FUNDAMENTALS OF DISTANCE PROTECTION

By K. Kiran Sr. Engineer/MRT POWERGRID BANGALORE SS

Protection System

Why it is required? What are the functions? What are the functional characteristics?

Fault Statistics
Over Head Lines Cables Switch gear Transformer CTs & PTs Control Equipment Miscellaneous 50% 10% 15% 12% 2% 3% 8%

FUNCTIONAL CHARACTERISTICS
1. SENSITIVITY 2. SELECTIVITY 3. SPEED 4. RELIABILITY 5. ECONOMY

Primary Relaying

Generator Protection Circuit Breaker Low voltage SG Protection Power Trans. Protection High voltage SG Protection
Transmission

line Prot.

High voltage SG Protection

Classification of Tr. Lines

Short Lines Medium Lines Long Lines Length < = 80kM Length < = 240kM Length > 240kM

Types of faults in the transmission system Short circuit faults

Phase Ground faults Phase- Phase faults 3 Ph faults

Open circuit faults

Broken conductor Open jumper

Different types of faults on Tr. Lines L-G faults L-L Faults L-L-G Faults L-L-L Faults 85% 8% 5% 2 or less

Protection Scheme
In 400kV system, protection system will have two protections Main-I & II, both will works in parallel and send trip command to both trip coil I & II of breaker. As per CEA regulations at 400kV level all components should have redundant system DC supply, LT supply, Protection, etc..

Transmission Line Protection Types of Protection:

Over Current Protection. Differential or Phase Comparison or Unit Protection. Distance Protection.

Over Current Protection

E ZS X X If ZL X X X

If = E/(ZS+ZL) The reach of over current relay is function of Source Impedance which varies considerably, making it difficult to get fast and Selective tripping .

Phase Comparison Protection

Current Phase comparison type Suitable for operation with PLCC High sensitivity and selectivity for all types of faults Capable of single and three pole tripping. Un effected By: Heavy load transfer Power swings CT saturation CT Phase errors Propagation delays Capacitance current

Phase Comparison Relay (Through fault)

A B A+B No Trip

B A A+B No Trip

Phase Comparison Relay (In-Zone fault)

A B A+B Trip

B A A+B Trip

Why impedance protection?

Situation: Meshed network and two infeeds Directional overcurrent time relays

0,8s

0,4s

0,8s

0,4s

0,8s

0,4s

0,8s

0,4s

non-selective trip

Basic principle of impedance protection

Localization of short-circuits by means of an impedance measurement: - fault on the protected line
Z1 relay A

- fault outside the protected line

Z2 relay A

selectivity

Distance Protection Type of distance relays

Reactance
Suitable for short lines Not effected by fault resistance Effected by power swings Non directional

Impedance
Suitable for medium lines Non directional Effected by fault resistance

Mho
Directional Least effected by power swings Effected by fault resistance

Impedance Relay Characteristics

X

Z3 Z2 Z1

Load Area

MHO relay characteristic

The characteristic of a mho impedance element , when plotted on a R/X diagram, is a circle whose circumference pass through the origin .

R = relay characteristic angle

OFF set MHO characteristic

Under close up faults, when the voltage is near to zero then MHO will not operate. The mho characteristic can be shifted towards origin for operation of close up faults. This is know as OFF set MHO.

R = relay characteristic angle

Lenticular characteristics
The characteristic of lenticular mho will be useful to provide maximum load transfer condition with maximum fault resistance coverage.

Z-3 Z-2 Z-1

Load

Z-3

= relay characteristic angle

Quadrilateral characteristic
It is a basically a reactance relay superseded with controlled resistive reach. Quadrilateral characteristic suitable for E/F protection of short/medium lines with strong source of power
Z-3 Z-2 Z-1

Z-1&2

Z-3

= relay characteristic angle

Zones of Distance Protection: Z1 X X X

Z2

Z3

BASIC SETTING PHILOSOPHY

ZONE 1 : 80 % of protected line ZONE 2 : 100 % of protected line + 50 % of shortest adj. line section or 100% + 50% of transformer impedance ZONE 3 : 100% of protected line + 100 % of longest adj. line or 100 % + 100% of transformer impedance.

ZONE -4 : To cover close up back-up non-directional faults generally reverse reach will be provided in relays (10%).

Terms associated with distance protection Reach:

Reach is the impedance of the tr. line up to which the distance relay protects the line from the faults.

over reach
Relay measured impedance less than the actual fault Impedance. i.e effective reach of the relay increases

Under reach
Relay measured impedance is more than actual impedance. i.e. Effective reach of the relay decreases

Effect of arc impedance on Distance Protection

Is Ir

S (Is + Ir)

Rf

Consider power flow from S > R Case 1 Is leads V arc Relay at S sees Varc/Is = Rf- jXrf Which indicates capacitive Arc resistance

Varc = Rf(Is+Ir) Es Is Is+Ir Er

Ir

Case 2
Ir lags Varc Relay at R sees Varc/ Ir = Rf+jXrf which indicates inductive arc res.

