Products

Circuit Breaker Monitoring

Fast, dependable on-site ‘first trip’ profiling, enabling condition-based circuit breaker maintenance for reduced operating costs and extended asset life.

The challenge for asset managers

An ageing or poorly maintained circuit breaker can be slow to trip, causing big problems for network operators. As well as taking customers off supply, slow tripping breakers can cause high current faults to ‘cascade’ across the network, leading to;

  • Plant damage
  • Safety risks to operational staff
  • Costly financial penalties

Conventional timing tests, which require the circuit breaker to be removed from service, don't provide an accurate assessment of breaker condition. Defects which may lead to slow trip operations are often temporarily cleared during the first operation, making it difficult to asses how the breaker would perform in real-world fault conditions.

Profile P3 SUBSTATION
80% of defects can be identified by first trip profiling. First trip profiling is essential for accurate condition based monitoring of circuit breakers and gives asset managers visibility of the true condition of the circuit breaker.

Meeting the challenge with PROFILE P3

Benefit to asset managers

PROFILE P3 provides a unique insight into the true condition of circuit breakers at all voltages, capturing the vital ‘first trip’ to show how the breaker would perform in a real-life fault situation. Capturing first trip gives asset managers insight into the true condition ​of the circuit breaker, this leads to major benefits​;

    • ​Improves circuit breaker performance (no more slow trips)​
    • Avoids damage to plant and personnel​
    • Enables a condition based maintenance strategy​
    • ​Reduces operational costs​

      What can we analyse from profiling a circuit breaker​?

      • Detect if the circuit breaker operating time is ​
        outside limits due to the Trip/Close coil or main ​
        mechanism​
      • The state of ‘health’ of Close and Trip coil mechanisms​​
      • The condition of the DC supply and associated wiring
      • The presence of ‘sticky’ or faulty circuit breaker auxiliary contacts​
      • The Total Trip Time (relay + circuit breaker)

      Key features

      1. Powerful Onsite Analysis: PROFILE P3 can display and overlay up to 4 records in graphical form. This enables quick onsite analysis of potential defects by comparing a first trip or close profile to subsequent circuit breaker operations.
      2. Combined Protection Relay and Circuit Breaker Online Test: An enhanced version of the software enables both the protection relay and circuit breaker trip times to be captured.
      3. Multi-shot Mode: With this function PROFILE P3 is able to re-arm and capture multiple circuit breaker operations. This can be used for monitoring a circuit breaker during faults or SCADA initiated operations.
      4. Automated Comparison Function: This provides a clear pass/fail (green/red) indication by determining if the key parameters – Buffer, Acon, Mcon are outside user set tolerances between the first, second and third trip operations.

      Profile P3 case

      How does PROFILE P3 work?

      Monitoring current flow through the trip coil offers essential clues about the readiness of a circuit breaker to trip. Measuring deviation from normal parameters helps pinpoint potential problems within the trip coil, DC circuit or operating mechanism where around 80% of defects occur.

      A circuit breaker that is operating correctly will have a ‘signature’ profile. Deviations from this nominal profile can highlight potential problems due to electrical defects or mechanical issues such as lack of lubrication. Assessment of this deviation is achieved by comparing ‘first trip’ breaker operation with a second or subsequent trips and overlaying the profiles for comparison.

      PROFILE P3 allows for non-invasive measurement of the breaker’s trip/close coil profile along with DC voltage and main contact time. This allows connections to a live circuit breaker to be made within a few minutes and the critical first trip operation captured.

      How can PROFILE P3 improve data handling for asset managers?

      Data from switchgears circuit breaker 01

      PROFILE P3 benefits

      Cost icon

      Reduced maintenance costs

      Drives cost-effective maintenance strategies for asset managers based on condition-based circuit breaker assessment

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      Intuitive visual profiling

      Enables rapid onsite analysis of circuit breaker defects by comparing first trip or close profile with subsequent breaker operations

      Costly penalties icon

      Avoid costly penalties

      Pre-empt problems caused by slow trip operation causing supply loss, costly network equipment damage and potential penalties due to CI/CML.

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      Extended asset life

      Quick, simple trending of key circuit breaker key parameters allows operators to anticipate maintenance requirements and extend asset life.

      See the detailed picture

      Integrated with PROFILE P3, Replay Pro software for PC is a powerful analysis tool that combines detection of circuit breaker defects with trending of performance against key parameters from profile records imported from the system. REPLAY PRO can be hosted on a central server, allowing circuit breaker profiling data to be shared with other uses across your organisation.

      Replay Pro software is an integral part of the PROFILE P3 system enabling efficient profile record storage, retrieval and analysis. It provides the critical link between the system and those within the organisation who need to access the data in order to effectively manage their assets.

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      Find out more about PROFILE P3

      Get in touch if you’d like to know more about how Profile P3 can improve the speed, accuracy and efficiency of circuit breaker monitoring and condition analysis.

      Call us on 028 9262 6989 (UK), or complete this form and we’ll respond promptly to your enquiry.

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