurements. It can also perform important. When testing IEC 61850
anomalies and implement appropri- grounding system measurements installations, existing CMC test sets
ate counter measures. and test the entire protection chain can be further used with the rel-
with primary injection. Like many of evant software tools in Test Universe
The best way of system-testing a our test sets, the CPC 100 can also or RelaySimTest. We have developed
switchgear is a primary injection. output saw-tooth signals. It can be our new StationScout testing solu-
Currents or voltages are applied combined with the CPOL2 polarity tion for the efficient verification of
to the primary equipment, such checker for wiring tests. control system configurations. Trou-
as busbars, instrument transform- bleshooting and network analysis is
ers or circuit breakers to test Digitizing substations now a simple matter with the hybrid
their functionality. The IEC 61850 standard has set a DANEO 400 signal analyzer.
“new” communications standard for
The compact, multi-functional substations. It encourages power In addition to our proven testing
CPC 100 primary testing system gen- grids to be digitized, which means solutions, we offer professional
erates high voltages and currents for having knowledge of network training courses that cover a
measuring the insulation condition, technology and the engineering wide range of testing topics such
verifying the instrument transformer involved in protection and control as IEC 61850.
ratio and carrying out µ-ohm systems are becoming ever more

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