Protection and Control Philosophy
Protection and Control Philosophy
Protection and Control Philosophy
Objective : To quickly isolate a faulty section from both ends so that the rest of the
System can function satisfactorily.
i) Reliability : The most important requisite of protective relay is reliability since they
supervise the circuit for a long time before a fault occurs; if a fault then
occurs, the relays must respond instantly and correctly.
ii) Selectivity : The relay must be able to discriminate (select) between those conditions
for which prompt operation is required and those for which no operation,
or time delayed operation is required.
iii) Sensitivity : The relaying equipment must be sufficiently sensitive so that it operates
reliably when required under the actual conditions that produces least
operating tendency.
iv) Speed : The relay must operate at the required speed. It should neither be too
slow which may result in damage to the equipment nor should it be too
fast which may result in undesired operation.
Important elements :
Protective gear: Used for detection of abnormal condition and initiation of isolation
Relays - current, voltage, impedance, power, frequency, etc. based on
operating parameter, definite time, inverse time, stepped etc. as per
operating characteristic, logic wise such as differential, over fluxing etc.
Station Battery: Used for power supply to protective gear & switchgear operation
A Station battery containing a number of cells accumulate energy during
the period of availability of A.C. supply and discharge at the time when
relays operate so that relevant circuit breaker is tripped.
Code Of Practice : Protection (Entire Section)
a) The wiring should be by copper leads for C.T. secondaries for all cores (i.e.) metering as well
as protection and the copper lead should be stranded but not single lead type.
b) The wiring should be by copper leads for PT secondaries also wherever they are intended for
protection.
c) The terminations should be lugged by ring shape O lugs. U shape lugs should be avoided.
d) Wherever two batteries are available, the primary protection and back-up protection should
be from different batteries.
e) D.C. and A.C supplies should not be taken through different cores of the same cable.
f) For indications, alarms, annunciations, controls (closing coil, trip coil, etc. negative (-ve) is
always given direct and positive (+ve) is supplied only on commands like close, trip, relay
trip, etc.
g) Where D.C protection supply is at 24 volts or 32 volts, the battery units should be very near
the equipment and not in the control rooms.
h) CTs with 1 amp secondary rating should be used compulsorily where meters, protective
devices etc. are remotely situated with reference to equipment.
For protection of various equipment of EHT class, the Star point on secondaries of CT
should be made as follows for ensuring correct directional sensitivity of the protection scheme
The above method has to be followed irrespective of polarity of CTs on primary side.
For example, in line protection, if P1 is towards bus then S2s are to be shorted and if P2 is
towards bus then S1s are to be shorted.
The C.T secondary connections for Transmission line, Transformer and Busbar are
indicated in the figures.
Types of Relays:
Relay Family
Relay
Breaker failure protection: The LBB protection scheme will be provided for all 220 KV stations (along
with busbar protection scheme
Typical Protections:
I. Distance protection:
Introduction:
The impedance relays also called distance relays are utilised to provide protection to
transmission lines connected in a network.
These relays are
- economic and possess several technical advantages.
- simple to apply
- operate with extremely high speed
- both primary and backup protection features are inherent
- can be easily modified to work as unit schemes with power line carrier facilities
- suitable for high speed reclosing.
The impedance relay is made to respond to the impedance between the relay location and
the point where fault is incident. The impedance is proportional to the distance to the
fault, (hence the name distance relay) and is therefore independent of the fault current
levels.
A distance relay compares the currents and voltages at the relaying point with Current
providing the operating torque and the voltage provides the restraining torque. In other words an
impedance relay is a voltage restrained overcurrent relay.
The equation at the balance point in a simple impedance relay is K1V2 = K2I2 or V/I = K3
where K1, K2, and K3 are constants. In other words, the relay is on the verge of operation at a
constant value of V/I ratio, which may be expressed as an impedance.
Since the operating characteristics of the relay depend upon the ratio of voltage and
current and the phase angle between them, their characteristics can be best represented on an R-
X diagram where both V/I ratio and the phase angle can be plotted in terms of an impedance
R+jX. Further, the power system impedance like fault impedance, power swings, loads etc. can
also be plotted on the same R-X diagram. Therefore response of a particular relay during power
swing, faults and other system disturbances can easily be assessed.
