Unwanted operation of protection equipment due to remanence in current transformers working on Swiss railway

Bern, 29.09.2005 - Bahnhof Bern Ost - Welle

Switzerland has the densest rail network in Europe. Besides tracks covering more than 3,000km (1,900 miles) and more than 800 railway stations, Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) also operate six dedicated hydroelectric power plants and seven frequency converter stations. Just like any power supply grid, the 16.7Hz railway network is equipped with comprehensive protective equipment. In the event of a malfunction, this equipment shuts down the affected grid sections and thereby helps prevent more serious damage. However, unselective tripping of the protection systems when there is no malfunction in the respective protection area (false tripping) interrupts regular grid operations and has negative effects on both availability and selectivity. In the past, false tripping of this kind occurred in isolated cases in the differential protection of transformers and machines operated by SBB. When looking into this, SBB realised that it was being caused by remanence efects, which were then investigated together with OMICRON and its testing equipment.