GET-7201

Introduction

The Art of Protective Relaying

PROTECTIVE

RELAYING

Contents

THE POWER SYSTEM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

THE FUNCTION OF RELAYS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Back-upRelaying . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
DEFINITION AND BASIC TYPE OF PROTECTIVE RELAYS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

4
5

Electromagnetic. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
StaticElements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

REQUIREMENTS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

RELAY
RELAY

SYSTEM

CHARACTERISTICS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Overcurrent Relays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Directional Relays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Current-balance Relays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Differential Relays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Wire-pilot Differential Relays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

7
7
8
8
8

Distance Relays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Carrier-pilot Relaying . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Combination Characteristics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

9
9
9

APPLICATION.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

The Basic Approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Generators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Transformers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Unit Generator-Transformer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

10

Bus Protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Transmission Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Pilot Relaying . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Wire-pilot Relaying . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Carrier-pilot Relaying . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Transferred Tripping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Multi-terminal Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
EHV Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Breaker Back-up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Subtransmission Lines and Distribution Circuits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Utilization Apparatus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Miscellaneous Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

10
11
11
12
13
13
13
13
14
14
15
15
15
16
16

INTRODUCTION

An Introduction to Protective Relaying

Modern electric power systems are re- eration. This may be accomplished in two
markably dependable, standing ready ways. The first way is by design and
night and day to deliver their energy maintenance of each component to prewithout interruption. Protective relays vent any failures which would destroy
have an important part in assuring this the components usefulness in the power
continuous service. Always on guard, they system. Since the economic considerations
react instantly to protect the system from of design and maintenance procedures
damage and to minimize any service allow this course to proceed only so far,
interruption.
a second course must be followed: to
control and minimize the effects of any
failures that do occur. This is where the
THE POWER SYSTEM
protective relay fits into the power sysTo understand better how protective tem. The protective relay is the device
relays fit into the modern power system, which operates to disconnect a faulty part
let us first review the makeup of that of the power system, thereby protecting
system. A power system is designed to that part and the remainder of the
generate electric power of sufficient quan- system from damage.
tity to meet present and estimated future
There are a number of causes for the
demands of the users in some particular failure or breakdown of the various comarea, to transmit it to the area where it ponents of the power system. Faults or
will be used, and then to distribute it short circuits can occur between indiwithin the area. For normal operation, vidual phase wires or coils and between
these are minimum requirements.
a phase wire or coil to ground as a result
To insure the maximum return on the of a breakdown of the insulation prolarge investment in equipment which goes tecting them. The resulting electric arc,
to make up the power system, and to keep usually containing considerable power,
the users satisfied with reliable service, can wreak terrific damage in a very short
the whole system should be kept in op- time, not only putting that component

of the system out of immediate service

but also making it inoperable for a long
time. These faults or short circuits are
caused basically by insulation failure, but
the failure may be induced by such things
as voltage surges, overloading with subsequent overheating of apparatus, abrasion due to expansion and contraction, or
foreign matter in the apparatus. Transmission lines develop faults from such
causes as wind, ice and sleet, large birds
bridging the insulators, lightning, swinging tree limbs, crane booms, and many
other causes. Some of the other abnormal
conditions which impair a components
function in the power system are overheating of bearings, over or under speed,
reversed phase sequence, and single-phase
supply where three-phase power should
be present.
A power system can be thought of as
a chain, the links of which are the generators, the power transformers, the
switchgear, the transmission lines, the
distribution circuits, and the utilization
apparatus. The arrangement of these
links may be seen in Fig. 1. The failure
of any link destroys the capacity of the
3

PROTECTIVE RELAYING

POWER
TRANSFOMER

LOW-VOLTAGE
SWITCHGEAR

DISTRIBUTION
CIRCUIT

HIGH-VOLTAGE
SWITCHGEAR

FIGURE 1.

chain to do the work for which it was

intended.

Arrangement of power system links

specific portion of the power system being

protected. This information is then relayed in the form of a tripping impulse
One way in which the continuity of
to the circuit breakers, which isolate the
the chain can be preserved is to provide defective apparatus by interrupting the
alternate links. For example, the trans- flow of current from all sources.
mission lines, being exposed to the natural
Of course, the source of the relaying
elements, are much more vulnerable to
short circuit faults than the power trans- information, the instrument transformers,
formers and switchgear. Hence, alternate and the particular circuit breakers which
transmission lines may be economically are to be tripped by the protective relay
justified, whereas alternates for the power when it operates must be preselected.
transformers and the switchgear would This is done when the relay is applied to
not. The networks of power systems now the power system. For example, the inblanketing the United States are often strument transformers would be selected
interconnected at various points to ac- so as to indicate the flow of current into
complish this. Since each link in the chain the protected portion of the system and
involves a large investment in equipment, the voltage drop across that portion of
alternates are frequently prohibitively the system. The circuit breakers selected
to be tripped would interrupt all sources
expensive.
of current flow into the protected portion
of the system.

THE FUNCTION OF RELAYS

Protective relays are placed on the
system to reduce the number of alternate
links to a minimum. They do so by avoiding equipment damage or by limiting it
to the single unit that may be in trouble.
Quickly the relays locate the fault and
trip circuit breakers which will interrupt
the Aow of current into the defective
apparatus, thereby isolating it. The effect
of this quick isolation is twofold. First,
it minimizes, or prevents altogether, damage to faulted apparatus, thus reducing
the time and expense of repairs and
permitting quicker restoration to service.
Secondly, it minimizes the seriousness
and duration of the faults interference
with normal operation of the unfaulted
parts of the system, allowing them to
continue to supply their normal power.
In many cases, the unfaulted parts of the
power system can supply the additional
power to replace what was normally supplied through the faulted apparatus.
The protective relay gains the information it needs to locate a fault in the
form of currents and voltages from instrument transformers located on the
4

dition and to minimize the effect on the

remainder of the power system.
Ever-increasing system growth, heavier
line loadings, higher fault currents, and
increased numbers of generating stations
have all tended to make remote back-up
relaying ineffective. Remote back-up is
inherently slow, and when it does operate
it often disconnects more of the power
system than is necessary to clear the
fault. These conditions introduce problems of fault damage and system disturbance and indicate that faster back-up
relaying is necessary. This can be accomplished by placing the back-up relaying in the same location as the primary
relaying. Such protection is called local
back-up. Local back-up relaying should
be as completely separated from the primary relaying as is possible. This would
include control circuits as well as instrument transformers. Local back-up
This is an example of
the first line of defense. When the primary protection is often applied to protect
against failure of the primary relaying
relaying operates to trip its associated and also to protect against the failure of
circuit breakers, only the faulty element
the associated circuit breaker. It is aror the minimum portion of the power ranged for faster back-up tripping and
system is disconnected.
also to clear the fault by tripping the
minimum number of circuit breakers.

