A study on Protective Coordination of MCA for Performing of the Pad Mounted Transformer's inside Protective Device

지상변압기의 내부 보호장비 작동을 위한 MCA 보호협조에 대한 연구

KEPCO's plan is undergoing a trial operation to replace the open-loop section with ring main units configuration where underground distribution lines are installed, by linking the multi-way circuit breakers auto (MCA) on the power side of each pad-mounted transformer. However, ring main units application mentioned above may cause the ripple effects, when implementing the configuration without a study of protection coordination. Because ring main units with classical pre-set protection devices contribution in fault condition didn't consider yet. For the reliable ring main units operation, it is necessary to resolve several protection issues such as the protection coordination with substation side, prevention of the transformer inrush current. These issues can radically deteriorate the distribution system reliability Hence, it is essential to design proper protection coordination to reduce these types of problems. This paper presents a scheme of ring main units' configuration and MCA's settings of time-current curves to preserve the performance of protection coordination among the switchgears considering constraints, e.g. prevention of the ripple effects (on the branch section when a transformer failure occurs and the mainline when a branch line failure occurs). It was confirmed that the propagation of the failure for each interrupter segment could be minimized by applying the proposed TCC and the interrupter settings for the MCAs (branch, transformer). Further, it was verified that the undetected area of the distribution automation system (DAS) could be supplemented by having the MCA configurated ring main units operate first, instead of the internal protection equipment in the transformer such as the fuse, STP when a transformer failure occurs.