Distance Protection

Power System Protection

Dr. Abdul Basit

Introduction to Distance Relaying
• Overcurrent protection is not suitable for
• protection of meshed transmission systems where selectivity and sensitivity
requirements are more strict
• if fault current and load currents are comparable
• Distance protection provides the following features:
• More accurate as more information is used for taking decision.
• Directional, i.e. it responds to the phase angle of current with respect to
voltage phasor
• Fast and accurate.
• Back-up protection.
• Primarily used in transmission line protection. Also it can be applied to
generator backup, loss of field and transformer backup protection
3
Introduction to Distance Relaying
• Apparent impedance seen by the relay will
not exactly lie on transmission line AB
impedance when the fault has some
impedance Zf.
• Rather it would lie in a region shown by
trapezoid.
• Also, note that arcing faults are primarily
resistive in nature.
Introduction to Distance Relaying
• Distance relay characteristics are visualized by drawing the relay
characteristics in R-X plane.
• If the apparent impedance seen by the relay falls inside the trip region
(enclosed region), then relay declares a fault and issues a trip decision.
• This decision making can be done in about 1/2 - 1 cycle time, if no intentional
time delays are introduced, e.g, for backup protection.
• While trapezoid or quadrilateral characteristics are quite popular
with the numerical relays, previous generation of electromechanical
and solid state relays used other characteristics like 'mho'
characteristics, which were easier to derive.
Introduction to Distance Relaying
• Mho relay circles usually enclosed a larger
area than the quadrilateral characteristics
for identical line impedance and arcing
impedance parameters.
• More susceptible to nuisance tripping.
• These characteristics have been
superseded by the trapezoidal
characteristics.
Settings of Distance Relay
• Distance relays can be classified • Distance relay R1 has to provide
into phase relay and ground relays. primary protection to line AB
• Phase relays are used to protect and back up protection to lines
the transmission line against phase BC, BD and BE.
faults (three phase, L-L) and ground
relays are used to protect against
ground faults (S-L-G, L-L-G).
• Just like an overcurrent relay, a
distance relay also has to perform
the dual task of primary and back
up protection.
Settings of Distance Relay
• Primary protection should be fast and hence preferably it should be
done without any intentional time delay, while back up protection
should operate if and only if corresponding primary relay fails.
• Distance relays are provided with multiple zones of protection to
meet the stringent selectivity and sensitivity requirements. At least
three zones of protection are provided for distance relays.
• Zone 1 is designated by Z1 and zones 2 & 3 by Z2 and Z3 respectively
Settings of Distance Relay
• Zone 1 is meant for protection of the primary line. Typically, it is set to
cover 80% of the line length.
• Zone 1 provides fastest protection because there is no intentional
time delay associated with it.
• Operating time order of 1 cycle.
• Zone 1 does not cover the entire length of the primary line because it
is difficult to distinguish between faults at all of which are close to bus
B.
• In other words, if a fault is close to bus, one cannot as certain if it is on the
primary line, bus or on back up line
Settings of Distance Relay
This is because of the following reasons:
1. CTs and PTs have limited accuracy. During fault, a CT may undergo partial
or complete saturation. The resulting errors in measurement of apparent
impedance seen by relay, makes it difficult to determine fault location at
the boundary of lines very accurately.
2. Derivations for equations of distance relays made some assumptions like
neglecting capacitance of line, unloaded system transposed lines and
bolted faults
• Such factors affect accuracy of distance relaying. Further, algorithms for numerical
relays may use a specific transmission line model.
• For example, a transmission line may be modeled as a series R – L circuit and the
contribution of distributed shunt capacitance may be neglected. Due to model
limitation and because of transients accompanied with the fault, working of
numerical algorithm is prone to errors.
Settings of Distance Relay
3. With only local measurements, and a small time window, it is difficult to
determine fault impedance accurately when ZF > 0. The impedance seen by
the relay R1 for fault F also depends upon the current contribution from the
remote end, thus

