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PC based testing system for protective relay

Conference Paper · May 2013

DOI: 10.1109/PowerEng.2013.6635737

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4th International Conference on Power Engineering, Energy and Electrical Drives Istanbul, Turkey, 13-17 May 2013

PC based Testing System for Protective Relay

Mahfoud Chafai, Hamid Bentarzi, Abderrahmane Ouadi, Abdelkader Zitouni and Abdelmadjid Recioui
Signals and systems laboratory, IGEE University of M’hamed Bougara,
Boumerdes, Algeria

event analysis to understand the causes of unintended or

Abstract—The operational security of the power system depends incorrect relay actions. Relay testing system improvements
on the successful function of thousands of relays that may be used need to continue because of the use of relays in smart power
in protective scheme. The failure of one relay of the protective grids where the conditions that are not the same as in the
scheme to operate as intended may jeopardize the stability of the
conventional one. This leads to new relay technologies.
entire power grid and hence may lead to blackout. In fact, major
power system failures during transient disturbances are more Disturbances, include transient loss of synchronism called
likely to be caused by unnecessary protective relay tripping power swing and DC offset due to post fault or compensator
rather than by the failure of a relay to take action. In other may affect the operation of transmission line relays and
words, the performance of protective relay or system is very relaying systems in various ways. The mal-operation of this
important to be well known. relay is generally due to unnecessary tripping not only during
Appropriate relay testing provides a first defense against relay power swing but also during post fault or compensator
mal-operations and hence improves power grid stability and
prevents catastrophic bulk power system failures.
connection which produce DC offset and harmonics. This may
In this work, new technologies that allow designing an enhanced reduce the security of protection system and hence its
relay testing system that can be used for improving the reliability.
performance of protective relay have been used. A new PC based In this work, we have used new technologies that allow
tester framework using acquisition card for generating transient designing an enhanced relay testing system which in turn can
disturbances such as power swing is proposed. In the present be used for improving the performance of protective relay. In
work, the signals have been generated by Simulink/MATLAB order to test both security and dependability and hence the
simulator under different conditions and outputted to external
environment via AD622 board. The generated signals displayed reliability, this work proposes a new frame work of tester
on the scope are satisfactory. based on PC associated with a Data acquisition card AD622.
The protective relays that may be tested by our developed
Index Terms—Distance relay, Auto-recloser, Reliability, relay testing system are:
tester, DC offset, Power Swing. • Over-current relay,
• Distance relay,
I. INTRODUCTION • Frequency relay,
• Ground fault relay,
The operational security of the power system depends upon • Auto-recloser,
the performance of the thousands of relays that protect the • Tripping relay,
power system from cascading failures.The failure of a relay to
operate as intended may jeopardize the stability of the entire II. TYPES OF TESTING
system and its bulk elements. In fact, major system failures
Types of testing that can be performed by the developed
during a disturbance are more likely to be caused by
relay tester are as follows:
unintended protective relay operation rather than by the failure
of a relay to take an action. In other words, the performance of A. Steady State test:
protection system is measured by several criteria including Usually steady state testing is used for checking the relay
reliability, selectivity, speed of operation, etc. Reliability has pick up by injecting current or voltage at predetermined value
two aspects: dependability and security. Dependability is for duration longer than the setting time of relay. Then, the
known as the degree of certainty that a relay system will injected signal is varied gradually at a rate much smaller than
operate correctly when there is a fault on the system. Security resolution of relay, either by manually turning a knob or by an
is the degree of certainty that a relay will operate unnecessary automatic system. This type is less used in commissioning,
even when there is no fault on the system [1]. because the injected signal does not represent the real power
Appropriate relay testing provides one line of defense system signal during faults or abnormal condition.
against relay mal-operations. Relay testing can help to validate
the design of relay logic, compare the performance of different B. Dynamic state test:
relays, verify relay settings, identify system conditions that Dynamic state test is investigated by simultaneously
might cause unintended relay operation, and carry out post- applying fundamental frequency components of voltage &
current which represent power system states of pre-fault, fault
and post fault. Time response for relay operation is measured.
This work is sponsored by Algerian Government(CNEPRUJ0200320100011)

