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IEC 61850 communication based distance protection

Conference Paper · May 2014

DOI: 10.1109/EPE.2014.6839537

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 IEC 61850 Communication Based Distance
Protection
Kinan Wannous, Petr Toman
Brno University of Technology
Brno, Czech Republic
xwanno00@stud.feec.vutbr.cz, toman@feec.vutbr.cz

Abstract—IEC 61850 is the standard for communication
substation which determines new applications of protection based
on peer-to-peer communications between multifunctional
protection devices (IEDs). The GOOSE messages (Generic Object
Oriented Substation Event) can be used to replace the hard wired
control signals exchanged between IEDs for interlocking and
protection purposes. The idea is that the implementation of high-
speed peer-to-peer communications should be equal or better
than what is achievable by existing technology. The paper focus
on using IEC 61850 based protection relays and on possibility of
modeling of this processes in Matlab.
A specific feeder as an example is not physically connected to
a protection device anymore. It can be located anywhere in the
system to protect a specific feeder. As a result it might be
possible to have spare equipment connected to the substation
network. In the case of a failure of one protection relay it might
be possible from remote to load the spare relay with the
specific set of parameters from the failed relay. So a failed
device can be replaced with a spare without the immediately
need to send someone to the substation.

Keywords—IEC 61850 Application; Comparing of GOOSE

technology with conventional technology; Advanced distance
protection

I. INTRODUCTION
The IEC 61850 standard Communication Networks and
Systems for Substation Automation allows utilities to consider
new designs for substations applicable for both new substation
and refurbishments. The levels of functional integration and
flexibility of communications based solutions bring significant
advantages in costs in all stages of a project. This integration
affects not only the design of the substation but almost every
component and/or system in it such as protection, monitoring
and control by replacing the hardwired interfaces with
communication link. The paper focus on design of protection
element based of IEC 61850 communications: GOOSE
message, (SV) sample value. IEC 61850 will have an effect on
protection from many sides: IEC 61850 can replace the analog
signals from CTs and VTs with serial communication based on
new technologies like optic sensor. The hardware and software
design of protection could change input/output of protection
equipment and the wiring between relays can be removed.
II. DESIGN OF PROTECTION ELEMENTS WITH IEC 61850
The elements of distance protection relay and principle
according to IEC 61850 is shown on Fig.1 where PTRC
(protection trip conditioning), TCTR (current transformer),
TVTR (voltage transformer), PDIS (different zone for distance
protection function), XCBR Interface to the circuit breaker) are
parts of the model. The LN ATCTR (current transformer) and
ATVTR (voltage transformer) are the interface of measured
current and voltage. They achieve to conversion analog signal
to digital [4]. All information is available anywhere by using a
process bus to distribute the information within the substation.
The paper was prepared at Centre for Research and Utilization of
Renewable Energy (CVVOZE). Authors gratefully acknowledge financial
support from National Feasibility Program I of Ministry of Education, Youth
and Sport of the Czech Republic under project No. LO1210.
Fig. 1. Model of a relay for distance protection [4].
A. Connecting CTs and VTs with IEC 61850
With IEC 61850 can be replaced analog signal from CTs
and VTs to serial communication based on optical sensor but
also can be connected conventional instrument to
communication network by merging unit. It can in one
communication message transmit sampled values of three
voltages and the three currents [4].
Not only CTs and VTs can be connected with a
communication interface to the substation automation system.
Also switchgear equipment like circuit breakers can either be
equipped directly with a digital communication interface or be
connected through a remote I/O device. GOOSE messages can
be used to transmit a trip signal from the protection relay to the
circuit breaker. In that case we have a process bus that
completely decouples the bay level equipment like protection
relays from the process. A communication based process
connection provides besides the reduction of copper wires -
some additional advantages related to this. The wiring between
the IEDs interfacing the process (Merging units) and the
process may be done and tested during manufacturing [4],[9].

