Switchgear

Definition: The apparatus used for controlling, regulating and switching on or off the electrical circuit in the electrical power system is known as switchgear.The switches, fuses, circuit breaker, isolator, relays, current and potential transformer, indicating instrument, lightning arresters and control panels are examples of the switchgear devices.

The switchgear system is directly linked to the supply system. It is placed in both the high and low voltage side of the power transformer. It is used for de-energizing the equipment for testing and maintenance and for clearing the fault.

When the fault occurs in the power system, heavy current flow through equipment due to which the equipment get damaged, and the service also get interrupted. So to protect the lines, generators, transformers and other electrical equipment from damage automatic protective devices or switchgear devices are required.

The automatic protective switchgear mainly consists of the relay and circuit breaker. When the fault occurs in any section of the system, the relay of that section comes into operation and close the trip circuit of the breaker which disconnects the faulty section. The healthy section continues supplying loads as usual, and thus there is no damage to equipment and no complete interruption of supply.

Types of Switchgear

The switchgear is mainly classified into two types, the outdoors type and the indoor type. For voltage above 66kV, the output switchgear is used. Because for the high voltage, the building work will unnecessarily increase the installation cost owing to large spacing between the conductor and large size of insulators.

Below the 66kv there is no difficulty in providing the building work for the switchgear at a reasonable cost. The indoor type switchgear is of metal clad type and is compact. Because of the compactness, the safety clearance for operation is also reduced and thus reduced the area required.