ENHANCEMENT OF ARC CONTROL AT BORIKIRI 11/33KV DISTRIBUTION STATION, PORT HARCOURT, RIVERS STATE

Abstract

This research work has highlighted the benefits of enhancement of arc at Borikiri 33kV Distribution Network in Rivers State, Nigeria. The flash arc analysis was modelled and simulated using ETAP 12.6 software environment to show the sequence of operation of arc flash from the Injection substation to the Transmission Station. The analysis focus on the fault current occurred at some point once the relay protection device issued a clearing time in seconds, the circuit breaker was absolutely tripped and when an arc fault occurs, the latched fault occurred showing that a short circuit that has no electrical resistance at the point of the fault, that is characterised by an absence of arcing. The case study shows the connection between the clearing/tripping time and fault current for the prevailing and simulated case study; for the existing case study shows the minimum values and therefore the most values, once the clearing/tripping time was 0.011 sec, the fault current was 32.20 kA and when the clearing/tripping time was 0.025 sec, the fault current was 34.12 kA, the result show the behavior of the graph as linearity. The graph shows that as clearing/tripping time will increase, fault current increases slowly at first. Similarly, because the clearing/tripping time and the the} fault current will increase slowly at first, then additional rapidly, then slows down once more and reaches a most level. The simulated case study also shows the link between the fault current and clearing time shows the minimum values and the maximum values, once the clearing/tripping time was 0.062 sec, the fault current was 4.62 kA and when the clearing/tripping time was 0.26 sec, the fault current was 5.01 kA, the graph show that as clearing/tripping time increases, fault current increases slowly at first. Relationship between the incident energy, flash protection boundary and clearing time of the prevailing case study; once clearing or tripping time was zero.011 sec, the flash protection boundary was 1.03 feet, and therefore the incident energy of 0.73 cal/cm2 , according to standard for Electrical Safety, our result shows that Hazard Risk categories is 0 (HRC 0) that cause a second degree burn to unprotected skin.