Types of Distance Relays:
Operation of the impedance relay is independent of the phase angle between V and I. The
operating characteristic is a circle with its center at the origin, and hence the relay is non-
directional.
Characteristic of a directional impedance relay in the complex R-X phase is shown in fig.
The directional unit of the relay causes separation of the regions of the relay characteristic shown
in the figure by a line drawn perpendicular to the line impedance locus. The net result is that
tripping will occur only for points that are both within the circles and above the directional unit
characteristic.
The resistance component of impedance has no effect on the operation of reactance relay,
the relay responds solely to reactance component of impedance. This relay is inherently non-
directional. The relay is most suitable to detect earth faults where the effect of arc resistance is
appreciable.
i) Starters:-
The starting relay (or starter) initiates the distance scheme in the event of a fault
within the required reach (more than zone-3).
Other functions of the starter are:-
a) Starting of timer relays for second and third zones.
b) Starting of measuring elements.
The starters are generally of Mho or impedance type.
With Mho type starters:-
Measuring units for phase and earth faults can be either directional or non-
directional as Mho starter is inherently directional.
With impedance type starters:-
Measuring units have to be directional as impedance starters are non-directional.
The under impedance relay can be used in conjunction with the directional relay
as starter which will then function similar to the Mho starter.
In the current circuit (1+KN) Ia will be fed for the above measurement.
iii) Timer:-
Timer relays when initiated by starter provide the time lag required for zones.
They also will be used for zone extension purpose whenever required.
Types of faults:-
i) Transient Faults:-
These are cleared by the immediate tripping of circuit breakers and do not recur
when the line is re-energized.
ii) Semi-permanent Faults:-
These require a time interval to disappear before a line is charged again.
iii) Permanent Faults:-
These are to be located and repaired before the line is re-energized.
About 80-90% of the faults occurring are transient in nature. Hence the automatic
reclosure of breaker (after tripping on fault) will result in the line being
successfully re-energized, thereby
a) Decreasing outage time
b) Improving reliability
c) Improving system stability
d) Reduces fault damage and maintenance time
Dead Time:-
The time between the Auto-reclosing scheme being energized and the 1 st reclosure of the
circuit breaker. This is normally set at 1 sec.
Reclaim Time:-
The time following a successful closing operation measured from the instant the auto-
reclosing relay closing contacts making which must elapse before the auto-reclosing relay
initiated another reclosing attempt. In other words, it may be said to be the time between
1st and 2nd re-closure.
Types of Auto-reclosing schemes (based on phase):
b) Multi-shot Auto-reclosing:-
In this scheme, more than one reclosing attempt is made for a given fault before
lockout of the circuit breaker occurs. Repeated closure attempts with high fault
level would seriously affect the circuit breaker, equipment and system stability.
The factors that must be taken into account:-
i) Circuit Breaker Limitations:-
Ability of circuit breaker to perform several trip close operations in quick
succession.
ii) System Conditions:-
If the percentage of the semi-permanent faults (which could be burnt out)
is moderate, for example on the lines through the forest, multishot auto-
reclosing is followed.
Types of Auto-reclosing (depending on speed):
a) Auto reclosure is done only for ground faults in the Ist zone.
b) Ground faults in the 2nd and 3rd zone should not initiate autoreclosure.
c) Single phase trip and autoreclosure is the most practiced scheme, though in
some cases 3-phase trip and autoreclosure for single phase faults may be
adopted.
d) Autoreclosure is not initiated for multiphase faults as chances of successful
autoreclosure is remote.
b) Blocking schemes:-
In this scheme, a blocking signal is sent by the reverse looking directional
unit ZR to prevent instantaneous tripping for Zone-2 & Zone-3 faults, external to
the protected line. Here ZR must operate faster than forward looking Zone-3
units and the signaling channel must also be extremely fast is operation.
i) Fault resistance.
ii) Infeed effect.
iii) Branching-off effect.
iv) Load encroachment.
i) Fault resistance:-
Fault resistance has two components:-
a) Arc resistance.
b) Ground resistance.
In a fault between phases, only arc resistance is involved.