978-1-4799-3807-0/14/$31.00 ©2014 IEEE

 With other words instead of handling many wired
connections during engineering, commissioning and testing,
this is reduced to handle a few communication connections.
Further with the serial communication defined in IEC 61850 a
stream of digitized samples replaces the analog signal. The
representation of the values is independent from any specific
properties of the instrument transformer. The values are
transmitted with the data type integer or real. In the case of the
real representation the actual process value from the power
system without any scaling or rating is transmitted. In the case
of the integer representation the value is scaled; the scaling
parameters are included in the data model so that any receiver
can calculate the actual process value. As a consequence the
bay level equipment does not need to handle issues like the
rated values and the ratio of the transformers [4], see Fig. 2.
Fig. 2. Connection CTs and VTs with IEC 61850 [4]
B. Design and testing protection with IEC 61850
The first of all protection system should be part of the
substation system and responsible for the performance and
functionality of the system.
Then IEC 61850 functions are selected for a protection
relay. When design the protection schemes there is important to
know what information are exchanged between IEDs [4] as is
shown at Fig. 3.
Fig. 3. Wires replased by GOOSE message [4]
C. Achievement of Accelerated Schemes
In traditional relay there is used intermediate device for
transmitting the different signal (blocking or permissive)
between two sides of the protected line. How it works? The
first relay send signal to teleprotection device, then
communication device sends signal to other communication
device which it connected with relay in other side of the line.
This scheme is based on the available communication channel,
on the protocol of substation communication and on the
requirements of the application. Fig. 4 shows relay based
intermediate equipment.
Fig. 4. Intermediate equipment for transmitting signal [1]
The IEC 61850 can replace intermediate teleprotection by
using direct serial communication between the relays. The
availability of serial communications interface in later versions
of microprocessor based transmission line protection relays
allows the implementation of accelerated schemes without
using intermediate teleprotection devices. The exchange of
permissive or blocking signal in this case is using a proprietary
communications protocol between the relays at the ends of the
protected transmission line. This implementation has
advantages over the classical one described above due to
improvements in performance and reliability by eliminating the
hard wired interface between the relays and teleprotection
devices at the sending and receiving ends of the distributed
application [1]. An accelerated scheme implementation using
direct serial communications between the relays at both ends of
the protected transmission line is shown in Fig. 5.
Fig. 5. Serial communcation with Distance Protection [1]
The introduction of IEC 61850 as an international standard
for substation communications and the significant increase in
the availability of fiber optic cables between substations allows
a new way of implementation of accelerated schemes that
offers some important benefits. The specifics of each
implementation are still determined by the communications
available between the substations at the ends of the protected
line [1].
If power line carrier signaling equipment is available for
communications between the substations, the system will
logically be similar to the one shown in Fig. 3 but the hard
wiring between the relay outputs of the protection devices and
the inputs of the communications device are replaced with the
virtual connects using GOOSE messages. Several GOOSE
messages are required depending on the selected scheme as is
described below, see Fig. 6.
 To increase the reliability digital protection system includes
three stages:
• sampling of the input data,
• determining when protection starts,
• the implementation of protection.
Fig. 6. Communication of Relay Protection [3]
D. Comparing time between hard wire and GOOSE
accelerated schemes:
Numerous tests performed by different relay manufacturers
and test companies show that GOOSE based distributed
applications consistently outperform hard wired schemes with
the same functionality. This may look strange at the beginning
but as can be seen from the careful analysis of the factors that
determine the overall operating time of a distributed protection
function it is what should be expected. If we consider that the
breaker tripping and the communications exchange between
the two ends of the protected line are performed in the same
manner by the IEDs in both cases there is possible to analyze
the time from the operation of the directional element in the
sending relay and the resulting detection of the operation of the
optic input of the communications device at the sending end of
the line as well as the time from the receiving of the
accelerating signal and the resulting detection of it by the relay
at the receiving end.
In the conventional hard wired scheme this will include the
operating time of two output relays (each about 3 ms) plus the
