Power System Protection

- Veena R.J
veena@prdcinfotech.com

Power Research and Development

Consultants Pvt Ltd
prdc@vsnl.com
Power Research & Development Consultants Pvt. Ltd. INDIA
Review of protection philosophy
Protective relaying
Need for protection
General Philosophy
Types of Relays
Protection schemes
Computer applications
 Protective Relaying
 What is protective Relaying?
Role of protective relaying in electric power
system design and operation can be
explained by observing the following
aspects
 Normal Operation
 Prevention of electrical failure
 Mitigation of the effects of electrical failure

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 Protective Relaying
Normal Operation -
 Choice between hydro steam or other power
sources
 Transmission of power to Loads
 Study of load characteristics and planning for its
future growth
 Voltage and Frequency regulation
 System Operation
 Normal Maintenance

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 Damage minimization
 To minimize damage to equipment and
interruption to the services
 To incorporate features of design aimed
at preventing failures
 To include provisions for mitigating the
effects of failures when it occurs

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 Preventing electrical failure
 Provision for adequate insulation Instantaneous
setting, overload and unbalance factors
 Co-ordination of insulation strength with
capabilities of lightning arrestors
 Use of Overhead ground wires and low tower
footing resistance
 Design for mechanical strength to reduce
exposure, and to minimize the likelihood of failure
causable by animals, birds, dirt sleet etc.

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Mitigate the effects of failure
1 Features that mitigate the immediate effects of failure
Design to limit the magnitude of short circuit current
Design to withstand mechanical stresses and heating
Time delay undervoltage relays on circuit breakers to
prevent dropping loads during momentary voltage dips
Ground fault neutralizers (Petersen coils)
2. Features for promptly disconnecting the faulty elements
Protective relaying
Circuit breakers with sufficient interrupting capacity
Fuses

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3. Features that mitigate the loss of faulty element
Alternate circuits
Reserve generator
Automatic re-closing
4. Features that operate throughout the period from the
inception of the fault until after its removal, to maintain voltage
and stability Protective relaying
Automatic voltage regulators
Stability Characteristics of generator
5. Means for Observing the effectiveness of the foregoing
features
Automatic oscillographs
Efficient human observations
record keeping
6. Frequent surveys as system changes or additions are made,
to be sure that the fore going features are still adequate

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Protective relaying is one of the several features of system design concerned
with minimizing damage to equipment and interruptions to service when
electrical failures occur.
“The capabilities of the application requirements of protective relaying
equipments should be considered concurrently with other features”
Functions of Protective relaying
• Prompt removal from service any element of power system when it suffers a
short circuit, or when it starts to operate in any abnormal manner that might
cause damage or other wise interfere with the effective operation of the rest of
the system
•Secondary function, to provide indication of location and type of failure
•Fundamental Principles of protective relaying
Unit protection
Graded Protection

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Primary Backup Protection
Primary relay may fail due to failure of any of the
following
Current or voltage supply to the relays
DC-tripping voltage
Protective relays
Tripping circuit or breaker mechanism
Circuit breaker
Desirable that the backup relaying be arranged such
that the cause for the failure of primary relay will
not also cause failure of backup relaying.

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 Functional Characteristics
 Sensitivity, selectivity and speed
 Reliability
 Sensitive – detection of short circuit or abnormal
condition
 Selectivity – ensure that only the unhealthy part of
the system is disconnected
 Speed – to prevent or minimize damage abd risk of
instability of rotating plants
 Reliability – to ensure proper action even after long
periods of inactivity and also after repeated
operations under severe conditions

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 Protective relays Operation
All relays used for short circuit protection and many other types also
operate by virtue of current and/or voltage supplied to them by current
and voltage transformers connected in various combinations to the
system element that is to be protected.

 For every type and location of failure there is a distinctive difference in

these quantities
 Magnitude
 Frequency
 Phase angle
 Duration
 Rate of change
 Direction or order of change
 Harmonics or the wave shape

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 Need for protection
Protection : Preventive control

Protection engineer deals with the precautionary measures to be

taken to safeguard the equipment during abnormal conditions

Damages caused
Loss of equipment
Loss of production
Revenue loss
Fire hazard, loss of life
Loss of confidence level in using electricity as a commodity

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 General philosophy
In the Protection field
Designs the system and sets the relays
Charges the system
Fault occurs
Primary relay operates/fails
Backup relay operates/fails
Has to face enquiry commission

Protection engineering deals with

Design equipment with higher withstand capability at less cost
Design of circuit breakers and isolating devices
Transducer (sensing devices)
Relay design
Relay application and co-ordination
Simulation and testing

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 How to achieve ?
1. Divide the system into protective zones
2. Isolate by circuit breakers
3. A typical power system protective zones are shown
below.