For a fault at F, the actual line impedance
= R + JX = ZL
Due to the presence of fault resistance, the impedance measured by the
relay = R + JX + RF = ZR (where ZR > ZL)
Fault arc resistance is given by Warringtons formula:
Rarc = 8750 x1 / I1.4
Where 1 = length of arc in ft
I = fault current in Amps
The arc resistance has little effect on accuracy of zone-1 unit as it operates
instantaneously before the arc can stretch appreciably except in case of short
lines. Reactance relays are therefore used for short lines where the fault
resistance may be comparable with that of the protected lines and also for ground
faults where the ground resistance is high.
The arc resistance will have greater impact on accuracy of backup zones (time
delayed) as the arc stretches appreciably.
The effect of intermediate current source between relay location and fault
point is termed as infeed effect. Consider the sketch indicated in fig ---
While protecting long lines the necessary reach may be so large that the
minimum service impedance (or load impedance) falls within the region of
the starter. This would result in tripping without any fault.
The two conditions i.e. operation at heavy load and short circuit differ by
virtue of phase angle between voltage and current. For the load
impedance, the phase angle will be within +30 to 30 Deg. While during
short circuits, the fault impedance has a phase angle of 60 to 80 deg. (i.e.
line angle).
Load encroachment problem is more pronounced in case of under
impedance starters and gets lessened in case of mho, elliptical, lens etc,
type of starters. Relays with suitable characteristic on R-X diagram have
to be carefully chosen to protect long and heavily loaded lines, and this
becomes easily possible with microprocessor based numerical relays.
Note: i) Where a three zone relay only is available, the zone 3 will be set to
cover the adjacent longest line.
ii) The zonal timings will be carefully selected to properly grade with
the relays on all the feeders emanating from the adjacent bus.
Transmission Lines
Transmission lines can generally be classified into two groups viz. tie lines and
radial lines. Tie lines serve as interconnections between two parts of a system with power flow
possibility in both directions, whereas radial lines transmit power from sending end to the
receiving end. Hence the recommended protections for these two groups are given separately.
b) Backup protection : Directional over current relays of IDMT type for both phase and ground
faults. The phase elements shall have 50-200% range for current relays and the ground
element shall have 20-80% range.
The distance protection provided at the two ends of the line should generally
be of the same type and hence the choice of the distance scheme should be made to co-ordinate
with the protections at the other end in particular and the protection of the other lines in that
interconnected system in general.
For lines upto 220 kV, the present practice of most of the electricity utilities in India
is to provide one main protection of high speed type and backup protection of time delayed type.
The performance of this combination has been generally found satisfactory. Hence TCE's present
recommendation is for one high speed main protection and backup protection by time delayed
directional over current relays.
Switched three zone distance protection is not recommended for tie lines in view of
low reliability and time delay.
The speed of operation of distance scheme is the time (usually expressed in cycles
or milliseconds) it takes to clear faults in the Ist zone. With modern relays speeds of the order of
0.5 to 3 cycles are obtained and this range is acceptable.
The choice of different type of distance units such as mho reactance relays for particular
applications depends on various factors such as
Carrier blocking scheme, though slower has the advantage that the carrier signals
are transmitted on the unfaulted lines blocking their protection. The absence of carrier in the
faulted line unblocks its protection and allows to trip. .
The types of faults that the transformers are subjected to are classified as :-
1) Through Faults:- These are due to overload conditions and external short circuits.
Time graded O/C & E/F relays are employed for external short circuit conditions.
Fuses are provided for Distribution transformers.
2) Internal Faults:-
a) Electrical Faults:- Faults which cause immediate serious damage such as phase to earth or
phase to phase faults, short circuits between turns of HV& LV windings, etc.
b) Incipient Faults:- Which are initially minor faults, causing slowly developing damage such as
a poor electrical connection of conductors or breakdown of insulation, etc.
The following relays are employed to protect the transformer against internal faults.
i) Buchholz relays
ii) Differential relays
iii) REF relays
iv) Overfluxing relays
i) Buchholz Relays:-
As on-load tap change facilities are invariably provided in the grid transformers,
any departure from the nominal tap position will result in spill currents in the relay
circuits. Further, the CTs are often of different types and have dissimilar magnetization
characteristics, again resulting in spill current during heavy through fault conditions.
To avoid unwanted relays operating under the above two conditions a Percentage
Bias differential relay is used.
The operating characteristics of percentage bias differential relay is shown in the
figure.
