Generations

Of
Power system protection

|Page1
1 What is Relay?
Relay is a device that sense volt and current values & compare them with the setting
values so the circuit breaker will be able to make a decision by tripping or not as
quickly as possible to return the power system to its normal state and to minimize
amount of disruption to the power system.

2 What are the relay generations?

3 Fuse
Fuse is the first generation of protection Relays. Fuse is considered as a relay and a
circuit breaker at the same time because it can sense & process & trip in case of fault.

4 Electromechanical Relay
These relays are second generation of relays and they cannot be used for DC currents;
as current flows through the coil. When this operating current increases, coil energizes
the electromagnet. When the operating current becomes large, the magnetic field
produced by electromagnet is high such that this magnetic field pulls the armature or
plunger making the trip circuit contacts to close.

Basic parts and functions of electromechanical relays include:

• Frame: Heavy-duty frame that contains and supports the parts of the relay.
• Coil: Wire is wound around a metal core. The coil of wire causes an
electromagnetic field.
• Armature: A relays moving part. The armature opens and closes the contacts.
An attached spring returns the armature to its original position.
• Contacts: The conducting part of the switch that makes (closes) or breaks
(opens) a circuit.

Two variants of these relays are: one with an induction disc and the other with an
induction cub the moving element (disc or cup). Relays involve two circuits: the
energizing circuit and the contact circuit.

|Page2
Hinged Attracted

Shaded pole induction

The coil is on the energizing side; and the relays contacts are on the contact side. When a
relay coil is energized, current flow through the coil creates a magnetic field. One end of

|Page3
 the armature is attached to the metal frame, which is formed so that the armature can
pivot, while the other end opens and closes the contacts.

The relay is named “electro” as it respond to a product of current and voltage inputs , and
“mechanical” as there is a mechanical motion inside the relay due to the current flow.

These types of relays are still used nowadays in many countries such as USA; because of
the experience of dealing with them and many of them are still work probably without
recording any operating failure. But in case of any mal-operation it is recommended to
replace it by the newer generation (digital relay).

Disadvantages of electromagnetic relays:

Electromechanical relays are prone to failures due to factors that may not affect solid-
state or digital relays such as:
1. Aging that change a component’s characteristic (for example moving springs
force) due to temperature variations, dirt on discs, oxides that increase the resistance.
• To ovoid this problem, frequent calibration check and trip test must be made, so
frequent maintenance is required.
2. High burden level instrument transformers are required (CTs and PTs of high
burden is required for operating the electromagnetic relays compared to static relays.)
3. The directional feature is absent in electromagnetic relay.
4. The operating time is relatively slow due to friction issue.
5. Multifunctioning is not possible. One relay can perform only one function

The Advantages of Electromechanical relays are-

1. It is not affected by viruses like digital relay.

2. It's more familiar in maintenance than digital relay.
3. Design of electromechanical relay is simpler than digital relays.
4. They are quick acting and can be reset fast.
5. They are reliable.
6. The values can be easily set. No special programming device is required.
7. People can be trained on these relays easily

Applications:

• The over/under current and voltage protection.

• For differential protection.
• Used as auxiliary relays in the contact systems of protective relay schemes.

|Page4
5 Solid state or Static Relay
➢ This type of relays is appeared at the beginning of the 60s and disappeared at the
end of 60s; it is shown in Figure 3.

Figure 1 Static Relay

Electromechanical Relays VS Solid State Relays:

Relays are either electromechanical relays or solid-state relays. In electromechanical

relays (EMR), contacts are opened or closed by a magnetic force. With solid-state
relays (SSR), there are no contacts and switching is totally electronic. T

he decision to use electromechanical or solid state relays depends on an application's

electrical requirements, cost constraints and life expectancy. Although solid-state relays
have become very popular, electromechanical relays remain common.

These differences in the two types of relays result in advantages and disadvantages with
each system. Because solid state relays do not have to either energize a coil or open
contacts, less voltage is required to "turn" Solid State Relays on or off. Similarly, Solid
State Relays turn on and turn off faster because there are no physical parts to move.

Although the absence of contacts and moving parts means that Solid State Relays are not
subject to arcing and do not wear out, contacts on Electromechanical Relays can be
replaced, whereas entire Solid State Relays must be replaced when any part becomes
defective.

Because of the construction of Solid State Relays, there is residual electrical resistance
and/or current leakage whether switches are open and closed. The small voltage drops
that are created are not usually a problem; however, Electromechanical Relays provide a
cleaner ON or OFF condition because of the relatively large distance between contacts,
which acts as a form of insulation.

|Page5
Advantage:

1. There is no mechanical parts as it operates through comparators (ex.: transistors)

and its output is energized to the trip coil.
2. Output resistance remains constant regardless of amount of use.
3. No sparking, allows it to be used in explosive environments.
4. Solid-state relays have burdens of 0.5 VA or less and do not change with tap
setting.

