414

TRANSMISSION LINEDIFFERENTIAL PROTECTION WITH AN ENHANCED CHARACTERISTIC

Hector Altuve, Gabriel Benmouyal, Jeff Roberts, Demetrios A. Tziowaras

Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories, Inc., USA

ABSTRACT: Thls paper describes a new digital h e this wide acceptance are the low communications
differential relaying system with an enhanced channel requirements and the Inherent redundancy and
characteristic, In the paper, we first present the concept backup protection of directional comparison systems.
of the complex current-ratio plane for the analysis of However, directional comparison systems require
current-only pilot unit-type relay characteristics. Next, system voltages in addition to line currents. Voltage
we briefly discuss different unit-type protection relaying inputs can introduce problems in a directional
systems includmg their advantages and disadvantages. comparison system because of loss of voltage for close-
We then propose a new line differential relay in faults or blown fuses, ferroresonance problems in
characteristic in the current-ratio plane, describe the instrument voltage transformers, and transient response
relay design, and finally present and discuss the relay problems associated with capacitive-coupled voltage
performance using digital simulation of the algorithms. transformers.
The new relaying system design, presented in this paper,
Unit-type systems such as phase comparison, charge
provides sensitive protection for transmission line and
comparison, and current differential systems only
cable faults, and high security and stability for exteml
require line currents to determine whether the .fault is
faults. The relay system is tolerant of the unequal
withm the protected zone. Unit-type protection systems
communications channel delays that are typical of
are suitable for the protection of complex transmission
modem networked digital communications channels.
network configurations because they exhibit good
The operating time of this new differential relaying
performance during evolving intercircuit, and cross-
system is less than one cycle, and it is applicable for the
c o m w faults. In addition, unit-type protection systems
protection of HV and EHV lines, including series-
are immune to power swings, mutual coupling, and
compensated lines.
series impedance unbalances. Unit-type systems offer a
Keywords: Current differential, digital relay, differential good application solution for the protection of cables, as
protection, transmission line protection, cable well as for series-compensated, three-terminal, and short
protection. transmission lines.
The amount of tolerance a unit-type protection system
INTRODUCTION has for current transformer (CT) saturation, current
outfeed, and channel delay asymmetry depends largely
Modem power systems operate close to their security on the operating characteristic, These tolerances often
limits and require high-speed fault clearing to presewe limit the unit protection scheme performance. In
transient stability, reduce fault damage, minimize addition, unit-type protection systems require a reliable
outage duration, and improve power quality. Pilot high-bandwidth communications channel.
relaying systems provide high-speed simultaneous fault
clearing for 100 percent of the protected transmission These limitations are rapidly disappearing with new
line from all line terminals. Pilot rehying systems are developments, such as the introduction of an enhanced
either directional comparison 'type or unit-type line differential characteristic that we present in this
protection systems. paper, and with the use of modern digital fiber-optic
channels that meet the communications requirements of
Directional comparison systems compare the direction unit-type pilot protection systems (2). Also, today's
of fault current flow at the two line terminals, and digital technology permits the inclusion of many
declare internal faults if there is no dsagreement in flow additional protection functions in a relay unit, which
direction between the line terminals. Unit-type current- makes it possible to combine a directional comparison
only protection systems measure the fault curents at the and a current-only pilot system in the same relay. This
transmission line terminals, compare them via the pilot diversity of operation principles in the same unit can
channel, using either phase Comparison, charge enhance the overall performance without a significant
comparison, or current differential principles, and increase in cost
determine whether the fault is within the protected zone.
The most widely used pilot relaying system is CURRENT RATIOPLANE
directional comparison. An IEEE survey published in
1988 (1) showed that about 80 percent of the most Because relay input signals are complex quantities, the
important lines, in 116 utilities in the USA have most comprehensive way to represent the relay
directional comparison protection. The main reasons for characteristics is to use a complex plane defined by the

