Fundamentals of Power System Protection

1. Introduction
1.1 Overview of Electrical Energy Systems
Electrical energy systems consist of various equipment’s connected together. Typically, power is
generated at lower voltages (a few kV) (3-phase ac voltage source) which is stepped up by a
transformer and fed into a transmission grid. A transmission grid is a meshed network of high
voltage lines and transformers. It can have multiple voltage levels. The power is delivered to
load centers which may be far off (even thousands of km's apart). The power is transferred
through the ac network and HVDC lines. At load centers, voltage levels are stepped down by
step down transformers in multiple stages and finally power is delivered to the end user by a
distribution system which is mostly radial (no loops) in nature.

Fig 1.1 Electric power system

Where:-
Electricity is generated at a power plant (1),
Voltage is “stepped-up” for transmission (2),
Energy travels along a transmission line to the area where the power is needed (3),
Voltage is decreased or “stepped-down,” at another substation (4),
A distribution power line (5), and
Carries that electricity until it reaches a home or business (6).

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Why do we need Protection?
It is necessary for safety of the equipment.
It is necessary for safety of the human personnel which may be endangered due to exposure to
live parts under fault or abnormal operating conditions. Small current of the order of 50 mA is
sufficient to be fatal!
Whenever, human security is sacrificed or there exists possibility of equipment damage, it is
necessary to isolate and de-energize the equipment.
To conclude that, every electrical equipment has to be monitored to protect it and provide human
safety under abnormal operating conditions. This job is assigned to electrical protection systems.
It encompasses apparatus protection and system protection.
Types of Protection
Protection systems can be classified into apparatus protection and system protection.
1.2 Apparatus Protection
Apparatus protection deals with detection of a fault in the apparatus and consequent protection.
Apparatus protection can be further classified into following:
 Transmission Line Protection and feeder protection
 Transformer Protection
 Generator Protection
 Motor Protection
 Bus bar Protection
1.3 System Protection
System protection deals with detection of proximity of system to unstable operating region and
consequent control actions to restore stable operating point and/or prevent damage to equipment.
Loss of system stability can lead to partial or complete system blackouts. Control actions
associated with system protection may be classified into preventive or emergency control
actions.
1.4 What is a Relay?
Relays are electrical switches that open or close another circuit under certain conditions.
Protective relays are devices which monitor power system conditions and operate to quickly
and accurately isolate faults or dangerous conditions. A well designed protective system can
limit damage to equipment, as well as minimize the extent of associated service interruption.

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Formally, a relay is a logical element which processes the inputs (mostly voltages and currents)
from the system/apparatus and issues a trip decision if a fault within the relay's jurisdiction is
detected. A conceptual diagram of relay is shown in fig below,

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To monitor the health of the apparatus, relay senses current through a current transformer (CT),
voltage through a voltage transformer (VT). VT is also known as Potential Transformer (PT).

The relay element analyzes these inputs

and decides whether (a) there is an
abnormality or a fault and (b) if yes,
whether it is within jurisdiction of the
relay. The jurisdiction of relay R1 is
restricted to bus B where the transmission
line terminates. If the fault is in its
jurisdiction, relay sends a tripping signal
to circuit breaker (CB) which opens the
circuit.
A real life analogy of the jurisdiction of
the relay can be thought by considering transmission lines as highways on which traffic
(current/power) flows.
1.5 Evolution of Relays
If we zoom into a relay, we see three different types of realizations:
 Electromechanical Relays
 Solid State Relays
 Numerical Relays

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Electromechanical Relays
When the principle of electromechanical energy conversion is used for decision making, the
relay is referred as an electromechanical relay. These relays represent the first generation of
relays.
Solid State Relays
With the advent of transistors, operational amplifiers etc, solid state relays were developed. They
realize the functionality through various operations like comparators etc. They provide more
flexibility and have less power consumption than their electromechanical counterpart. A major
advantage with the solid state relays is their ability to provide self-checking facility. Some of the
advantages of solid state relays are low burden, improved dynamic performance characteristics,
high seismic withstand capacity and reduced panel space. Relay burden refers to the amount of
volt amperes (VA) consumed by the relay.
Numerical Relays
It involves analog to digital (A/D)
conversion of analog voltage and
currents obtained from secondary of CTs
and VTs. These current and voltage
samples are fed to the microprocessor or
Digital Signal Processors (DSPs) where
the protection algorithms or programs
process the signals and decide whether a
fault exists in the apparatus under
consideration or not.

