NUMERICAL RELAYS

An Approach To Modern Relaying..

ASHUTOSH BHATTACHARJEE DEPUTY MANAGER PROTECTION CELL, AEGCL GUWAHATI

WHAT IS A PROTECTION RELAY ??

1.

A protective relay is an electrically operated switch.

2.

Detect and isolate faults on transmission and distribution lines by opening and closing circuit breakers.
Relays allow one circuit to switch a second circuit which can be completely separate from the first. Relays help us to monitor, manage & control our Power System Network in an intelligent manner.

3.

4.

BASIC RELAY OPERATION

STAGE I : ELECTROMECHANICAL RELAYS

EARLY DESIGNS USING ELECTROMAGNETIC INDUCTION PRINCIPLE..

HOW DO THEY OPERATE ?

An electric current through a conductor will produce a magnetic field at right angles to the direction of electron flow. If that conductor is wrapped into a coil shape, the magnetic field produced will be oriented along the length of the coil. The greater the current, the greater the strength of the magnetic field, all other factors being equal.

The magnetic field produced by a coil of current-carrying wire can be used to exert a mechanical force on any magnetic object, just as we can use a permanent magnet to attract magnetic objects, except that this magnet (formed by the coil) can be turned on or off by switching the current on or off through the coil.

And a negative torque restrains rotation.

STAGE II : SOLID STATE OR STATIC RELAYS

THESE RELAYS CAME TO EXISTENCE IN LATE 70s & STARTED REPLACING THE EM RELAYS BY ELIMINATING THE SERIOUS PROBLEM OF HANDLING MOVING PARTS & BURNING CONTACTS.

Static relays require a very little volt-ampere for their operation.

HOW DO THEY OPERATE ?

In a solid state relay, the incoming voltage and current waveforms are monitored by analog circuits. The analog values are compared to settings made by the user via potentiometers in the relay, and in some case, taps on transformers. The incoming AC current is first converted into a small signal AC value, then the AC is fed into a rectifier and filter that converts the AC to a DC value proportionate to the AC waveform. An opamp and comparator is used to create a DC that rises when a trip point is reached.

THESE RELAYS MOSTLY USE REED CONTACTS. THEREFORE RELIABILITY IS PRACTICALLY ENHANCED.

DEFICITS WITH STAGE I & II

DEPENDABILITY & SECURITY NOT ENOUGH SPEED & ACCURACY NO SELF CHECKING FACILITY HIGHER BURDENS NOT IMMUNE TO VARIATION IN PARAMETERS OF

INDIVIDUAL COMPONENTS [CT/PT ETC.] CAN NOT BE PROGRAMMED IN ACCORDANCE WITH NEED HISTORICAL DATA STORAGE AND MANY MORE.

STAGE III : NUMERICAL RELAYS

These are microprocessor-based relays in contrast to other relays that are electromechanically or electronically controlled. These relays provide great precision and convenience in application in the sophisticated electronic products. By combining several functions in one case, numerical relays also save capital cost and maintenance cost over electromechanical & static relays.

The first protection devices based on microprocessors were employed in 1985. The widespread acceptance of numerical technology by the customer and the experiences of the user helped in developing the second generation numerical relays in 1990.
Today Numerical Relays are believed to be the heart & soul of balanced Power System Engineering.

Why Numerical Relaying ?

IN ADDITION :

OPERATION IN BRIEF

BASIC BLOCK DIAGRAM OF INTERNAL ARCHITECTURE OF A NUMERICAL RELAY

** NPR IS NUMERICAL PROTECTION RELAY

It is clear from the previous slide that Relaying Hardware of Numerical Relays can also be used for the measurement purpose.