0 2004 Schweitzer Engineering Labs, INC, USA. Reproduced with kind permission
 415

ratio of the relay input signals (3). The relay instrumentation error. For example, consider load
characteristics, for relay functions that use current and cwrent flowing from Terminal L to Terminal R in
voltage signals, can be represented using the impedance, FIGURE 2.
or an admittance complex plane. On the other hand,
relay characteristics for relay functions that use multiple
current or voltage inputs can be represented using the
complex current ratio or the complex voltage ratio
plane, respectively. IL IR
FIGURE 2 - Terminal cunents for throughload condhon
Current Ratio Plane: Neglecting line-charging current, for through-load
conditions the magnitude of TA, and 1, are equal,
Distance and directional element characteristics are
often depicted on either the complex admittance or and their phases are 180 degrees out of phase.
impedance plane. Warrington in (3) inh-cduced a Therefore:
complex plane called the alpha plane (a-plane) that + +
I,,/I,=lL180°=-1
depicts the complex ratio 7, /I, of the remote 7, to
Load current plots one unit to the left of the a-plane
the local i, currents.
origin, at a = -1, regardless of the size or angle of the
load current. Under ideal conditions, the current ratio
- -
We defme a complex variable given by the ratio of the
remote, I,, to the local, I,, currents
for external faults is the same as the current ratio for
load conditions.
FIGURE 3 shows a-plane region areas, along the real
axis of the a-plane for ideal fault and load conditions.
, Internal faults with infeed from both line terminals have
where: a > 0 and internal faults with outfeed at one terminal
havea<O.

Internal buns wtt

ehrdatl

Equation (1) is the basis for the Cartesian, or polar

coordinates, versions of the current ratio plane. The
a-plane depicts the complex ratio of 7, / i, as shown in load condPonr
FIGURE 1 FIGURE 3 - a-Plane regions for ideal fault andload
con&tions
For internal faults, the angles of the phase currents 7,
and 7, depend on the angles of the corresponding
source voltages and on the angles of the impedances
from the corresponding source to the fault point. In
general, the currents at both line ends are not exactly in
phase for an internal fault. FIGURE 4 shows the
modification of the fault regions allowing +30 degrees
for system power angle and impedance angle difference.
Note that the point corresponding to load and external
faults is not affected.

Externalfaulr and I
FIGURE I - a-Plane represents the complex ratio of i, /i,

Representing Power System Conditions on the

a-Plane: wilh outfeed

The a-plane is useful for visualizing various power

FIGURE 4 - Effect of system power angle and system
impedance nonhomogeneity on the a-plane
system load and fault conditions and sources of
 4 16
. .

The communications channel delay also produces an line differential principle, and how its operating and
apparent phase shift between the local current and the restraining regions plot on the a-plane.
received remote current. The relay must compensate for
the channel delay to prevent the apparent phase shift Current-Differential Relay System Characteristic:
from either comcpting the current ratio calculation or
producing excessive difference current. The relay Percentage-differential elements compare an operating
calculates the one-way channel delay as half the current with a restraint current. The operating current,
roundtrip delay. T h s calculation is accurate if the IO,, is the magnitude of the phasor sum of the currents
delays in transmit and receive directions are equal. In entering the protected element.
some channels the transmit path has a different
propagation delay from the receive path This +?,I (2)
'asymmetrical communications delay can exist, for Iop is proportional to the fault current for internal faults
example, on SONET systems. The communications path and approaches zero for any other operating (ideal)
delay differences are typically less than 2 ms. Delays of conditions. A common restraint current, I,,, is given by:
3-5 ms are rare.
Delay asymmetry produces an error in the channel-
delay compensation. The effect of the error is to rotate where k, is a constant coefficient usually taken as 1 or
the current ratio around the origin on the a-plane. A 0.5.
1 ms error rotates the current ratio 21.6 degrees when
the system frequency is 60 Hz. The steady-state We may define the operation condition of a percentage-
magnitude of the ratio is unchanged. FIGURE 5 shows differential relay as:
this effect. I,, > KI,, (4)
where K is a constant coefficient representing the slope
of the relay characteristic. To provide the relay with a
minimum pick-up current, &, we add the condition:
Io, >KO (5)
Another possible definition of the differential relay
operation condition is:
Io, +KO (6)
FIGURE 6 shows the percentage differential relay
operating characteristic resulting from the equality
conditions of both Equations (4) and (5).

