SEC

PROTECTION
UNIT 2

ELECTRICAL OPERATIONS TRAINING CENTRE

SYSTEM CONTROL DEPARTMENT

PROTECTION NOTES : UNIT 2

INDEX

1 Transmission Line and Feeder Protection

1.1 Introduction
1.2 D.C. Wire Pilot Relaying
1.3 A.C. Wire Pilot Relaying
1.4 Power Line Carrier Pilot
1.5 Microwave or Radio Pilots

2 Distance Protection

2.1 Introduction
a Impedance Type Distance Protection
b Phase Comparison Protection
2.2 Zones and Distance Protection
2.3 Distance Protection Using Carrier Intertripping and Remote
Tripping
a Non-interlocked transfer tripping
b Interlocked or permissive transfer tripping
c Carrier Blocking
2.4 Distance Measurement Problems
a Fault Resistance
b Overloads and Power Swings
c Transient Conditions
1 TRANSMISSION LINE AND FEEDER PROTECTION

1.1 Introduction

Differential principles can be applied to transmission lines and feeders,

provided some method of conveying information about relevant quantities
from one end of the line to the other end, is available. The equipment
used to allow this transfer of information is known as pilot equipment,
where the term pilot simply means an interconnecting channel of some sort
over which information can be conveyed. Three different types of pilot
channels are currently in use.

They are as follows:

a Wire pilots- Used for feeder protection

b Power line carrier pilots-Used for transmission line protection
c Microwave pilots - Used for transmission line protection

Wire pilots consist of d.c. and a.c, two-wire circuit, power line carrier
pilot is one in which low voltage, high frequency currents are
transmitted along a conductor of a power line to a receiver at the remote
end. A micro-wave pilot is an ultra-high frequency radio signal system.

1.2 D.C. Wire Pilot Relaying

Systems of d.c. pilot relaying, although excellent, have the limitation

of only being able to be used up to 16 km from the transmitting point
because of economical reasons.

Scores of different wire pilot relaying equipment have been devised where
d.c. signals in one form or another have been transmitted over pilot wire.
For certain applications some such arrangements have advantages,
particularly where the distances are short. However, d.c. pilot
relaying is nearly obsolete for other than very special applications.

1.3 A.C. Wire Pilot Relaying

A.C. wire pilot relaying is closely related to current differential

relaying however, in modern a.c. wire pilot relaying, the magnitude of
the current that flows in the pilot circuit is limited and only a two-
wire pilot is required These two features make a.c. wire pilot relaying
economically feasible over greater distances.
 2

First, we should become acquainted with two new terms to describe the principle

of operation - 'circulating current' and 'opposed voltage'. Briefly,

'circulating current' means current circulates normally through the terminal

CTs and the pilot, and in the 'opposed voltage', current does not normally

circulate through the pilot.

An adaptation of the current differential type of relaying, employing

the circulating current principle is shown in Figure 1.

An illustration of the proposed voltage principle is shown in Figure 2. A

current balance type of relay is employed at each end, and the CTs are
connected in such a way that the voltages across the restraining coils at
the two ends of the pilot are in opposition for current flowing through the
line section as to a load or an external fault.

Consequently, no current flows in the pilot, except charging current, if we

assume that there is no unbalance between the CT outputs. The restraining
coils serve to prevent relay operation owing to such unbalance currents.
But should a short circuit occur on the protected line section, current
will circulate in the pilot and operate the relays at both ends. Current
will also through the restraining coils, but in a proper application, this
current not be sufficient to prevent relay operation, the impedance of the
pilot lit will be the governing factor in this
respect.
 3

Short circuits or open circuits in the pilot wires have opposite effects
the two types of relaying equipment as the accompanying table shows.
Where it is stated that tripping will be caused on the magnitude of the
power 1 current being high enough to pick up the relays.

EFFECT OF SHORTS EFFECT OF OPEN CIRCUITS

Opposed voltage Cause tripping Block tripping

Circulating current Block tripping Cause tripping

Figure 3

Both the opposed voltage and the circulating current principles permit
tripping at both ends of a line for short circuit current flow into one
end only. However, the application of either principle may involve
certain feature! provide tripping only at the end having short circuit
current flow, as will be seen when actual equipments are considered.

As has been said before, the feature that makes a.c. wire pilot relaying
economically feasible for the distances over which it is applied is that
two pilot wires are used. In order to use only two wires, some means are
required to derive a representative single phase sample from the three-
phase currents at the ends of a transmission line, so as these samples
can be compared over the pilot.