4. There are infeed and outfeed effects associated with working of distance
relays. Recall that a distance relaying scheme uses only local voltage and
current measurements for a bus and transmission line. Hence, it cannot
model infeed or outfeed properly.
Settings of Distance Relay
• Usually zone 2 is set to 120% of primary line impedance Z1, providing
sufficient margin to account for non-zero fault impedance and other
errors in relaying.
• Z2 also provides back up protection to a part of the adjacent line; therefore,
Z2 should be extended to cover as large a portion of adjacent line as possible.
• Typically, Z2 is set to reach 50% of the shortest back up line provided
that ZP + 0.5ZB > 1.2 ZP; where ZP and ZB are the positive sequence
impedance of primary and the shortest back up line respectively.
• If the shortest back up line is too short then, it is likely that ZP + 0.5ZB will be
less than 1.2ZP. In such a case, Z2 is set to 1.2ZP.
• Since, back up protection has to be provided for entire length of remote line,
a third zone of protection, Z3 is used.
• Z3 is set to cover the farthest (longest) remote lines for relay R1 acting as a
back up relay.
• Since its operation should not interfere with Z2 operation of relays R1/R3/R5/R7, it is
set up to operate with a time delay of 2 CTI where CTI is the coordination time
interval.
Example 1
• Two independent networks Grid 1 and Grid 2 are interconnected as
shown in Figure 1. At terminals 1 and 2, distance relays with the
characteristics shown in Figure 2 are installed. Relays R1 and R2 have
two zones. Zone 1 includes 80% of the line and Zone 2 includes 100%
of the line, considering a fault impedance of 0 ohm (zero ohm).
Assume that the systems and line impedances have angle of 70ᵒ
• Determine the parameters of relay R2 (Z1, Z2).
Example 2
• Two independent networks named Grid 1 and Grid 2 are
interconnected as shown in Figure 1. At terminals 1 and 2, distance
relays R1 and R2 with characteristics given in Figure 2 are installed.
Relay R1 has to protect 80% of the line, considering a pure resistive
fault impedance of 10 ohms (ten ohms). Relay R2 has two protection
zones: Zone-1 includes 80% of the line and Zone-2 includes 100% of
the line, considering a fault impedance of 0 ohm (zero ohm).
• Set the parameters of relays R1 and R2 (X1, Rb, Z1, Z2) such that the relays
can perform the intended protection.
• Assume that the systems and line impedances have angle of 70ᵒ
Example 2
Overlap Problem for Z2
• If Z2 is set to reach beyond 50% of the shortest remote line, it can
overlap with the Z2 of the relay R3.
• Under such a situation, there exists following conflict.
• If the fault is on line BC (and in Z2 of R3), relay R3 should get the first
opportunity to clear the fault. Unfortunately, now both R1 and R3 compete to
clear the fault. This means that Z2 of the relay R1 has to be further slowed
down by CTI.
Overlap Problem for Z2
• Fault clearing time in 20% region of line AB is delayed a bit too much,
thereby degrading performance of Z2 of relay R1.
• Conscious effort is made to avoid overlaps of Z2 of relay R1 and R3.
• Setting back zone Z2 of R1 to maximum of 120% of primary line impedance or
primary line impedance plus 50% of smallest back up impedance usually works out
as a good compromise to reach as much of back up lines by Z2 without getting into
Z2 overlap problem.
• However, under certain conditions, when the shortest line to be backed up
is too short, it may not be possible to avoid Z2 overlap.
• Similarly, one may even encounter Z3 overlap problem.
• On small line segments, alternative way to improve speed characteristic of
relay is to use pilot relaying.
Outfeed and Infeed Effect
• Consider the operation of distance relay R1 for a fault F close to
remote bus on line BC
Outfeed and Infeed Effect
• Due to the configuration of generators and loads, we see that
Outfeed and Infeed Effect
• If there is an equivalent generator source at bus E, then it feeds the
fault current.
• Thus IAB and IED are approximately in phase, known as infeed effect.