1.6 What is a Circuit Breaker?

A Circuit Breaker (CB) is basically a switch used to interrupt the flow of current. It opens on
relay command. The relay command initiates mechanical separation of the contacts. CBs are
categorized by the interrupting medium used. Minimum oil, air blast, vacuum arc and SF6 CBs
are some of the common examples. CB opening mechanism requires much larger power input
than what logical element relay can provide. Hence, when relay issues a trip command, it closes

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a switch that energizes the CB opening mechanism powered by a separate dc source (station
battery). The arc struck in a CB produces large amount of heat which also has to be dissipated.
2. Apparatus Protection
Overcurrent Protection
Over current relaying and fuse protection uses the
principle that when the current exceeds a
predetermined value, it indicates presence of a
fault (short circuit). This protection scheme finds
usage in radial distribution systems with a single
source. It is quite simple to implement.
Fig 2.1 shows a radial distribution system with a
single source. The fault current is fed from only one end of the feeder. For this system it can be
observed that:
 To relay R1, both downstream faults F1 and F2 are visible i.e. IF1 as well as IF2 pass
through CT of R1.
 To relay R2, fault F1, an upstream fault is not seen, only F2 is seen. This is because no
component of IF1 passes through CT of R2. Thus, selectivity is achieved naturally.
Relaying decision is based solely on the magnitude of fault current. Such a protection
scheme is said to be non-directional.
Directional Overcurrent Protection

Fig 2.2 shows such a case for a radial system with source at both ends. Consequently, fault is fed
from both the ends of the feeder. To interrupt the fault current, relays at both ends of the feeder
are required.

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Distance Protection
The basic principle of distance relay is that
the apparent impedance seen by the relay,
which is defined as the ratio of phase
voltage to line current of a transmission line
(Zapp), reduces drastically in the presence
of a line fault. A distance relay compares
this ratio with the positive sequence
impedance (Z1) of the transmission line. If
the fraction Zapp/Z1 is less than unity, it
indicates a fault. This ratio also indicates the
distance of the fault from the relay.
Principle of Differential Protection
Differential protection is based on the fact that any fault within electrical equipment would cause
the current entering it, to be different, from the current leaving it. Thus by comparing the two
currents either in magnitude or in phase or both we can determine a fault and issue a trip decision
if the difference exceeds a predetermined set value.
Differential Protection for Transmission Line

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Differential Protection for Transmission Line (Tapped Line)
Differential protection can be used for tapped lines (multi terminal lines) where boundary
conditions are defined as follows:

Differential Protection for Transformer

Consider an ideal transformer with
the CT connections, the primary and
secondary winding, then under
normal (no fault) operating
conditions the scaled CT currents
will match in magnitudes. By
connections the primary and
secondary CTs with due care to the
dots (polarity markings), a
circulating current can be set up as
shown by dotted line.

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Differential Protection for Bus bar
Ideally, differential protection is the solution for the bus-bar protection.

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3. System Protection
Overview of Power System Dynamics
Usually, system protection requires study of the system dynamics and control. Power system
behavior can be described in terms of differential and algebraic system of equations. Differential
equations can be written to describe behavior of generators, transmission lines, motors,
transformers etc. The detailing depends upon the time scale of investigation.