t
'Internal fault5

FIGURE 5 - Effect of channel delay compensation errors and /

1-
1
system impedance nonhomogeneityon the Operating /
a-plane lop region /

When a CT saturates, the fundamental component of the

secondary waveform decreases in magnitude, and
advances in angle. If the.local CT saturates, and the CT
at the remote end of the protected line does not saturate,
the a-plane ratio magnitude increases, and the phase
angle of the ratio advances, creating an error with
significant magnitude and angle components.
FIGURE 6 - Traditional percentage differential characteristic
Representing Protective Relaying Operating The differential current is rarely exactly zero for
Principles on the a-Plane: external faults. The most common causes of fake
differential current in transmission line differential
A current-only relay must restrain for load current. relays are the following:
Therefore it must contain a restraint region on the alpha Line charging current
plane that includes the point 1 L 1 8 O 0 ~The relay must Current transformer saturation
trip for internal faults, so the restraint region on the Channel time-delay compensation errors
a-plane must exclude the ,crosshatched areas shown in Tappedload
FIGURE 5. It is possible to derive the a-plane
operatiodrestraint characteristic of current-only relays Let us obtain the current ratio plane characteristic of a
from the published operatiodrestraint quantities. Such differential relay having (4) as the operating equation, a
operatiodrestraint characteristic derivations are shown restraint quantity given by (3), and k = 1 for simplicity.
in (4). In this paper we restrict our discussion to a single
 417

Substituting (2) and (3) into (4): relationship of the currents at all line terminals. Early
systems used a composite sequence network to form a
(7)
single-phase voltage signal for phase comparison.
Modern digital communications channels permit
implementation of segregated phase comparison
systems that provide faulted phase identification and
enhance the protection response to complex faults.
Substituting (1) into (8): Traditional phase comparison systems may fail to detect
higher impedance internal faults with outfeed. Offset
Il+a+jb/ LKI I-a-jbl
keying is an enhancement to phase comparison that adds
Expandingthe previous equation we get: magnitude information to the phase comparison
principle in order to accommodate small levels of
a' t b 2 t 2 1 + K 1 a + l T O (9) outfeed (5). However, offset-keying phase comparison
1-K2 systems could exhibit sensitivity limitations for faults
The equality condition in Equation (8) represents the with low fault current contributions at all line terminals
relay threshold operation condition and describes the (i.e., hgh-impedance faults).
relay operation characteristic, It is the equation of a Charge comparison k an alternate form of line current
circle, with a radius, R,given by: differential protection intended to reduce the
2K communications channel bandwidth requirements (6).
R, =-
ILK2 Charge comparison performs a numeric integration of
the samples of the phase and residual currents over half
The location of the circle center in the complex plane is: a cycle. The sample integration process takes place
between current zero-crossings. The system stores the
resulting ampere-seconds area in memory (converted
into an rms current equivalent), along with polarity and
FIGURE 7 shows a family of relay operation stadfinish time-tag information. Storage occurs only if
characteristics for different values of the slope, K. The the magnitude exceeds a certain threshold, and the half-
operating region is the area out of the circle and the cycle pulse width is equal to or greater than 6 ms. Every
restraint regon is inside the circle. Note that the -1 + j0 half-cycle the local system also sends information to the
point, corresponding to an ideal through-current remote terminal. The charge comparison system
condition, is inside the relay restraint region. provides higher tolerance to channel asymmetry and
- outfeed than traditional phase comparkon or current
4 ;
differential systems. However, the required zero-
,
I

