OUTLINE OF LESSON

1. Causes of occurrence of Faults

2. Consequences of occurrence of
fault
3. Design and operation features of
Power System
4. Functions of Protective Relaying
5. Fault Clearance System
6. Protection System Requirements
OUTLINE OF LESSON cont..
7. Zones of Protection
8. Primary and Back-up Protection
9. Causes of Failure of Primary Protection
10.Classification of Back-up Protection
11.Fault Clearing Time
12.Merits of High Speed Protection System
13.Computation of short circuit currents
Fundamentals of Power System
Protection

The purpose of an Electric Power System is

to generate and supply electrical energy to
consumers.The power system should be
designed and managed to deliver this
energy to the utilization points with both
reliability and economically
• The capital investment involved in power
system for the generation , transmission and
distribution is so great that the proper
precautions must be taken to ensure that the
equipment not only operates as nearly as
possible to peak efficiency ,but also must be
protected from accidents
• The normal path of the electric current is from
the power source through copper (or
aluminium)conductors in
generators,transformers and transmission
lines to the load and it is confined to this path
by insulation.
• The insulation , however, may break down,
either by the effect of temperature and age or
by a physical accident,so that the current then
follows an abnormal path generally known as
Short Circuit or Fault
• Any abnormal operating state of a power
system is known as FAULT.
• Faults in general consists of short circuits as
well as open circuits .
• Open circuit faults are less frequent than
short circuit faults, and often they are
transformed in to short circuits by subsequent
events
• In terms of seriousness of consequences of a
fault ,short circuits are of far greater concern
than open circuits,although some open
circuits present some potential hazards to
personnel
Consequences of occurrence of
Faults

• Expensive damage to the equipment due

to abnormally large currents, unbalanced
currents,or low voltages produced by the
short circuits
• Explosions which may occur in equipment
containing insulating oil during short
circuits and which may cause fire resulting
in serious hazard to personnel and to
other equipment
• Sever drop in voltage which is likely to cause
the individual generators in a power station
or a group of generators in different stations
to loose synchronism and fall out of step with
consequent splitting of the system
• A risk of synchronous motors in large
industrial premises falling out of step and
tripping out .
• Loss of revenue and inconvenience to
consumers
• Faults may be made infrequent by good
design of the power apparatus and lines:
incorporate features at the design stage
aimed at preventing failures.
• Include provision for mitigating the effects of
failure when it occurs.
• Some of the features of design and operation
aimed at preventing electrical failure of
insulation are as follows:
– Provision of adequate insulation
– Coordination of insulation strength with the
capabilities of lightning arresters.
– 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,insects,dirt,slit etc
– Proper operation and maintenance
practices.
Design and operation Features to
mitigate the effect Faults

• Features that mitigate the immediate effects of

an electrical failure
– Design to limit the magnitude of short circuit
current
• By avoiding a large concentration of
generating capacity
• By using current limiting impedances
• Design to withstand mechanical stresses and
heating owing to short circuit currents
• Time –delay under voltage devices on circuit
breakers to prevent dropping loads during
momentary voltage dips.
Features for promptly disconnecting
the faulty element

• Protective relaying
• Circuit breakers with sufficient interrupting
capacity
• Fuses
Features that mitigate the loss of
faulty element

• Alternate routes
• Reserve generator and transformer
capacity
• Automatic reclosing of circuit breakers
The Function of Protective
Relaying

• The function of the protection system is to

operate the correct circuit breakers so as
to disconnect only the faulty equipment
from the system as quickly as possible
,thus minimizing the trouble and damage
caused by the faults when they do occur
Fault clearance system

• The basic task of the fault clearance

system is to detect a specified class of
power system faults and abnormalities
and to disconnect the associated faulty
element of the power system from the rest
of the power system
FAULT CLEARANCE SYSTEM

Protection System

CT
Circuit
Protection Trip Breaker
VT Equipment coil Mechanism

TE

DC-System
Protection System Requirements

• The fundamental requirements for a

protection system areas follows:
– Reliability: the ability of the protection to
operate correctly. It has two basic
elements-dependability, which is the
certainty of a correct operation on the
occurrence of a fault,and security ,which is
the ability to avoid incorrect operation
during faults.
– Speed: minimum operating time to clear a
fault in order to avoid damage to equipment.
– Selectivity: maintaining continuity of supply
by disconnecting the minimum section of the
network necessary to isolate the fault.The
property of selective tripping is also
called.”discrimination”and is achieved by two
general methods:
– Time graded systems
– Unit sustems
– Cost: maximum protection at the lowest cost
possible
Typical power/time relationship
for various fault types
Zones of Protection

