Books on Circuit Breakers and Electrical Contacts

Circuit breakers are on/off switches that are in addition programmed for automatic isolation of faulty system from power supply to limit damages. An early form of circuit breaker was patented by Thomas A. Edison in 1879. First miniature circuit breakers were developed by Brown Boveri & Cie in 1924. When any current path is broken especially at high voltages, devastating arc flash will result. Engineers developed several arc quenching solutions to mitigate these arcs. Bulk oil circuit breakers, Minimum oil Circuit Breakers, Air Blast circuit Breakers, Vacuum circuit breakers, SF-6 gas circuit Breakers and Carbon dioxide gas circuit breakers were the evolutionary products in this chain. In parallel contact breaking technology was developed to handle massive energy. In 1935 when 220 kV breakers were first used in US for Boulder Dam Project (later Hoover Dam) eight series breakers were required for oil circuit breakers to interrupt faults of 2500 MVA in 3 cycles. Today single break gas circuit breakers are available for 420 kV 63 kA fault level.

In India, TELK, Kerala (then a Hitachi subsidiary) made SF-6 gas circuit breakers first time in the country, way back in 1980 in the range of 66-400 kV voltage class. Hitachi developed live tank breakers exclusively for TELK as in Japan only dead tank breakers were used due to seismic severity in that country. How fast Japanese engineers developed new models with a bare skeletal manpower was a lesson for us to learn then. Even though at that time three or four manufacturers were making minimum oil circuit breakers in India, TELK was the first to venture in to gas circuit breakers. Breaker was a new product line for TELK and users refused to buy gas circuit breakers at price levels more than that of oil circuit breakers. Hence, we did not get any benefit of first movers (as management experts say) but suffered financial loss from the new product line. Later when other manufacturers also entered the gas circuit breaker market, the prices went up to meet the manufacturing cost of new product.

Transformer engineers will have to take care of severe transient overvoltage switching surges from circuit breakers under the following conditions;

1)   Voltage Surges on MV dry type transformers during opening and closing of vacuum circuit breakers

2)   Fast transient voltage surges from GIS (gas insulated switchgear) disconnector operation

3)   Remote switching under cable connected conditions.

4)   Part winding resonance under switching surges (overvoltage developed in parts of winding under circuit breaker operation)

The following documents will help engineers to understand the above phenomena and to take mitigation measures in transformers.

1)   IEEE Standard C57.142–2010 Guide to describe the occurrence and mitigation of switching transients induced by transformers, switching device, and system interaction.

2)   CIGRE Technical Brochures

a)   WG33.13.09, Monograph on GIS very fast transients, CIGRE Brochure 35,Pages 193,2005

b)   WG C4.307, Resonance & Ferro- resonance in Power Networks, CIGRE Brochure No.569, Pages 170, 2014

c)    WG A2/C4.39, Electrical Transient Interaction between transformers and the power system-Part 1- Expertise, CIGRE Brochure No.577A, Pages 175,2014

d)   WG A2/C4.39, Electrical Transient Interaction between transformers and the power system-Part 2- Case studies, CIGRE Brochure No.577B, Pages 123,2014

Another area transformer engineers will be interested is controlled switching of circuit breakers to minimize or eliminate inrush currents. The CIGRE tutorial brochures on the subject will be helpful for transformer engineers.

A partial list of published books on Circuit Breakers is attached. Hope it will be interesting and useful to engineers who manufacture and use HV Circuit Breakers. In case some titles are missing, request to supplement the list. Books are listed in ascending chronological order.

Electrical contacts are important components in electrical equipment especially in circuit breakers and transformer tap-changers. A list of important titles on this subject is also given. Transformer engineers should be familiar with the theory of current transfer through stationary and moving contact surfaces and connectors used in transformers. Relevant IEC technical report on the subject will be a suitable guide

1927

The J &P Switchgear Book, ed 1.0-1927, T J Barfield; ed 2.0-1930; ed 3.0, Vol1, 1930, Vol 2,1942; ed 4.0-1946, Pages 400; ed 5.0-1953; ed 6.0-1963; R T Lythall, Pages 808, Johnson & Philips, Ltd, London; ed7.0- 1972, R.T.Lythall; P.Lythall

1930

Roy Wilkins, Cretin E A, High Voltage Oil Circuit breakers, Mac-Graw Hill, 1930

1975

Lee T H, Physics and engineering of High Power Devices, Massachusetts Institute of  Technology, 1975

1978

Ed Ragalller K, Current Interruption in High Voltage networks, Plenum Press, New York, 1978

1979

Meek J M, Electrical Breakdown of Gases, Wiley, New York, 1979

1980

The breakdown Behaviour of some new gases and gas mixtures in uniform and non- uniform fields, Gaseous dielectrics 11, Pergammon Press, New York, 1980

1982

C.H.Flurscheim, Power Circuit Breaker-Theory &Design, Institution of Engineering and Technology; Pages 628,ed2.0; 1982

1984

Thomas Brown Jr, Circuit Interruption Theory and Techniques, Marcell Decker Inc, 1984

1991

Nakanishi, Switching Phenomena in High Voltage Circuit Breakers, CRC Press, Pages 304,1991

1993

Application of Power Circuit Breakers, Tutorial Course, IEEE Power Engineering Society, 1993

1994

Allen Greenwood, Vacuum Switchgear, The Institution of Electrical Engineers, UK, 1994

2002

Ruben D Garzon, Circuit Breakers-Design and Applications    ed 2.0, Marcel Dekker Inc, Pages 365, 2002

2007

BHEL, Handbook of Switchgears, Mac-Graw Hill Handbooks, Pages 405, 2006

Paul G Slade, The vacuum interrupter –Theory, Design and Application, CRC Press, Pages 528, 2007

2014

Rene Smeets, Lou van der Sluis, Mirsad Kapetanovic, David Peelo, Anton Janssen, Switching in Electrical Transmission and Distribution Systems, John Wiley, UK, Pages 440,2014

2020

David F Peelo, Current Interruption Transients calculation, Wiley-IEE Press, Pages 296, ed2.0; 2020

Electrical Contacts

1940

Windered, G., Electrical Contacts, Mc Millan &Co, London,1940

1946

Hunt,L.B, Electrical Contacts, London: Johnson, Matthey &Co,1946

1967

Holm, R, Electrical Contacts-Theory and Applications, ed4.0, New York: Springer –Verlag,1967, Pages 483

1990

Charman, D.H, Turner C, Turner H W, User’s Guide to the correct use of Electrical Contacts, ERA Report No. 90-0405R ,1990, Pages 120

1992

Electrical Resistivity Handbook, Peter Peregrinus Ltd, Michael Faraday House, UK, 1992, Pages 743

2002

EPRI, Electrical Connectors, EPRI Report No. 100347, 2002

2006

Braunovic M, Konchits V V, Myshkin N K, Electrical Contacts-Fundamentals, Applications &technology ,Taylor &Francis ,CRC Press ,2006,Pages 672

2013

Paul G. Slade – Electrical Contacts-Principles and Applications, ed1.0-1999, ed2.0 CRC Press, 2013 Pages 1311