Figure 3.1 shows the various time scales involved in modelling system dynamics. The dynamics
involved in switching, lightening, load rejection etc have a high frequency component which die
down quickly. In analysis of such dynamics, differential equations associated with inductances
and capacitances of transmission lines have to be modelled. Detection and removal of fault is the
task of the protection system (apparatus protection). Post-fault, the system may or may not return

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to an equilibrium position. Transient stability studies are required to determine the post fault
system stability.
System Protection Relays
Fig 3.2 which is synchronized with the
grid. During grid disturbance, if plant
generators are not successfully isolated
from the grid, they also sink with the
grid, resulting in significant loss in
production and damage to process
equipments.

Under frequency Relay and Rate of Change of Frequency Relay.

In case of a grid failure (fig. 3.3),
captive generators tend to supply
power to other consumers connected
to the substation. The load-generation
imbalance leads to fall in frequency.
The under frequency relay R detects
this drop and isolates local generation
from the grid by tripping breaker at
the point of common coupling. After
disconnection from the grid, it has to
be ascertained that there is load-
generation balance in the islanded
system. Because of the inertia of the machines, frequency drops gradually. To speed up the
islanding decision, rate of change of frequency relays are used.
Under voltage Relay
Whenever there is an uncleared fault on the grid close to the plant, the plant generators tend to
feed the fault and the voltages at the supply point drops. This can be used as a signal for isolating
from the grid.
Reverse Power Relay

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Distribution systems are radial in nature. This holds true for both utility and plant distribution
systems. If there is a fault on the utility's distribution system, it may trip a breaker thereby
isolating plant from the grid.

If in the prefault state, power was being fed to the plant, and then this reversal of power flow can
be used to island the plant generation and load from the remaining system.
4. Desirable Attributes of Protection
Dependability
A relay is said to be dependable if it trips only when it is expected to trip.

Dependability can be improved by increasing the sensitivity of the relaying system.

Sensitivity
For simplicity, consider the case of overcurrent protection. The protective system must have
ability to detect the smallest possible fault current. The smaller the current that it can detect, the
more sensitive it is. One way to improve sensitivity is to determine characteristic signature of a
fault.
Security
On the other hand, security is a property used to characterize false tripping on the relays. A relay
is said to be secure if it does not trip when it is not expected to trip. It is the degree of certainty
that the relay will not operate incorrectly:

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Security of the relaying system can be improved by improving selectivity of the relaying system.

Selectivity
Selectivity is required to prevent unnecessary loss of plant and circuits. Protection should be
provided in overlapping zones so that no part of the power system remains unprotected and
faulty zone is disconnected and isolated.
Reliability
Reliability of Protection
Factors affecting reliability are as follows;
i) Quality of relays
ii) Component and circuits involved in fault clearance e.g. circuit breaker trip and control
circuits, instrument transformers
iii) Maintenance of protection equipment
iv) Quality of maintenance operating staff
Failure records indicate the following order of likelihood of relays failure, breaker, wiring,
current transformers, voltage transformers and D C. battery. Accordingly local and remote back
up arrangement are required to be provided.

Necessity of Speed in Relaying

To maximize safety, and minimize equipment damage and system instability, a fault should be
cleared as quickly as possible.
Factors affecting fault clearance time and speed of relay is as follows:
i) Economic consideration
ii) Selectivity
iii) System stability
iv) Equipment damage
4.1 Protection Zones

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Overlapping zones of protection are provided so that no part of power system remains
unprotected. The point of connection of the protection with the power system normally defines
the zone boundary and generally corresponds to the position of the current transformers.

5. Introduction to CT
Practically all electrical measurements and relaying decisions are derived from current and
voltage signals. Since relaying hardware works with smaller range of current (in amperes and not
kA) and voltage (volts and not kV), real life signals (feeder or transmission line currents) and bus
voltages have to be scaled to lower levels and then fed to the relays. This job is done by current
and voltage transformers (CTs and VTs). CT and VTs are the sensors for the relay.
Equivalent Circuit of CT
CT is not much different
from that of a regular
transformer (fig 5.1).
However, a fundamental
difference is that while
regular power transformers
are excited by a voltage
source, a current transformer
has current source excitation.
Primary winding of the CT is
connected in series with the
transmission line.