• An electric power system is divided in to

zones of protection.Each zone of protection
contains one or more components of a power
system in addition to two circuit breakers.
• For a fault with in the boundary of a zone, the
protection system responsible for the
protection of the zone acts to isolate (by
tripping CBs)every thing with in that zone
from the rest of the system.
• The circuit Breakers are inserted between
the component of of the zone and the rest of
the power system. Thus, the location of the
CBs help to define the boundaries of the
zones of protection.
• The neighboring zones of protection are
made to over lap so as to ensure that no
part of the power system remains without
protection.However,occurrence of fault with
in the overlapped region would trip more
number of circuit breakers than the minimum
necessary to disconnect the faulty element
 Zones of Protection

Zone 3

Zone 5

Zone 1 Zone 2 Zone 4

Overlapping zones
of protection systems
Overlapping of adjacent zones of protection
Division of power
system into
protection zones
Primary and Back-up Protection

• Primary Protection
– The primary protection scheme ensures
quick and selective clearing of the faults
within the boundary of the circuit element it
protects. Primary Protection as a rule is
provided for each section of an electrical
installation.
Causes of Failure of Primary
Protection

Primary Protection may fail because of failure

in any of the following:
1.Current or voltage supply to the relay.
2.D.C.tripping voltage supply
3.Protective relays
4.Tripping circuit
5.Circuit Breaker
 FAULT CLEARANCE SYSTEM

Protection System

CT

Circuit
VT Trip
Protection Breaker
coil
Equipment Mechanism
TE

DC-System
Back-up Protection

• Back-up protection is the name given to a

protection which backs the primary
protection whenever the later fails in
operation.
• The back-up protection by definition is
slower than the protection
• The design of the back-up protection
needs to be coordinated with the design
of the primary protection
Classification of Back-up
Protection

• The back-up protection may be classified

as follows:
– Remote back-up.
– Relay back-up
– Breaker back-up
Remote Back-up Protection

• Remote back-up protection is the ideal

form of back-up protection, in the systems
where it can function properly.In remote
back-up protection, the main protection
and back-up protection reside in different
substations.
Illustration of remote back-up
protection
Advantages of remote back-up
protection

• Completely independent of the protection

relays, current transformers and voltage
transformers of the main protection system.
• Independent of the auxiliary DC supply
system and the circuit breakers in the
substation.
• There are hardly any hardware failure that
can affect both the main protection and back
up protection.
Relay Back-up Protection

• Relay back-up means literally the

duplication of main relays and their CTs
and PTs etc.
• Duplication of the normal relays would
provide back-up without time delay
because they would work in parallel
Local Back-up: Duplication of CTs
and Relays
Breaker back-up

When a relay operates because of a fault but

breaker fails to trip, the fault can be regarded as
a bus fault and necessitates operating of all the
breakers on that bus .The breaker back-up
Protection comprises of a time delay relay
operated by the main relays and connected to
trip all the other breakers on the same bus.
Breaker back-up protection
Fault Clearing Time

Fault clearing time comprises of the

following

1.Protection system operating time

2.Circuit Breaker operating time

Merits of High Speed Protection
System

1. Reduction in amount of damage to the

system.
2. Improves transient stability of the
system.
3. Improves the conditions for pulling
motors into synchronization and allows
them to self restart.
3. Ensures maintenance of normal
operating conditions in the unfaulted
portions of the system.
4. Decreases the power supply outage time
of consumers.
COMPUTATION OF SHORT
CIRCUIT CURRENTS

The current that flows through an

element of a power system is a
parameter which can be used to detect
a fault, given the large increase in
current flow when a short circuit occurs.
Short circuit current computation is required
for :
1. Protection settings
2. Selection of circuit breaker
3. Selection of conductor sizes
4. Design of substation earthing grid
Facors Affecting the Fault Currents
and Fault Voltages

• The fault current and fault voltage at

different parts of the network are
affected by the following:
– Type of fault
– Position of fault
– Configuration of the network.
– Neutral earthing
Classification of types of Faults

• Short circuited faults

• Open circuited faults
• Simultaneous Faults
Classification of hort circuited Faults

• Three phase faults (with or without earth

connection)
• Two phase faults (with or without earth
connection)
• Single phase to earth faults
Classification of Open Circuit Faults

• Single Phase open Circuit

• Two phase open circuit
• Three phase open circuit
The mathematical expression that defines
the behavior of the circuit is

d
it
()
v
()
t Rit
() L
dt
The Final solution of the differential equation is


 
R
V 
t
i
(
t)[
m
a
x
si
n(
t 

)
si
n(
)
e ] L
Z
Where

Z RL 2 2 2
 = The closing angle, which defines the
point on the source sinusoidal voltage
when fault occurs.

L 
ta
n 
1

 R
It can be seen that in final current expression,
the first term varies sinusoidally and the
second term decreases exponentially with time
constant of L/R.
- When 
2
initial maximum value of the decaying DC
component.

- When  
DC component has zero value.
Typical relay tripping circuits
Trip circuit supervision circuits.