A trip is the opening of a breaker by its protection or by a deliberate command that energises the trip coil and releases the operating mechanism. The word covers both the event (the transformer tripped) and the action (trip feeder 6). Trip circuits are supervised because a broken coil wire would leave a breaker unable to clear a fault, and transmission substations often fit two independent trip coils fed from separate batteries.
Line 2 tripped on earth fault at 03:12, auto-reclose failed, so it's locked out and the patrol is on the way.
Also heard as
- trip out
- trip-out
Related terms
Protection relay
Device that watches currents and voltages and orders a circuit breaker to trip when it detects a fault.
86 relay
Lockout relay that latches after a serious trip and holds breakers open until someone resets it by hand.
Kick
Shop verb for a breaker, overload or relay tripping, as in the breaker kicked.
Nuisance trip
Protective device opening with no real fault present, usually from bad settings, leakage or transients.