Testing of Modern Bus Protection Systems

Author: Boris Bastigkeit, OMICRON electronics, Austria Introduction Testing of distributed busbar protection systems requires a good understanding of the architecture of the system and the functionality of each of its components. The article describes two basic distributed protection systems:

Remote units that provide the interface with the process and a central unit that performs the bus bar differential protection function Remote units determining the fault's direction and a central unit performing the bus bar directional comparison protection function

The remote units in both cases can be multifunctional IEDs, which will require additional testing to cover the complete functionality of such a system. The testing of the remote units is the first step in the process. It is required in order to ensure that all components of the bus protection system are functioning as specified by the manufacturer. If a directional comparison bus protection system is used, it is important to properly simulate the transition between prefault to fault condition. While the testing of conventional bus protection systems requires the simulation of currents only, the testing of the directional functions in the remote units requires simulation of both currents and voltages. Each of the above described schemes imposes different requirements for the tools used for testing of the protection system. At the same time, the requirements for testing are affected by the type of test being performed - type testing, acceptance testing, commissioning, routine testing, or troubleshooting. The behavior of bus protection systems is also dependent on their response to CT saturation in case of high current external faults. Simulation of CT saturation thus becomes another requirement discussed in the article together with methods for performing such tests when necessary. IEC 61850 has a significant impact on the way distributed bus protection systems can be designed and implemented. The article analyzes such systems and discusses the methods and tools for their testing. Comparisons between conventional and IEC 61850 based cases are presented. The last part of the article addresses the commissioning of distributed bus protection systems and the importance of accurate time synchronization of multiple test devices operating as a distributed test system. Distributed Bus Protection While bus differential protection in the past was centralized, based on a summation of currents from all current transformers defining the zone of protection, the introduction of advanced high-speed substation communications has resulted in the development and implementation of a new generation of bus differential relays with distributed architecture. The numerical technology and its implementations to bus protection offer some significant advantages. The

classical bus differential schemes have more or less a fixed zone of protection because they have a single current input that is the sum of all current circuits wired into the relay. Modern distributed schemes can easily change the zone of protection based on knowledge of the substation topology and the state of breakers and isolators. While the classical schemes need all current transformers to have the same CT ratio, the modern ones can accommodate different CT ratios throughout the protected zone. This mismatch must be accounted for by the scheme. Communications based distributed bus protection schemes are available based on both proprietary and IEC 61850 solutions and use two types of devices (Figue2):

Peripheral units Central unit.

The testing of such distributed protection schemes depends on the type of peripheral and central units used in the implementation. Bus Differential Protection: Proprietary bus protection relays perform more functions than basic bus differential protection. These functions may also be distributed between the peripheral units and the central unit. The types of such functions can vary from one manufacturer to another and from one type of protection to another.

The central unit performs the main bus protection function depending on the selected operating principle differential or directional comparison. It also needs to determine the topology of the substation to define the zone of protection and make tripping decisions in case of failure of any of its associated breakers to trip. The peripheral units are also of different types depending on the implementation of the distributed bus protection scheme. The central unit is connected to the peripheral units using fiber cables that ensure broadband communications, while at the same time are not affected by any electromagnetic transients that may occur in the substation. One of the most important requirements for such distributed differential protection applications is the synchronization of the data acquisition by the peripheral units. In some proprietary solutions the central unit sends frames simultaneously over the optical fibers to ensure that the sampling is synchronized at all peripheral units. They received the data at the same instant and this reception signal starts the acquisition of the current signals. The main signal processing algorithms may include:

Flux calculation and prediction algorithm to detect CT saturation Zero sequence supervision Detection of signal variation Local threshold to block busbar protection on external fault

All this information is transmitted to the central unit together with the sample of current (magnitude and angle), so that the central unit can sum all currents, thus calculating the differential current and making a decision if a fault is within the zone of protection. Peripheral units also can handle much better saturation of a current transformer that may result in an undesired relay operation for external faults. The algorithms for CT saturation detection are executed in the peripheral units. Different algorithms are being implemented individually or in combination. For example, it calculates the derived current and compares it to the magnitude of the waveform based on a maximum variation between two successive samples defined as a function of the sampling rate. IEC 61850 Based Bus Differential Protection: If the distributed protection scheme is differential protection in an IEC 61850 sampled values based implementation, the peripheral unit is a merging unit publishing a stream of current samples used for the calculation of the differential current by the central unit.

