Method and apparatus for remote testing of coordination of overcurrent protection devices in an electrical power system

摘要

Coordination of the overcurrent/time trip characteristics of a hierarchy of overcurrent protection devices (25a-g) is accomplished through a central tester (41) which establishes a pattern of test currents for the individual overcurrent protection devices which simulates a fault at a specified location in the power system (1). The individual assigned test currents are transmitted over a communications link (43) to the separate overcurrent protection devices (25a-g) where they are stored in memory (33a-g). The central tester (41) then broadcasts a test signal which simultaneously initiates testing of all of the overcurrent protection devices (25a-g) using the assigned test currents stored in memory. The trip times are recorded and reported back to the central tester (41) for analysis.