Back-up

Relaying

If a primary relay should malfunction

or a circuit breaker fail to operate when
needed, damage will result. Often, some
elements of the power system are so important and the extent of the possible
damage so great that supplementary relaying known as back-up relaying is
provided. Back-up relaying can be located on another element of the power
system, perhaps the next adjacent station. This will tend to prevent the same
cause from inducing simultaneous failure
of both the primary and back-up relaying. When so located, this type of relaying is called remote back-up. Backup relaying usually disconnects more of
the power system than just the part with
the faulty element, but this is necessary
in order to remove the abnormal con-

DEFINITION AND BASIC TYPE

OF PROTECTIVE RELAYS
To define a protective relay, we say
that if is a device which, when energized
by suifable currents, voltages, or both,
responds to the magnitudes and relationships of fhose currents and voltages to
indicate or isolate an abnormal operating
condition. Basically, the protective relay
consists of an operating element and a
set of contacts. The operating element
takes the information from the instrument transformers in the form of currents
and voltages, performs a measuring operation, and translates the result into
motion of the contacts. When they close,
the contacts either actuate a warning
signal or complete the trip circuit of a cir-

FIXED
CONTACT
MOVING
CONTACT -

ELECTRO-MAGNET

CONTACT\
ARMATURE

FIGURE 2.

Plunger

FIGURE 3.

construction

cuit breaker, which in turn completes the

isolation of the faulty element by interrupting the flow of current into that
element. The relay usually includes some
form of visual indicator to show that it
has operated.

current quantities. The other two basic

types, induction disk and induction cup,
are magnetic induction types wherein
torque is developed in a movable rotor
in the same way that it is produced in
an induction motor. Of course, this principle may only be applied with alternating-current quantities.
Electromagnetic
The plunger type of construction conThe operating elements for electrosists of a bar or cylinder armature which
magnetic protective relays can be classified according to their construction into is attracted axially into a solenoid coil.
The armature carries the moving portion
four basic types. These are
hinged armature, induction disk, and of the contact which meets a fixed contact
when the armature is picked up. A
induction cup.
sketch of this type of construction is
The first two basic types, plunger and shown in Fig. 2.
hinged armature, are magnetic attraction
types. In this type, the armature is atThe hinged armature construction,
tracted into a coil or to the pole face of which also includes cantilever and beam
an electromagnet. This principle may be types of construction, consists of a flat
applied with either alternating- or direct- plate or bar type of armature which

Hinged

armature

construction

pivots at a fixed point when attracted to

the pole face of an electromagnet. The
armature again carries the moving portion
of the contact which meets a fixed contact
when the armature is picked up. A sketch
of this construction is shown in Fig. 3.
The induction disk element consists of
a metallic disk of copper or aluminum
which rotates between the pole faces of
an electromagnet. There are two general
methods for actuating the induction disk
type of relay. One is the shaded pole
method, in which a portion of the electromagnet pole face is short circuited by a
copper ring or a coil to cause the flux in
the section to lag the flux in the unshaded portion. A sketch of this type of
construction is shown in Fig. 4. The other
operating method, known as the wattmetric type, uses one set of coils above
the disk and another set of coils below

MAGNET

UPPER
d--- --COIL
\

MOVING
CONTACT
- - D I S K

NG

FIGURE 4.

Shaded pole induction disk

LOWER COILS

FIGURE 5.

Wattmetric induction disk

.-

THE
ART OF
PROTECTIVE RELAYING

.l-l-

AIR GAP-

SHAFT

c3

FIXED 1
CORE

FIGURE 6.

CUP

Induction cup construction

the disk. A sketch of this type of construction is shown in Fig. 5. In either case,
the moving contact is carried on the
rotating shaft of the disk element as
shown in Fig. 4.
The induction cup element consists of
a metallic cylinder with one end closed
like a cup, which rotates in an annular
air gap between the pole faces of electromagnets and a central core. In its present
form the induction cup unit uses four or
eight poles spaced symmetrically about
the circumference of the cup. A sketch
of the induction cup type of construction
is shown in Fig. 6.

The selectivity of a protective relay is

its ability to recognize a fault and trip a
minimum number of circuit breakers to
Static Elements
The development of static semicon- clear the fault. The relays must select
ductor devices with a high degree of re- between faults in their own protected
liability such as transistors have led to equipment for which they should trip,
the design of protective relays which and faults in adjoining equipment for
utilize these components to produce the which they should not trip. Some relaying
required responses. Static relays are ex- schemes are inherently selective; that is,
tremely fast in their operation because they are unaffected by faults outside of
they have no moving parts, and they their own protected apparatus. An exhave response times as low as one-quarter ample of an inherently selective scheme
is differential relaying. Other types of
cycle. Circuits are designed to provide
relaying, which operate with time delay
the various functions of level detection,
for faults outside of the protected apphase angle measurement, amplification,
paratus,
are said to be relatively selective.
pulsing, squaring, timing and others.
Their selectivity is obtained by adjustThese circuits react instantaneously
to the inputs of current and voltage so ment of operating times and characteristics relative to the relays with which
as to supply the proper outputs for the
they are intended to be selective. If the
required characteristics.
relays
are of different types of characterAs an example of how a static relay
istics, it is especially important that secould measure the phase angle between a
lectivity be established over the full range
voltage and a current, refer to Fig. 7. The
of short circuit current magnitude.
voltage and current sine waves at the
top are supplied to separate squaring
amplifiers whose function is to convert
the sine wave to a square wave which is
CURRENT
I
zero during the negative half cycle and
provides a constant signal during the
positive half cycle. These square waves
are commonly called blocks, and can be
VOLTAGE
E
supplied to a comparer circuit in such a
way that an output is obtained only
when both signals are present. The duration of their overlap or the duration of
the comparer output is then a measure
1
L
12 -I
of the complement of the phase angle
%E
between the current and the voltage. In
VOLTAGE
I
actual practice it is usually the compleE2
BLOCKS
ment of the angle that is measured.

The plunger and hinged armature types

of construction have no inherent time
delay; hence they are used for functions
which require instantaneous operation.
The hinged armature type of construction, since it changes the length of its
magnetic air gap as it operates, inherently
produces a spread between the force
necessary to just pick up the armature
and the reduced force necessary to just
allow the armature to drop out again.
Therefore, its measuring qualities are
somewhat impaired. This is also true of
the plunger type of construction, but to
a lesser degree. The induction disk element is always used as a time delay
element because of the inertia of the
moving disk. The time delay feature is
added by means of a permanent magnet.
The disk rotates between the poles of
this magnet causing an induction drag.
Since the rotating parts of the induction
cup unit are of low inertia, this unit is
capable of high speed operation; hence
it is used for functions reouirine instan- RELAY SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
taneous operation. The multiplicity of
There are three characteristics required
poles also permits measurement of more by any protective relay to perform its
than one electrical quantity.
function properly. These are sensitivity,
6

selectivity, and speed. The relay must be

sensitive enough so that it will operate
under the minimum conditions expected.
In any power system at various times of
the day and during various seasons of the
year, the load supplied varies over rather
wide limits. To meet these changing requirements, various combinations of generating sources are switched in and out
of the system to provide the most efficient
mode of operation. The condition which
provides the minimum of generation is
often the criterion in deciding how sensitive the relay must be. Under these conditions, a short circuit fault would draw
the minimum current through the relay
for which it must be sensitive enough to
operate to effect removal of the fault.

