International University of Business Agriculture &

Technology

Assignment N0: 02
Curse code: EEN-463

Submitted By:
Md Mursalin Safawat
ID: 18105045
Sec: A
Semester: Spring 2020
Email: [email protected]

Submitted to
Prof. Dr. Md. Aziz ul Huq
Professor, EEE

Date of Submission: 03/05/2020

 Protective Relays
A protective relay is a device that detects the fault and initiates the operation of
the circuit breaker to isolate the defective element from the rest of the system.
 The relays detect the abnormal conditions in the electrical circuits by
constantly measuring the electrical quantities which are different under
normal and fault conditions.
 The electrical quantities which may change under fault conditions are
voltage, current, frequency and phase angle.
 Having detected the fault, the relay operates to close the trip circuit of the
breaker.
 This results in the opening of the breaker and disconnection of the faulty
circuit.
 Adjacent figure shows the typical relay connection in three parts:
 First part is the primary winding of a current transformer (C.T.) which is
connected in series with the line to be protected.
 Second part consists of secondary winding of C.T. and the relay operating
coil.
 The third part consists of tripping coil, C.B., relay contact and voltage
source.
Fundamental Requirements of Protective Relays:
 In order to render prompt service protective relay system should have
some essential qualities. They are:
1. Selectivity.
2. Speed.
3. Sensitivity.
4. Reliability.
5. Simplicity.
6. Economy.
I. Selectivity: It is the ability of the protective system to select correctly that
part of the system in trouble and disconnect the faulty part without
disturbing the rest of the system. A well designed and efficient relay system
should be selective i.e. it should be able to detect the point at which the
fault occurs. It causes the opening of the circuit breakers closest to the fault
 with minimum or no damage to the system. This can be illustrated by
referring to the single line diagram of a portion of a typical power system
shown in the next Fig.

The system can be divided into the following protection zones:

1) Generators.
2) Low-tension Switchgear.
3) Transformers.
4) High-tension Switchgear.
5) Transmission Line.
It may be seen in Fig. that there is certain amount of overlap between the
adjacent protection zones. It is essential to ensure protection of equipment’s
when fault occurs between two adjacent zones.
II. Speed: The relay system should disconnect the faulty section as fast as
possible for the following reasons:
a) Electrical apparatus may be damaged if they are made to carry the
fault currents for a long time.
b) A failure on the system leads to a great reduction in the system
voltage. The low voltage created by the fault may shut down
 consumers’ motors and the generators on the system may become
unstable.
c) The high-speed relay system decreases the possibility of
development of one type of fault into the other.
III. Sensitivity: It is the ability of the relay system to operate with low value of
actuating quantity. Sensitivity of a relay is a function of the volt-amperes
input to the coil of the relay necessary to cause its operation. The smaller
the volt-ampere input required to cause relay operation, the more sensitive
is the relay. Thus, a 1 VA relay is more sensitive than a 3 VA relay. It is
desirable that relay system should be sensitive so that it operates with low
values of volt-ampere input.
IV. Reliability: It is the ability of the relay system to operate under the pre-
determined conditions. Without reliability, the protection would be
rendered largely ineffective and could even become a liability.
V. Simplicity: The relaying system should be simple so that it can be easily
maintained.
VI. Economy: The most important factor in the choice of a particular
protection scheme is the economic aspect. As a rule, the protective gear
should not cost more than 5% of total cost. However, when the apparatus
to be protected is of utmost importance (e.g. generator, main transmission
line etc.), economic considerations are often subordinated to reliability.

Basic Relays:
Most of the relays in service on electric power system today are of
electro-mechanical type. They work on the following two main operating
principles:
 Electromagnetic attraction.
 Electromagnetic induction.
Electromagnetic Attraction Relays:
Electromagnetic attraction relays operate
by virtue of an armature being attracted to the poles of an electromagnet or a
plunger being drawn into a solenoid. Such relays may be actuated by d.c. or a.c.
quantities. The important types of electromagnetic attraction relays are:
 Attracted armature type relay.
 Solenoid type relay.
 Balanced beam type relay.

Attracted armature type relay:

The Fig. shows the schematic arrangement of an attracted armature type relay
It consists of a laminated electromagnet M carrying a coil C and a pivoted
laminated armature. The armature is balanced by a counterweight spring and
carries a pair of spring contact fingers at its free end. Under normal operating
conditions, the current through the relay coil C is such that counterweight holds
the armature in the horizontal position. Under fault situation excess current flows
through the coil C and armature is pulled upwards resulting the close of tripping
coil and hence opening the CB. The minimum current at which the relay armature
is attracted to close the trip circuit is called pickup current. There are a number of
tappings on the relay coil so that the number of turns in use is changed and hence
the setting value at which the relay operates can be varied.

Solenoid type relays:

The Fig. shows the schematic arrangement of a Solenoid type relay. It consists of a
solenoid and movable iron plunger arranged as shown. Under normal operating
conditions, the current through the relay coil C is such that it holds the plunger by
gravity or spring in the position shown. On the occurrence of a fault, the current
through the relay coil becomes more than the pickup value, causing the plunger
to be attracted to the solenoid. The upward movement of the plunger closes the
trip circuit, thus opening the circuit breaker and disconnecting the faulty circuit.