• infeed causes an equivalent increase in apparent impedance seen by the relay
R1.
• From the relay's perspective, the fault is pushed beyond its actual
location.
• fault in zone-2 may be pushed into zone-3, thereby compromising selectivity
of zone-2.
• Infeed effect does not compromise selectivity of zone-1.
Outfeed and Infeed Effect
• If there is an equivalent load at bus E, then IAB and IEB are in phase
opposition, causing an apparent reduction in the impedance seen by
the relay R1.
• Relay R1 then perceives fault to be at a point closer than its actual
location.
• If this perceived point falls well in the section AB, the relay R1 will operate
instantaneously for a fault on the back up line, thereby compromising
selectivity.
• Hence, instantaneous primary protection zone (Z1) of distance relay is always
set below 100% line impedance.
Outfeed and Infeed Effect
• Typically, zone 1 is set to cover 0.8 to 0.9 times the primary line length
as we expect errors in measurements of fault impedance to be within
10-20% accuracy.
• The remaining portion of the primary line is provided with a time
delayed protection known as Z2. The zone 2 protection is delayed at
least by the coordination time interval, CTI to give first opportunity to
relays to clear a close in fault if it falls into its primary protection
zone.
• Relay R3 is immune to infeed or outfeed effect for fault F.
Problem of Load Encroachment
Apparent impedance of a steady state positive sequence model of a transmission
line is given by
Problem of Load Encroachment
From equation:
1. Quadrant of ZR in the R - X plane correspond to the quadrant of apparent
power (Sij) in (Pij - Qij) plane.
2. The apparent impedance seen by the relay is proportional to square of
the magnitude of bus voltage.
• If the bus voltage drops say to 0.9 pu from 1 pu, then ZR reduces to 81% of its
value with nominal voltage. Further, if the bus voltage drops to say 0.8 pu, then the
apparent impedance seen by the relay will drop to 64% of its value at 1 pu
3. The apparent impedance seen by the relay is inversely proportional to
the apparent power flowing on the line.
• If the apparent power doubles up, the impedance seen by relay will reduce by
50%.
Problem of Load Encroachment
• During peak load conditions, it is quite likely that combined effect of (2) and (3)
may reduce the apparent impedance seen by the relay to sufficiently small value
so as to fall in Z2 or Z3 characteristic.
Case when relay backing up a very long line.
• In such a case, Z3 impedance setting can be quite large. If the impedance seen by
relay due to large loads falls within the zone, then it will pick up and trip the
circuit after its time dial setting requirement are met.
• Under such circumstances, the relay is said to trip on load encroachment .
• Tripping on load encroachment compromises security and it can even initiate cascade
tripping which in turn can lead to black outs.
• Loads having large power factor leads to apparent impedance with large R/X ratio. In
contrast, faults are more or less reactive in nature and the ratio is quite high X/R
• To prevent tripping on load encroachment, the relay characteristic are modified by
excluding an area in R – X plane
Pilot Protection with Distance Relays
• Distance relays provide fast protection up to 80% of the primary line
length.
• for remaining 20% is deliberately slowed down by coordination time interval.
• Pilot protection is used for lines to provide the high speed simultaneous
detection of phase and ground faults for 100% of the primary line.
• Distance relays are directional relays, the corresponding schemes are
known as
1. Directional comparison blocking.
2. Directional comparison unblocking.
3. Overreaching transfer trip.
4. Under reaching transfer trip:
a) Non-permissive. b) Permissive.
Directional Comparison Blocking
Basic Principle
1. Use directional fault detectors to detect faults in the direction of primary line.
2. Use blocking signal from the remote end in case the fault is not on the primary
line.