TIMER

-I

-%%fER

kME M E A S U R E M E N T
OF PHASE ANGLE

FIGURE 7. Typical waveforms used in static

relay measuring operations

INTRODUCTION

The relay must also operate with the

proper speed. Of course, speed is essential
in clearing a damaged element of a power
system since it has a direct bearing on
the damage done by a short circuit and,
consequently, the cost and the delay in
making repairs. The speed of operation
also has a direct effect on the general
stability of the power system. During a
short circuit fault, the rest of the power
system can transmit less power because
the various sources of generation tend to
go out of synchronism. The less time that
a fault is allowed to persist, the smaller
the effect on the synchronism or stability of the system.
For a relay system to perform properly
it must have reliability. This is a measure
of the degree of certainty that the relay
system will perform correctly. It must
have the dependability to operate correctly under those conditions when it
should operate, and it must have security
which is freedom from incorrect operations due to extraneous causes. The reliability of a relay system depends on the
inherent reliability of the relays themselves and on their application, installation, and maintenance as a part of
the system.

Overcurrent Relays

commonly used shapes for the time-overIt is necessary to trip a circuit breaker current characteristics which differ by
when more than a certain amount of the rate at which the time of operation
current flows into a particular portion of of the relay decreases as the current ina power system. This requirement points creases. These curve shapes, shown in
out the need for the overcurrent relay Fig. 12, are called inverse, very incharacteristic. For an instantaneous over- verse, and extremely inverse.
current characteristic, either the plunger
Obviously, overvoltage relays having
type, the hinged-armature type, or the similar characteristics may be produced
induction-cup type of operating elements by using voltage as the actuating quantity
could be used. Although these elements in the operating element. Similarly, an
are inherently fast, they do require some undercurrent or an undervoltage relay is
short time to operate, as illustrated by the produced by adding a set-of contacts
instantaneous time curve of Fig. 12.
which are closed when the operating
Where it is desired to have more time element resets in response to the decrease
delay in closing the contacts for purposes of the actuating quantity below a preof co-ordination with other protective re- determined value.
lays, the induction disk construction may
be used. The time delay is controlled by a
permanent magnet arranged to produce Directional Relays
an induction drag on the disk. The time
Directional relays are required for apof contact closing varies inversely as the plications where it is desirable to allow
current. Such characteristics are shown tripping for current flow in only one digraphically by a family of time current rection. The directional relay can be procurves for various multiples of the pickup duced in either the induction cup or the
current and for various contact gap or wattmetric induction disk construction.
time dial settings. There are three most One winding may be energized by the
900

RELAY CHARACTERISTICS
A relay may be actuated by a single
quantity, such as a current, or by two
quantities, such as a current and a voltage. In the latter case the relay may be
made to respond to the phase angle between the two quantities, or to the relative magnitudes of the two quantities,
or to a combination of the magnitudes
and the phase angle. The relation between
the quantities that will cause the relay to
operate may be shown graphically by
what is called the operating characteristic. When the relay is actuated by a
single quantity, its response is purely a
function of time, as in Fig. 8. When the
relay is actuated by two quantities, the
characteristics may be shown in terms of
the magnitude of one quantity and the
phase angle between the two quantities
as in Fig. 9; in terms of the relative
magnitudes of the two quantities as in
Fig. 10; or in terms of the combination
of relative magnitudes and phase angles
of the two quantities as in Fig. 11. In
addition, the speed of response may be
shown by the time curves. The characteristic curves are useful for determining the
relay settings that will provide the necessary speed, selectivity, and sensitivity to
protect the power system and to coordinate with other protective devices.

QUANTITY-

ANGLE

2700

QUANTITY
FIGURE 8.

Quantity vs time

FIGURE 9.

Quantity vs phase angle

900

RATIO OF
QUANTITY I TO

ANGLE

QUANTITY

270

FIGURE 10. Quantity vs quantity

FIGURE 11.

Quantity vs quantity and phase

angle

PROTECTIVE

RELAYING

EXTREMELY
- INVERSE

TRANSFORMER

RELAY OPERATES

RELAY D&S
NOT OPERATE
r-VERY

INVERSE

,
PRO
2

INVERSE

ANGLE OF
MAXIMUM
TORQUE

/INSTANTANEOUS
MULTIPLES OF PICKUP CURRENT
FIGURE 12. Time-current characteristics

RELAY

CHARACTERISTIC-w

FIGURE 13. Directional characteristic polar

FIGURE 14.

with some purposely-introduced time

delay.
On occasion, a directional unit may be
polarized by some reference current instead of a voltage. An example of this
type is a directional overcurrent unit for
protection against short circuits involving
ground. In this case, the reference current
can be obtained from a current transformer connected in the neutral of a
grounded transformer bank.

their secondaries are connected in parallel

to a relay operating coil. So long as
current flows normally through the
protected system element, the current
transformer secondary currents merely
circulate between the current transformers, and no current flows through
the relay coil. But should a short circuit
occur in the protected system element,
a difference current will flow in the relay
coil and cause the relay to trip all of the
breakers in the circuits connected to
the faulty element.

diagram

circuit voltage to polarize the unitthat is, to predetermine the direction of

current flow for which the unit is to operate by providing a reference quantity.
The other winding may then be energized
by the desired current. Current flow in
the operating direction will produce a
torque to close the contacts, but current
flow in the reverse direction will produce
a torque to restrain the unit or to hold
the contacts open.
Since voltage is used to polarize the
directional unit, its pick-up current is
dependent on the magnitude of the voltage and the phase angle between the
current and the voltage. The particular
phase angle at which the pick-up current
is a minimum is called the angle of
maximum torque. This is shown in Fig.
13. Any condition of current at a particular phase angle, as represented by a
vector on the diagram, will indicate how
the directional unit will react. Current
vectors ending on one side of the characteristic indicate conditions which will
produce a net operating torque, while
vectors ending on the other side of the
characteristic indicate conditions which
will produce a net restraining torque. The
characteristic will be displaced from the
origin of the diagram by the amount
equivalent to the pickup of the unit at the
angle of maximum torque.
A sensitive directional unit will operate
for a very small value of the actuating
quantity when the polarizing quantity is
the normal rated value; its function is
only to recognize the proper direction.
With the addition of restraint, the directional unit can perform a measuring function. An example of this type of unit is
the directional overpower relay. Both the
sensitive type and the measuring type can
be made to operate instantaneously or
8

FSTRAINING
ILS

Current-balance Relays
In situations where it is desirable to
trip a breaker whenever there is an abnormal change in the division of current
between two circuits, a current balance
relay may be applied. A current balance
relay may use the hinged armature, induction disk, or the induction cup construction. Such a relay has two torqueproducing elements actuated by currents
obtained from the two circuits. One element produces operating torque tending
to close the contacts, while the other
element produces restraining torque tending to open the contacts. The ratio in
percent of the operating current to the
restraining current to cause the relay to
operate is called the percent slope of
the operating characteristic. The relay
also requires a minimum current to operate when the current in the restraining
element is zero.