The current flowing through the operating coil of the relay should be nearly zero
during normal operating conditions and when external short circuit occurs.
While setting the differential relay on a transformer, the (mismatch) current
through differential element at normal tap and positive and negative extreme taps are to
be computed. Differential element pickup setting and/or bias setting is adopted based on
maximum percentage mismatch adding some safety margin.
This relay is operative only for the internal faults of the transformer and thus fast
operating time can be achieved.
1. An external fault on the star side will result in current flowing in the line CT of
the affected phase and a balancing current in the neutral CT and current in the relay is
zero and hence relay is stable. During an internal fault, the line current on the line CT
gets reversed and hence relay operates.
2. The arrangement of residually connected CTs on the delta side of a transformer is
only sensitive to earth faults on the delta side because Zero sequence currents are blocked
by the delta winding.
For external faults no current flows through REF unless a CT gets saturated. Hence
minimum pickup current setting is adopted (10% or 20% In) on REF relay. Based on the
through fault current, the stabilizing resistor is set such that the relay will not operate for
external fault when a CT gets saturated. This relay operates only for internal earth faults,
instantaneously.
1. Overfluxing condition in a transformer can occur during system over voltage and/
or under frequency conditions (V/F).
2. The Overfluxing condition does not call for high speed tripping. The tripping can
be delayed depending on the overflux withstand capability of the transformer.
3. Relays with definite time delay (nearly 30 Sec.) and inverse characteristic are
being employed.
TABLE 1
PROTECTION OF TWO WINDING TRANSFORMERS
500 TO 5000 kVA RATING
1.9 Transformer oil OTI one contact for alarm on Oil for > 1000 kVA.
temperature trip temperature high and one
for trip on Oil temperature
very high
1.10 Transformer WTI one stage for alarm on
winding winding temp. high and the for > 1000 kVA.
temperature trip other for trip on winding
temperature very high
1.11 Oil pressure trip PRD supplied with the transformer for > 2500 kVA
- auxiliary relay with hand
reset contacts for tripping
NOTE:
1. Items 1.8, 1.9 & 1.11 are not applicable for dry type transformers.
2. Magnetic oil gauge with low oil level alarm for transformers > 1000 kVA.
TABLE 2
PROTECTION OF TWO WINDING TRANSFORMERS
5000 TO 10,000 kVA RATING
TABLE 3
3.2 Instantaneous 50 Relay on all three In case of low ratio CTs & in
short circuit phases. a high fault level system a
protection for separate protection CT core
phase faults on with higher ratio to be used
HV side for 50 to avoid CT
saturation.
TABLE 4
Transformers below 500 kVA are generally used for distribution systems and are usually
protected by fuses. LV side of the transformers may have circuit breakers or fuses.
In earlier relays auxiliary CTs were required for vector correction and ratio matching.
However, numerical relays do not have this requirement as settings in the relays take care of
these aspects.
A common high speed, hand reset trip relay should be used for simultaneous tripping of both
HV and LV breakers whenever the protections operate.
Winding temperature, alarm and trip, oil temperature alarm & trip normally form part of
transformer and are covered here for the sake of completeness. These trips also should be
routed through auxiliary relays to obtain flag indication / remote indication.
In case of transformers feeding to 415 V auxiliary supply system, the LV side may be
provided with time delayed electromagnetic releases for short circuit protection and thermal
overload relays in place of CT connected time over current protections. In such systems
where secondary neutral is directly grounded, no separate ground fault relaying is envisaged.
Even with all fuse protected O/G feeders it is desirable to have E/F relay 51N.
(a) upto 63 MVA or 132 kV - Differential & restricted earth fault protection for star connected
windings can be combined Earthing transformer can also be covered by the differential
protection.
(b) rating greater than 63 MVA or for all 220 kV / 400 kV transformers - Differential & restricted
earth fault protection should be separately provided
III. BUSBAR PROTECTION
All the three types have been widely used and are type-tested with high currents to prove stability
and selectivity. Hence any of these schemes is acceptable.
In the other two types, the check feature is incorporated by way of additional differential current
elements as a part of overall scheme. This arrangement is acceptable.
Schemes b) and c) incorporate auxiliary CTs in the differential circuit. All CT switching
arrangements are done in this auxiliary CT circuits thus protecting main CTs from open circuit
hazards. Auxiliary CTs also provide galvanic isolation between main CT circuits and electronic
circuit of the relays.