The characteristic of fault resistance is therefore plotted on the impedance plane.

Line 100% Rf -jXrf Export end R

Line 100 % jXrf

Rf Import end R

Thus the distance relay overreaches for arcing faults where the current Leads the arc voltage and underreaches where the current lags the arc voltage.

Effect of in feeds on distance protection

E ZS A X X
Relay

I1

B X X I2 X

ACTUAL IMPEDANCE WITH OUT TEED SOURCE IS Za+ Zb WITH TEED SOURCE Z = Za+ Zb + (I2/I1)/Zb ACTUAL IMPEDANCE FURTHER DEPENDS ON RELATIVE PHASE ANGLE OF TEED SOURCE .

EFFECT OF MUTUAL COUPLING

X D/y

X X

X X

Y/d

PHASE RELAYS ARE NOT AFFECTED GROUND RELAYS WILL EXPERIENCE AN ERROR OF ABOUT 5.5 % AT 85 % OF LINE LENGTH (Zmo = 0.5 * Zo)

Parallel Compensation Necessity of parallel compensation:

For the fault on the parallel line, fault current also fed from healthy line and this current pass through ground. This current changes the mutual inductance and in turn causes relay measuring impedance to increase and is more than actual fault impedance. This effect will be compensated by connecting neutral current of the line to parallel line. This compensation will not work, if the parallel line neutral current is more than line neutral current.

Effect of loading on line distance protection

X

ZL1 F Short line Load R

ZL1 F Long line Load R

ZONE - I CHARACTERISTICS
Should isolate the faulted section instantaneously Should cover protected circuit & fault resistance with some margin to take care of errors in measurement Selective phase tripping for 1ph to ground faults for auto reclose of the breaker. Fast operation with secured directional discrimination. Should be stable in the presence of: 1. Fault resistance, arc resistance 2. Errors in CT, CVT and CT saturation 3. Transients in CT & CVT

ZONE-II CHARACTERISTICS
Delayed tripping and non selective phase tripping. Provide back up protection for part of adjacent line.

Trip the faulty line instantaneously using carrier aided tripping. Time delay is normally 500ms

ZONE-III CHARACTERISTICS
This provides back up protection for the adjacent lines or transformer Time delay is normally 1500ms

ZONE IV CHARACTERISTICS
This provides back up protection for the station faults It is normally in the reverse direction Time delay is normally 1500ms

Distance Schemes:
1 . P . U . R -- Permissive under reach scheme 2. P . O . R -- Permissive Over Reach scheme 3. BLOCKING SCHEME 4. WEAK END FEED

CARRIER SCHEMES - P U R
Z2A Z1A A Z2B CARRIER RELAY CHANNEL Trip = Z1 + Z2.CR+Z3.T3+Z2.T2 CS = Z1 Under reaching zone sends carrier signal RELAY Z1B B Fault

CARRIER SCHEMES - P O R
Z2A Z1A A Z2B RELAY CARRIER Z1B B RELAY Fault

Trip = Z1+Z2.CR+ Z2.T2+Z3.T3 CS = Z2 Over reaching zone sends carrier signal

BLOCKING SCHEME
Z3A Z1A Z1B A RELAY Z2B CARRIER B RELAY Z2A Fault

Z3B

Trip = Z1+Z2.t. No signal+Z3.T3 CS = Z3 Reverse reach zone-3 sends signal for blocking protection.

BLOCKING SCHEME
Z3A Z1A Z1B A RELAY Z2B CARRIER B RELAY Z2A Fault

Z3B

Z3 at B sends blocking signal to block relay at A Breakers at A & B will not trip

WEAK END FEED

IT IS A CONDITION WHICH OCCURS ON A LINE EITHER WHEN CB IS OPEN OR NO CURRENT INFEED FROM THAT LINE TERMINAL OR WHEN THE CURRENT INFEED IS LOW DUE TO WEAK GENERATION BEHIND PROTECTION. Effect of week end in feed on POR : Both CBs may fail to trip instantaneously, due to absence of carrier send signal and no relay operation in the weak end. This scheme can be used with small modification at week end

WEAK END FEED

Effect of week end in feed on PUR :
Fast fault clearance of the whole line section is not possible, because carrier aided trip is not possible due to non operation of distance protection at week end. Not suitable for week end infeed lines

Effect of week end in feed on Blocking Scheme :

Breakers at strong end will trip immediately because Of absence of blocking signal from week end, breakers at week end will not trip. Tripping of the week end breakers is not possible, not suitable for week ends.

