Considerations in applying power bus protection schemes to industrial and IPP systems

Increases in fault current levels and in-plant generation installations have necessitated further discussions on bus protection. This paper involves such discussions and deliberates the need for bus protection in medium-voltage systems. It discusses considerations for the applications of relay schemes and current transformers to present-day bus-bar protection. The importance of examining current transformer saturation is presented. Current transformers transient cases are introduced where computer simulation of the protection system is encouraged. The overall bus protection concept is presented from the perspectives of independent power producers and industrial system engineers. Actual cases for bus faults and bus protection schemes are referenced.