Circutor | 2 de June de 2022
The evolution of electrical installations has resulted in continuity of supply being a top priority for all users of the electrical grid, specifically in those sectors where interruptions have significant direct or indirect economic repercussions. These include plants whose industrial processes are vital, the telecommunications industry, the food and pharmaceutical industries, and others.
Guaranteeing continuity of supply for electrical installations is particularly important in certain sectors that are more economically sensitive to outages.
Power supply continuity is closely related to electrical protection systems, another fundamental aspect of any electrical installation. Protection devices are responsible for supply outages in an installation, which may affect several lines depending on which protection device is involved.
Ideally, protection devices should trip whenever there is a safety risk to people, to the installation itself or to machines connected to the network.
But protection devices don't just trip during a real threat; more often than not, they trip during transients that have no serious effects on the installation. And it is precisely in these kinds of situations that the need to ensure the continuity of supply is most important.
The way to avoid prolonged outages is through self-reclosing protection devices that restore power as soon as it is safe to do so.
They have a wide range of applications since they are suitable for all isolated, mainly unsupervised installations, but where a good balance between safety and power supply continuity is of paramount importance.
The reasons for nuisance trips vary widely, from harmonic currents in the network, to the variable behaviour of loads in the installation, to environmental factors (such as a lightning nearby during a thunderstorm or the presence of humidity).
As we will see below, a protection device trip in a stand-alone installation that is far away or difficult to reach can entail substantial losses for many industries.
The reasons for nuisance trips vary widely such as a lightning strike nearby during a thunderstorm.
Telecommunications centres for telephone, radio and television companies are often located on high ground, such as hills or mountainous areas, to maximize their coverage.
When there are thunderstorms, any lightning that strikes areas adjacent to these centres could trip the residual current protection device.
This phenomenon, while not involving an actual leakage current or fault in the system, could render the centre inoperative and out of service until the appropriate technical personnel arrive, who will restore the service by simply resetting the breaker.
Bearing in mind the number of people affected by this type of situation, the financial losses for the telecommunications company involved could rise into the tens of thousands of euros for every minute that the situation is unresolved.
On top of this cost are the expenses associated with the travel by the technical personnel to the site, only to conclude that there is no fault or problem at the centre.
Telecommunications centres of telephone, radio and television companies are often located in hills or mountainous areas.
In large cities, order largely depends on how traffic is managed. The correct synchronization of traffic lights and signalling systems plays an essential role in the smooth flow of traffic in large cities.
Imagine the chaos that would ensue if the system that manages traffic control components were to collapse: it would cause accidents and bring the busiest areas to a complete standstill.
Likewise, most public lighting systems operate independently and are difficult to monitor due to the presence of multiple lamp posts spread out throughout the system. As in the case of traffic management, nuisance trips in this type of installation would affect a large number of people and constitute a serious road safety hazard.
As in the case of traffic management, nuisance trips in this type of installation would affect a large number of people and constitute a serious road safety hazard.
Turning to other sectors such as food, we have an industry whose needs for continuous power supply are extremely demanding.
Take the case of large supermarkets. This type of business cannot afford lengthy power cuts to lines that supply refrigerating chambers, which are used to preserve the stored products. A loss of power could even require the store to throw away large amounts of food.
A loss of power could even require the store to throw away large amounts of food.
Circutor's solution to this problem lies in the use of the RECmax CVM circuit breaker with self-reclosing earth leakage protection and built-in measurement.
RECmax CVM features an electric motor to reclose the breaker once a trip has occurred.
The reclosing parameters (sensitivity, delay, number of attempts, interval between attempts, reset times) are programmable and allow power, and therefore operations, to be restored fully autonomously. They also adapt to the needs of each installation.
RECmax CVM, Differential magnetothermic with automatic reconnection and measurement
RECmax CVM provides protection against short circuits or overloads, as well as ultra-immunized Type A residual current protection.
The device resets itself autonomously after a trip due to leakage current or a breaker trip.
The initials "CVM" in this RECmax family indicate that, apart from the protection and reconnection characteristics described, the RECmax CVM logs over 250 electrical parameters, providing greater control and making it possible to diagnose the installation's performance.
The display shows the key variables in your installation, such as voltages, currents, powers, harmonic distortion, power factor, etc., as well as important parameters of the protective devices: protection status, real-time leakage, total number of trips or number of trips per protection type.
The device allows you to browse different menus using its keypad, which can also be used to configure various reclosing parameters (sensitivity, delay, number of attempts, interval between attempts, reset times).
Advantages of CIRCUTOR's RECmax CVM
The RECmaxCVM is designed to make it as simple, intuitive and fast as possible to install. To this end, it has a Plug & Play system consisting of plug-in connectors for the sensors, and it is supplied internally through a direct connection to the circuit breaker.
Both the efficient MC measurement transformers and the WGC residual current protection transformer are included in the kit, through which you simply need to feed the power cables, connect them to the device using the plug-in connection terminals, and the device is ready.
MC3 and MC1 Efficient measurement transformers
WGC Residual current protection transformer
RECmax CVM 4 poles with MC3 and WGC transformers application
This is all that is needed for the RECmax CVM to start operating, since it is self-powered through an internal connection to the circuit breaker.
Taking up just 7.5 modules of space for the 4-pole model, and 5.5 modules for the 2-pole model, the RECmax CVM is a compact device suitable for installation in switchboards with limited space available.
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