Differential Relays
Differential relaying is the most selective relaying principle. It is achieved
by a certain connection of current
transformers, and almost any type of
relay may be used. Current transformers
are put in all of the connections to the
system element to be protected, and

Differential

circuit

connections

Figure 14 shows the differential principle applied to one phase winding of a

generator. Here, a current balance relay
is used to provide what is called percentage differential relaying. The two
sets of current transformers are connected in parallel to the operating coil,
as previously described. In addition,
the current from each current transformer is made to flow through a restraining coil. The purpose of the restraining coils is to prevent undesired
relay operation, should current flow in
the operating coil as a result of current
transformer errors. As shown in Fig. 15,
the operating coil current (L--Q must
exceed a certain percentage of the
through current (I*) for the relay to
operate.

Wire-pilot Differential Relays

Since the differential interconnection
of current transformer secondaries involves a large number of wire connections, the application of differential
relays is necessarily limited to equipment
terminating at points relatively close
together. A modified form of differential
relaying employing a wire-pilot channel
is applicable for the protection of line or

1 INTRODUCTION
I

X
REACTANCE
RELAY
OPERATES

2
I
r

ADMITTANCE

;: \\
RELAY DOES
NOT OPERATE

,>,

_-

--j-TZNcE
-._

12
FIGURE 15

Percentage differential
teristic

-, c
t

-x
charac-

cable sections with more widely separated terminals. The wire-pilot channel
is a two wire metallic circuit joining the
two points between which it is desired
to provide the differential relaying.
The wire-pilot circuit is used for the
interchange of relaying information in
the form of currents or voltages between
the relays at the two line terminals.
These relays have a current balance
characteristic arranged to cause relay
operation if the current entering the
protected line section is not balanced by
the current leaving the line section. Under
external fault or load conditions, these
currents are in balance and, hence, the
relays will not trip. However, for internal
faults, the currents will no longer be in
balance and the relays will trip the
breakers at the line terminals.

FIGURE 16.

R -and X diagram of distance

relay characteristics

and reactive components and is a very

useful adaptation of the two quantities
vs. phase angle representation of relay
characteristics as previously shown in
Fig. 11. The relay unit will operate on
any impedance vector which terminates
inside the circular characteristics of the
mho admittance unit, or the impedance
unit, or below the straight line characteristic of the reactance unit.

Carrier-pilot Relaying

Just as a wire-pilot channel is used to

provide relaying over longer distances
than is feasible for the direct form of
differential relaying, so a carrier-pilot
channel is used to provide protection
over even greater distances than the
wire-pilot channel. There are two general
types of carrier-pilot relaying: phase
comparison and directional comparison.
Distance Relays
Phase comparison carrier-pilot relaying
The term distance is applied to a compares the phase angle of the currents
family of relays that respond to a ratio entering and leaving the protected line
of voltage to current and therefore to section. The relays operate when an inimpedance or a component of impedance. ternal fault causes a sufficient difference
Impedance is a measure of distance in phase angle between these currents.
along a transmission line for whose This comparison is made directly over
protection such relays are used, which the carrier channel.
Directional comparison carrier-pilot
explains the choice of the term disrelaying compares the response of ditance.
There are three different basic types rectional relays at the ends of the proof distance relays: (1) impedance, (2) tected line. The operation is such that
admittance or mho, and (3) reactance. for external faults, a carrier signal is
All of these types, like the current balance initiated by the directional relay at the
type, comprise a balance between two line terminal where the current is
torque-producing elements. When the flowing out of the line to block tripping
operating element torque exceeds the at the other line terminal. During inrestraining element torque the relay will ternal faults, this carrier blocking signal
is shut off by the directional units and
close its contacts.
A graphical representation of the im- simultaneous tripping of both line terpedance, reactance and admittance char- minal breakers is effected.
acteristics may be made on an R and X
diagram as shown in Fig. 16. This dia- Combination Characteristics
gram, as its name implies, is the plot of
The basic types of characteristics that
impedance on the basis of its resistive have been described may be produced

, e
4
st
I

by using a combination of operating

units or elements in a protective relay.
They may be combined so that one
characteristic exercises electrical control
of another, or they may be combined
mechanically so that actuating torques
are applied to the same shaft or moving
member of the operating element. An
example of the combination employing
electrical control is the directional overcurrent relay. The directional unit,
which may be of the induction cup
construction, only permits torque to be
developed in the overcurrent unit (an
induction disk element or an induction
cup element) when the directional unit
contacts are closed indicating current
flow in the proper direction for tripping.
The contacts of the directional unit are in
a series circuit with either wound shading
coils of the induction disk element magnet or phase shifting coils of the induction
cup element; closing of the directional
unit contacts permits torque to be
developed.
One form of the impedance relay is
an example of a mechanical combination. An induction cup unit contains
current coils which act on the cup rotor
to produce operating torque. Acting
on the same shaft through a form of
hinged armature construction is a set of
potential restraint coils. The net torque
in the shaft, which is the difference between the current operating torque and
voltage restraining torque, produces the
impedance characteristic.

APPLICATION
As noted previously, protective relaying
equipment should be chosen and applied
to a power system on the basis of its
speed, selectivity, and sensitivity. The
proper application of the protective
relays can contribute a high degree of
reliability to the power system. Associated system apparatus that affects
the relay operation must also be considered. For example, instrument transformers of adequate relaying quality
are a definite contribution towards the
over-all reliability of the system.
The best application approach is an
over-all standard plan of system protection requiring a minimum of effort in
selecting the proper equipment. Such
a plan should be adaptable to the growth
of the power system. For protection
against short circuits, the basic element
of this standardized plan concept is
differential type relaying with its inherent selectivity.
9

THE
ART OF
PROTECTIVE RELAYING

The Basic Approach

The various types of relays available
to protect power system elements have
known characteristics, and their range or
zone of operation can be predicted. The
primary relaying equipment is arranged
with overlapping zones of protection as
illustrated in Fig. 17. Thus, no matter
what the location of the fault, there will
always be at least one protective relay
to provide the necessary isolation of that
fault. It can be seen that a fault could
conceivably occur within the overlap of
two protected zones, which would cause
the operation of more than the minimum
number of circuit breakers to clear the
fault. However, this type of operation
is much preferred over that of a nonoverlapping system in which faults
could occur for which no primary relaying would respond, and only the back-up
relaying would clear the fault. Fig. 17
shows all the zones of protection overlapping around circuit breakers. This is
the preferred method of providing the
overlap. Thus, it is evident that while
each relay protects the service of a part
of the power system, each part is so
closely associated with the next part
that the protective relaying must be a
co-ordinated system and not just a
collection of single items of equipment.
It is not always the size or importance
of a system element that determines the
quality of protective relaying to be applied. For example, if a failure in a small
or unimportant element of the system
is not promptly removed from the system, it could jeopardize the service
equally as much as a failure in some other
larger element. The criterion is how a
fault on any one part of the system

GENERATOR
PROTECTION

LOW-VOLTAGE
SWITCHGEAR
PROTECTION
POWER TRANSFORMER
PROTECTION
HIGH-VOLTAGE
SWITCHGEAR
PROTECTI ON

TRANSMISSION
LINE PROTECTION

FIGURE 17. Overlapping zones of prolection

10

. .

could affect the rest of the system. Each

relay indirectly protects much more
than just the immediate equipment.
The relay protection recommended
for generators, transformers, and switchgear is a standard package of relay
equipments that are considered necessary
for the over-all primary protection of
these power-system components. This
recommended relay protection is as follows :
1. Each generator protected by
product-restraint percentage-differential relays
2. Each power- transformer protected by harmonic-restraint percentage-differential relays
3. Each high- and low-voltage bus
section differentially protected by
voltage relays