two detections of the energization of optic inputs (depending
on the availability or lack of filtering and the scanning of the
optic inputs this time for each can be from 2 to 8 ms). If we
assume an average time of optic input with filtering of about
5 ms the total time at each end for the hard wired interface
between the relay and communication device is about 8 ms and
it is giving us a total time about 16 ms for both ends. If the time
between the directional element output and the communication
device detection of the GOOSE message is analyzed, according
to IEC 61850 it should be less than 4 ms at each end of the line,
giving us a total of about 8 ms for both ends. When both
solutions are compared the GOOSE based scheme is about
8 ms (half a cycle) faster than the hard wired equivalent. All of
the above has to be proven using testing of the accelerated
protection scheme, which in the case of IEC 61850 based
implementations will require some new tools compared with
the conventional scheme testing.
III. THE IEC 61850 STANDARD
IEC 61850 provides two communication principles.
GOOSE messages are used to replace the hard wired control
signals exchanged between IEDs for interlocking, protection
purposes, sensitive missions, critical time and highly reliability.
The information exchange is based on a publisher/subscriber
mechanism. The publisher writes the values in a local buffer at
the sending side; the receiver reads the values from a local
buffer at the receiving side. The communication system is
responsible to update the local buffers of the subscribers. The
GOOSE messages contain information that gives permission
the receiving device to know that an official position has
changed and the time of the last official position is changed.
The time of the last official position change gives permission
the receiving device to set local timers relating to a given
event. The associated IEDs are receiving the message
containing information to determine what the appropriate
protection response is for the given state. The appropriate
action to GOOSE messages is needed when a message timeout
due to a communication failure is determined by local
intelligence in the IEDs receiving the GOOSE message.
GOOSE message can extend possibilities of circuit breaker
failure protection to trip next breaker. Considering the
importance of functions performed by using GOOSE messages
IEC 61850 defines very strict performance requirements. The
total peer-to-peer time should not to be longer than 4ms and
high reliability is important requirement for the GOOSE
message. It must be repeated as long as state continues. Hold
time mean give the message time to live to take max
dependability and security. Sending message from devices
sending GOOSE message shall continue to send the message
with a long cycle time, whether no state/value change has
occurred. Reduce the network traffic during severe fault
conditions, the GOOSE message has been designed on the base
of the idea to have a single message that conveys all required
protection scheme information regarding an individual
protection IED. It represents a state machine that reports the
status of device in the IED to its peers.
A. IEC 61850 GOOSE Advantages
GOOSE replaces a complex network of hardwired
connections with an Ethernet network at the station level for
inter-IED communication. It causes reduced copper wiring cost
along with improved reliability, accuracy signal response and
fast than hardwired schemes for protection application like as
break failure protection, reclosing and load shedding. With this
result it can be used to improve the performance of control and
protection functions by satisfying the real time performance
requirement of these applications for which the transfer time
should not exceed 4ms. In the same way GOOSE service can
also be used for testing the performance of protective relays
applications. In GOOSE based system several virtual
inputs/outputs are available through software configuration
which improves functionalities and enables new to be added in
substations in near future. Further monitoring the status of
hardwired connections in traditional hardware based schemes
is a crucial and difficult task. In communication-based schemes
Ethernet enables supervision of GOOSE messages and virtual
connections for any abnormalities in the system. If any failure
of communication link found in any device or in
communication path it can be rectified automatically or
reported to substation operator for necessary action. Thus
GOOSE provides an opportunity to design new and innovative
protection applications that can support the self-healing
capability in substation automation system [9], [11].
in an advanced distance protection scheme used for
acceleration or adaptation of the relay to changing
configuration or system conditions. Distance protection logic
schemes are permissive and blocking schemes. The
multifunctional distance protection relays also perform
automatic functions such as multi-shot reclosing and local
backup protection such as breaker failure protection. To
achieve cleared fault from system is connected with many
conditions like, correct operation of the protection elements,
healthy secondary current and voltage circuits, and break trip
or close circuit [6], [7], see Fig. 7.

