High speed protection concept to minimize the impacts of arc-flash incidents in electrical systems of ships

Arcing faults in switchgear are rare events but their consequences may be extremely severe. Personnel can be seriously affected by the heat, pressure, light, and noise associated with the arc flash. From equipment point of view, the direct damage to equipment is significant, but the indirect consequences such as power supply outage and interruptions of production can cause even higher costs. In a ship environment an arc-flash fault can lead to temporary or long term loss of critical control systems. This paper discusses the impacts of arcing faults, and presents options for mitigation, emphasizing the speed of protection. A new concept of closer integration of arc detection and circuit breaker is introduced. Because the pressure impact is especially important in marine vessels, arc elimination technology, enabling arc blast mitigation, is discussed.