978-1-4673-6392-1/13/$31.00 ©2013 IEEE

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4th International Conference on Power Engineering, Energy and Electrical Drives Istanbul, Turkey, 13-17 May 2013

This type of test can be used in commissioning and operations, for the counting mechanism to return to
troubleshooting. the starting position. In an Auto-reclosing relay, the
reset time is the time following a successful closing
C. Transient Test: operation, measured from the instant the auto-reclose
Transient testing may be investigated by applying relay closing contacts make, which must elapse
simultaneously fundamental and non-fundamental frequency before the auto-reclose relay will initiate a new
components of voltage and current that represent real power reclosing sequence in the event of a further fault
system conditions. This type of test may be used for testing a incident
security of the protective relay. 3) Number of shots: is the predetermined number of
The signal that may be used in this type for testing may be attempt for the auto-reclosing to clear the faults being
obtained from digital fault recorders (DFR) or Simulator such sensed, there is no specific rule to select the number
as Simulink/Matlab or electromagnetic transient programs of shots but so often Auto-reclosers have three (3)
(EMTP). shots.
The increasing use of digital technology in devices such as Today almost all Auto-reclosers are designed based on IDMT
protection, oscillography, measurement, and control apparatus function. IDMT that is one type among the inverse time over
in electric power substations has created the potential for current relays fits very well this application because more is
severe the fault, faster it should be cleared to avoid damage to
accumulating large numbers of digital recording of power
the apparatus. The reclaim time of an Auto-Recloser
system transient events. In addition to these sources of digital
represents in fact the time delay of the IDMT which is based
data, analog and digital power system simulators may be used on the following equation:
to generate digital data. The users of these data are faced with ଴Ǥଵସ
the problem of managing different file data formats used by ‫ݐ‬ௗ௘௟௔௬ ൌ ౅ ‫( כ‬1)
ሺ ሻబǤబమ ିଵ
౅౏
each system to generate, store, and transmit data [2].The
Where: t݈݀݁ܽ‫ ݕ‬: relay operation time (time delay),
common standard format that has been used in the power
TMS: time multiplier setting,
system applications is IEEE Standard Common Format for
I : current detected by relay,
Transient Data Exchange “COMTRADE”. IS: current set-point.
II. AUTO-RECLOSER PRINCIPLE OPERATION The Auto-recloser can be tested using the developed tester for
different values of the input current amplitude under different
When a fault occurs, the auto-recloser detects an conditions such as transient fault and permanent fault [5].
overcurrent and breaks the circuit, instantaneously or after an
intentional time delay. After a first preset interval of time III. DISTANCE PROTECTION
(usually 1/3 sec) the recloser recloses (called first shot). If the
fault persists, the recloser again trips, and waits a second Protections based on distance relaying have been used in the
preset interval (usually 15 sec). It recloses again, only to trip if power grid generally and in transmission lines particularly in
the fault is still present (second shot). After a third open order to detect the fault rapidly and disconnect the faulted part
interval (usually 45 sec), the recloser closes one last time. If only. Transmission lines are usually protected by step distance
the fault persists, the recloser opens and locks out (third shot), protection using the mho or quadrilateral relay characteristic
requiring manual resetting. If any recloser is successful, the with three or four zones of protection. Each zone of protection
is based on a percentage of the line impedance, which varies
depending on the philosophy and criteria of each utility. This
maintains a reliable operation of the power system and ensures
continuity of power supply [6].
The basic principle governing the operation of a distance relay
is the ratio between the voltage V and the current I at the
relaying point. The ratio (V/I) represents the measured
impedance Z of the faulty line between the relay location and
the point of fault occurrence. Then, the measured impedance is
compared to the set impedance, and if this Z is within the
reach of the relay then the fault will be cleared. The relay
entire cycle is reset automatically (See Fig. 1) [4]. characteristics form different shapes in the R-X diagram that
Fig.1 Typical sequence for auto-recloser operation. can be used in different types of applications. The mho circle
is the most common type of relay characteristics. For a
Any Auto-recloser consists of three principle parameters transmission line considering three zones of protection, the
which are: mho characteristics for each zone are shown in Figure 2,
1) Dead time:is the time during the fault detection and where the diameter of each mho circle is based on the value of
the power line opening or the amount of time each zone of protection. However, zone-three relay may be
necessary for opening the circuit breaker (circuit affected by the power swing because its impedance enters the
breaker coil is energized ). characteristic of the relay and its time delay is longest. Faults
2) Reclaim time: is defined in IEEE Std. C37.100-1992 are permanently compared to power swings that are more
[3] as the time required, after one or more counting

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4th International Conference on Power Engineering, Energy and Electrical Drives Istanbul, Turkey, 13-17 May 2013

gradual events and disappear after a short period. This fact is

used in the distance relay to distinguish between short circuit
faults and stable or unstable power swings [7,8].

