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Testing Directional Overcurrent Relays

In the previous post about Directional Overcurrent relay (67) testing (Finding the
Direction in Directional Overcurrent Relays), we reviewed Directional Overcurrent
protection from a system perspective to enhance the descriptions in The Relay
Testing Handbook: Principles and Practice orThe Relay Testing Handbook #1:
Electrical Fundamentals for Relay Testing. Well be looking at Directional
Overcurrent relays from a testing perspective in this post.

Successful Directional Overcurrent tests have three parts:

1. Your current must be above the pickup setting.

2. Your current must be in the correct direction.

3. You must have a polarizing

88signal.
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A traditional relay tester, or automated testing software, will often apply a test scenario like the
following:

Channel Magnitude Angle Instruction

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Ia > Pickup setting 0 (default) Raise until pickup

This test plan may work depending on the sophistication of the relay, but theres a pretty good
chance that the pickup tests will work, and the timing test will fail. In this scenario, you might get
frustrated and start disabling the directional function, or start looking for the non-directional relay
denitions so you can map them to a test output. Lets take a closer look at your test plan before
you, or your test software, head down that path.

Based on the drawing of your test plan, it looks like youve met the rst two criteria for a successful
Directional Overcurrent test:

1. The current is greater than the pickup setting.

2. The current is in the tripping direction. (Not in the shaded area)

But do you have a polarizing signal?

Testing Directional Overcurrent Relays That UsePhase-

to-Phase References
Imagine that I asked you for directions to your favorite restaurant after dark. You could give me
directions like, If you head north for ten blocks and then east for three blocks, youll nd the best
BBQ in the county. Your directions are perfect, but Ill be hungry until I nd a compass or someone
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to give me a reference like, North is that way. However, if you said, Turn right-for ten blocks and
then turn right for three more blocks, Ill be eating the best BBQ in no time.

Directional relays need a reference to work correctly, and that reference is called the polarizing
signal. The Directional Overcurrent element needs a polarizing signal to operate reliably; otherwise
anything could happen depending of the sophistication of the relay.

Most electro-mechanical relays, and GE relays like the one from The Relay Testing Handbook example,
use the phase-phase voltage from the two un-faulted phases as a polarizing signal. You could drive
yourself crazy trying to gure out how to apply the test and phasor diagrams from older relay
manuals to modern test-sets.

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Or you can test all relays that use the un-faulted voltages as a polarizing signal by simply applying
three-phase balanced voltages as shown in this phasor diagram from the previous post. We added
the B-C phase-phase voltage to the drawing, which is the polarizing voltage this style of relay uses.

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If we rotate the standard phasor diagram by 90 and add the same labeling used by the relay
bulletin drawings, we can see that simply adding voltage will allow us to successfully test every relay
of this type.

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Channel Magnitude Angle Instruction

Ia > Pickup setting 0 (default) Raise until pickup

Va Nominal V 0

Vb Nominal V -120

Vc Nominal V 120

Testing Directional Overcurrent

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Relays
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That-Use
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Negative SequenceReferences
Unfortunately, not every relay uses phase-phase voltages as a polarizing signal. Some relays use the
negative sequence voltage as the polarizing signal. Negative sequence voltage can be simplied to
mean unbalanced voltage (You can get more information in the Sequence Components section of
The Relay Testing Handbook: Principles and Practice or The Relay Testing Handbook #1: Electrical
Fundamentals for Relay Testing). Are the voltages unbalanced in the previous test plan?

You can tell by graphically adding the three voltages together, or with the negative sequence
formula.

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The negative sequence, or unbalance voltage, is zero in a balanced system. Therefore, our previous
test plan will not have a polarizing signal on relays that use negative sequence polarizing.

We can x this problem by thinking about what happens during a phase-to-ground fault.

What happens to the faulted voltage? The faulted voltage will drop; how much it drops depends on the
severity of the fault. The worst possible fault would drop the fault voltage to near zero, but most faults
wont be that severe. We can cut the faulted voltage in half to simulate a phase-to-ground fault.

What happens to the faulted current? The faulted currents will jump to a higher value, and we know from
the relay settings how much current we need for the relay to detect a fault. Set the fault current at least
110% of the relays pickup setting.
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What happens to the other voltages and currents thatarentfaulted?They would change slightly during
a real fault, but you would need some modelling software to gure out how much. We can assume that
they dont move, like textbooks do, for testing purposes.