Circulating Current Type

In this scheme, under normal conditions and during an external fault, the
current circulates around the pilot wire loop because the line current
flows in at one end and out the other. When an internal fault occurs,
the cur: tends to flow inwards from both ends so that it no longer
circulates and different current flows in the operating coils of the
relay.

Opposed Voltage Type

In this system the currents at the two ends are turned into voltages by ]
them through reactors with secondary windings (transactors). These
secondary windings are connected so that their output voltage is opposed
during normal conditions and no current flows in the pilot wire
neglecting pilot capacitance.
 4

During an external fault the voltages are nearly in phase and current
flows in the pilot and in the relay operating coils which are in serie3
with them. The relays compare the pilot wire current with the current in
the local restraint
circuits.

Summary of Effects Short

circuiting of pilot wires

Circulating current type

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Open circuiting of pilot wires

1.4 Power Line Carrier Pilot (PLC)

It is not necessary for one to understand the details of carrier current

transmitters or receivers in order to understand the fundamental relaying
principles. All one needs to know is that when a voltage of positive
polarity is impressed on the control circuit of the transmitter, it
generates a high frequency output voltage.

Each carrier current receiver receives carrier current from its local trans-
mitter as well as from the transmitter at the other end of the line. In
effect, the receiver converts the received carrier current into a d.c. volt
that can be used in a relay or other circuit to perform any desired function
This voltage is zero when carrier current is not being received.
 6

'Line traps' shown in Figure 8 are parallel resonant circuits having

negligible impedance to power frequency currents, but having very high
impedance to carrier frequency currents. Traps are used to keep the
carrier currents in the desired channel so as to avoid interference with
or from other adjacent carrier current channels, and also to avoid loss of
the carrier current signal joining power circuits for any reason
whatsoever, external short circuits
a principal reason. Consequently, carrier current can flow only along
the line section between the traps.

Figure 8

Microwave or Radio Pilots

Beamed radio pilots may be used for all forms of protection based on
power carrier pilots. Such application is, of course, subject to
technical
and economic considerations and to the particular limiting
characteristics of a radio link.

Frequency bands available lie in the region of 80 - 7500 MHz. Beamed radio
links in these frequency ranges may be directional and can contain a large
number of functional channels within the band width. The link is not
greatly subject to interference, particularly at such high frequencies
because these are beyond man-made interference range.
 7

Transmission is generally by line of sight and this must take into account the
curvature of the earth and the type of route over which transmission is taking
place. The range, as shown in Figure 9, is about 60 - 75 km under favorable
conditions.

Figure 9

Radio or microwave links have been widely used, particularly as wide band
communications, control and protection links between generating positions.
They have been used where the route of the line crosses difficult country. In
many cases, the effective range of a single stage is inadequate and this then
requires repeaters, or reflectors, or both in order to achieve longer
distances as shown in Figure 10.

The design of such repeaters is often difficult and expensive, particularly

as the preferred location for these is often in some inaccessible position,
for example, on top of a mountain.
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DISTANCE PROTECTION

1 Introduction

The protection of transmission lines presents a problem quite different from

protection of other apparatus.

While differential principles is an ideal method for transmission lines, it

is much more expensive to use, the two ends of the line may be many
kilometers art and to compare the two currents, a costly pilot circuit or
carrier current pilot must be used.

A high standard of performance in transmission protection is achieved by

stance relays, without the need of pilots, however, in some special appli-
tions, the performance is enhanced by pilot acceleration.

Other than the differential scheme discussed under the heading of

'Transmission Line and Feeder Protection', there are two basic methods
available that are widely used to protect transmission lines. These are -

impedance type distance protection, and

phase comparison protection.

Impedance Type Distance Protection

is type of protection employs the method of comparison between local current

and voltage.

The relays are so constructed such that the torque produced by a current
element is opposed by the torque produced by a voltage element. Therefore,
we call the current element the operating torque and the voltage element the
restraining torque, under 'healthy' conditions, it could be said that the
restraining torque is equal to the operating torque.

Now, if either the restraining torque or operating torque increases or

decreases, the relay will be more or less restrained. For example, if we
have a fault to ground, the current will rise and voltage will fall. So the
operating torque is much greater than the restraining torque so the relay
will or may operate.
 9

The usual method of expressing the reach of a relay is in the terms of 1

ohms. This 'reach' of a relay is the ratio of the voltage to current,
e.g.

In an a.c. circuit, is normally termed impedance.