Balanced beam type relays:

The Fig. shows the schematic arrangement of a Balanced beam type relay. It
consists of an iron armature fastened to a balance beam. Under normal operating
conditions, the current through the relay coil is such that the beam is held in the
horizontal position by the spring. When a fault occurs, the current through the
relay coil becomes greater than the pickup value and the beam is attracted to
close the trip circuit. This causes the opening of the circuit breaker to isolate the
faulty circuit.

Electromagnetic induction Relay:

To understand the production of torque in an induction relay, refer to the
elementary arrangement shown in Fig (i) and (ii). The two a.c. fluxes φ2 and φ1
differing in phase by an angle α induce e.m.f.s’ in the disc and cause the
circulation of eddy currents i2 and i1 respectively. These currents lag behind their
respective fluxes by 90 degree.
Referring to Fig (ii) where the two a.c. fluxes and induced currents are shown
separately for clarity, let

where φ1 and φ2 are the instantaneous values of fluxes and φ2 leads φ1

by an angle α. The rotor currents will be in phase with their voltages. So
The greater the phase angle α between the fluxes, the greater is the net force
applied to the disc. Maximum at α = 900 The direction of net force and hence the
direction of motion of the disc depends upon which flux is leading.

Protection of Alternators
 In a power system, large generating units are relatively few in number and
higher in individual cost than most other equipment.
 Therefore, it is desirable and necessary to provide reliable protection to
cover the wide range of faults which may occur in the modern generating
plant.
Some of the important faults which may occur on an alternator are:
a) Failure of prime mover
b) Failure of field
c) Overcurrent
d) Overspeed
e) Overvoltage
f) Unbalanced Loading
g) Stator winding faults.
Protection of Transformer:
 Small distribution transformers are usually connected to the supply system
through series fuses instead of circuit breakers.
 Consequently, no automatic protective relay equipment is required.
 However, the probability of faults on power transformers is undoubtedly
more and hence automatic protection is absolutely necessary.
Common transformer faults are:
 1. Open circuit: An open circuit in one phase of a 3-phase transformer may
cause undesirable heating. In practice, relay protection is not provided
against open circuits because this condition is relatively harmless. On the
occurrence of such a fault, the transformer can be disconnected manually
from the system.
2. Overheating: Overheating of the transformer is usually caused by sustained
overloads or short-circuits and very occasionally by the failure of the
cooling system. The relay protection is also not provided against this
contingency. Thermal accessories are generally used to sound an alarm or
control the banks of fans.
3. Winding short-circuit: Winding short-circuits (also called internal faults) on
the transformer arise from deterioration of winding insulation due to
overheating or mechanical injury. When an internal fault occurs, the
transformer must be disconnected quickly from the system. A prolonged
arc due to internal fault in the transformer may cause oil fire. Therefore,
relay protection is absolutely necessary for internal faults.
Different systems for transformer protection are:

Buchholz Relay:
Buchholz relay is a gas-actuated relay installed
in oil immersed transformers for protection against
all kinds of faults. It is Named after its inventor, Buchholz. It is used to give an
alarm in case of incipient (i.e. slow developing) faults in the transformer and to
disconnect the transformer from the supply in the event of severe internal faults.
It is usually installed in the pipe connecting the conservator to the main tank as
shown in Fig. 22.11. It is a universal practice to use Buchholz relays on all such oil
immersed transformers having ratings in excess of 750 kVA.

Lightning
An electric discharge between cloud and earth, between clouds or between the
charge centers of the same cloud is known as lightning.
Lightning happens when clouds are charged to such a high potential (+ve or −ve)
with respect to earth or a neighboring cloud that the dielectric strength of
neighboring medium (air) is destroyed.
Types of Lightning Strokes:
1. Direct stroke. 2. Indirect stroke.
1. Direct stroke: Heavy charges in cloud
discharges to overhead line when dielectric strength of air is broken down. This
excess charge at overhead line causes flashover over insulator and makes its path
to the ground through the pole. Generally direct stroke happens at the topmost
element near the charger cloud. Direct stroke may be happening on any subject
other than topmost one when stroke originates due top mutual influence of
number of charged clouds.
2. Indirect stroke: Indirect strokes result from the electrostatically induced
charges on the conductors due to the presence of charged clouds. Under the
positive charge cloud negative charge accumulates.
Away from the negative charge near the poles positive charges accumulates and
leaks the insulator towards the ground. When the cloud discharges to another
cloud, the negative charge on the wire is isolated and rushes along the line to
both directions in the form of travelling waves. Majority of the surges in a
transmission line are caused by indirect lightning strokes and causes harms to
unprotected generators, transformers etc.
Lightning arresters or surge diverters:
 A lightning arrester or a surge diverter is a protective device which
conducts the high voltage surges on the power system to the ground.
 Fig. 24.8 (i) shows the basic form of a surge diverter.
 It consists of a spark gap in series with a non-linear resistor.
 One end of the diverter is connected to the terminal of the equipment to
be protected and the other end is effectively grounded.
 The length of the gap is so set that normal line voltage is not enough to
cause an arc across the gap.
 A dangerously high voltage will break down the air insulation and form an
arc.
 The property of the non-linear resistance is that its resistance decreases as
the voltage (or current) increases and vice-versa.
 Under normal operation, the lightning arrester is off the line i.e. it conducts
no current to earth, or the gap is non-conducting.
 On overvoltage, the air insulation across the gap breaks down and an arc is
formed, providing a low resistance path for the surge to pass to the ground.
 After the surge is over, the non linear resistor offers high resistance to
make the gap non-conducting preventing normal current flow to ground.