Analog input is feed into the anti aliasing filter which is a low pass filter. Output of this filter is feed into the sample and hold circuit , frequency of sampling should be twice of our highest frequency of interest (according to the nyquist criterion). If sampling frequency kept low than aliasing input may occur. after the sampling, signal are feed into the multiplexer, where all the signal get multiplexed and we have a single signal. this signal is feed into the analog to digital converter. this digital signal is feed into the microprocessor and microprocessor generates control signal according to its input.
Newer technologies are becoming more complex to achieve a zero error status of operation of modern Numerical Relays.

IN ASSAM ELECTRICITY GRID CORPORATION LIMITED (AEGCL) PRESENTLY NUMERICAL RELAYS ARE MAINLY BEING USED FOR THREE DIFFERENT PROTECTION SCHEMES: -

1. DISTANCE PROTECTION 2. TRANSFORMER DIFFERENTIAL PROTECTION 3. BACK UP OVER CURRENT & EARTH FAULT PROTECTION
MAKE SIEMENS AREVA / MICOM TYPE OF RELAYS USED DISTANCE/DIFFERENTIAL DISTANCE/DIFFERENTIAL/ BACK UP

SWITZER ENGG. LTD.(SEL) TOSHIBA ABB GENERAL ELECTRIC

DISTANCE DISTANCE/DIFFERENTIAL DISTANCE/DIFFERENTIAL DISTANCE/DIFFERENTIAL /BACK UP

ABB SIEMENS TOSHIBA

GE

SEL

MICOM / AREVA

A SNAPSHOT OF A FEW SOFTWARES USED FOR COMMUNICATING NUMERICAL RELAYS

DIGSI FROM SIEMENS ENERVISTA UR FROM GE

PROTECTION FEATURES OF NUMERICAL RELAYS

In this case also, the relay has many different functions in one single unit:
(i) DIFFERENTIAL PROTECTION WITH VECTOR COMPENSATION & ADAPTABILITY TOWARDS ANY AVAILABLE CT RATIO.

(ii) ADD ON STABILIZATION WITH INRUSH RESTRAIN (2ND & 3RD ) (iii) OVERFLUXING PROTECTION (iv) RESTRICTED EARTH FAULT PROTECTION (v) BACK UP O/C & E/F PROTECTION (vi) THERMAL OVERLOAD PROTECTION (vii)UNDERFREQUENCY / (dF/dT) PROTECTION

The micro-controller continuously monitors the magnitude of the phase current and the neutral current .whenever the phase current or the earth current magnitude exceeds the present value corresponding line / earth element will pick up and relay will trip after time interval calculated by the selected IDMT curves. Whenever the fault level exceeds the selected high set range, the relay will trip for high set, ignoring the selected IDMT curves. The timer logic is processed and after comparison with set time schedules, tripping signals are issued accordingly. The output relays are programmable. The relay rating (In) is field selectable either 1A or 5A. The relay has RS 485 com port which can be used with Modbus protocol for communication purposes. The auxiliary supply for the numeric relay is provided by a switch mode power supply unit with input voltage either AC or DC with a wide operating voltage from 21-130 volts or 85275 volts. And in case of AC, the power supply is designed operate from 45HZ - 65HZ. Again it is worth mentioning here that unlike EM relays no external connection is required for zero sequence current / voltage calculation . The relay micro processor does it internally saving substantial amount of complexity in the relay circuit.

Numerical back up protection goes way ahead in selecting any conventional operating curve suggested by IEC or any other organization.

EACH NUMERICAL RELAY IS PROVIDED WITH COMMUNICATION INTERFACE ENABLING IT TO CONNECT TO ONE OR MANY SUB-STATION LEVEL SYSTEMS OR EQUIPMENTS EITHER ON THE SUB STATION AUTOMATION BUS OR SUBSTATION MONITORING BUS. THESE COMMUNICATION PROTOCOLS ARE ALSO PUT IN USE FOR REMOTE OPERATION AND CONTROL OF THESE RELAYS.

IMAGINE HERE SITTING IN GUWAHATI WE CAN CONFIGURE / MONITOR A RELAY IN DIBRUGARH.