OVER-CURRENTS PROTECTION

Fuses

Fuses can provide very fast fault clearance, usually long before the first peak of the fault
current. However, once the fault is cleared, the fuse needs to be replaced. Fusing
characteristic of different fuses is shown in Figure 1.

3
10

2
10
Time(s)

1
10

0
10 5A 15 A 30 A 60 A

-1
10
0 1 2 3
10 10 10 10
Prospective current, r.m.s. (A)

Figure 1: Fusing characteristics

In distribution circuits fuses may use in ground mounted structures such as a ring main unit
(RMU) or they may be pole mounted. On a delta star transformer, the operation of a single
phase fuse in the MV side of the transformer may result in low voltages on two phases of the
LV side of the transformer. Therefore in an RMU, the fuse carries a small striker pin which
will trip a three-phase switch thus disconnecting supply on all three phases.

Figure 2: Switch-fuse RMU Figure 3: Drop-out explosive fuse

Typical pole mounted fuse is shown in the Figure 3. When the fuse blows, the mechanical
tension of the insulation rod is lost. Therefore the rod unlatches at the top and drops, thus
showing it is operated. Therefore this fuse is called drop-out expulsion fuses.

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Protection of radial feeders

A B C

Discrimination: Relay at B must operate for fault between B and C; where as relay at A must
operate for fault between A and B.

(a) Discrimination by time

The selectivity is achieved based on the time of operation of the relay. The minimum tripping
time setting is given to the relay furthest away from the power source. A time delay normally
called as grading margin is then added to each relay in turn, moving nearest to the source.
Grading margin is allowed to take account of:
(a) Circuit breaker tripping times – It takes some time to interrupt a high fault current due to
the arc produced when interrupting such a fault. This varies typically from 150 ms for an
older oil CB to 50 ms for the latest vacuum or SF6 switch gear.
(b) Relay overshoot (only for electromagnetic relay) – An induction disc relay will have
stored kinetic energy in the motion of the disc. This will cause an overshoot in the motion
of the disc.
(c) Errors and safety margin

If all these items are additive then for discrimination to be achieved typical time grading
intervals of 0.4 - 0.5 sec are used for electromagnetic relays with oil circuit breakers and 0.25
sec for modern solid state relays which are tripping vacuum or SF6 switchgear.

For an example relay at A, B and C can have time delay of 0.25 sec 1, 0.65 sec and 1.05 sec
respectively. If fault occurs in between B and C, relay at B clear the fault after 0.65 sec
before A operates thus ensuring supply for the section A to B. The main disadvantage of this
method is that the longest fault clearance time for the faults closer to the power source, where
severity is high.

(b) Discrimination by current

The fact that fault current varies with the location of the fault is used for discrimination. This
means the fault current increases when fault occurs towards the source. Since relay picks up
high current near the source, it operates quickly thus the disadvantage of the long time delay
that occurs in the case of time graded system can be overcome.

Consider the following example:

0.24 Ω 0.05 Ω
F1 F2 F3
11 kV A B C
250 MVA

1
This time should be selected so as to make sure that for a fault on the secondary side of the transformer, the
fuse on that side blows before the operation of this CB.

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Fault currents at F1, F2 and F3 are 13.12 kA, 8.77 kA and 8.2 kA respectively. Say operating
current of the relay at B is 8.2 kA and the relay at A is 8.77 kA. Thus relay at B will protect
the whole line section BC and relay at A will protect whole line section AB.

Say source fault level reduces slightly:

 Then fault current at F2 may reduce below 8.77 kA and relay at A can not protect the
whole line section.
 Typically for a 11 kV system fault level at the source varies between 250 MVA and 130
MVA. The fault current at F1 will reduce to 6.8 kA, thus the relay at A will not protect the
whole line section A-B.
 Therefore discrimination by current is not a practical method in many cases.

Example 1:
A part of a distribution network is shown in the following figure. The motor draws 350 A at
full load. The motor utilises a rotor resistance starter which limit the starting current to 3
times the full load current and the starting run up time is 5 seconds.
11/3.3 kV
A B C 4 MVA, 7%
j0.5  j0.4 
M
I F1 IF 2 IF 4
IF3
300 A 200 A
11 kV
250 MVA

Calculate the fault current at the indicated locations using per unit system with S base of 250
MVA and Vbase of 11 kV, when both generators are in operation and when one generator is
switched off for maintenance.

In the above example, when both generators are connected

Set to 8.56 kA Set to 5.55 kA Set to 1.95 kA

A B C
M
26.2 kA 8.56 kA 5.55 kA 1.95 kA

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When one generator is connected
Set to 6.45 kA Set to 4.58 kA Set to 1.81 kA

A B C
M
13.1 kA 6.45 kA 4.58 kA 1.92 kA

Selecting the relay setting based on maximum fault currents

Current Remarks
Relay at
setting
Relay will not cover the entire transformer when
C 1.95 one generator is not in operation
Relay will not cover line section BC when one
B 5.55 generator is not in operation.
Relay will not cover the entire line section when
A 8.56 one generator is not in operation

Selecting the relay setting based on minimum fault currents

Current Remarks
Relay at
setting
Relay will cover the entire transformer. Operation is
C 1.81 satisfactory.
Relay will cover the entire line section. Operation is
satisfactory. Even though the relay covers part of
B 4.58 the transformer when both generators are in
operation, relay at C will operates before that as
current setting of that is much smaller.
Relay will cover line AB and a part of line BC
when both generators are in operation. As the relays
A 6.45 at B and C has a smaller current margin relay A
might trip for a fault on line BC.

