Practical Use Of Protective Relays To Enhance Personnel Safety In Process Industries

Abstract

The combination of electrical equipment, flammable chemicals and high-pressure processes in the process industries has placed greater importance on the safety of employees and equipment. Protection relays used for providing reliable power to plant processes can further be utilized to create safe process operations. This paper highlights the enhancement of safety using a protection relay with specific applications of: Thermal-electrical monitoring of critical assets to detect connection hotspots or any intermittent arcing, which can potentially cause a hazardous arc flash event; Enabling the automatic setpoint group changes when personnel are in close vicinity of switchgear or enter into the electrical room; Lowering the sensitive and high-speed protection setpoints during the maintenance around the switchgear; Use of color LCDs to provide users with configurable single line diagrams and customized warning messages to activate when safety measures are enabled. This paper will provide guidance and deployment of safety technologies into the facilities.