Differential Protection

Roshan Chhetri
CST

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 ⚫ Merz price differential protection is nothing
but a percentage differential protection which
works under the principle of circulating
current scheme
⚫ used to protect the generators and
transformer from internal short circuit,
Internal ground faults and inter turn shorts.

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 Protection of generators

⚫ Generator is the most important and costly

equipment of power system.
⚫ As prime mover, excitation system, voltage
regulator, cooling system, etc. accompany it; its
protection becomes very complex and elaborate.
⚫ It is subjected to more types of troubles than any
other equipment.
⚫ A modern generating set is generally provided with
the following protective schemes.

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 1. Stator Protection
– Percentage differential protection
– Protection against stator inter-turn faults
– Stator-overheating protection
2. Rotor protection
– Field ground-fault protection
– Loss of excitation protection
– Protection against rotor overheating because of
unbalance three-phase stator current
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 3. Miscellaneous
– Over voltage protection
– Over speed protection
– Protection against motoring
– Protection against vibration
– Bearing-over heating protection
– Protection against auxiliary failure
– Protection against voltage regulator failure

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 Stator Protection

– Percentage differential protection

– Protection against stator inter-turn faults
– Stator-overheating protection

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 Percentage differential protection

⚫ It is used for the protection of generators above 1MW. It

protects against the lightning winding faults, i.e. phase to phase
and phase to ground faults. This is also called differential
protection or longitudinal differential protection. The polarity of
the secondary voltage of C.T.s at a particular moment of
external faults is as shown in fig. 1(a). In operating coil, the
current sent by the upper C.T. is cancelled by the current sent
by the lower C.T. and the relay does not operate. For an
internal fault, the polarity of the secondary voltage of the upper
C.T is reversed as shown in fig. 2(b). Now operating coil carries
the sum of the current sent by the upper C.T and lower C.T and
it operate and trip the circuit breaker.

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 Percentage differential protection

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 Protection against stator inter-turn
faults

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 ⚫ Longitudinal percentage differential protection does not detect
intertern faults.
⚫ It is employed for the protection of the generator against stator
interturn faults.
⚫ Is used for generators having parallel windings separately
brought to the terminals.
⚫ Hydro generators having parallel winding in each phase
employs such protection and detects inter turn faults. This
scheme is also known as split-phase protection.
⚫ In this scheme, a single C.T. having double primary is used. No
bias is necessary because a common C.T. is employed so that
errors due to C.T differences do not occur.
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 Interturn protection based on zero-
sequence component

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 ⚫ If generator does not have access to parallel winding, a method
based on zero-sequence voltage measurement can be
employed for the protection against stator interturn faults. This
scheme is also applicable to single winding generators having
multi-turn per phase slot to protect against interturn faults.
⚫ The zero-sequence voltage does not exist during normal
condition. If one or more turn of phase is short-circuited, the
generated emf contains zero-sequence component. The
secondary winding of the voltage transformer is in open-delta
connection to provide the zero sequence component of the
voltage to protective relay. A filter is provided to extract a third
harmonic component from the V.T. out put and apply it as relay
bias.
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 ⚫ The zero-sequence voltage is also produce in case of external
earth faults. But most of this faults across the earth resistor. A
very small amount, 1 or 2% , appears across the generator.
Therefore, zero-sequence voltage is measured across the
generator winding at the line terminal rather than the zero-
sequence voltage to the earths shown in the figure to activate
the relay on occurrence of internal faults.

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 stator-overheating protection

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 ⚫ Over current relays can not detect the winding temperature
because electrical protection can not detect the failure of the
cooling system
⚫ Over heating of the stator may be caused by the failure of the
cooling systems, overloading or core faults like short circuited
by laminations and failure of core bolt insulation.
⚫ Modern generators employ two methods to detects overheating
both being used in large generators (above 2MW).
⚫ In one method, the inlet and outlet temperature of the cooling
medium which may be hydrogen/water are compared for over
heating.
⚫ In other method, temperature sensing element are embedded
18 in the stator slot to sense the temperature.
 ⚫ When the temperature exceed a certain pre-set maximum
temperature limits, the relay sounds an alarm.
⚫ This scheme employs a temperature detector unit, relay and
the Wheatstone-bridge for the purpose.
⚫ The sensing elements may be thermistors, thermocouples or
resistance temperature indicators.