..:
..**
Bus
,
1

FRO7

BUS

TO BUS

1,

FIGURE 18. Percentage differential characteristic with increasing slope

The differential protection should be

arranged to trip all circuit breakers to
which the generator is connected so that
outside sources will not supply current
to the short circuit. The field circuit of
the machine should also be opened so
This standard relay protection pack- that the generator will not supply current
age can be duplicated when similar to its own fault. The neutral breaker, if
components are added at any place in used, should be tripped, and the prime
the power system, thereby providing mover should be shut down.
With a unit generator transformer
complete protection for the system components with a minimum of application arrangement, shown in Fig. 19, it is the
effort. This is not to imply that this is practice to ground the generator neutral
the only form of primary relaying pro- through a distribution transformer whose
tection that can be applied to these power secondary is loaded with a resistor. In
system components. Other relays are effect, this is high resistance grounding,
frequently applied, and they are dis- the current to a ground fault being
limited to approximately 10 amperes.
cussed below.
An overvoltage relay energized from the
Generators
secondary of the distribution transformer
Generators are subject to various types is arranged to sound an alarm or, more
of faults in both the alternating-current usually, to trip the generator main and
stator and the direct-current rotor. field breakers when a ground fault ocSome of these are phase to phase or curs in the generator, its leads, or the
phase to ground short circuits, overpower transformer windings directly
current, overheating, motoring, and loss connected to the generator. This type
of excitation.
of ground protection can be made very
It is particularly important to provide sensitive and still provide selectivity
high speed relay protection for generator for ground faults elsewhere.
short circuits because of the possibility
Protection against overheating may
of excessive damage if the short circuit be provided by the use of a resistance
is not promptly isolated. The most temperature detector embedded in the
effective protection against both phase machine windings. As an alternative to
and ground short circuits in the stator the temperature detector method, a
is percentage-differential relaying. A replica type temperature relay using
percentage-differential relay with an the current at the machine terminals
increasing slope characteristic is best for may be used to detect overheating.
this protection. The significance of the Bearing overheating may be detected
increasing slope characteristic, shown in by means of a thermo-sensitive,bulbFig. 18, is that in order to operate the actuated relay with the bulb in direct
relay, the ratio of difference current contact with either the bearing metal or
to through current must increase as the lubricating oil.
the through current increases. This perMotoring of a generator upon loss of
mits a larger difference current resulting prime mover power may be harmful to
from current transformer inaccuracies at the prime mover, or at least it may be
the higher currents without causing in- objectionable to the system. A steam
correct relay operation on external faults, turbine may overheat under such cirand at the same time assures tripping for cumstances, and protection should be
internal faults.
provided by thermal relays located

 INTRODUCTION

MAIN POWER
TRANSFORMER

FIGURE 19.

Unit generator-transformer protection

where the turbine temperature will be

the highest. Other types of prime movers
may impose objectionably high loads
on the system. In such cases, generator
reverse power relays with suitable sensitivity will provide the necessary protection. Such relays should have time delay
to avoid undesired operation on momentary reverse power synchronizing surges.
Loss of excitation in a generator may
bring about a severe voltage disturbance
on the rest of the power system, thereby
causing instability and impairing system
operation. It may also cause overheating
in the rotor due to currents induced in
the rotor when the generator loses
synchronism with other machines. Protection is afforded by means of a loss of
excitation relay with an admittance
characteristic. The admittance characteristic, Fig. 20, is arranged to trip .the
relay when the generator begins to draw
reactive power from the system upon

ADMITTANCE
i CHARACTERISTIC

FIGURE 20.

Loss-of-excitation characteristic

losing its excitation. The characteristic

setting is such that operation of the
unit on power swings or momentary
loss of synchronism is avoided.
Open circuit or single phase operation
of a generator may be detected by the
application of a current balance relay
of the induction disk construction. In
this application, each phase current is
balanced against each of the other two
phase currents in a three-phase machine.
Negative phase sequence overcurrent
relays are available for protecting the
generator rotor against overheating in
the event that unbalanced external
faults are not promptly removed from
the system. The negative phase sequence
overcurrent relay responds only to
negative phase sequence currents and
provides better protection for the generator against localized heating that results
from unbalanced faults.
External fault back-up protection,
using a voltage-restrained, inverse time
overcurrent relay or a distance type
relay with a timer, is provided to disconnect a generator from a bus or feeder
fault that is not properly cleared otherwise.

Transformers
Power transformers may be subjected
to short circuits or overloads. The
effect of prolonged short circuits on
system stability, as well as the possibility
of considerable damage to an expensive
piece of power equipment, make highspeed relaying essential in most cases.

,I
@II
I

For short circuit protection, induction

disk percentage differential relays have
been widely used where moderate speed
of operation is satisfactory and where
more expensive equipment could not be
justified. Frequently, additional equipment must be employed to desensitize
the relays to prevent improper operation
during the magnetizing current inrush
to a power transformer. Such desensitizing may affect the degree of protection
should a transformer fault occur during
the inrush period, which is just the time
when a fault is likely to occur. Also, the
desensitizing equipment is not effective
when inrush occurs because of- voltage
recovery following the removal of an
external fault. High speed percentage
differential relays with harmonic restraint
are used whenever they can be justified
economically. Such relays are made to be
inherently immune to magnetizing current inrush under any circumstances,
and yet they are faster and more sensitive than the induction disk type. Consequently, their use is recommended,
particularly whenever stability is a
factor.
A schematic diagram of transformer
differential protection applied to a
three-winding transformer is shown in
Fig. 21. Restraint coils are provided
for the current entering or leaving each
of the three transformer windings, and
the net difference current passes through
the relay operating winding.
Fault pressure relays are used to detect sudden changes in the transformer
oil such as would be caused even by
incipient or low level faults. They are
capable of detecting faults even below
the sensitivity level of modern differential relays and thus provide excellent
protection by tripping off the transformer immediately. Also, since even
incipient faults will produce gaseous
by-products from the oil, fault detection
can be accomplished by a measure of the
amount of accumulated gas or by an
analysis of the gas to determine the
amount of combustible gas present.
Using either of these latter two methods,
early detection of incipient faults is
possible, and in many instances the
damage can be repaired. quickly, at
minimum cost and with a minimum outage time.