If we alter our test plan to better simulate a fault, it would look like the revised plan below.

Channel Magnitude Angle Instruction

Ia > Pickup setting 0 (default) Raise until pickup

Va One-half V 0

Vb Nominal V -120

Vc Nominal V 120

A plan to Test any Directional Overcurrent Relay

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Now our Directional Overcurrent (67) test plan looks like the following drawing where we start with
the raw currents and voltages, calculate the non-faulted phase-to-phase voltage, and plot the
operating current and polarizing signal, which in this case is VBC. This test plan has a good chance of
being successful because we have an operating signal and a polarizing signal.

These drawings look at the same test plan for a Directional Overcurrent (67) element that uses
negative sequence voltage. We start with the raw currents and voltages, then calculate the negative
sequence voltage, and then plot the operating current and polarizing signal (V2). This test plan has a
good chance of being successful because we have an operating signal and a polarizing signal.

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We appear to be in good shape for most Directional Overcurrent (67) applications. However, there
will be times when this test plan will not work. What are the odds that a phase-to-ground fault
will be 100% resistive? The answer is never. Actually, there are almost no purely resistive systems
as we discussed in the previous article, so our test current at zero degrees can cause problems,
especially near generation systems like wind farms that can have crazy characteristics or very high
voltage (>115kV) applications. Some relays have an operating characteristic like the following picture:

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Notice that our test current is right on the edge of the reverse direction. This means that it is a coin
toss whether the relay will operate or not. We can ensure the relay always operates by setting the
faulted current to a fault angle that would happen in the system. You can choose a good fault angle
using one of these methods:

Most modern relays have a positive sequence angle setting that de nes the expected fault angle. Set the
fault angle to that setting.

If you have a good understanding of fault characteristics, you could guess the fault angles.

A very high voltage system (>115kV) will have a characteristic near 90 degrees, so you could safely
choose a fault angle of 87.
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A high voltage system (>69kV) will have a fault angle closer to 75.

A distribution system (>34kv) will have a fault angle closer to 60.

A medium voltage system will have a fault angle closer to 45.

You can never go wrong with a fault angle of 60 or 75. This is what electro-mechanical relays used
because their options were limited and they needed a good average.

Our test will work for all common characteristic angles if we modify it to include the phase angle
during a fault.

Channel Magnitude Angle Instruction

Ia > Pickup setting 75 (or fault angle) Raise until pickup

Va One-half V 0

Vb Nominal V -120
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Vc Nominal V 120

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Directional Overcurrent Relay Test Plan Summary

Testing Directional Overcurrent (67) elements is almost as simple as testing standard Overcurrent
(50/51) elements as long as you properly simulate a fault. I used to occasionally run into problems
when testing Directional Overcurrent (67) elements using traditional testing techniques. I would
spend a lot of unnecessary time trying to gure what went wrong as I said to myself, I know Im

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doing it right, why wont this relay work right!!! Now I always follow these steps before running any
test:

Connect all currents and voltages

Choose the fault type to apply

Apply nominal balanced three-phase voltages

Cut the fault voltage in half

Raise the fault current more than 110% of the pickup setting

Make sure the fault current lags the fault voltage by the fault angle or 75

Modern testing equipment makes this easy, which means you can spend more time understanding
the application so you can become a true relay testing craftsman.

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post more free content.

Add your comments for Directional Overcurrent relay (67) testing in the comments section, start a
new topic by becoming a TechTalk Contributor, or you can ask me questions about other topics with
the Ask Chris form.

Happy Testing!
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About the Author Chris Werstiuk

Chris is an Electrical Engineering Technologist, a Journeyman Power
System Electrician, and a Professional Engineer. He is also the
Author of The Relay Testing Handbook series and founder of Valence
Electrical Training Services. You can nd out more about Chris
here.

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Related Posts

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Finding the Direction in Directional Overcurrent Relays

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Good Directional Overcurrent Protection (67) Video

02 Aug, 2012

SEL Test Procedure Negative-Sequence Volt-Pol Directional

Overcurrent Element

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