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 Rotor protection
– Field ground-fault protection
– Loss of excitation protection
– Protection against rotor overheating because of
unbalance three-phase stator current

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 Field ground-fault protection

⚫ As the field circuit is operated ungrounded, a single ground fault does

not affect the protection of generator or cause any damage.
⚫ However, a single rotor faults to earth increases the stress to the
ground in the field when stator transients induce an extra voltage in the
field winding.
⚫ Thus, the probability of the occurrence of the second ground fault is
increased. In case a ground faults occurs, a part of field winding is
bypassed, thereby increasing the current through the remaining
portion of the field winding.
⚫ This causes an unbalance in the air-gap fluxes, thereby creating a
balancing in magnetic forces on the rotor shaft eccentric.

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 ⚫ This also causes vibrations.
⚫ Even though the second ground faults may not bypass enough
portion of the field winding to cause magnetic unbalance, the
arcing at the fault causes local heating.
⚫ A dc voltage is impressed between the field circuit and earth
through a polarised moving iron relay.
⚫ It is not necessary to trip the machine when a single field earth
faults occurs.
⚫ Usually an alarm is sounded. Then immediate steps are taken
to transfer the load from the faulty generator and to shut it down
as quickly as possible to avoid further problems.

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 Loss of excitation protection

⚫ when the excitation of a generator is lost, it speeds up slightly

and operates as an induction generator.
⚫ Round-rotor generators do not have damper windings.
Therefore the rotor is overheated quickly due to heavy induced
currents in the rotor iron.
⚫ The rotors of silent pole generators are not overheated because
they have damper winding, which carry induced currents.
⚫ Both types of generator are overheated due to watt-less current
drawn by the machine as magnetising current from system.

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 ⚫ A large machine may upset the system stability because it
draws reactive power from the system when it run as an
induction generator whereas it supplies reactive power when it
runs as a generator.
⚫ Field failure may be caused by the failure of excitation or mal-
operation of a faulty field breaker.
⚫ A protective scheme employing offset mho or directional
impedance relay are recommended for large modern
generators.

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 Protection against rotor overheating because of
unbalance three-phase stator current

⚫ The negative sequence component of unbalanced stator

currents cause double frequency current to be induced in the
rotor iron.
⚫ If this component becomes high, severe overheating of the
rotor may be caused.
The unbalanced condition may arise due to the following
reasons:
⚫ When a faults occurs in the stator winding
⚫ An unbalanced external faults which is not cleared quickly
⚫ Failure of one contact of the circuit breaker

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 Miscellaneous

– Over voltage protection

– Over speed protection
– Protection against motoring
– Protection against vibration
– Bearing-over heating protection
– Protection against auxiliary failure
– Protection against voltage regulator failure

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 Over voltage protection:

⚫ Over voltage may be caused by a defective voltage

regulator or it may occur due to sudden loss of
electrical load on generator.
⚫ When a load is lost, there is an increase in speed
and hence the voltage increase.
⚫ In hydro-steam, it is not possible to divert water flow
in order to control voltage; like in steam power plant,
hence over voltage relay is used.

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 Over speed protection

⚫ A turbo-generator is provided with a mechanical over

speed device.
⚫ The speed governor controls its speed. The speed
governor normally controls its speed.
⚫ It is designed to prevent any speed rise even with a
100 % load rejection.
⚫ An emergency centrifugal over-speed device is also
incorporated to trip emergency steam valves when
steam exceeds 110%.

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 Protection against motoring

⚫ When steam supply is cut off, the generator runs as

motor.
⚫ The steam turbine gets heated because insufficient
steam passes through the turbine to carry away the
heat generated by windage loss. Relay operates
when power output falls below 3%.
⚫ A sensitive reverse power relay is available which
has an operating setting of about 0.5% of the
generator’s output.

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 Protection against vibration and
distortion of rotor

⚫ Vibration is caused by over heating of the rotor or

some mechanical failure or abnormality.
⚫ The overheating is caused due to unbalanced stator
current or rotor ground faults. Using vibration
detector, an alarm is actuated during fault.
⚫ The vibration detector is mounted rigidly on one of
the bearing pedestals of a horizontal shaft machine
or on the upper guide-bearing of vertical shaft
bearing.

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 Bearing overheating protection

⚫ Temperature of bearing is detected by inserting a

temperature sensing device in a hole in the bearing.
⚫ For large machine where lubricating oil is circulated
through the bearing, an oil flow device is used to
detect the failure of oil cooling equipment.
⚫ An alarm is actuated when the bearing is overheated
or when the circulation of lubricating oil fails.