Consider the requirement of protecting line AB.

Directional Comparison Blocking
• If the fault is at F1 (anywhere on the line AB), fast protective action is required
from relays R1 and R2.
• To achieve this action, relays R1and R2 are enabled with two units each called
fault detectors (FD1 and FD2) and carrier starts S1 and S2.
• Typically, the fault detectors correspond to Z2 of distance relays at respective
locations as shown in figure.
• They overreach the primary line.
• The carrier start relays look for fault in opposite sense to respective FD. They are
called carrier starts because the channel signals between A and B are initiated by
them.
Directional Comparison Blocking
• Imagine a scheme where FD issues a trip signal after identifying a fault
unless it is quickly blocked by an external agent (carrier starters).
• For example, if the fault is in F1, both FD1 and FD2 will pick up. Since neither carrier
starts S1 nor S2 will pick up, fault F1 will be cleared quickly.
• In contrast, suppose that fault is at F2. Then FD1 will pick up and so will S2. The S2
will initiate channel and send blocking signal to FD1. The FD1 will be blocked from
tripping action until its timer runs out. In this interval, either the primary relay R3 will
clear the fault or else it is cleared by R1 as a back up measure.
• In other words, in this scheme, the relays are set for fast clearing action.
They do not care whether the fault is in primary line or the back up line.
Blocking from the other end is used to prevent fast tripping for faults on
backup line.
Directional Comparison Unblocking Pilot System

Basic Principle
1. After detecting a fault in the right direction, put the relays in ‘block mode' for
CTI.
2. Use unblock signals from the remote if the fault is on the primary line.
Directional Comparison Unblocking Pilot
System
• Z2 of R1and R2 remain in ‘block mode' for a specified time after
seeing the fault.
• In case, relay R2 observes a fault in the direction of bus A, it sends an unblock
signal to relay R1 (and vice- versa). If the fault is in the primary line AB (F1),
both R1and R2 detect the fault, and also receive unblock signal from the
opposite end. The unblocking signal helps in immediate action of both relays
R1 and R2 leads to fast tripping of line.
• In case, the fault is at F2, then the relay R2 will not send unblock signal to R1.
While relay R1 sees the fault, its FD also initiates a down counter set to CTI. If
the FD detects fault even after counter has run down, then a trip signal is
issued by R1 for back up fault clearing action in the adjacent line.
Directional Comparison Unblocking Pilot
System
• The advantage of directional comparison unblocking pilot system is
that it eliminates need of carrier starts S1 and S2.
• To summarize, the relays or more appropriately their fault detectors
detect fault in the appropriate direction. Unblock signal from the
remote end is used to quickly clear the faults on the primary line
Directional Comparison Overreaching Transfer Trip Pilot System

Basic Principle
1. If fault is detected from both ends of the line, initiate trip.
2. Else, initiate back up protection

For internal fault both FD1 and FD2 operate to shift respective transmitters to trip
mode. A logical ANDing of trip of both FD1 and FD2 provides the trip output at both
ends of the line. In case of external fault either FD1 or FD2 will not pick up and
hence relays R1and R2 will not operate.
 Directional Comparison under Reaching
Transfer Trip Pilot System
• Directional comparison under reaching transfer trip pilot system
implies that the FDs are to be set so as always to overlap but not over
reach any remote terminal under all operating condition.

Two types of implementation exist, known as a) non permissive b) permissive. With external faults,
neither FD1 nor FD2 picks up. For internal faults in the overlap area of FD1 and FD2 both FD1 and FD2 pick
up. To clear internal faults quickly which are not in the overlap region, OR-ing of the trip decision of FD1
and FD2 is used at both ends. This system is not very much in use.
Example 3
The characteristic of a distance relay is shown in the figure. It is installed at
busbar M to protect line MN in a power system. Line impedance value is 0.4
ohm/km. Assume that all the system and line impedance have an angle of
80ᵒ A three-phase to-ground fault occurs at fault point K with a fault
resistance r.
1. Assume there is no system source or load attached at busbar N (see the
middle figure). What is the maximum value of r, for which such three-
phase-to-ground fault at K can be detected by the relay M.
2. Now there is another system source attached at busbar N (see the
bottom figure). What is the detected value of Z by the relay at M when r
=6 ohm? Will the relay operate?