In case of area type RADSS scheme, a separate zone for transfer bus is not
provided. The transfer bus faults are cleared by high speed zero sequence directional overcurrent
relays before the operation of differential protection. This is acceptable.
Lines in subtansmission voltage upto 66KV and radial lines are usually protected by simple
over current relays. In case of parallel lines and ring mains, simple overcurrent relaying
cannot be applied to get fully discriminating protection. In such cases directional over current
relays are used.
Alt (a) above gives equal sensitivity for all types of phase faults (Two phase and three phase).
Also with this scheme atleast two elements will operate for any fault thus providing some relay
back up. In alt (b) only one relay will operate for certain two phase faults (involving phase
without o/c element). Also incase of faults after delta star transformer the sensitivity may be
lower in view of 2:1:1 current distribution obtained on the line side. Hence general practice is to
recommend alternative (a)
Phase fault overcurrent relays are usually provided with 50-200% setting range. Available IDMT
O/C relays have seen equal steps in this range.
Ground fault O/C relays usually have 20-80% range in case of effectively earthed systems and
10-40% range where ground fault current is limited .
Definite minimum time relays or inverse definite minimum time relays are used. The later is the
most common application in our country and is also TCE practice.
In case of lines where the fault level varies considerably for fault at the beginning and end of the
line, it may be possible to supplement IDMT O/C relays with the high set instantaneous units .
These have to be set above the max fault current at remote end . The transient over reach for
offset fault current should be taken into account while setting the high set unit.
Disadvantage of overcurrent relaying is that the fault clearing time increases as number of stages
of co-ordination is increased. Max fault clearing time is obtained for the relay near the source
and where the fault current to be cleared will be highest. Also fault clearing time will vary
considerably with the variation in generation( fault levels).
O/C relays cannot ensure fully discriminating protection in case of parallel lines or ring main
feeders. In such cases directional overcurrent protection is to be employed.
Directional element would require both current and voltage infeed. Correct polarity of supply
should be ensured. Relay manufacturers literature or instruction manuals indicate correct
terminal connection with respect to CT, PT polarity markings. These should be carefully checked
while approving schematic drawings and also while commissioning and testing.
Phase fault over current relays use phase-to-phase voltage as polarizing quantity. 90-degree
connection is usually employed. This means for relay receiving R phase current, YB potential
should be supplied.
For ground fault relays , residual current (3I) and residual voltage (3V) are used . To obtain
zero sequence voltage for potential polarization, bus VT should have broken delta secondary
windings. Further PTs should be single phase type or 3 phase five limbed.
When broken delta secondary winding is not available on PTs auxiliary, PT with star /broken
delta connection may be used. However main PT should be either single phase or 3 phase-limbed
type. The neutral of main PT secondary and auxiliary PT star connection should be
interconnected to ensure correct transformation of zero sequence voltage.
The directional relays should develop maximum torque when fault currents are flowing since
fault power factor angle is usually 45 to 60 in case of line faults (upto 33 KV lines). They
should develop maximum torque for this PT current. The 90 connection will develop maximum
torque for UPF conditions if voltage coil has purely resistive burden. Hence it is essential to
build a lagging PF in the voltage coil circuit. This angle is called as maximum torque angle.
Maximum torque angle is defined as the angle by which current in current coil should be
displaced from voltage applied in the current coil should be displaced from the voltage applied to
the voltage coil (leading). For phase fault relaying maximum torque angle is 30 deg. or 45 deg.
for ground fault relaying it is 60 deg. ( for effectively earthed system) and 45 deg. for resistance
earthed system.
Directional ground fault relays depend on PT supply and may fail to operate if PT supply is lost.
PT fuses should be monitored.
15 VA 5P10 CT s are generally adequate for over current relaying when ground fault relay setting
is more than 30%.
While checking the adequacy of CT burden the saturation of relay coil for large fault currents,
the increased burden offered by relays when at lower taps should be care fully considered. Low
ground fault setting impose heavy burden on CT s.
Effect of harmonics on the pick up of over current relays is to increase the pick up value and also
time of operation . Hence relay test kits should be able to develop 20 or more times relay rated
current without appreciable change in current wave form. Special test kits are used for this
purpose.