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 Protection against auxiliary failure

⚫ The power plant auxiliaries are very important for the

running of the generating sets.
⚫ For large generating sets, protection against loss of
vacuum and loss of boiler pressure are provided.
Such failures are due to failure of the associated
auxiliaries.
⚫ So the protection provided for the loss of vacuum
and loss of boiler pressure provides to some extend
protection against the auxiliary failure.
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 Protection against voltage
regulator failure

⚫ Automatic voltage regulators are subjected to

component failure. Hence, suitable protective
devices are provided.
⚫ A definite time d.c. Over current in the rotor circuit for
a period longer than a prescribed limit.
⚫ The supply for the regulator reference voltage is
given from a separate voltage transformer.
⚫ Protection is also required against the failure of the
regulator reference voltage. An under voltage relay
is used for this purpose.
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 ⚫ A better approach is to use a voltage balance relay
which compares the voltage derived from the
instrument transformer with the voltage derived from
the voltage regulator transformer.
⚫ If there is mal-operation of the voltage regulator due
to the failure of the reference voltage, the relay
operates and switches the excitation to a
predetermine value for manual control.

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 Protection of Transformer
⚫ The protective scheme depends upon the size of
transformer.
⚫ The rating of transformer used in transmission and
distribution system range from a few kVA to several
hundreds MVA.
⚫ For small transformer, simple protective device like
switches is used.
Types of faults encountered in transformers
1. External faults (or through faults)
2. Internal faults
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 External faults

⚫ In case of external faults, the transformer must be

disconnected if other protective devices meant to
operate for such faults.
⚫ The time graded overcurrent relay is employed as
back up protection.
⚫ Also in case of sustained overload condition, the
transformer should not be allowed to operate for long
duration.
⚫ Thermal relay are used to detect overload and give
an alarm.
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 Internal faults

It is classified into two groups:

1. Short circuit in the transformer winding and
connections:
– These are electrical faults of serious nature and are likely to
cause immediate damage.
– Such faults are detectable at the winding terminals by
unbalances in voltage or current.
– These type of faults include line to ground or line to line and
inter-turn faults on H.V windings.

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 2. Incipient faults
– Initially, such faults are minor nature but slowly might
develop into major faults.
– Such faults are not detectable at the winding terminals by
unbalances in voltage or current and hence, the protective
devices meant to operate under short circuit conditions are
not capable of detecting this type of faults.
– Such fault includes poor electrical connections, core faults,
failure of the coolant, regulator faults and bad load sharing
between transformers.

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 Percentage Differential Protection

⚫ Is used for the protection of large power transformer

having ratings of 5MVA and above. This scheme is
employed for the protection of transformer against
internal shorts circuits. It is not capable of
detecting incipient faults.

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 ⚫ The condition are made in such a way that under normal
condition or in case of operating coil of external faults the
current flowing in the coil of the relay due to C.T.s of primary
side is opposition to the current flowing due to the C.T.s of the
secondary side. Consequently the relay does not operate under
such condition.
⚫ If the faults occurs on the winding, the polarity of the induce
voltage of the C.T. of the secondary side is reversed. Now the
current in the operating coil from C.T.s of both primary and
secondary sides are in the same direction and cause the
operation of relay.
⚫ To supply, matching the C.T.s which are on the star side of the
transformer are connected in delta and vice versa.
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 Over heating protection

⚫ The rating of transformer depends on the

temperature rise above an assumed maximum
ambient temperature.
⚫ The overloading will depend on the ambient
temperature prevailing at the time of operation. The
maximum allowed temperature is about 95°C.
⚫ In the thermal image technique, a temperature-
sensing device is placed in the transformer oil near
the top of the transformer tank.

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 Protecting against magnetising
inrush current

⚫ When an unloaded transformer is switch on, it draws large

initial magnetising current, which may be several times the
rated current of transformer.
⚫ This initial inrush current is called the magnetising initial
current.
⚫ As the inrush current flows only in the primary winding, the
differential protection will see this inrush current as an internal
fault.
⚫ The harmonic content in the inrush current are different from
those in usual fault current. The dc component varies from 40
to 60 %, the second harmonic 30 to 70 %, and the third
harmonic 10 to 30 %.
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 ⚫ The third harmonic and its multiples do not appear in C.T. leads
as these harmonic circulate in the delta winding of the
transformer.
⚫ As the second harmonic is more in the inrush current than in
faults current, this feature can be utilised to distinguish between
a fault and magnetising inrush current.
⚫ The relay of this scheme is made insensitive to magnetic inrush
current.
⚫ The operating principle is to filter out the harmonic from the
differential current, rectify them and add them to the percentage
restraint.