It should be noted that this radio of does not directly imply that the

relay is sensitive to a certain value of line impedance, but only that

the relay sensitive to a certain value of

A number of different relays may be used in this protection, namely -

impedance, reactance, Mho relays. The effect of the reactance and MHo
relays on the relaying system is that it just makes the network either
more sensitive due to errors, or where a directional feature is necessary.

b Phase Comparison Protection

The scheme simply examines the phase relationship between the line
currents entering and leaving the protected line. The relationship does
not take account current magnitudes.

The principle of operation is as follows:

Let us look at the diagram below. It consists of two generating plants,

namely A and B, interconnected by a transmission line.
 10

can now predict the current waveforms at both ends, A and B, which are awn
below.

Now at end B, the CT connections are reversed relative to end A so that at any
given instant under normal operating conditions the CT secondary will be in
opposition. This is shown in Figure 13.

The protective system is so designed so that the transmitters, which send

protection signals from each of the ends A and B, only send these signals
every positive half cycle.
 11

So under normal operating conditions the protective signals (normally

referred to as carrier transmission), will occur from, say, end A during one
half-cycle and end B the next half cycle as shown in Figure 14.
 12

foregoing applies to both normal and external faults. However, for an

internal fault, owing to the reversal of the CT secondary current at end B,
current outputs at both ends are now concurrent and as we can see from re
15 (b), there is no signal from either station every other half-cycle.
 13

Therefore, the scheme acts to trip the c.bs. at both terminal stations,
when the signals are displaced in time and tripping will occur whenever
there is sufficient fault current flowing.

2.2 Zones and Distance Protection

Knowing the fact that we have a relay that is sensitive to a certain

value of

on a particular transmission line, we can then protect that line

against faults which may occur on it.

For example, if we have a fault on the line, the current will rise,

voltage will fall, altering the ratio of The relay recognizes this

change and acts accordingly.

Now, because these relays have a tendency of over-reaching, i.e. it

might operate for a fault outside the section it has been set to
protect, the relays must be set so that they are responsive for faults
which occur in the first 80% of the line, where 80% is a nominal figure
only. The remaining 20% will be covered by another relay which will
have a time element associated with it.

A fault which occurs within the first 80% of a transmission line is said
to be a Zone 1 fault. Similarly, a fault located in the last 20% of the
line is said to be a Zone 2 fault. Zone 2 extends from 80% to 120% of
the line A further zone, referred to as Zone 3, covers from 120% of the
line upwards.
 14

The operating time Vs impedance graph then can be shown as below:

Distance Protection Using Carrier Intertripping

and Remote Tripping

Due to the possibility of inaccuracies in distance measurement, distance

relays in general will be capable of instantaneous operation for only a
percentage of the entire protected section. The remainder of the
protected section on will be protected by the distance relays, but
clearance of a fault within this section will only occur after a preset
time delay has expired, This indicated diagrammatically in Figure 17.
 15

Figure 17 shows A B as the protected section.

If a fault occurs within the subsection A C, it would be cleared

instantaneously from end A. Neglect what happens at end B for a moment.

If a fault occurs within the subsection C B, it would be cleared from end A

only after a time delay. This performance must be accepted because there
is a possibility that the relays at A may 'over-reach' and operate for a
fault on the section B D which is undesirable.

The time delay used would ensure that this incorrect tripping does not
occur. The subsection A C generally encompasses about 80% of the protected
section.

Considering the protection at end B, the distance relays associated with the
section A B protect BOX of the length of the protected section from B
towards A as shown in Figure 18.
 16

From Figure 18 it can be seen that a fault, wh i ch occurs in the subsection C B

is cleared instantaneously from end B, and, after a time delay, from end A. A
fault within the subsection A E is cleared instantaneously from end A and
after a time delay from end B. Figure 18 also shows that for a fault in the
middle, 60% clearance at both ends for faults in subsections C B and A E, the
pilot link is added. The operation of this scheme is as follows:

Assume that a fault occurs in the subsection C B. Instantaneous clearance

occurs at end B. End A would clear only after a present time delay had
expired. To achieve a fast clearance at end A, a pilot signal is transmitted
from B to A. The conditions required at A to achieve tripping depend upon the
type of intertripping used. There are two systems used.

a Non-interlocked transfer tripping

b Interlocked or permissive transfer tripping

One disadvantage with both of these transfer tripping schemes is that

signaling occurs over a faulty circuit and there is a possibility that the
pilot signal will be ineffective. This disadvantage can be overcome by
employing a scheme by which signaling only occurs over a healthy circuit. This
scheme is known as carrier blocking and is described in the next section.

One further feature is added to the protection scheme described above. Because
of the time delay feature applied to Zones 2 and 3 elements of the distance
relays, these relays may be used to back-up the primary protection on the next
section. For example, referring to Figure 18, the distance relays at A may
back-up the primary protection on the section B D. The purpose of this
feature is to ensure clearance of a fault on the section B D, even though the
primary protection, or the circuit breaker at B, fails.

