Bus Protection

Bus Protection
Introduction
Incoming Source
Busbars in power systems are the location where transmission lines,
generation sources, and distribution loads converge. Because of
this convergence, short circuits located on or near the busbar tend
to have very high magnitude currents. The high magnitude fault
currents require high-speed operation of the busbar protection to 51 51N Inverse Time Overcurrent
Bus Protection

or Reverse Interlocked
limit equipment damage. However, this high-speed clearing must 50 50N Overcurrent
be balanced against the need for security. Tripping incorrectly for 52
an external fault may cause large outages, and jeopardize power
system stability. The high fault magnitudes increase the possibility
of CT saturation during external faults close to the busbar, and CT
51 51 51 51
saturation increases the possibility of an incorrect operation of the
busbar protection. 51N 51N 51N 51N

Protection of the busbar may be complicated and varies with 52 52 52 52

the topology of the bus. Many busbars connect all circuits to one
common segment of busbar. The complication for these buses is
simply the number of connected circuits. However, a specific busbar
Radial Feeders
may have multiple bus segments, with individual circuits that
connect to different bus segments depending on operating needs. Overcurrent based interlocking schemes for simple Bus protection

For such complex buses, busbar protection must be able to protect

each bus segment individually, and dynamically keep track of the is maintained by simple time coordination, or via hardwired
circuits connected to a specific bus segment. communications in reverse interlocking protection schemes.
The most significant factor in terms of operating speed is arc-
flash hazards. The slow operating time of overcurrent-based bus
Busbar Protection Techniques protection can result in a larger arc-flash zone or in more restrictive
The choice of protection technique used for a specific busbar hazard protection requirements. In these instances, high speed
depends on the protection requirements for speed and security, differential protection is appropriate.
balanced against the cost of implementing a specific solution,
and the operating requirements for a specific bus. Common Transmission Busbar Protection
methods of protecting busbars include overcurrent-based The predominant requirements for protecting transmission
interlocking schemes, overcurrent-based differential protection, busbars is the speed and security of the protection scheme. These
high-impedance differential protection, and percentage differential requirements are built around the need to minimize equipment
protection. Interlocking and overcurrent differential protection can damage and maintain system stability during fault events. If these
be implemented with any suitable overcurrent relay from GE Multilin, are the only two considerations for transmission busbar protection,
and performance has to be balanced in terms of speed and security then high-impedance differential protection may be appropriate.
against the reduced cost of protection. These types of protection High-impedance voltage differential protection is a solution to
are typically applied on distribution busbars, where fault current the challenge of CT saturation during external faults, as the high
magnitudes are lower and speed is generally less critical than with impedance of the relay forces the error current due to the saturated
transmission busbars. CT back through the CTs instead of the relay operating coil. The relay
Differential protection provides high speed fault-clearing necessary uses a setpoint to differentiate between the maximum error voltage
for critical busbars such as transmission busbars, or distribution due to CT saturation, and the full voltage of an internal fault.
busbars where arc flash hazards are a concern. High-impedance When also considering the requirements for operating a specific bus,
differential protection or percentage differential protection may be and the cost of installation, high-impedance differential protection
the correct choice depending on the bus configuration and specifics schemes have some limitations. The major limitation is the strict
of application. Both methods address loss of security for external requirements on the CT circuits necessary for the high-impedance
faults due to CT saturation. scheme. All CTs used in the scheme must have the identical
performance class and turns ratio, must be tapped at full ratio, and
Distribution Busbar Protection must be dedicated to the bus protection scheme. Additionally, the
Distribution busbars typically have a single incoming source secondary lead burden from the each CT to the relay should also
supplying multiple radial distribution feeders. For these applications, be identical. These requirements are necessary to keep the level of
the chief concerns for protecting the bus are normally meeting error voltage as low as possible to prevent maloperation of the relay.
operating requirements and cost of protection. High speed clearing Making modifications to an existing bus protection scheme, such as
to maintain system stability is not normally necessary. Security adding an additional circuit, may be very challenging in engineering
and installation.

