Switching in Electrical Transmission and Distribution Systems

13 Standards, Specification, and Commissioning

13.1 Standards for Fault-Current Breaking Tests

In general, a standard is a set of rules that establishes uniform behaviour, criteria, methods, processes and/or practice with the aim to ensure the quality of specific equipment. For almost every switching situation described in this book, international standards have been developed.

The following functions can be attributed to standards related to switchgear:

• Definition of the target for designers and developers of switchgear. Defining clear performance criteria for all relevant functions, standards greatly enhance product reliability and effectiveness and enable easy exchange of apparatus in various locations in the network.
• Reference to network operators. The standards are designed to cover approximately 90% of the possible conditions including faults. Operators should compare the fault parameters that can arise in their particular system with the standardized parameters in order to decide whether the equipment can handle the fault situation or whether mitigating measures are needed. In some cases, even custom-made equipment can be ordered to meet specific requirements, or testing can be required with non-standardized, specific duties.
• Guidelines for testing institutions. Test circuits are developed that can provide adequate stresses. This aspect is covered in Chapter 14.

The set of standards that is by far most used in the world is the series issued by the International Electrotechnical ...