Análisis del sistema de protección de IPR Pharmaceuticals, Inc

Abstract

Analysis of the electrical protection system of IPR Pharmaceuticals This study is based on the electrical distribution system of a pharmaceutical plant. The purpose of the study is to investigate why the low voltage switchgear 800A circuit breaker feeding a motor control center (MCC) tripped to clear a fault that occurred at a 277V street light pole. We also want to know why the preceding 20A branch circuit breaker and the 60A main breaker feeding the panel board did not trip. As a consequence of this fault the steam boiler was shut down.The one-line diagran of the electrical system of the plant and the circuit breakers sequence connections are shown. To verify the existing coordination problem we plotted the time-current characteristic curves of die circuit breakers involved and made sure there was no overlapping between the breaker's curves. An overlapping means that either breaker or all of them will trip at the same time when a fault occurs. After studying and analyzing die fault we suggest two alternatives to solve this breaker coordination problem: changing the settings of the breakers to their maximum, and to replace one breaker for another with the ground fault protection option; however, we would have to change settings to the remainder breakers.