Disadvantage:

1. The components very sensitive for temperature rise.

2. Solid-state relays also require independent power supplies, since springs and
driving torques from the input quantities are not present.
3. Voltage/current characteristic is not linear (not purely resistive),because of using
semiconductors.

6 Digital Relay
➢ The idea of innovating a digital relay was presented in a paper by Rock filler in
1969. But, the first digital relay was manufactured later on by Siemens in 1975.

Figure 2 Schneider electric over current digital relay

|Page6
Digital protective relays were in their infancy during the late 1960s.An experimental
digital protection system was tested in the lab and in the field in the early 1970s. Unlike
the relays mentioned above, digital protective relays have two main parts: hardware and
software.
The world’s first commercially available digital protective relay was introduced to the
power industry in 1984. In spite of the developments of complex algorithms for
implementing protection functions the microprocessor based-relays marketed in the
1980s did not incorporate them.

Digital relaying involves digital processing of one or more analog signals in three
steps:
1. Conversion of analogue signal to digital form
2. Processing of digital form
3. Boolean decision to trip or not to trip.

Digital relay consists of:

1. Analogue input subsystem,
2. Digital input subsystem,
3. Digital output subsystem,
4. A processor along with RAM (data scratch pad),
5. main memory (historical data file) and
6. Power supply

|Page7
Operation of Relay:
The Microprocessor sends command signal to read input data. The Input data is fed to
analog to digital converter (ADC) to obtain signal in digital form. Microprocessor then
compares the data with pick-up value. If the input is greater than pick-up value the
microprocessor send a trip signal to circuit breaker of the desired circuit.

Why Numerical Relaying?

• Numerical relays permit much more flexibility than their electromechanical

and solid state counterparts.
• The digital relay can emulate functions of many discrete electromechanical relays
in one device, simplifying protection design and maintenance.
• Each digital relay can run self-test routines to confirm its readiness and alarm if a
fault is detected and hence it is more reliable.
• Digital relays can also provide functions such as communications (SCADA)
interface, monitoring of contact inputs, metering, waveform analysis, and other
useful features.
• Digital relays can, for example, store multiple sets of protection parameters,
which allows the behavior of the relay to be changed during maintenance of
attached equipment.
• Digital relays also can provide protection strategies impossible to implement with
electromechanical relays. This is particularly so in long distance high voltage or

|Page8
 multi-terminal circuits or in lines that are series or shunt compensated They also
offer benefits in self-testing and communication to supervisory control systems.

In Summary:
• Additional monitoring functions.
• Functional flexibility.
• Capable of working under a wide range of temperatures.
• They can implement more complex function and are generally more accurate
• Self-checking and self-adaptability.
• Able to communicate with other digital equipment (pear to pear).
• Less sensitive to temperature, aging
• Economical because can be produced in volumes
• More Accurate.
• Signal storage is possible
• Mathematical capability /processor based.
• Low CT /PT burden.
• Metering.
• Fault report.
• Fault location.
• Event logging.
• Oscillography record/fault data information.
• Standard hardware.
• Flexibility in operation.
• Multifunction.
• Communication.
• Adaptive relaying.
• Connectivity with scada.
• Adopting RTU function.

Ratability is the most significant advantage of digital relays as it is accompanied with

Watch Dog Property. During normal operation, the computer regularly restarts the
watchdog timer to prevent it from elapsing, or "timing out". If, due to a hardware fault
or program error, the computer fails to restart the watchdog, the timer will elapse and
generate a timeout signal. The timeout signal is used to initiate corrective action or
actions. The corrective actions typically include placing the computer system in a safe
state and restoring normal system operation.
Watchdog timers are commonly found in embedded systems and other computer-
controlled equipment where humans cannot easily access the equipment or would be
unable to react to faults in a timely manner.

6.1.1 Limitations of Digital Relay

• Short lifetime due to the continuous development of new technologies.

• The devices become obsolete rapidly.
• Susceptibility to power system transients.

|Page9
• As digital systems become increasingly more complex they require specially
trained staff for Operation.
• Proper maintenance of the settings and monitoring data.

7 Adaptive Digital Relay

Adaptive Relaying permits and seeks to make adjustments automatically in various
protections in order to make them attuned to power system conditions. In this relay type,
relay can sense any variation & check first before making a decision as variation may
happened due to normal operation or abnormal operation.

If the variation is caused by normal operation, relay setting should be changed based on
a group of setting as in Figure 11.

Figure 3
Relay should follow load variations

Like under reach problem solution in distance relay that is caused in parallel line
connection and one line is out of service due to a fault. There will be two groups of relay
setting one when two lines in service and the other when one is out.