This is termed back-up protection. To achieve this feature, the Zone 2 and
Zone 3 settings of the distance relays at A would be increased to enable
these relays to measure faults in the section B D. This is shown in Figure 19
 Figure 19

Note that for a fault on the section B D, the distance relays associated
section A B, and which are located at B, should not be able to operate
because the fault is not in the tripping direction.

c Carrier Blocking

The main feature recommending this scheme is that signaling only occurs a
healthy line, when a fault occurs external to the protected section.
distance protection is equipped with the usual Zone 1 feature and Zone 2
two time features - one 'fast' and the other 'slow'. If a fault is
measured as being within the Zone 2 setting of the relay, the relay will
operate in fast Zone 2 time unless the blocking signal is received from
that end of the protected section closest to the fault.

If the signal is received, clearance will occur after the slow Zone 2 has
elapsed.

A Zone 3 feature may also be included.

 18

Note that no signaling is required for a fault on the protected section,

Consider the circuit shown in Figure 20 which is drawn for relays at end A
only. A B is the protected section. This scheme operates c.b. at A only.

ice that the fast Zone 2 clearance of the c.b. at A will only apply for
faults between D and B. For faults beyond B, but still within Zone 2 reach,
slow Zone 2 clearance is applicable.

Now, if fast Zone 2 protection was not employed, a fault in the section B G
would cause the c.b. at A to operate, removing the bus A B from service
which not wanted. Therefore, a 'fast' Zone 2 is employed so that as soon as
a fault occurs in the Zone 2 setting, it will be removed by fast Zone 2
protection unless a signal is sent from B to A to stop the c.b. at A
operating.

a fault occurs between B and G, as you can see from Figure 20, slow Zone 2
employed so a signal is sent from B to A to stop operation of c.b. at A.
This gives time for the distance protection at B to C to operate.

Distance Measurement Problems

: critical component of any distance protection scheme is the measuring

unit. This unit must compare accurately the quantities I and V applied to
and ignore fault resistance and transient line conditions. Possible
sources of incorrect functioning of protection are as follows:
 19

a Fault resistance
b Overloads and power swings
c Transient conditions

a Fault Resistance

It will be appreciated that impedance is made up of a resistance component

and a reactance component. If there is appreciable fault resistance
present, then the impedance will be increased over the impedance due to
the line itself. The fact that fault resistance is present will not matter
up to the point at which the impedance, as measured by the relay, exceeds
the relay setting. When this point is reached, the relay is inoperative.
This is indicated Figure 21. This, of course, only applies to relays
which are affected by fault resistance.

Figure 21 (a) Figure 21 (b)

 20

Returning to Figure 21 (a), if a fault F occurs on the line A B, the fault

resistance R1, being less than Rcrit which is the amount of resistance to
vectorially added to ZAF to give the Zone 1 setting of the relay, then the
fault at F will still be measured by the relay as being in Zone 1, and the
protection will function normally. If the fault resistance exceeds Rcrit Figure

21 (b)), then the impedance measured by the relay exceeds the Zone 1 :ting
and the relay will operate in Zone 2 time, even though the fault is actually
in Zone 1.

Overloads and Power Swings

The impedance measured by the distance measuring relays during normal

loading shown in Figure 22. It will be seen that this is normally outside
the Tripping zone. As the load increases, the point L moves towards the
relay characteristic, since I increases and hence the ratio decreases.
 21

During a power swing the point L may penetrate the impedance relay
characteristic to a point such as M. Power swings are inherently high
power factor and, therefore, can be represented in Figure 22 by a
characteristic which is a very nearly coincident with the +R axis.
Figure 22 shows that for the distance setting, or reach, along a
transmission line, the Mho type relay is more insensitive than the simple
impedance relay. In general, the Mho type relay is more insensitive
than the simple impedance relay. In general, Mho relay relay will not
trip on any overload or power swing from which system can recover.

c Transient Conditions

When a fault occurs, the sudden change of impedance causes circuit

currents and voltages to have some values other than those representing
the steady state fault conditions. If the circuit consists of
considerable reactance compared to its resistance, the current may have a
d.c. component. This shown below.

Figure 23 indicates that during the transient period, the current waveform
is symmetrical about some axis other than the horizontal time axis. The
d i s placement of the axis of symmetry is, at all instants, above the time
axis, and is therefore said to be a d.c. component. These conditions
affect the relay operation so that it may 'over-reach', i.e. operate for a
larger value of impedance.