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Relay Co-ordination

Over Current and Distance Relay

Co-ordination
Introduction
Data requirements
Relay database organization
Co-ordination procedure
Primary backup relay pair generation
Fault analysis
Plug setting selection
Instantaneous selection
Time dial setting selection
Simulation and relay setting verification
Case study

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 Data Requirements
System specification data
Single line diagram of the system involved
Positive, negative and zero sequence impedance
values in pu for all series elements
Positive, negative and zero sequence impedance
values for shunt connection
Positive, negative and zero sequence impedance
values for generators and motors
Starting current and starting time of motors
Thermal curves for the motors

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 Relay Data
Over current relay, type, location, direction sense,
maximum load current, associated CT rating ,
discrimination time, existing settings if available for
verification

Instantaneous setting, overload and unbalance

factors

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 Relay Database
Manufacture name, relay name
Number of available current settings, plug setting
variation, time dial setting, characteristic
specification
Curve table (if any)
Instantaneous setting data

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Co-ordination Procedure
Primary Backup relay pair generation
Fault Analysis
Plug Setting
Instantaneous Setting
Time dial Setting
Motor protection relays

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 Relay Settings
Plug Setting
Plug setting is that value of current above which the
relay should operate. Plug setting is selected base on
maximum load current
Time dial setting
The time dial setting of the relay provides the
discrimination between the primary and backup relay.
The discrimination required between primary and
backup relay is approximately 0.4 seconds

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 Fault Analysis
Primary fault currents for all the relays is determined
Primary fault current (Closein fault current)

Bus1
Bus2
R2
R1

The current sensed by the relay R2 for a fault just in front of relay
(i.e., at Bus2) is the primary fault current
Backup current (Remote bus fault current)
Relay R1 is backing up relay R2, the current sensed by the backu
relay for a close in fault at the primary is the backup fault current
The current sensed by the relay R1 for a close in fault at R2 is the
backup current for this relay pair

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 Phase Plug Setting
Maximum Load Current
Overload factor
Plug Setting >= Maximum load current x Overload factor

Max. Load Current : 350 Amperes

Overload factor : 1.1
CT rating : 400/5 A
Relay Plug Setting : Phase 50 to 200% in steps of 25%
Phase Plug Setting
% Setting Current Remarks
50 200 <350x1.1
75 300 <350x1.1
100 400 >350x0.1, hence selected

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 Earth Plug Setting
Earth Plug setting
Maximum Load current
Unbalance factor

Plug setting >= Maximum load current x Unbalance factor

Example
Max. Load Current : 350 Amperes
Unbalance factor : 0.1 (10%)
CT rating : 400/5 A
Relay Plug Setting : Earth 10 to 40% in steps of 25%

Earth Plug Setting

% Setting Current Remarks
10 40 >350x0.1, Hence selected

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 Instantaneous Setting
Instantaneous setting = Factor x Remote bus fault current (Backup current)

For motor protection relays instantaneous setting is set above

the starting current

T
I
M
E

I
N

S
E
C
S Backup fault
level

Current in Amperes

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 Simulation & Setting Verification

 For the given settings fault is created at any

point in the system and the operating time
of all the relays are determined
 to verify that the relays in the vicinity of
the fault operate faster than the remote
relays
 To verify the tripping sequence of the
relays.

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 Case Study
Consider a radial system as shown below,
Data on common 100 MVA base
R1 R2 R3 R4
1 2 3 4 5

Generator data
For maximum fault level Xd = Xd’ = Xd” = 100/1000 = 0.1 pu
Minimum fault level Xd = Xd’ = Xd” = 100/500 = 0.2 pu
Generator fault level : Maximum : 1000 MVA and Minimum : 500 MVA
Transmission line data
Sl No From bus To bus X pu
1 1 2 0.1
2 2 3 0.1
3 3 4 0.1
4 4 5 0.1

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 Relay data
Sl No Relay Maximum
Name Load I (Amps) CT rating Relay Characteristics
1 R1 800 800/5 3 seconds relay
2 R2 400 400/5 3 seconds relay
3 R3 200 200/5 3 seconds relay
4 R4 100 100/5 3 seconds relay
The relay make is as follows,
Available pickup currents are 50 to 250% in steps of 25%
Maximum overload capacity = 100
Time dial setting variation 0.05 to 1.0 in steps of 0.01
Relay co-ordination