Conventional relays have fixed setting parameters and therefore it becomes difficult to
comply with the protection requirements in variable operation conditions in a power
system. A solution to this problem is the adaptive protection, which can vary its setting
parameters or its operating characteristics in response to changes in the power system.

Adaptive protection is defined by Horowitz, Phadke and Thorp as “a protection

philosophy which permits and seeks to make adjustments to various protection functions
in order to make them more attuned to prevailing power system conditions.”

This implies updating of the relay settings, which represent a change in the power system
topology. This change in power system topology is mainly due to the following reasons:

1. Deliberate system switching, for example, isolation of a part of the

equipment for maintenance.
2. Unplanned system switching, for example, removal of a fault by a relay from
a healthy power system.

| P a g e 10
 In these cases, the power system topology gets changed but the system protection
settings remain the same as they before the modifications, which is why the latter may
not be able to adequately protect the current system. Once the system topology is
changed, the settings of the system devices should be updated as soon as possible to
protect the system against new faults. This can be achieved by applying the adaptive
protection scheme.

Adaptive relaying can be utilized in the following areas:

o Automatic circuit breaker reclosing control.

o Power transformer protection.
o Multi-terminal transmission line protection. If both the relays sense a fault
in their respective zones of protection. The relay with the shorter time
delay or the relay subject to the longer fault current should trip first.
o Relay settings. As the power system topology changes, the relay will
automatically switch to the appropriate relay group for proper power
system protection.
o

Specifically, adaptive protection is applied to dynamically determine the pick-up current

and time multiplier in overcurrent relays. These parameters can be determined through
optimization techniques. Continuous real-time simulations of the power system also need
to be done to reconfigure the protection system. Thus, as and when there is a change in
the power system, continuous real-time simulations help protection devices to get
updated automatically.

The advantages and applications of adaptive protection schemes are shown in the
following table.

Application advantages

Adaptive system impedance model Improved reliability

Adaptive sequential instantaneous

Faster back-up protection
tripping

Adaptive multi-terminal relay coverage Improve zone settings

Greater sensitivity to high resistance

Adaptive zone-1 ground distance
ground fault

Faster restoration following incorrect

Adaptive re-closing
trips

| P a g e 11
 Improvement in back-up timing margins
Variable breaker-failure timing and elimination of unnecessary tripping
of back-up breaker

Adaptive last-resort islanding Facilitation of load restoration

Adaptive internal logic monitoring Improve relaying reliability

Relay setting co-ordination checks Optimization of the co-ordination

8 Multifunction Relay
A multifunction digital relay is a microprocessor-based unit that uses Digital Signal
Processing technology in order to provide multiple protective relaying functions for
protection in one unit. This will lead to decrease panel space and wiring is required than
would be if individual relays were used as illustrated in Figure 12.

Advantages

• Decreasing the number of wiring and also the time of maintenance.

• provide a high level of protection at a very attractive cost

Disadvantage

• Power supply loss failure (can be solved by using a backup power supply).
• Subroutine failure ( can be solved by using electromagnetic as a backup
protection)

| P a g e 12
Figure 4 Discrete Relaying versus the Multifunction Digital Relay.

9 Intelligent Relay
Intelligent (numerical) relays are micro processor based relays and having the features
of customer changed functions.

| P a g e 13
10 Comparison of Different Relay Types

Characteristic Electro Static Digital Numerical

s Mechanical Relay Relay Relay
Relay
Technology 1st generation 2nd Present Present
Standard relays generation generation generation
relays relays relays
Operating They use the In this They use They use
Principles electromagnetic relays Microproce Microprocessor
principles transistors ssor within within built
and ICs built software with
have been software predefined
used with values
predefined
values
Measuring Induction disc, R, L, C , Microproce Microprocessor
elements / electromagnets, transistors, ssors, s, Digital ICs,
hardware induction cup, analogue Digital ICs, digital signal
balance beam ICs digital processors
comparator signal
s processors
Measuring Electrical Level A/D A/D
Methods Qtysconverted Detects, Conversion Conversion,
into mechanical comparison , numerical numerical
force, torque with algorithm algorithm
reference techniques techniques
values in
analogue
comparator
Surrounding Depend upon Their value
environment gravitation and may vary
the value with
changes to the respect to
surrounding temperatur
magnetic fields e also
Relay Size Bulky Small Small Compact
Speed of Slow Fast Fast Very Fast
response
CT Burden High Low Low Low
8 to 10 VA 1VA < 0.5 VA < 0.5 VA
Time of Temp. Temp. Stable Stable
Accuracy Dependent Dependent
Reliability High Low High High

| P a g e 14
| P a g e 15