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 Bus Protection

In addition, high-impedance differential relays also have some

limitations in terms of normal operations and maintenance. The
relay sees only the voltage from the differential junction point, and
therefore cannot provide any auxiliary protection functions such
as breaker failure, or record the individual currents from each CT
connected to the relay. Data to analyze fault events must therefore
come from additional sources. Another operating limitation of high-

Bus Protection
impedance differential is the ability to handle routine bus switching,
such as removing a circuit breaker for maintenance. Typical, the
differential relay must be blocked during such switching operations.
While this type of switching is uncommon with the typical single
segment busbar, it is a routine occurrence with multiple segment
busbars, making high-impedance differential schemes difficult to Differential characteristic region
apply on such multiple segment busbars.
Percentage differential relays, also known as low-impedance
differential relays, provide similar operating speed, and can provide
a similar level of security, as high-impedance differential relays. In
addition, low-impedance relays are simple to apply, as there are
no special requirements for CT performance class, turns ratio, or
secondary lead burden other than good performance practice. A
microprocessor-based low-impedance differential relay measures
input currents from each set of CT, and therefore can provide
auxiliary functions such as breaker failure for every circuit, and
measure and record all currents during a fault event. In addition,
switching events can be routinely handled in the relay, and low-
impedance differential relays can be specifically designed for
multiple segment busbars. Adaptive Trip logic

GE Multilin Busbar Protection breakpoint characteristic matching the differential characteristic

to the saturation performance of the CT ensuring security, while
GE Multilin provides protective relays that support all busbar
maintaining sensitivity.
protection techniques, including overcurrent , high-impedance
The differential characteristic can correctly restrain for many
differential, and percentage (low-impedance) differential. The
external faults when CT saturation occurs. However, the differential
protection techniques for overcurrent and high-impedance
element itself is not enough to ensure correct restraint to external
differential protection are well known. GE Multilin low-impedance
faults when severe CT saturation occurs. The differential protection
differential relays are designed to provide specific performance
is always supervised by a directional element. The directional
advantages on applications for all busbars, from single segment
element compares the angle of the measured fault currents. If at
busbars with up to 24 connected circuits, or large multiple segment
least one current is away from the sum of the remaining currents
busbar configurations. These include the correct restraint while
by an angle greater than 900, the fault is considered an external
facing CT saturation during a fault event, detecting the failure of a
fault. If all fault currents are within 90° of each other, the fault is
CT secondary circuit connected to the relay, protection of multiple
considered internal.
segment busbars, and providing enough digital inputs and outputs
During low magnitude fault events, the differential element must
for proper bus protection.
assert and the directional element must declare an internal fault
for the relay to trip. A low magnitude fault event occurs when the
CT Saturation
differential current is less than the breakpoint for the second slope
Saturation of a CT connected to a low-impedance differential relay
of the element characteristic. During high magnitude faults a CT
during an external fault produces an incorrect differential current
saturation detector additionally supervises the differential protection.
that may cause the relay to operate. GE Multilin relays use adaptive
During such a fault, the differential protection may operate only if
trip logic to prevent an operation due to CT saturation during
the differential element asserts while no CT saturation is present,
external faults.
or when the directional element declares an internal fault when CT
The adaptive trip logic is designed around the differential
saturation is present. The CT saturation detector simply sets a logic
characteristic. The restraint current of the differential element
flag when the restraint current exceeds the setting for the second
is based on the maximum measured current, as opposed to the
breakpoint of the differential characteristic, and the differential
traditional magnitude sum of the currents. This ensures ideal
current remains below the first slope of the characteristic.
restraint for the actual fault condition, balancing sensitivity
and security. The differential element uses a dual slope-dual

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 Bus Protection

CT Trouble The B90 Bus Differential Relay provides protection of multiple

Any differential protection scheme depends on the correctness segment busbars, using a phase-segregated, centralized protection
of the CT secondary circuits connected to the relay. In addition to scheme. The B90 is phase-segregated to simplify the design of the
CT saturation and linear CT measurement error, broken or shorted system. One B90 is used for each phase, and processes only the
CT connections cause the relay to see a false differential current. AC signals for that phase, eliminating the need for data transfer
During normal operations, the false differential current due to an and synchronized sampling between the devices. The B90 uses a
broken or shorted CT secondary circuit is typically too small to centralized protection scheme to also simplify the design of the
system. The relays are in the substation control house, and all
Bus Protection