Primary Backup relay pairs

For the study the primary backup relay pairs considered are
Sl No Primary Backup
1 R2 R1
2 R3 R2
3 R4 R3

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 Fault calculation
Tabulation for maximum fault condition
Relay Imp Fault at Fault MVA Close in fault current in amperes
R1 0.1 1 1000 52486.388
R2 0.2 2 500 26243.194
R3 0.3 3 333.33 17495.288
R4 0.4 4 250 13121.590

Backup relay currents for each relay pair is the current sensed by the backup
relay for a close-in fault at primary relay.
Backup Relay currents
Sl No Primary Backup Fault bus Backup relay I in amperes
1 R2 R1 2 26243.194
2 R3 R2 3 17495.287
3 R4 R3 4 13121.590
The entries in the table is interpreted as,
For a close-in fault at relay R2 the current sensed by relay R1 is 26243.194 amperes.

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Plug setting
For relay R1 :
Load current = 800 amperes, CT = 800/5, Over load Factor = 1.0
Relay Name % Setting Primary Current Remarks
R1 50 400 Prim Current < Max Load Current
75 600 Prim Current < Max Load Current
100 800 Prim Current = Max Load, Hence Selected

Similarly for Other relays the Plug setting is set.

For relay R2 :
Load current = 400 amperes, CT = 400/5
Plug Setting = 400 Amperes

For relay R3 :
Fault Current = 13121.597 amperes, Load current = 200 amperes, CT = 200/5
Plug Setting = 200 Amperes

For relay R4 :
Fault Current = 10497.277 amperes, Load current = 100 amperes, CT = 100/5
Plug Setting = 100 Amperes

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 Time dial Setting
The time dial setting of the relay provides the discrimination between the primary and backup relay. The
discrimination time required between primary and backup relay is 0.4 seconds.
Initially all the relay TDS is set to minimum.
The TDS for relay R4 is minimum i.e., 0.05
Close in operating time is tclose = 3/log(M) x tds seconds
where, M = Close in fault current/Plug setting
M = (13121.597 / 100) = 131.21579
t = (3 / log(131.21579)) x 0.05 = 0.0708219 seconds
For the fault at R4, relay R3 should operate at a time
tback = tclose + discrimination time = (0.0708219 + 0.4) = 0. 4708219 seconds
The backup relay fault current for R3 is 13121.59
Plug setting multiplier M = (13121.59/200) = 65.60795
t = 3/log(M) = 1.6511 seconds at unity TDS
TDS for relay R3 = Actual Op. time/Op. time at Unity TDS
= (0. 4708219 /1. 6511)=0.28515=0.29 (rounded off)
Close in fault operating time for relay R3 is,
t = (3 / log(M)) x TDS
M = 17495.2877/200 = 87.476435
t = (3 / log(87.476435)) x 0.29 = 0.448 seconds

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R2 is backup for R3,
For a fault at R3, relay R2 should operate at, 0.448+0.4 = 0.848 s
Backup relay fault current = 17495.2877 amperes
M = 17495.2877/400 = 43.738
The operating time for R2 at unity TDS for a fault at R3 is
= 3 / log(M) = (3 / log(43.738)) = 1.8283
TDS for relay R2 = (0.848 / 1.8283) = 0.4638 = 0.47 (rounded)
The close in operating time for relay R2 = (3 / log(M)) x 0.47
M = (26243.194 / 400) = 65.6079
t = (3 / log(65.6079)) x 0.47 = 0.776 seconds
The operating time of relay R1 should be = (0.776+0.4) = 1.176 s
The backup relay current is 26243.194 amperes
M = (26243.194 / 800) = 32.8
t = (3 / log(32.8)) = 1.97898
TDS for relay R1 = (1.176 / 1.97898) = 0.5942 = 0.6
The close in operating time for relay R1,
M = (52486.388 / 800) = 65.6
t = (3 / log(65.6)) = 1.6511 seconds at unity TDS
t = 1.6511 x 0.6 = 0.99 seconds
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The settings for the relay are
Relay Plug setting Time dial setting
R1 800 0.6
R2 400 0.47
R3 200 0.29
R4 100 0.05

Simulation
Consider a fault just in front of relay R4, the current sensed by all the relays are
same i.e., 13121.597, the operating times of all the relays are tabulated

Relay Current sensed Operating time in seconds

R1 13121.597 1.4816
R2 13121.597 0.93
R3 13121.597 0.4788
R4 13121.597 0.0708

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