The peripheral unit in this case is an IEC 61850 merging unit. Since the merging unit as a peripheral unit of the bus differential protection is not synchronized by the central unit, but the sampling is synchronized by time, accurate time synchronization of all merging units is essential for the implementation of the protection scheme. The recently published standard IEEE C37.238 profile of IEEE 1588 for precision time synchronization for power system applications will be the preferred method to be used, since it does not require a dedicated time synchronization network (Figure 1). The requirements for testing of the peripheral unit in this implementation will also depend on the use of conventional or non-conventional instrument transformers. In the first case, the inputs to the merging unit are typically 1 or 5 A current and 120 V voltage inputs. In the second case the interface between the current sensor and the merging unit is usually proprietary and not available, which makes the peripheral unit the combined sensor/merging unit block. The central unit subscribes to the sampled values from all merging units defining the zone of protection, calculates the differential current and determines if there is a bus fault. The tripping of the breakers can be based on hard wired signals to the breakers or on GOOSE messages that the breaker control units subscribe to. Directional Comparison Bus Protection: If the bus protection is based on a directional comparison principle, the peripheral unit is responsible for the directional detection published using IEC 61850 GOOSE messages. The use of superimposed components directional detection has a significant impact on the high speed performance of the scheme, but also due to the operating principle, requires proper simulation for the testing of the peripheral unit. This method is based on the sign of i and v. If the fault is in the forward direction, i and v have opposite signs, while for a reverse fault, they have the same sign. Some relays use the product of i and v, i.e., the transient

power or even further integrate this transient power over a certain period of time directly after the fault inception to derive the transient energy. The peripheral units send a GOOSE message with an incremented event number every time when the direction changes. The central unit subscribes to the GOOSE messages from the peripheral units defining the zone of busbar protection and makes a decision if there is a bus fault. The tripping of the breakers can be based on hard wired signals to the breakers or on GOOSE messages that the breaker control units subscribe to. Testing of Distributed Bus Protection Systems