cause a relay operation. However, during external faults or high load

periods, this false differential current can result in an incorrect relay current circuits and control wiring are brought to the control house
operation. The CT Trouble function in the B30 and B90 relays detects as per typical relay installations. No special equipment needs to be
this condition by using a low-set differential element, typically set mounted in the substation yard or circuit breaker control cabinets.
around 10% of the least heavily loaded circuit connected to the bus,
Dynamic bus replica
that asserts after a settable time delay. The CT Trouble alarm can be
sent via SCADA to operating personnel, or it may be used to block The objective for protecting complex busbar arrangements is
the differential element. to provide for optimum protection by avoiding blind spots or
unnecessary bus outages. As a rule, this task calls for dynamic
Multiple segment busbar protection adjustments of boundaries of differential zones of protection, and
Multiple segment busbars, such as double busbar and triple can be safely accomplished when using numerical relays. Dynamic
busbar arrangements, are used to balance loads between various bus replica and CT switching were initially done outside the relay and
transmission circuits, minimize the physical space required for as such complicated the bus protection schemes. The B90 and B30
a substation, and provide simpler operating procedures when relays provide user programmable logic to create a dynamic bus
performing breaker maintenance. The protection challenge for replica inside the system, catering for dynamic switching schemes
these busbar configurations actually lies in operations. The busbar necessary to make the bus protection scheme secure and reliable.
protection must recognize which segment is faulted, and clear only
End-zone fault protection
that segment. Additionally, the busbar protection must not operate
when breakers are transferred between busbar segments. End fault protection is one use of a dynamic bus replica. When
The figure shows a typical double busbar configuration. For an using line-side CTs, the circuit breaker is included in the bus zone
internal fault, the busbar protection must identify the faulted bus of protection. When the relay determines the circuit breaker is open
segment, and trip the circuit breakers attached to that bus segment. through the use of breaker status contacts, the circuit breaker is
This requires the busbar protection to use a dynamic bus replica to removed from the bus zone. In this case, a fault between the CT
track which circuit breakers are connected to the bus segment. location and the circuit breaker is in a protection blind spot. Since

Dynamic bus
ZONE 1
replica knows
breaker status,
isolator status
ZONE 2
Bus side CT:
bus protection
must detect this
fault when CB is
open T

Zone 2 trips CB-3,

CB-4, and T for
this fault, based
on dynamic bus
1 2 3 4 5
replica

End-zone fault:
bus protection
must detect this
fault when CB is
open
Re-configurable busbar with zone boundaries

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 Bus Protection

Bus Protection
End Zone Fault - Bus side CTs

Flexible input and output options

Traditional busbar protection and control schemes typically use a
lockout relay to open the connected circuit breakers when a bus
fault is detected. For simple busbars, this is the most effective
way to open the circuit breakers. GE Multilin relays can replace the
separate lockout relay with mechanically latched output contacts.
Once asserted, these contacts latch closed until manually reset via
contact input, pushbutton control from the relay HMI, or SCADA
command.
End Zone Fault - Line side CTs For applications where the bus protection relay will be used for
control and status information, or the relay is protecting a complex
busbar where the status of circuit breakers and isolator switches
is vital, the number of inputs and outputs is quite large. Taking a
the B90 is still measuring the current, a simple overcurrent function, double busbar example with 5 feeders and a tie breaker, the relay
can be used to determine the fault exists, and send a direct transfer requires 12 output contacts (trip and close for each circuit breaker),
trip signal to the circuit breaker on the other end of the transmission and 16 to 32 contact inputs (1 or 2 status inputs for each circuit
line. Without the use of a dynamic bus replica, this fault would breaker and isolator switch). This many inputs and outputs may be
cause an operation of the bus protection for what is essentially an beyond the physical limits of an individual relay. For this reason, GE
external fault. Multilin provides an additional B90 to add a combination of up to
96 additional inputs and 84 additional outputs for a bus protection
Bus side CTS
system. The relays can communicate via Direct I/O communications
Bus side CTs provide another illustration of the use of a dynamic to pass digital input status and control output contacts. Direct I/O
bus replica. Similar situation occurs for bus-side CTs. A fault is a robust communications protocol that uses copper or fiber optic
between the circuit breaker and the CT is in a blind spot of the communications. The protocol is very reliable, and includes 32-bit
bus protection. To clear the fault the busbar must be tripped, but CRC error checking, and may integrate up to 16 different relays on
the differential zone will not see this fault. Similar to the end-zone one communications circuit.
fault, this situation requires using breaker position as a connection
status for the associated current. The fault is cleared sequentially.
First, protection of the circuit, fed from the CT, responds to the fault
and opens the breaker. When the breaker opens, the CT current
is removed from the differential zone by the dynamic bus replica.
As a result, the zone expands to the bus-side pole of the opened
breaker, the fault becomes internal, and the bus protection clears
the busbar.

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