B. IEC 61850 Sampled Values

IEC 61850-9-2 Sampled Values can be used for applying
voltage and current signals to devices instead of using analogue
current and voltage from amplifiers. Maximum sample
transmission time for an IEC 61850-9-2 sampled value
message used for protection is typically specified less than 3ms
for sample rates faster than 480 samples/cycle. An IEC 61850
device referred to as a Merging Unit (MU) is used to transmit
sampled values derived from transducers using IEC 61850-9-2
messages over the process bus.
Messages sent by MUs may contain an arbitrary number of
current and voltage channels (phases) but the initial
implementations of 61850-9-2 send messages with
instantaneous 3-phase plus neutral voltage and current samples.
Arbitrary sample rates are permitted by IEC 61850-9-2. But
initial implementations of MUs commonly referred to as IEC
61850-9-2LE used for protection typically send samples
at 80 samples/cycle.
With the implementation of IEC 61850 communications in
the RTDS Simulator all signals are passed to and from the
protective relays via a separate station bus and process bus,
both based on Ethernet. The IEC 61850 GOOSE/GSSE facility
described in this paper allows up to 64 binary inputs and 64
binary outputs to be provided to as many as 8 different IED’s
(e.g. relays) from one device. Therefore the trip and reclose
signals plus the breaker status signals for the double ended line
protection tests can be provided by one Ethernet connection
representing a single station bus. An added Ethernet connection
is required for a process bus to pass up to 8 sampled value
(analogue) signals to each relay [5][8].
Fig. 7. Distance protection block diagram [7]
V. PROTECTIVE RELAY MODELLING
In the power system three-phase currents sensed by the
CT’s in the power system are noisy analog signals that must be
sampled, filtered and processed by the computer relay
instantaneously. An overcurrent relay model (see Fig. 8)
requires that instantaneous values of the three-phase currents
from the power system model are signal-conditioned (e.g. by
means of filters and other signal processing blocks) before
being inputted into the relay logic block. The digital filter is a
very important element of a digital relay. The behavior of
digital relays is directly dependent on the output of the digital
filter. After the digital filter the current signals are input to
another calculation block to extract the fundamental values
from the sampled input data. A full cycle discrete Fourier
transform (DFT block) is used to obtain the magnitude of the
Fundamental frequency component of each of the three current
signals.

IV. DEVELOPED DISTANCE PROTECTION WITH IEC 61850

The most important thing to excess distance protection to
clear faults immediately which can reduce the negative
influence of the fault on the substation devices. Analog input
module is a filter and processes the secondary currents and
voltages which supplies distance protection relay then analog
input module provides immediate sampled values to internal
digital bus. After that inputs of protection can be taken from Fig. 8. Block diagram of protection system using overcurrent relay
outputs of the measurement elements [8]. When a protection As previously noted the distance relay inputs are current and
element detects fault it operates and decides trip command to voltage analog signals. These signals must be sampled and
clear a fault. It may also interact with other protection elements converted to digital form. This conversion is done by the
Analog to Digital Converter (ADC). Once the magnitude of
the fundamental is computed by the DFT block a comparator
or relational element compares the absolute value of the relay
input signal with the pick-up setting to check the status of the
power system. If a fault exists in the protection zone of the
system, then the absolute value of the relay input signal is
greater than the pickup setting; otherwise it is smaller than the
pickup value. The output of the comparator is the “Trip”
signal for the circuit breaker, if fault exists within the zone of
protection. Once the relay detects the value of the fault
currents, a trip signal is sent to the circuit breaker and the
three-phase currents become zero.
The fault calculation algorithm used depends on the type of
the fault that occurs. The line to line (LL) fault, double line to
ground (DLG) fault and single line to ground (SLG) fault are
classified as unsymmetrical faults [2],[10]. The power system
for simulation purposes (Fig. 9) has been designed in
MATLAB SIMULINK. The SimPowerSystem provides the
necessary components to model the power system. The
system designed is symmetric one source system. Each of
the components of the three phase currents and voltages are
obtained. The components are sent to the relay subsystem,
which filters the high frequency harmonic components.
Fig. 9. One-line diagram of simulation system
The relay model has been designed and connected with the
main power system model with the help of the subsystem
tool in SIMULINK. This makes the overall model compact
and easy to observe during analysis (Fig. 10, Table I).
The results of the simulation are shown at Fig. 11 to Fig. 15.

Fig. 10. Simulink sub-system model

 TABLE I. MODEL PARAMETERS
° Ω
Three phase source block °
Value Unit
° Ω °
Source phase to phase voltage 400 kV
Phasor angle of phase A 0 degree
Nominal frequency 50 Hz
° °
Distributed line parameters block
Line length 75 km
Positive sequence resistance 0.0275 Ω/km ° °
Zero sequence resistance 0.275 Ω/km
Positive sequence inductance 0.001345 H/km ° °
°
Zero sequence inductance 0.003725 H/km
Fig. 15. Impedance - time development - detail
Positive sequence capacitance 9.483e-9 F/km
Zero sequence capacitance 6.711e-9 F/km VI. CONCLUSION
Load parameters
The paper describes introduction part of research focused
Active power P 200 MW
on development of digital distance protection function based on
Inductive reactive power QL 40 MVAr
standard PC platform. The first part of research is based on IEC
61850 properties and on possibilities of modelling in Matlab
software.
line voltage [V]

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