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 ⚫ The tuned circuit Xc and XL allows only current of
fundamental frequency to flow through the operating
coil.
⚫ The dc and harmonic, mostly second harmonics in
case of magnetic inrush current, are diverted into the
restraining coil.
⚫ The relay is adjusted so as not to operate when the
second harmonic exceeds 15% of the fundamental
current.
⚫ The minimum operating time is about 2 cycles.
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 ⚫ If the harmonic restrain relay fails to operate
during internal faults. To over come this
difficulty, an instantaneous relay is also
incorporated.
⚫ It will operate on heavy internal faults in less
than one cycle.

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 Buchholz Relay

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 ⚫ Buchholz relay is a type of oil and gas actuated protection relay
universally used on all oil immersed transformers having rating
more than 500 kVA
⚫ Buchholz relay is used for the protection of transformers from
the faults occurring inside the transformer.
⚫ Short circuit faults such as inter turn faults, incipient winding
faults, and core faults may occur due to the impulse breakdown
of the insulating oil or simply the transformer oil.
⚫ Buchholz relay will sense such faults and closes the alarm
circuit

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 ⚫ Buchholz relay operates during three
conditions:
– Whenever gas bubbles are formed inside the
transformer due to severe fault.
– Whenever the level of transformer oil falls.
– Whenever transformer oil flows rapidly from the
conservation tank to the main or from the main
tank to the conservation tank.

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 Oil Pressure Relief Devices

⚫ An oil pressure relief devices is fitted at the top of the

transformer tank.
⚫ In case of a serious faults, a surge in the oil is developed, which
bursts the disc, thereby allowing the oil to discharge rapidly.
⚫ This avoids the explosive rupture of the tank and risk of the fire.
⚫ Its drawback is that the oil which remain in the tank after
rapture is left exposed to the atmosphere, it can be over come
by employing a spring controlled pressure relief valve.

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 Rate of Rise of Pressure Relay

⚫ This device is capable of detecting a rapid rise of

pressure, rather than absolute pressure.
⚫ Its operation is quicker than the pressure relief valve.
⚫ It is employed in transformer, which is provided with
gas cushions instead of conservators.

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 Overcurrent Relay

⚫ Is used to protect transformer of rating 100KVA and

below 5MVA.
⚫ Is used as primary protection where differential
protection is not provided.
⚫ Over current relay is used as back-up protection
where differential protection is used.

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 Earth Fault Relay

⚫ Earth fault relay is used to sense fault anywhere in the

power system after relay point
⚫ Restricted earth fault (REF) means not to sense any
earth faults outside this restricted zone
⚫ Restricted earth fault protection is used for the winding
of transformer connected in star where neutral point is
either solidly earthed or earthed through impedance.
⚫ The differential protection of transformer is
supplemented by restricted earth faults protection in
case of transformer with its neutral grounded through
60 resistance.
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 Protection of Earthing
Transformer

⚫ The function of earthing transformer is to provide a

grounding point for the power system where machines
have delta connection.
⚫ Is connected either in star-delta or zigzag fashion. During
fault only zero sequence current flows from the earthing
transformer to the grounding point.
⚫ Positive and negative sequence currents flows only
towards the earthing transformer.
⚫ The C.T.s are connected in delta and zero sequence
currents circulate in it. An over current relay with delay is
inserted in this delta.
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 Generator-transformer Unit
Protection

⚫ In a modern system, each generator is directly

connected to the delta connected primary winding of
the power transformer.
⚫ The star connected secondary winding is H.V.
winding and it is connected to the H.V. bus through a
circuit breaker in addition to normal protection of
transformer and generator.
⚫ An overall biased differential protection is provided to
protect both the generator and transformer as one
unit.
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 Differential Current Protection of
Busbar

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 ⚫ The operating principle is based on Kirchhoff’s Law. The
average sum of all current entering and leaving the bus bar
zone must be zero, unless there is fault therein.
⚫ The relay connected will trip all the circuit breakers.
⚫ The main drawback of differential scheme is that there may be
a false operation in case of external faults.
⚫ This is due to the saturation of one of the C.T. of the faulted
feeder, which reduce the output.

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 Frame Leakage Protection

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 ⚫ Thanks

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