Unit

Generator-Transformer

The one line diagram of Fig. 19 shows

how transformer and generator differential relaying are applied with a
unit generator-transformer arrangement.
These connections have the advantage
11

-aB
I 1
/

THE
ART OF
PROTECTIVE

RELAYING
\

CT

TRANSMISSION

LINES

RESTRAINT COILS
c3
OPERATING

COIL

THREE-WINDING
POWER
TRANSFORMER
CJ
c3

CT

II

I
GENERATION
CT

FIGURE 21. Three-winding transformer protection

of using one set of current transformers

in common. With the transformer differential zone arranged to include the
the generator, additional protection for
the generator is provided. The usual
unit generator-transformer arrangement
supplies power to an auxiliary stationservice power transformer which is
solidly connected to the generator bus.
The main power transformer differential
zone should also include the station
service transformer in order to avoid any
blind spots in the protection scheme
where faults could occur and not be
promptly isolated. However, this does
not provide adequate primary protection
for the station service transformer but
should be considered only as additional
protection. The station service transformer should be protected separately
with high speed percentage differential
relays that are immune to magnetizing
inrush current.
When differential relaying is not
applied for the primary protection of
transformers, overcurrent or directional
overcurzent relaying of the induction disk
type may be used. Sufficient time delay
is necessary to maintain selectivity with
the relaying on adjoining system elements. In some cases, directional overcurrent relaying may offer faster selective
tripping than non-directional relaying.
Overcurrent relaying of the induction
disk type may also be applied in conjunction with differential relaying as back-up
protection
against transformer overheating because of external faults that
are not promptly cleared.
12

FIGURE 22.

Switchgear

differential protection

ante. When an external fault occurs,

there is considerably less voltage produced across the relay circuit because
the secondary current is only opposed,
at the most, by the CT lead resistance
and the internal secondary impedance
Bus Protection
of the current transformer in the faulted
Switchgear is the power station equip- circuit when it is completely saturated.
ment that is used to direct the flow of When internal faults occur, however,
power and to isolate power apparatus or the secondary current is opposed by the
circuits. It includes circuit breakers, magnetizing impedance of the transdisconnect switches, buses, connections, formers and by the high impedance of
and the structures on which they are the relay circuit, thus producing a
mounted. To isolate faults in buses, all large operating voltage on the relay
source circuits connected to the buses and insuring its operation. All that is
must be opened. Since this disconnection necessary to prevent false operation is
may include generating sources as well to adjust the minimum pickup of the
as transmission lines, thus affecting a relay well above the maximum voltage
large portion of the system, it is very obtained on an external fault. In fact,
important to have correct operation for a 2 to 1 setting can usually be made while
faults on the bus only and to avoid still retaining good sensitivity for inincorrect tripping during external faults. ternal fault protection.
Differential relaying is essential because
For switchgear installations that do
of its inherent selectivity.
not have current transformers with
Overvoltage differential relaying is characteristics suited to the application
particularly applicable to bus protection of overvoltage differential relays, time
because it distinguishes between internal overcurrent relays with a differential
and external faults on the basis of voltage connection may be applied. However,
rather than time, thus permitting more because of possible current transformer
accurate performance and faster clearing errors under high current external fault
time without the danger of incorrect conditions, the relays must have a time
tripping. This equipment, connected delay long enough to provide the necesas shown schematically in Fig. 22, uses sary selectivity; otherwise, false tripping
standard bushing type or specific window would result. Percentage differential
type current transformers. It derives relays are applicable with certain arrangeits selectivity from the fact that the ments of the switchgear sections. For
internal secondary impedance of the example, a bus section having only
current transformers is very low when three circuit connections could be procompared to their magnetizing imped- tected by a percentage differential relay
Apart from the overcurrent relaying
used for external fault back-up protection, it is not the practice to provide
overload protection to remove a power
transformer from service.

INTRODUCTION

having three restraining coils, one for

each circuit. Differential relays for this
form of protection are available with a
maximum of six restraint coils, thus
providing for restraint on six separate
bus circuit connections. This arrangement may be extended to buses having
more than six connections if certain
groupings of the circuits can be made
so that restraining action will be obtained
for any external fault.
Under some conditions, partial differential protection may be applied. This
protection is connected to the current
transformers in all the source circuits of
the bus, omitting the connections to
feeder and distribution circuits which
have no source. Partial differential relaying is less sensitive because the relay
pickup setting must be higher than the
total normal load current, and selectivity
with the feeder-circuit relaying must be
maintained on a time-current basis to
avoid isolating all of the bus for a feeder
fault.
Short-circuit faults in generators, power
transformers, and buses are not generally
transient in nature. Even if the original
cause was transient, the possibility of
permanent damage being done to the
equipment is so great that a reapplication
of voltage immediately after clearing a
fault is usually prohibited. However,
since this equipment is relatively well
protected from the natural elements and
from human error, the incidence of
faults is rather low when compared to
other parts of the power system such as
transmission lines.

Transmission

lines

Transmission lines are the high voltage

circuits interconnecting parts of the
power system separated by a considerable
distance. Since they must carry large
amounts of power between parts of the
system, they are very important to the
operation of that system. These lines are
exposed to the natural elements as well as
to human error; hence, they are much
more vulnerable to short circuit faults
than are the generators, transformers, and
buses. Also, many faults occurring
on transmission lines are transient in
nature and do little or no damage to the
equipment if they are quickly isolated.
Therefore, once faults are cleared, it is
often expedient to reapply the voltage to
the circuit immediately.
Since the terminals of transmission
lines are usually rather far apart, true
differential relaying is not applicable;
therefore, distance relaying and pilot
relaying are particularly applicable to

transmission line protection. Distance

relaying is so called because it is responsive to the impedance of a faulted section
of transmission line, and this impedance is
proportional to the distance from the
relay to the fault. Distance relays having
the reactance and admittance type characteristic can be produced in the induction cup construction. Since such relays
operate on the ratio of voltage to current,
their speed of operation is relatively unaffected by the short circuit current magnitude. They provide good selectivity and
good sensitivity, often operating on less
than normal load currents, as well as
operating at high speed. Their primary
zone of protection is usually arranged for
high speed operation over 80 to 90 per
cent of the line length, with a short time
delay in operation for the remaining 20 or
10 percent, and with a longer time delay
in operation for adjoining elements of the
power system. This back-up protection is
provided by a separate reactance or
admittance unit controlling a timer.
When distance relays are used for phasefault protection, directional overcurrent
relays are usually used for ground fault
protection. However, there are applications for more complex systems where
ground distance relaying would provide a
distinct improvement
in protection
against single phase to ground faults.

metallic connection between the two

terminals, such as a telephone wire pair.
Due to the expense of leasing or constructing such a wire connection, this
type of pilot channel is limited to short
line applications. The carrier-pilot
channel usesacarrier-current signal transmitted over the line conductors. The
length of line that can be protected by
this type of pilot channel is only limited
by the power of the carrier equipment and
the signal attenuation or loss of strength
occurring during transmission.
Wire-pilot Relaying

The relay equipment used with the

wire-pilot. channel may be so arranged
that a through current, due to either a
normal load or an external fault, produces
opposing voltages at the two ends of the
pilot wire circuit, and no operating current will flow. At the same time, current
in a restraint circuit of the relay will prevent false tripping of the relay. On an
internal line fault, either phase or ground,
the voltages at the two ends of the pilot
wires will be additive, causing a relatively large operating current to flow.
The operating torque thus produced will
overcome the restraining torque, causing
the relay unit to close its tripping
contacts.
Carrier-pilot

Relaying

The relay equipment used with the

Pilot relaying, being a modified form of carrier-pilot channel may be of either the
differential relaying, is the best protection phase comparison type or the directional
that can be applied to transmission lines. comparison type.
It is inherently selective, suitable for high
The phase comparison type of relaying
speed operation, and capable of good equipment compares the phase angle of
sensitivity. Back-up relaying usually the currents at each end of the line over
must be provided by other supple- the carrier channel. If the two currents
mentary equipment.
are nearly in phase, as they would be for
Pilot relaying is classified according to normal load or for external fault condithe type of pilot channel that is used to tions, tripping is blocked. On internal line
coordinate the relays at opposite ends of
faults these currents are nearly 180
the transmission line with one another.
degrees out of phase; therefore tripping is
The wire-pilot
channel requires a permitted.
Pilot Relaying

LINE
TRAP

LINE
TRAP

DIRECTIONAL AND
DISTANCE RELAYS

FIGURE 23.