The testing of modern bus protection systems can be similar to those of conventional systems, when a centralized bus differential system is used. It will be quite different for the various cases of the distributed bus protection systems described above. That will require the use of a distributed testing system that can properly simulate the substation environment under different normal and abnormal conditions. The test system will also be different depending on the type of test being performed. Acceptance testing will require different tests compared to commissioning or maintenance testing. The method for distributed bus protection also has an impact on the testing used on the bus protection system. The testing of the distributed bus protection systems described in this article must follow the functional hierarchy of the system. Since no protection device can perform as expected, if there is any problem with the analog signal processing modules, it is clear that the testing needs to start with the peripheral units, followed by the testing of the complete system. Testing of peripheral units: The analog signal processing is the first critical step in the testing of a peripheral unit. The only problem is that the data bus of the device is usually not directly accessible or visible through the relay communications or user interface. That is why an indirect method is recommended. We first have to configure the testing software to generate pure sinusoidal waveforms of balanced currents and voltages with their nominal values and no phase shift (zero degrees) between the currents and voltages in the same phases (as shown in Figure 4). Then we record the applied waveforms with the tested unit, extract and analyze the records, which allows us to evaluate if there is any problem with the analog signal processing. Using any COMTRADE viewer to analyze the waveform record extracted from the relay will immediately show us if there are any deviations from the expected sine waveform, if there is any phase shift or if the amplitude is different from the expected value. COMTRADE viewers are usually readily available as part of the relay software or the testing software itself. They also typically calculate and display the magnitude and phase angles of the currents and voltages. So just by looking at these values and comparing them with the expected nominal values and balanced phase angles, it is easy to determine if there are problems with the analog signal processing of the tested device. This step does not have to be used every time because it takes some time, and it also requires the availability of COMTRADE viewer and communications with the relay in order to extract the recorded waveforms. A much easier way of detecting potential problems in the analog signals processing is the testing of the measurements as described in the next section. Testing of the measurement functions: The testing of the measurement functions of the relay is the next step. It can use the same set up as described in the previous section, at least as the initial measurements test condition. This test does not require the use of relay communications, since the relay measurements are normally available through the front panel user interface. The measured phase currents and voltages in this case need to be as close as possible to the nominal balanced values applied to the relay by the test device (within the accuracy range specified by the relay manufacturer). The positive sequence measurements should be within tolerance of the phase values. Since the applied phase currents and voltages are balanced, the measured negative and zero sequence values should be close to zero (again within the expected tolerance range). At the same time the power factor should be close to 1 and the frequency close to the nominal frequency of the applied signals to the relay. Depending on the measurements available in the tested relay, it is quite simple to calculate the nominal balanced values and to compare and see if the measured values are within the expected range and tolerance. To check the accuracy of the relay measurements at sub-nominal levels, we can configure the test software to apply 10% or 1% of the nominal values and follow a similar procedure to the one described. If the tested peripheral units pass these tests, they can be tested together with the central unit as a bus differential protection system. Testing of merging units: Since merging units are an essential component of the IEC 61850 process bus based bus differential protection, they have to be tested to ensure that they provide the required sampled measured values. The currents and voltages applied to the merging unit will be based on current and

voltage waveforms produced from the test device in order to simulate different system conditions, such as high current faults or low current minimum load conditions. We need to keep in mind that the standard allows different sampling rates and in order to support interoperability today's merging units shall support the sampling rate defined for protection functions in IEC 61850 9 - 2 LE - 80 samples/cycle in 80 messages/cycle. The evaluation of the performance of the merging unit thus should be based on a comparison of the test waveforms with the sampled values from the merging unit received by an IEC 61850 9-2 client or recorded by the central unit of the bus protection system. Modern primary injection test devices allow us to inject test signals on the primary side of CTs and VTs while simultaneously recording the corresponding sampled values data stream. This allows to analyze the sampled measured values generated by the merging unit in a closed loop manner (Figure 5a/b). Testing of directional detection devices: The testing of different functions in IEDs that are used for directional detection in the distributed directional comparison bus protection system follow some of the steps described earlier - the testing of the analog signal processing and measurements, followed by the testing of the directional detection element (Figure 6). Since superimposed components algorithms provide the required high-speed operating time, transient network simulation is used to generate the test signals applied to the tested device (Figure 8). The test system needs to subscribe to and monitor the GOOSE messages received from the tested directional detection device that represent the operation of the tested functional elements in order to determine if the devices operated as required. If the tested device has relay outputs as well, they can be wired into the test device and their operation (time tag) can be compared with the received GOOSE messages to compare the performance of communications based solutions to the hard-wired case. One may also retrieve the waveform records from the tested device and compare them with the original waveforms from the simulation tool. Figure 6 shows the system configuration for hybrid testing of a directional detection device that have relay outputs and at the same time support GOOSE messages. Testing of distributed bus protection: Depending on the type of test (type test, acceptance test, commissioning test, troubleshooting, or maintenance) the test depth of the overall system will differ. However, a substation is a critical element in the power system. Misoperation of the busbar protection due to faults not cleared fast enough or inadvertent tripping while the protection should have remained stable must be avoided. Therefore testing the complete system properly before implementing it or putting it into operation is very important. Basic tests of the bus protection system should include the verification of the following principles:

Stability for normal operating conditions Stability for faults outside the protected zone High speed operation for faults inside the protected zone

In addition to the verification of these basic cases, the simulation of other phenomena might be necessary to consider:

Instable system conditions like power swing or out of step conditions Changing the directional conditions due to switching operations caused by normal system operation or clearance of faults in the system including autoreclosure events Protection behavior in case of overload conditions due to loss of other parts of the generation, transmission, or distribution system. CT saturation effects Breaker failure conditions Reset behavior of the directional elements

Other

The testing of a distributed bus protection system can be performed as an end-to-end testing at the substation. Considering the remote location of the peripheral devices - in the breaker cabinets in the substation yard, and the fact that each of the units will require different current signals for the realistic simulation of normal operating conditions, bus or external faults, it is clear that some form of synchronization will be required in order to perform the tests. Modern test equipment provides means to synchronize the test signals to GPS time, IRIG-B/PPS signals, pilot voltages, and binary events to accomplish such synchronized testing tasks. While testing the distributed bus protection in the field may require synchronization between different test devices, tests in the laboratory often can be performed with simpler setups using equipment that can directly control a high number of current and voltage sources. Figure7 shows the test setup for the testing of a distributed bus differential protection using IEC 61850 process bus for laboratory tests. For testing in the field, depending on the distance between the circuit breaker cabinets, one test set is used to apply currents and voltages to each of the merging units used as peripheral units for the distributed differential protection. Figure 9 shows the test setup for the testing of a distributed bus differential protection using IEC 61850 process bus in the field. In order to ensure accurate time synchronization, each of the test devices used as part of the test system in this case are connected to a GPS receiver. All devices are connected to the Ethernet switch that in this case serves as the substation IEC 61850 9-2 process bus. The central unit subscribes to the sampled measured values from all merging units that cover the required zone of protection. Each of the test devices is programmed to apply the test simulation signals that correspond to the three phase current and if required, voltage phasors for the test cases described above. Simultaneously the test devices receive and monitor the GOOSE messages and binary signals in order to assess the proper behavior of the system. While for testing the bus differential protection simulating currents often is sufficient, it requires the simulation of currents and voltages for testing the directional comparison scheme. For commissioning, final wiring and configuration checks with primary injection tests are recommended. However, since it is difficult and costly to time synchronize multiple primary current injection sources it is state of the art to check the single components of the system and evaluate the correct overall configuration after the bus has been put into operation. Sidebars: Modern distributed bus protection systems offer some significant advantages compared to conventional bus differential protection devices. Modern distributed bus protection systems require different methods for testing to ensure their correct operation for bus or external faults. The superimposed components detection has a significant impact on the high speed. Modern primary injection test devices allow us to inject test signals on the primary side of CTs and VTs. This allows us to analyze the sampled measured values generated by the Merging Unit in a closed loop manner. Figure 7: The test setup for the testing of a distributed bus differential protection using IEC 61850 process bus for laboratory tests. Communications based distributed bus protection schemes are available based on both proprietary and IEC 61850 solutions. Figure 9: To ensure accurate time synchronization, each of the test devices that are used as part of the test system in this case are connected to a GPS receiver.

Biographies Boris Bastigkeit (IEEE, OVE) was born in 1969 in Kempton Park / South Africa. He grew up in Austria. Boris received a degree in communications engineering and electronics in 1989. As a young engineer he worked in the field of cable TV networks. Later his university education was focused on electrical power engineering and economics. He received his diploma (master degree) in electrical engineering at the Technical University of Graz (Austria) in 1998. He joined OMICRON electronics in Austria in 1997 where he started as project leader in development coordinating several projects in the field of protection testing solutions. Product management for protection testing products and sales were his next positions before he was appointed to his current position as head of product management in the field of testing solutions for protection and measurement systems in 2002. For the recent years he has been leading the product strategy process of Omicrons' Business Unit" dedicated to Testing Solutions for Protection and Measurement Systems". Boris is member of the business unit strategy board, and member of the extended business unit management team. He is the convener and national expert of the MR 95/ Austria, and member of the working group IEC TC 95 MT4.