ELECTRICAL

Experiment No: 01
Name of the Experiment: Interlocking Check between Circuit Breaker, Isolator & Earth-
Switch while opening and closing manually, under fault condition and during maintenance.
Theory:
The Circuit Breaker, Isolator and Earth Switch are critical for the operation, fault protection and
maintenance job because these device connects/disconnects power bus depending on different
situations. Operations of these devices follow a certain sequence to ensure safety which is known
as interlocking.

Isolator
Circuit breaker always trip the circuit but open contacts of breaker cannot be visible physically
from outside of the breaker and that is why it is recommended not to touch any electrical circuit
just by switching off the circuit breaker. So for better safety there must be some arrangement so
that one can see open condition of the section of the circuit before touching it. Isolator is a
mechanical switch which isolates a part of circuit from system as when required. Electrical
isolators separate a part of the system from rest for safe maintenance works. So definition of
isolator can be rewritten as Isolator is a manually operated mechanical switch which separates a
part of the electrical power system normally at off load condition.

Earth Switches
Earth switches are mounted on the base of mainly line side isolator. Earth’s witches are normally
vertically break switches. Earth arms (contact arm of Earth switch) are normally aligned
horizontally at off condition. during switching on operation, these Earth arms rotate and move to
vertical position and make contact with earth female contacts fitted at the top of the post
insulator stack of isolator at its outgoing side. The erarthing arms are so interlocked with main
isolator moving contacts that it can be closed only when the main contacts of isolator are in open
position. Similarly the main isolator contacts can be closed only when the Earth arms are in open
position.

As no arc quenching technique is provided in isolator it must be operated when there is no

chance current flowing through the circuit. No live circuit should be closed or open by isolator
operation. A complete live closed circuit must not be opened by isolator operation and also a live
circuit must not be closed and completed by isolator operation to avoid huge arcing in between
isolator contacts. That is why isolators must be open after circuit breaker is open and these must
be closed before circuit breaker is closed. Isolator can be operated by hand locally as well as by
motorized mechanism from remote position. Motorized operation arrangement costs more
compared to hand operation.
Circuit Breaker

The circuit breaker mainly consists of fixed contacts and moving contacts. In normal "on"
condition of circuit breaker, these two contacts are physically connected to each other due to
applied mechanical pressure on the moving contacts. There is an arrangement stored potential
energy in the operating mechanism of circuit breaker which is realized if switching signal given
to the breaker. The potential energy can be stored in the circuit breaker by different ways like by
deforming metal spring, by compressed air, or by hydrolic pressure. But whatever the source of
potential energy, it must be released during operation. Release of potential energy makes sliding
of the moving contact at extremely fast manner. All circuit breaker have operating coils (tripping
coils and close coil), whenever these coils are energized by switching pulse, the plunger inside
them displaced. This operating coil plunger is typically attached to the operating mechanism of
circuit breaker, as a result the mechanically stored potential energy in the breaker mechanism is
released in forms of kinetic energy, which makes the moving contact to move as these moving
contacts mechanically attached through a gear lever arrangement with the operating mechanism.
After a cycle of operation of circuit breaker the total stored energy is released and hence the
potential energy again stored in the operating mechanism of circuit breaker by means of spring
charging motor or air compressor or by any other means. Till now we have discussed about
mechanical working principle of circuit breaker. But there are electrical characteristics of a
circuit breaker which also should be consider in this discussion of operation of circuit breaker.
Let's have a discussion on electrical principle of circuit breaker. The circuit breaker has to carry
large rated or fault power. Due to this large power there is always dangerously high arcing
between moving contacts and fixed contact during operation of circuit breaker. Again as we
discussed earlier the arc in circuit breaker can be quenching safely if the dielectric strength
between the current carrying contacts of circuit breaker increases rapidly during every current
zero crossing of the alternating current. The dielectric strength of the media in between contacts
can be increased in numbers of ways, like by compressing the ionized arcing media since
compressing accelerates the deionization process of the media, by cooling the arcing media since
cooling increase the resistance of arcing path or by replacing the ionized arcing media by fresh
gasses. Hence a numbers of arc quenching processes should be involved in operation of circuit
breaker.
So for timely disconnecting and reconnecting different parts of power system network for
protection and control, there must be some special type of switching devices which can be
operated safely under huge current carrying condition. During interruption of huge current, there
would be large arcing in between switching contacts, so care should be taken to quench these
arcs in circuit breaker in safe manner. The circuit breaker is the special device which does all the
required switching operations during current carrying condition. This was the basic introduction
to circuit breaker.
Apparatus:
Panel Board with-
1. Over Current & Earth Fault Relay
2. Isolator Selector Switch
3. CB Open/Close Switch
4. Earth Switch Selection Switch
5. Fault Simulation Button
Procedure:
1. Connect 400V/3 Phase Power Supply to the panel board.
2. Switch On MCB 1.
3. Select the Earth Switch off position.
4. Close the Isolator Switch.
5. Close the Circuit Breaker
6. Repeat Step 3,4,5 in different order and observe
7. Create Fault and observe Trip, reconnect CB after fault
8. Try Closing Earth Switch during normal operation

Table No 1: Interlock test of Earth Switch, Isolator& Circuit Breaker

Sl. No. Earth Switch Isolator Circuit Breaker Remarks
01. Close Open Open Isolator &
Breaker cannot be
close.
02. Open Close Close Isolator close Fast
than Breaker
03. Open Open Open Breaker Open
first than Isolator.