As one can see from the above tables, discrimination by current works when there is a high
impedance element (transformer) in the circuit. It is not working properly for line sections.

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Over-current relays

Induction type over-current relays

The relay operates on the same basic principles as an energy metere, induction motor, etc..

where 1 and 2 are the fluxes produced in the two electromagnets and  is the
phase angle between them.

Spiral
spring

1 Trip
contacts

Moving
contact

2
Figure 4: Induction over-current relay Figure 5: Relay trip contacts

When load current I increases the disk rotates against a spring load. See Figure 5 where upper
shaft of the disk is given in details.

Over current inverse time relays

The basic over-current relay can be modified to obtain an inverse-time characteristic.

The operating time of the induction type relay depends on the amount of disc movement, i.e.
the initial position of the trip contacts and the speed of rotation of the disc. The speed of the
disc depends on the torque which is a function of the current.

In inverse time relay, both the initial position of the disc and the speed of the disc can be
adjusted.

Two possible adjustments are:

1. The current setting by means of plugs for values between 50 – 200% in 25% steps
(typically). The 100% plug setting (PS) corresponds to the normal current rating of the
relay which may be 5, 1 or 0.5 A to suit the CTs employed. On 100% tap, the disc of a 5
A relay is stable up to currents of approximately 5.0 A (However according to BS 142 –
1983, a current of 1.05 to 1.3 times rated current is required to pick up the disc movement
of an electromagnetic relay). On 50% tap, the disc of the 5A relay may start at 2.5A.

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2. The operating time at a given PS can be adjusted by manually changing the initial
position of the disc. This in turn adjusts the angular travel through which the disc has to
move before closing the trip contacts. This is called the time multiplier setting (TMS) and
can be adjusted between 0.05 and 1.0 sec (depends on the relay type).

Trip Trip

Primary
winding

Figure 4 Moving
contacts

Secondary
winding

Figure 6: IDMT relay

The operating characteristic of this relay is normally defined in terms of plug setting
multiplier (PSM), which is the fault current as a ratio of the plug setting (PS) and TMS. Three
operating characteristics are defined:

Standard curve:
Very inverse curve:
Extremely inverse curve:

The standard characteristic under TMS = 1 is given in Figure 7. Due to the shape of this
characteristic, this relay is called “Inverse definite minimum time (IDMT)” relay.

Minimum time

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 Figure 7: IDMT characteristic
Example 2:
Consider an over-current relay with a PS of 175% fed via a CT of ratio 300/5. Calculate the
operating time of the relay with TMS of 0.5 when a fault current of 5000 A is flowing in the
power circuit.

Discrimination by both time and current

For IDMT relays as the time of operation is inversely proportional to the fault current, that
property can be used to get better discrimination.

A B C
Operating Due to Grading
time IDMT margin

For proper operation of IDMT relay, the Plug setting and time multiplier should be properly
selected.

Selecting PS:
 The relay should allow normal current as well as certain degree of overload ( ).
 The relay should be sensitive enough to respond to the smallest fault ( ).
 That is

Selecting TMS:
 Start from the most remote relay and set TMS to the minimum
 Select TMS of the next relay by considering the grading margin

Protection with directional relay

V


V 2
1
I
1
I
Figure 8: Directional relay
2

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Example 3:
Design a protection coordination system assuming all relay are 1 A.

200 A 160 A 80 A
A B C
Full load current
(A)
Maximum Fault
current
Minimum fault
current
Over load current
CT ratio
Plug setting (PS)
PSM=FC/PS
Time for TMS=1
Time multiplier
Time

Operating time

Actual operating
time (s)

If the power angle  becomes more than 90°, then torque reverses and relay trips. That is for
reverse power, relay trips.
A B
(1)
(2)

C D
 If non-directional relays are applied to parallel feeders, any faults that might occur on any
one line will isolate both lines.
 If at the receiving end directional types relays which are operating instantaneously have
been used, then
o Relay B operates instantaneously, interrupting the fault feed path (2).
o The relay A operates completely interrupting the fault.
 Directional IDMT relays are also used in ring main feeders.

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Earth fault protection

Typical arrangement used for combined earth fault and phase fault protection of transmission
lines are shown in the following figure. During normal operation or during a three-phase fault
the current through the earth fault relay is zero. However whenever there is a single phase to
ground fault or two phase to ground fault zero sequence current flow through the earth fault
relay. As earth fault currents are small, the plug setting of the relay is normally set to 30 –
50% of the rated current.

Over current
Over current

Earth fault

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