In some electrical facilities for underground mining, IT-system grounding is used for processes of high priority. This report explains why such systems are used in these kinds of environments, what happens when single-line-ground faults occur and how does the fault protection and monitoring devices handle those faults in accordance to current regulations and standards.An IT-system imply that the neutral point of a transformer is completely or partially connected to earth and exposed conductive parts are bolted directly to ground.IT-coupled networks have been implemented in some mining industries to prevent long and unnecessary down time of production. This is achieved by allowing a single-line-ground fault without interfering with the operation. According to current regulations and standards a single-line-ground fault is allowed on the term that continuously monitoring the insulation of the system, alarm in presence of a fault and remedy as soon as possible.During a single-line-ground fault the artificial neutral point of the system will be displaced relative earth and different amounts depending on the resistance in the fault location. When a bolted single-line-ground fault occur, the faulty line will adopt earth-potential. Between a healthy line and earth, the potential difference reaches line-line voltage and even more than that, depending on the fault-resistance. This entails a higher requirement of the insulation level of the equipment installed in an IT-system. The fault current that emerges in an IT-system depends especially of the capacitive connection between the line conductors and earth, but it is reduced by the resistance in the fault location.In the existing electrical system of the underground mine, insulation-monitoring-devices where installed. These where setup with two alarm limits, one for alarming and the second for release of the circuit breaker feeding the main busbar, if the fault remains for longer than two hours.The insulation monitoring in the existing electrical system, where supplemented with residual-current-monitoring, setup to alarm for residual currents exceeding 60 mA. One presumption the residual-current-monitoring devices requires to be able to detect a fault, is that the upstream installed cable network is widespread enough, that the capacitive connection causes a big enough current to flow.In this report the characteristics of an IT-network were verified with calculations. Simple calculations of the minimum cable length were also made, when using residual-current-monitoring.The conclusion for the existing electrical system in the underground mine, is that the IT-system network of it, is installed in accordance with current regulations and standards in Sweden.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:umu-173058 |
| Date | January 2020 |
| Creators | Lycksell, Linus |
| Publisher | Umeå universitet, Institutionen för tillämpad fysik och elektronik |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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