Carrier-pilot transmission-line protection

13

THE
ART OF
PROTECTIVE

RELAYING

The directional comparison type of

relaying equipment schematically shown
in Figure 23 uses directional relays and
distance relays to start the transmission
of a carrier signal to block tripping at
both line terminals during external faults.
On an internal line fault, other directional
and distance relays stop the transmission
of the carrier signal, permitting both line
terminals to trip instantaneously.
With either the phase comparison or
the directional comparison type of relaying equipment, the carrier channel is used
only to prevent tripping on external
faults. If the protected line section is
faulted, no carrier signal is transmitted
for blocking, and both terminals will trip
instantaneously. Conventional directional
comparison equipments include back-up
relaying for both phase and ground faults.
Pilot relaying equipments, because of
their high degree of selectivity and high
speed operation, are capable of isolating a
faulted transmission line section instantaneously at both line terminals. This
rapid clearing of the fault often permits
the immediate reclosing of the circuit
breakers at both terminals of the line by
means of reclosing relays. Thus, the transmission line is interrupted for the shortest
possible time. Of course, if the fault conditions persist on the line, the protective
relays must re-trip the line breakers.

schemes are also functionally differential

in nature since the zone of protection is
precisely defined and high speed tripping
of all line terminals is obtained for a fault
anywhere on the protected line.

only if its overreaching fault detector has

operated on this same fault.
The permissive overreaching scheme
uses only overreaching fault detectors
which, when they operate on a fault, send
Three basic line transferred tripping a transfer trip signal to the remote terschemes are used: direct underreaching, minal. At the remote terminal, its overpermissive underreaching, and permissive reaching fault detector will also see the
overreaching. The communication chan- fault and will send a transfer trip signal
nels commonly employed can be fre- to the local terminal. Each terminal
quency shift audio tone signals over pilot breaker will be tripped when both a
wires or over a microwave channel; or transfer trip signal is received and its
narrow band, frequency shift, carrier cur- overreaching fault detector has operated.
Another use for the transferred tripping
rent equipment can be used over the
power line conductors. All of these channel is to trip the remote breaker of a
schemes require two-way communication transmission line that terminates in a
between each pair of line terminals. Each power transformer-with no circuit breaker
terminal, in addition to the communica- between the transformer and the line, as
tion channel, requires fault detector shown in Fig. 25. When a transformer
relays which are directional. These are fault occurs, the transfer trip channel is
usually of the distance type for phase used for the transmission of a tripping
faults and of the overcurrent or distance signal to the remote line breaker, thus
completing the isolation of the transtype for ground faults.
former from all power sources.
The carrier current channels provided
The direct underreaching transferred
tripping scheme, Figure 24, uses fault for relaying are sometimes used jointly
detectors set to reach 80 to 90 percent of for other functions, such as communicathe line section. When an underreaching tion, supervisory or remote control, and
fault detector at one end of the line oper- telemetering. When so used, the circuit
ates, indicating a fault, it trips its local must be arranged to give the relays
breaker directly and sends a transfer trip preference during fault conditions so that
signal to trip the remote breaker directly. correct blocking or correct tripping may
be accomplished.
The permissive underreaching scheme
Transferred Tripping
adds an additional set of fault detectors Multi-terminal lines
The ideal transmission line from a proAnother form of pilot relaying for which are set to reach beyond the remote
transmission line protection employs line terminal or overreach. Again the tective relaying point of view is one withtransferred tripping, a scheme where a underreaching fault detector trips its local out any taps and with a line circuit
breaker directly and sends a transfer trip breaker at each end. For sound economic
communication channel is used to transmit a trip signal from the relay location to signal to the remote line breaker. The reasons,
many transmission lines are
a remote location. Line transferred trip remote line breaker is permitted to trip tapped, and this produces a multi-

/ - UNDERREACHING RELAY

TRIP

TRAN!3FERRED T R I P

UNDERREACHING

RELAY

k --LINE

TRIP 1

TRANSMITTER !

PROTECTION--J

TRANSMITTER

TRANSFER TRIP SIGNAL

FIGURE 24.

14

Direct underreach transfer trip

FIGURE 25.

Transferred

tripping

protection

terminal line with three or more terminals. This line configuration presents
problems in applying protective relaying
to obtain adequate line protection.
In studying the relay application to
these lines, the fault current distribution
at each line terminal for both internal and
external faults must be determined.
Changes in system conditions, such as
maximum or minimum generation, maximum or minimum grounding, and other
lines open or closed, must also be factored
into this study. The reach of distance
relays in particular is affected by fault
current infeed. For example, in order for
a distance relay located at line terminal 1,
Fig. 26, to operate for a fault located near
line terminal 2 it would have to have its
reach or setting increased because of fault
current infeed from line terminal 3. This
fault current infeed makes the apparent
impedance seen by the relay to be larger
than the true line impedance from the
relay to the fault as shown.

EHV Systems
The use of extra high voltage (EHV)
systems of high capacity has been stimulated by the economic advantages of system interconnections, power pooling, and
the use of larger unit generator sizes. Because of the extreme importance of these
systems it is imperative that the protective relaying have a high degree of
reliability, be capable of high speed
operation, and provide coverage for more
contingencies than might be justified at
lower voltage levels. Transformers at
EHV levels are important and costly, and
complete protection is recommended, including harmonic-restrained differential
relays, fault pressure relays, and gas
detection and analysis. For EHVswitchgear and buses, overvoltage differential

relaying is recommended. Where system

stability is a problem it may be necessary
to duplicate the primary relaying as backup protection for transformers and buses.
It is advisable that as complete a separation as possible be made between the primary and back-up relays, including control circuits as well as instrument transformers.
Transmission line protection is best
applied using static relay units for phase
and ground protection in a directional
comparison or phase comparison carrier
relaying scheme. The ultra high speed of
the static units (one-quarter to one and
one-quarter cycles) provides for greater
system stability and minimum line
damage. Further, this operating time is
practically independent of the level of
fault current. Because of the ground
relaying problems which can occur on
EHV systems, some form of ground
distance relaying or zero sequence phase
comparison
relaying is recommended.
Operating experience with static relay
units indicates that they are highly
reliable and that their characteristics are
very stable.
The various static relay circuits are so
arranged and combined as to provide the
same characteristics as electromechanical
relays. These are overcurrent, directional, impedance, mho admittance, reactance, and phase comparison. By providing the proper inputs of current and
voltage from instrument transformers,
these characteristics are made suitable
for transmission line protection for all
types of faults, both phase or ground.
Series capacitors are being used for
EHV transmission line compensation to
improve system stability limits, to improve voltage regulation, and to provide
the maximum load carrying capability of

FIGURE 26. Three-terminal line

the system. Series capacitors introduce

special problems for line protective relays
since, under fault conditions, their protective gaps may or may not flash over. A
widely applicable form of protection for
these lines includes a positive sequence
distance function for three-phase faults
supplemented by negative sequence
directional overcurrent for unbalanced
faults utilizing a variety of pilot relaying
schemes.

