What is Electrical Busbar? Types, Advantages, Disadvantages

What is Electrical Busbar?

A bus bar is a conductor or group of conductors that collects power from incoming feeders and distributes it to outgoing feeders. In simple words, A busbar is an electrical connection that allows currents to flow in both directions.

image

Parts of Electrical Busbar

A busbar is a collection of electrical lines that operate at the same voltage and frequency. Copper or aluminium are commonly used. The construction of bus bars is done with conductive material and Pipes or thin-walled tubes are used to transport them.

Purpose of Bus-bar

Busbars provide a number of advantages and are essential in electrical distribution systems. This is especially true when it comes to streamlining the electrical power distribution process and lowering overall costs while increasing flexibility. Here’s a quick rundown of the main advantages of busbars.

Types of bus bars

Based on the construction, busbar are classified as follows.

• Single bus-bar system.

• Double bus-bar system.

• Ring bus-bar system.

Single bus-bar System

There are no duplicate busbars in a single bus bar arrangement; only one bus bar is used. The generators, feeders, and transformers are connected to the busbar in this arrangement via isolator switches and circuit breakers, as illustrated in the diagram.

Advantages of Single bus-bar System

• Simple design

• Low installation and maintenance cost.

Disadvantages of Single bus-bar System

• The complete system will be switched off In case of fault.

• For any expansion, complete shutdown is to be carried out.

Double Bus-bar System

High voltage and low voltage bus-bars are replicated in a double bus-bar arrangement. Any of the bus-bar parts from the two can be used as desired.

With the inclusion of circuit breakers, a double bus-bar sectionalized configuration can be created as needed.

Advantages of Double Bus-bar System

• In the double bus-bar type of arrangement, it is possible to have one bus-bar “energized” and become convenient to carry out repairs on the other whenever required.

• By keeping the main bus-bar un-touched, testing of feeder circuit breakers can be done by putting them on spare bus bar.

Disadvantages of Double Bus-bar System

• Maintenance cost is high.

Ring Bus-bar System

In this type of configuration, two circuit breakers serve in one line.

The main advantage of ring bus-bar system is that there the circuit is always of two parallel routes and the failure of one route will not completely interrupt the service.

Advantages of Ring Bus-bar System

• This ring bus system has a redundant path to the circuit, and a partial failure will not completely interrupt service.

• Any circuit breaker can be maintained without interrupting the power supply.

Disadvantages of Ring Bus-bar System

• Difficult in adding a new circuit line.