Section 690-336 - Longwall electrical protection(a) High-voltage circuits.--High-voltage circuits must be protected against short circuits, overloads, ground faults and undervoltages by circuit-interrupting devices of adequate interrupting capacity as follows: (1) Current settings of short-circuit protective devices must not exceed the setting specified in approval documentation or 75% of the minimum available phase-to-phase short-circuit current, whichever is less.(2) Time-delay settings of short-circuit protective devices used to protect any cable extending from the section power center to a motor-starter enclosure must not exceed the settings specified in approval documentation or one-quarter second, whichever is less. Time-delay settings of short-circuit protective devices used to protect motor and shearer circuits must not exceed the settings specified in approval documentation or three cycles, whichever is less.(3) Ground-fault currents must be limited by a neutral grounding resistor to not more than: (i) six and one-half amperes when the nominal voltage of the power circuit is 2,400 volts or less; or(ii) three and three-quarters of an ampere when the nominal voltage of the power circuit exceeds 2,400 volts.(4) High-voltage circuits extending from the section power center must be provided with all of the following:(i) Ground-fault protection set to cause de-energization at not more than 40% of the current rating of the neutral grounding resistor.(ii) A backup ground-fault detection device to cause de-energization when a ground fault occurs with the neutral grounding resistor open.(iii) Thermal protection for the grounding resistor that will de-energize the longwall power center if the resistor is subjected to a sustained ground fault. The thermal protection must operate at either 50% of the maximum temperature rise of the grounding resistor or 150 Centigrade or 302 Fahrenheit, whichever is less, and must open the ground-wire monitor circuit for the high-voltage circuit supplying the section power center. The thermal protection must not be dependent upon control power and may consist of a current transformer and overcurrent relay.(5) High-voltage motor and shearer circuits must be provided with instantaneous ground-fault protection set at not more than 0.125 of an ampere.(6) Time-delay settings of ground-fault protective devices used to provide coordination with the instantaneous ground-fault protection of motor and shearer circuits shall not exceed one-quarter second.(7) Undervoltage protection shall be provided by a device which operates on low voltage to cause and maintain the interruption of power to a circuit to prevent automatic restarting of the equipment.(b) Current transformers.--Current transformers used for the ground-fault protection specified in subsection (a)(1), (4)(i) and (5) must be single window type and must be installed to encircle all three-phase conductors. Equipment safety grounding conductors must not pass through or be connected in series with ground-fault current transformers.(c) Test circuit.--Each ground-fault current device specified in subsection (a)(4)(i) and (5) must be provided with a test circuit that will inject a primary current of 50% or less of the current rating of the grounding resistor through the current transformer and cause each corresponding circuit-interrupting device to open.(d) Prohibition.--Circuit-interrupting devices shall not reclose automatically.(e) Multiple cables.--Where two or more high-voltage cables are used to supply power to a common bus in a high-voltage enclosure, each cable must be provided with ground wire monitoring. The ground wire monitoring circuits must cause de-energization of each cable when either the ground monitor or grounding conductor of any cable becomes severed or open. On or after the effective date of this section, parallel-connected cables on newly installed longwalls must be protected as follows:(1) when one circuit-interrupting device is used to protect parallel-connected cables, the circuit-interrupting device must be electrically interlocked with the cables so that the device will open when any cable is disconnected; or(2) when two or more parallel circuit-interrupting devices are used to protect parallel-connected cables, the circuit-interrupting devices must be mechanically and electrically interlocked. Mechanical interlocking shall cause all devices to open simultaneously and electrical interlocking shall cause all devices to open when any cable is disconnected.2008, July 7, P.L. 654, No. 55, §336, effective in 180 days [ 1/5/2009].