Breaker Back-up

Protection against relay failure is provided by local back-up relays, an entirely

separate group of relays from those used
for primary protection. Even though the
protective relays operate correctly, their
associated circuit breakers could fail to
clear the fault because of some malfunction in a breaker or its control circuits. In
such a case, the fault would remain on the
system, and some other means must be
provided to clear it. It is recommended
that the operation of the primary or backup relays, in addition to attempting to
trip the breaker, should also energize a
timer to start the breaker back-up function. If the line breaker fails to clear, the
relays will remain picked up, and when
the timer times out, all remaining
breakers on the bus are tripped to remove
the fault. The breaker back-up scheme is
arranged to trip the minimum number of
breakers necessary to clear the fault. Its
timing must be fast enough and SO
coordinated as to meet the system requirements for stability, service continuity, and minimum damage.

Subtransmission Lines and Distribution Circuits

Subtransmission lines are lower voltage

transmission lines that connect the transmission system to the distribution system.
The distribution circuits connect the subtransmission system to the utilization
apparatus. Except for lines where distance
or pilot relaying might be used, the protection problems of subtransmission and
distribution systems are very similar. For
circuits operated at the lower voltages,
distance or pilot relaying is usually not
economically justified; therefore, the
various forms of time overcurrent and
directional relays are usually used for both
phase and ground fault protection.
Time overcurrent relays of the induction disk type are made with three general
shapes of time-current curves: inverse,
very inverse, and extremely inverse.
These names refer to the rate at which the
relay operating time decreases with an
increase of current, as shown in Fig. 12.
The various characteristics are applicable
to the protection of subtransmission and
15

THE
ART OF
PROTECTIVE

INSTANTANEOUS
UNIT

L
RELAYING

TIME

FIGURE 27.
Co-ordination for time-overcurrent relays and instantaneous unit

distribution circuits under various conditions of selectivity with other protective

equipment. For example, the extremely
inverse characteristic is most suitable for
coordination with distribution circuit
fuses. It is also the least likely to trip
undesirably when picking up a feeder and
a large accumulated load after a prolonged service outage.
The application of overcurrent relays
requires a system short-circuit study to
determine the fault currents on which the
relays are expected to operate and be
selective with the rest of the protective
system. For example, in setting the pickup or sensitivity of a relay, the minimum
fault current expected is calculated. The
relay pickup is then set so as to insure its
operation on that current. The time
setting of the relay is made using the
maximum fault current expected so that
the relay will co-ordinate in time with the.
protective relays on adjoining parts of the
system.
The setting of a series of time overcurrent relays on a feeder or distribution
circuit is begun at the point farthest removed from the generating sources. As
the relaying is set and co-ordinated back
toward the generating sources, the time
required to clear a fault becomes longer as
the source is approached (see Fig. 27). In
order to overcome this disadvantage, instantaneous overcurrent relays are often
used to provide high speed primary protection. These relays must be set to pick
up under maximum fault current conditions for three phase faults somewhat
short of the end of the line, as illustrated
in Fig. 27. The shaded area of the figure
illustrates the improvement in tripping
time obtained with instantaneous relays.
Directional overcurrent relays are used
in many places on subtransmission and
distribution circuits. The purpose of the
directional characteristic is to prevent

2-81(5M)

. .

tripping of the protected line section

unless the fault current flow is into the
section. This simplifies the selectivity
problem between adjoining system elements, especially on loop systems where
interconnected circuits return to the same
starting point. It is important that directional overcurrent relays be of the type in
which torque is not developed in the time
or instantaneous overcurrent units until
the fault current is flowing in the tripping
direction. This feature is called directional torque control. It prevents any
false operation that might result from the
power reversal occurring after the clearing of -an external fault. Directional overcurrent relaying used for phase protection
requires a voltage source for polarization
in order to establish the directional
reference.
Ground relaying of subtransmission
and distribution circuits is accomplished
by means of instantaneous, time overcurrent, and directional overcurrent
relays. These relays can generally be
made to operate faster and with more
sensitivity for ground faults and still
maintain selectivity because their connections render them immune to load
currents. The directional relays require a
source of polarization that is obtained
either from a current transformer in the
neutral of a power or grounding transformer or from the broken delta of a
grounded-neutral wye-delta potential
transformer bank.
A power directional unit with induction cup construction may be used in
conjunction with time overcurrent units
to provide power directional protection
for lines and distribution circuits. Other
types of power directional units may be
used to trip a line on reverse power
conditions where that line was intended
only as an incoming feeder.

Utilization Apparatus
Depending upon the importance of
certain types of utilization apparatus,
various forms of protective relaying
that have already been discussed may be
applied, such as over and under frequency and over and under voltage.
Protection against single and reversed
phase starting may be applied to certain
types of alternating current motor installations where direction of rotation is
important. Overcurrent relaying is the
basic form of protection against short
circuits. Differential relaying may be
applied where the size of the apparatus
justifies it.

Miscellaneous Applications
There are other types of protective
relays that are not principally concerned
with the removal of a faulted element
from the power system. A synchronism
check relay will permit closing of a circuit
breaker if the two parts of the system
that are to be joined are already joined
by parallel circuits or have not been
allowed to get out of synchronism with
each other. An automatic synchronizing
relay can be used to join two parts of a
power system that are not in synchronism but are operating at nearly
the same frequency.
In connection with the protection of
transmission lines, subtransmission lines,
and feeder or distribution circuits, it
was mentioned that a large proportion
of the faults are transient in nature,
doing little or no physical damage if
they are quickly isolated. It is therefore
possible to reapply the voltage to those
circuits immediately. This operation
may be performed with an automatic
reclosing relay, which will automatically
reclose a circuit breaker upon tripout
with as many as one immediate and
three delayed reclosures.
It is sometimes necessary to limit the
amount of power sent over a line in a
particular direction, or to remove a
particular generator from the system
when the power being delivered falls
below a certain amount. For these
applications, over power and under power
relays of the induction disk type are
used, operating with some time delay
to avoid unnecessary tripping on temporary power surges. These over and
under power relays are most sensitive
under normal power conditions when the
current is in phase with the voltage. They
should not be confused with the directional relays used for fault protection, which
are most sensitive to short circuit conditions when the current is usually highly
lagging the voltage.
There are also a number of auxiliary
relays used in conjunction with protective relays for such functions as
timing, interlocking, contact multiplying,
contact or circuit duty relieving, and
electrical separation.
The vastly expanded electric power
systems predicted for the future will require much in the way of relay protection. The best approach to this tremendous job is the use of the standardized
relaying that has been discussed, which
can bring about better electric service
with a minimum of application effort
and expense.

GENERAL ELECTRIC CO. POWER SYSTEMS MANAGEMENT BUSINESS DEPT.

PHILADELPHIA, PA. 19142