Total load in ohms that is

introduced by CT in series
with the transmission line
is insignificant and hence,
the connection of the CT
does not alter current in the

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 feeder or the power apparatus at all.

The secondary winding

resistance and leakage
reactance is not neglected
as it will affect the
performance of CT. The
total impedance on the
secondary side is the sum
of relay burden, lead wire
resistance and leakage
impedance of secondary
winding.

The secondary voltage developed by the CT has to be monitored because as per the transformer
emf equation, the flux level in the core depends upon it. The transformer emf equation is given
by:

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Equivalent circuit of saturated CT

One of the major problems faced by the

protection systems engineer is the saturation
of CT on large ac currents and dc offset
current present during the transient. When
the CT is saturated, primary current source
cannot be faithfully reflected to the
secondary side.
Classification of CTs
The CTs can be classified into following types:
 Measurement CTs
 Protection CTs
A measurement grade CT has much lower VA capacity than a protection grade CT. A
measurement CT has to be accurate over its complete range of normal current. In other words,
it’s magnetizing impedance at low current levels.
A protection grade CT, linear response is expected up to 20 times the rated current. Its
performance has to be accurate in the range of normal currents and upto fault currents.
Specifically, for protection grade CT's magnetizing impedance should be maintained to a large
value in the range of the currents of the order of fault currents.
6. Introduction to Voltage Transformer
Voltage Transformers
Many relaying applications like
distance relays, directional
overcurrent relays require
measurement of voltages at a bus.
This task is done by a voltage
transformer (VT). The principle of a
voltage transformer is identical to the
conventional transformer.

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 To cut down the VT size and cost, a capacitance potential divider is used (fig 8.2). Thus, a
reduced voltage is fed to primary of the transformer. This reduces the size of VT. This leads
to development of coupling capacitor voltage transformers (CCVT).

7. Fuse Protection
Abnormality and Faults
When an equipment (e.g.
transmission line, transformer,
generator, motor) is operating within
the rated specifications (speed,
voltage, current etc.), we say that it
is in the normal state. Therefore,
abnormal state pertains to deviation
from the rated operating point. It
may refer to overcurrent, under
voltage, over or under frequency.

Sources of Fault Current

This lecture deals with overcurrent protection for radial distribution systems. In a radial system
with single source, the magnitude of fault current depends upon the following:
 Source contribution (Source voltage and impedance).
 Transformer impedance.
 Motor contribution (Back emf and impedance of induction and synchronous motors).
 Distance of fault from the source.
A ‘fuse' refers to a device that opens a circuit with fusible part, which is heated and severed by
current flowing through it. The fusible part is also called the “Element”. When current flows in a
fuse, heat is generated and the element temperature rises. If the current is within (less or equal to)
its continuous rated value, then the steady state temperature is such that the fuse does not melt.

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Fig 14.2 shows location of fuses in a distribution system. Each transformer and capacitor bank
has fuse protection to selectively disconnect the device in case of a fault in the device.
Transformer fuses can also provide overload protection. The sectionalizing fuses are used to
divide the system into smaller sections which can be then isolated from the rest of the system.
For the fault F1 or F2 it is the responsibility of fuse A to operate.
Fuse Characteristics
Fuses are characterized by ‘thermal' and 'interrupting' characteristics. Thermal characteristic are
quite intuitive and relate to the following:
 Current rating.
 Melting characteristics.
 Interrupting characteristics refer to the following:
 Voltage rating.
 Interrupting rating.
Types of Fuses
Fuse can be classified into two types (see the chart below)

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Earth Fault Protection using Overcurrent Relays
Earth-fault relay is used to protect
feeder against faults involving ground.
Typically, earth faults are single line
to ground and double line to ground
faults.