WEAK END FEED LOGIC IN P.O.R

Z2A
Weak End

Z1A A Z2B Z1B

Fault

B
RELAY

RELAY

CARRIER

Week end trips: CR.Z3(not optd).UV Echo signal sends:

Fault in Z1B= Trip CB B Fault in Z2B=Sends signal Trip in Z2B= CR.Z2B

CR.Z3(not optd).UV

AUTORECLOSE PHILOSOPHY
NEED FOR AUTO RECLOSE 1. 2. 3. 4. Reducing outage time Improved reliability Restoration of network stability and synchronism Reduction of operating cost because of above factors

ANALYSIS OF FAULTS 1. Transient faults 2. Semi permanent faults 3. Permanent faults

AUTORECLOSE PHILOSOPHY
TRANSIENT FAULTS -CHARACTERISTIC Characterized by disappearance after Short dead time or disappears without any Action being taken. TYPES OF TRANSIENT FAULTS 1. 2. 3. 4. Lightning strokes resulting in flashovers Conductor swinging due to high winds Bird fault Temporary contact with foreign objects like tree etc.

About 85 % of faults on transmission lines are transient in nature.

SEMI PERMANENT FAULTS

This type of faults requires more than one De-energised interval before it disappears. Such faults are prevalent on HV lines traversing forest. An example is a tree falling on the line and getting burnt up by the arc when the line is re energised. 10% of the reclosures are successful with second shot. However this can cause unnecessary wear on HV CBs . Therefore Second shot is not recommended for HV Systems.

AUTORECLOSE PHILOSOPHY FAULT STATISTICS VOLTAGE LEVEL 400 KV 400 KV 400 KV 220 KV 220 KV 220 KV FAULT SINGLE PH TWO PH THREE PH SINGLE PH TWO PH THREE PH STATISTICS 85% 13 % 2% 56 % 27 % 17 %

RECLOSURE STATISTICS SUCCESSFUL RECLOSURES DEFINITIVE TRIPPINGS EQUIPMENT DEFECTS 75.2 % 13.5 % 11.3 %

TERMINOLOGIES ASSOCIATED WITH A/R

DEAD TIME : The time between the autoreclose scheme being energised and the operation of the contacts which energise the CB closing circuit. RECLAIM TIME : The time following a successful closing operation measured from the instant the A/R relay closing contacts make which must elapse before the autoreclose relay will initiate reclosing sequence in the event of a further fault.

FACTORS AFFECTING DE IONISING TIME Arcing time Wind conditions Air humming pressures Capacitance coupling to adj. Conductors Circuit voltage DE IONISING TIME KV MIN DE ENERGISATION TIME SEC 66 110 132 0.1 0.15 0.15 220 275 400 0.28 0.3 0.5

CHOICE OF RECLAIM TIME The reclaim time must not be set to such a low value that the intended operating cycle of the breaker is exceeded when Two fault incidents occur close together.

For example the reclaim time for a air blast circuit breakers must allow time for air pressure to recover to its normal value. CHOICE OF DEAD TIME Dead time for EHV system lower limit is decided by de ionising time, upper limit is decided by transient stability.

Power Swing

X Z3 Z2 Z1 Load Area Recoverable Swing

Power Swing
Power Swings are disturbances in system due to various reasons such as sudden load throw, bad synchronization, auto reclose etc Power swings are characterized by slow power flow oscillations, resulting in swinging of voltages and current flows, resulting in operating point movement into distance relay characteristics, in turn may cause tripping of distance relays. Tripping during power swings may be undesirable since no actual fault is present and moreover a line outage during power swing may cause further deterioration to system stability. Detection of power swing will block the distance protection. Zones 2,3,4. Normally tripping is in Zone-I even after detection of power swing.

Power Swing
X Z3 Z2 Z1 R
Power swing detection zones

Time taken by fault locus to cross the power swing detection zones is more than 40-50ms, then it is called power swing.

Fuse Failure
During the fuse failure, no voltage will be available for distance relay for impedance measurement, hence relay may issue trip. It can be avoided by blocking the distance protection on detection of fuse failure. In modern numerical distance relays, fuse failure is built in feature.

Switch on to fault
This feature provide protection against energisation of the tr. line with fault or dead short. Distance protection will not provide protection in this as voltage is not available for distance measurement. It can be activated by TNC switch or CB aux. binary input or internal detection of current rise. It provides instantaneous 3Ph trip.

Stub Protection
Bus-2 Bus-1

21

Ckt-1

Ckt-2

One and Half Breaker Scheme

DEF Protection
It provides back up protection for tr. line. It provides reliable protection for high resistance earth faults. It uses cross polarized voltage for directional discrimination.

Local breaker back up protection

It is the secondary protection To provide back up isolation during failure of breaker to open. It opens source to that breaker (i.e other end breakers, bus bar, etc.) It will be triggered by operation of any primary protection (like distance, DEF, bus bar, etc..) It sends direct trip command to other end.

Direct trip Scheme

It is required to trip other end breakers without any checking the status at other end during following conditions:

Operation of over voltage protection. Operation of bus bar with tie breaker open. Manual tripping of both the breakers (main&Tie) Operation of LBB

On receipt of command through PLCC at other end breakers will trip directly.

Over Voltage Protection

It will have 2 stages Stage-I:
Setting: 110% Time delay: 5 Sec.

Stage II
Setting: 140% Time delay: Instantaneous.