Fig.4 Block diagram of PC based relay tester.

Fig.2 Mho relay with three protection zones A. Hardware realization
Traditional impedance-based characteristics for detecting Application development for relays tester has been
power swings on a transmission system are shown in Fig.3. investigated using SIMULINK development tool and
All these methods involve measuring apparent impedance and HUMOSOFT driver and AD622 board as illustrated in Fig.5.
introducing a time delay between two measuring elements. PC outputs the signals generated by Transient simulator
The impedance measurement is typically a phase-phase through the acquisition card AD622, where the DAC converts
impedance, where all three phase-phase loops are required for the data from digital form into analog form, and then to the
operation, or it is positive-sequence impedance. relay under test using the amplifier.
A timer is started when the apparent impedance enters the Figure 5 shows an overall block diagram of the (class D)
characteristic (seeFig.3 (A)). If the apparent impedance amplifier with feedback. In the feedback the output signal of
remains between the inner and outer characteristics for the set the amplifier is sampled by an analogue-to-digital converter
time delay, the Power Swing Block (PSB) element operates and subtracted from an up sampled version of the 24-bit
and selected distance element zones are blocked from digital input signal in the considered Bandwidth (0-5Khz). The
operation for laps of time. resulting signal serves as input to a digital loop filter which
An out-of-step tripping scheme may use the same measuring drives a digital pulse width modulator.The power stage, which
element or a different set of measuring elements. The general can be a half-bridge converter, is followed by a low pass filter
operation is similar to PSB except the expected behavior is to recover the original analog signal[9].
that the apparent impedance passes through both the inner and
outer characteristic (Fig.3(B)). A timer determines if the B. Software development
change in impedance is due to a fault or a power swing. If it is Digital data that may represent the signals of all conditions
an unstable power swing, then one can select tripping on the of power system such as normal case, fault condition and
way into the characteristic or on the way out of the transient disturbance, have been produced by simulation
characteristic. program using Simulink/MATLAB. For testing any relay
performance such as the overcurrent and Mho distance relay,
an experimental setup based on Simulink model has been
implemented.
After building experimental setup system of different
configurations, we have run the simulation for 15 sec under
different conditions for generating the signals that will be
injected in the relay under test. Two cases have been taken
into consideration.
Figure3 Different power swing protection schemes, (A) Double blinder, Case 1: The power grid consists of power transmission line
power swing characteristic, (B) Offset mho, power swing characteristic.
linking two sources where one of them acts as infinite bus for
To test the Mho distance relay performance under this power generating signals of different conditions such as normal
swing condition, the developed testing system has been situation, power swing and the fault condition (see Fig.6). We
implemented in Simulink /MATLAB using the power system
have run the simulation for 15 sec the simulation starts under
block set of SIMULINK model for the power grid which
normal condition, a power swing is applied at t=5 sec and then
consists of power transmission line linking two sources where
one of them acts as infinite bus. a severe fault is introduced to occur at time 10 sec.
Case 2: Simulation of power system network during normal
IV. TESTER IMPLEMENTATION condition and fault when the power grid contains a series
compensation power system using SIMULINK (see Fig.7).
PC based relay tester has been implemented using the
acquisition card as shown in Fig.4. It consists of three main
parts which are computer, AD622 board and amplifier.

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4th International Conference on Power Engineering, Energy and Electrical Drives Istanbul, Turkey, 13-17 May 2013

Up Relay
AD 622 sampler Digital PWM Power LPF under
Filter stage test

ADC

Fig. 5: Overall schematic of the amplifier.

Fig 6. Test set up power system Simulink model for case 1.