Adaptive Relaying in Overcurrent

Protection
Adaptive relaying is a protection
scheme in which settings can adapt to the system conditions automatically, so that relaying is
tuned to the prevailing power system conditions.
Automatic Reclosing
Application of reclosers in distribution systems requires selection of its ratings such as minimum
trip current, continuous current, symmetrical interrupting current etc. For a single phase system,
single phase reclosers can be used whereas for a three phase system, one three phase recloser or
three single phase reclosers can be used.
Reclosers have to be selected by considering the following factors.
 Voltage Rating.
 Continuous current Rating
 Maximum Symmetrical Interrupting Rating
 Minimum Tripping current
8. Apparatus protection

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Faults in a power system can be either apparatus faults or bus faults. Apparatus fault refer to
faults in feeders, transformers, generators or motors.
8.1 Bus Protection
Bus is an external interconnection point for terminals of different apparatus. A bus fault is
usually rare, but if and when it happens its consequences can be quite severe. It can lead loss of
multiple feeders or transmission lines and hence has a potential to create a large enough
disturbance to induce transient instability. Even if it does not lead to transient instability, loss of
load from an important substation can be quite high. Because of these reasons, bus
rearrangement can have sufficient redundancy so that in case of a bus fault, an alternative bus
automatically takes over the functions of the ‘main bus'. Thus, the end user sees no disruption in
service except during the fault interval.
Bus arrangements are:-
 Single bus single breaker
 Single breaker double bus with bus-tie
 Double bus double breaker
 Ring bus arrangement
 One and half circuit breaker arrangement
Single Bus Single Breaker Arrangement
The system has only one bus bar along with the switch. All the substation equipment like the
transformer, generator, and the feeder is connected to this bus bar only. Each feeder has a CT to
monitor feeder current while a single VT is used to measure bus voltage.

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 Fig single bus single arrangement
Single Breaker Double Bus with Bus Tie
This arrangement is used when
 Large number of circuits exists especially at lower voltage and industrial substation.
 Substation is fed from two separate power supplies with one supply for each bus.

Fig single breaker double bus with tie with six circuits
Double Bus Double Breaker Arrangement
Each feeder is connected to two buses which in normal operation mode are paralleled. Bus
differential protection is provided for each bus.

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 Fig Double Bus Double Breaker Arrangement
Ring Bus Arrangement
The arrangement requires one circuit breaker per feeder and hence it is less costly. This
arrangement is popular because of low cost and high flexibility. As the bus section between
the two breakers becomes a part of the line, separate bus protection is not applicable or
required. i.e, the feeder protection also provides the functionality of bus bar protection.

Fig Ring bus arrangement

8.2 Transformer Protection
It involves establishing circulating current through a pair of matched CTs installed on the
primary and secondary winding of the transformer. If there is no internal fault in the transformer,
zero current flows through the differential overcurrent element. However, in case of an internal
fault, the CT secondary currents are not matched and hence the differential current is not zero.
This causes the overcurrent element to pick up and operate the circuit breakers to isolate the
transformer.

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8.3 Generator Protection
Generator protection and control are interdependent problems. A generator has to be protected
not only from electrical faults (stator and rotor faults) and mechanical problems (e.g. Related to
turbine, boilers etc), but it also has to be protected from adverse system interaction arising like
generator going out of step with the rest of system, loss of field winding etc. Under certain
situations like internal faults, the generator has to be quickly isolated (shut down), while
problems like loss of field problem requires an ‘alarm' to alert the operator.

Multi CT Differential Protection for Generators

The accuracy of the differential protection for generators is expected to be better than that of
differential protection for transformers, as issues like over fluxing, magnetizing inrush, no load
current and different voltage rating of primary and secondary are nonexistent.

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Fig differential protection of Y-connected generator

Fig differential protection of Delta connected generator

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