Fig.7 Series compensation power system network using SIMULINK model.

Fig.8 Three phases voltage waveforms in the scope of the power system fault Fig.9 Three phases current waveforms in the scope of the power system
simulations using SIMULINK fault simulations using SIMULINK.

POWERENG 2013 942

4th International Conference on Power Engineering, Energy and Electrical Drives Istanbul, Turkey, 13-17 May 2013

..

VI. CONCLUSION
The PC based relay testing system has been successfully
implemented. Simulator, that is used to generate three phase
voltages and currents, presented the actual power grid events
mainly the fault and other abnormal conditions such as power
swing to test the relay performance. In fact, implementation is
used to generate one of these signals and output them to
external environment using the acquisition card AD 622. User
Interface (GUI) has been developed to include some
parameters of the relay, to control the generated data of
waveform signals and to display the generated signals.
The tester has been used to generate the signal under
different abnormal conditions, such as power swing and line
fault. It can be noticed that the tester results are satisfactory
Fig.10Three voltage phases (above) and three current phases waveforms and this approach may be used for testing protective distance
(below) in the scope of the power system fault simulations using SIMULINK. relay as well as over-current relay even in a large power
network.
Moreover, it can be concluded that this proposed
Digital data that may represent the signals of all conditions
framework has the following advantages:
of power system such normal case, fault condition and
Firstly, this tester can be used to test the reliability of the
transient disturbance, have been produced by simulator
distance protection and overcurrent relay (also auto-recloser)
SIMULINK/MATLAB as shown in Fig.6. Then, the generated
during any abnormal conditions such as power swing and
signals with different waveforms that may be injected to the
faults.
relay under test have been displayed on the scope as shown in
Secondly, this scheme can be easily implemented on PC
Figs.8, 9, 10.
based protective relay tester.
V. PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF THE TESTER
VII. REFERENCES
Test bench has been used to generate the faulted stimulus [1] A.Ouadi, H. Bentarzi, M. Chafai and A.Zitouni, “Microcontroller Based
waveforms using SIMULINK real-time workbench, and the Protective Relay Testing System” in Proceeding The 10th WSEAS
windows target application developed using SIMULINK International Conference on CIRCUITS, SYSTEMS, ELECTRONICS,
CONTROL & SIGNAL PROCESSING (CSECS '11), Montreux
HUMOSOFT driver and AD622 board. Real-time stimulus University, Switzerland, December, 29-31, 2011.
waveform signals that may be generated by simulator [2] Power Systems Relay Committee of the IEEE Power Engineering
programs have been displayed on the external scopes as shown Society ”IEEE Standard Common Format for Transient Data Exchange
for Power Systems” IEEEStd C37.111-1999,USA, 18 March 1999.
in Fig.11. [3] IEEE Std. C37.100-1992, IEEE Standard Definitions for Power
Switchgearn 1992.
[4] A.G. Phadke, T. Hlibka, M.Ibrahim, “A digital computer system for
EHV Substation: Analysis and Field Tests”, IEEE Trans. Power
Apparatus and System, Vol. PAS-95, pp. 291-301, 1976.
[5] H.Bentarzi, M.Chafai and A. Ouadi, “A New Computer Based Auto-
recloser Framework“, accepted to be presented in The 24th IEEE
international conference on Microelectronics, 17-20 December 2012,
Algiers, Algeria.
[6] H.Bentarzi, A. Ouadi, M. Chafai and A. Zitouni, “ Distance Protective
System Performance Enhancement Using Optimized Digital Filter”, in
Proc. CSECS '11 The 10th WSEAS International Conference on
CIRCUITS, SYSTEMS, ELECTRONICS, CONTROL & SIGNAL
PROCESSING, Montreux University, Switzerland, December, 29-31,
2011.
[7] Power System Relaying Committee Of the IEEE Power Engineering
Society, “Power Swing And Out-Of-Step Consideration On
Transmission Lines”, IEEE PSRC WG D6, 2005.
[8] K.C.A. Dierks “Relay Specific Computer Aided Testing for Protective
Relays” Eskom, Republic of South Africa, 2006.
[9] Internal report of CNEPRU, 2012.
Fig.11 The displayed signals on the scope under different conditions.

POWERENG 2013 943

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