I
crossing detection introduces a half-cycle latency that
2 1 penalizes speed and introduces additional time delay for
I
1 internal faults with full dc-offset. External faults with
I
CT saturation that affect zero crossings may jeopardize
0 ; system security.
I
I Current differential protection combines phase and
-2 : magnitude current information in a single comparison.
I
I Early current differential protection systems required a
I
pilot wire channel to exchange analog information
-1j between the line terminals. Composite phase or
-8 4 . 0
sequence networks, a weighted combination of phase or
FIGURE 7 - a-Plane operating characteristic ofa differential sequence currents, form voltage signals that contain
relay described by equations ( 3 ) and (4) magnitude and phase information on the currents at the
Phase comparison, charge-comparison, and other line terminals. Percentage differential relays at each end
current differential characteristics can be plotted ' respond to the currents derived from the comparison of
similarly on the a-plane. There are cases where a closed these voltages through the pilot wire. There are a
form solution of the characteristic is not available. number of limitations in the application of pilot wire
However, we can use other methods to define the relaying systems that stem from special protection
a-plane characteristic representation of almost all unit- requirements for the metallic pilot wire. The availability
type relay characteristics. of fiber-optic and digital microwave communications
channels permits modern current differential systems to
UNIT-TYPEPROTECTION SYSTEMS exchange raw sampled currents or phasor current
information using a 64 kbps digital channel.
Phase comparison, charge comparison, and current A basic limitation of percentage differential relay
differential systems only require line currents to systems is that the user must select a slope, or slopes,
determine whether the fault is within the protected zone. appropriate to the expected CT saturation and maximum
Phase comparison systems compare the phase
 418

channel asymmetry. This slope setting defines a relay

characteristic with a given tolerance to channel-delay
asymmetry and CT saturation. Often the tolerance to
those sources of error is a complex function of load and
fault current.

NEW EN"CED CURRENT DIFFERENTIAL

CHARACTERISTIC

The key factors to consider, in defining the required

shape of a line differential relay characteristic in the
current ratio plane, are: channel time-delay
compensation errors, power system impedance
nonhomogeneity, CT saturation, and low frequency
oscillations in series-compensated lines.
The channel time-delay compensation enors create a
rotation of the ideal fault and load regions in the cment
ratio plane. The angle of that rotation equals the error in
angle 13 created by channel asymmetry. The system
impedance nonhomogeneity also produces a rotation of
the ideal internal fault region in the current ratio plane.
In a worst-case scenario this angle error adds to that
produced by channel asymmetry compensation error.
FIGURE 8 shows the new differential element
characteristic for transmission line protection. (b) Equal channel arymewmlerance
FIGURE 9 - Advantages ofthe new characteristic over the
percentage dfferentid characteristic
0pemting
reglo" The angle a of the new line differential system is
adjustable and can be increased beyond the 180-degree

a
. .setting to allow for maximum channel asymmetry.
Next we review the performance of the new relay
characteristic during CT saturation for an out-of-section
fault to illustrate how the new a-plane element
maximizes sensitivity whle optimizing security. To
Restraining
illustrate a worst-case scenario, we mismatched the CT
region voltage accuracy classes at the two line ends.
FIGURE 8 - Characteristic of the new differential element in FIGURE 10 shows the results of the two different, yet
the current-ratio plane secure, line differential protection schemes for the
Note that the characteristic is designed & match external fault described above. To achieve the same
perfectly with the different fault and load regions security as the new relay element, the user has to select
depicted i n , FIGURE5 and yet accommodate CT a slope setting in the percentage differential relay such
saturation as well as low-frequency oscillations present that the relay characteristic encloses the cluster of all
in series-compensated lines. The characteristic is points where the difference current is above the relay
symmetrical with respect to the a-axis, and the radii of minimum pickup value. Notice in FIGUKE 10 that the
both circle arcs are reciprocal. a-plane restraint region of the enhanced element
characteristic covers less area, along the negative real
FIGURE9 shows a comparison between the new axis, than the percentage differential element, yet both
Characteristic and that of a popular percentage methods achieve the same security for CT saturation.
differential element. When both relays are set for the Therefore, the new phase differential element
same level of tolerance to outfeed, as in FIGURE 9a, the characteristic provides higher ground fault sensitivity
traditional differential relay has very low tolerance to during heavy load flow periods, because its restrain
channel asymmetry. If we increase the slope of the region does not include the area mentioned above.
percentage differential relay to accommodate a high
level of channel asymmetry, as in FIGURE 9b, the relay
loses sensitivity to internal faults with outfeed.
 419

the cumulative mors of CT saturation and channel

asymmetry.
3. The slope setting of a traditional percentage
differential element defines its restrain region
security, dependability, and sensitivity. Itis difficult
to increase one without decreasing another.
4. The new a-plane element is very tolerant of CT
saturation while maintaining a maximum degree of
fault resistance coverage.
5. Restricting phase differential elements to detecting
three-phase faults, while using a negative-sequence
differential element to detect all other fault types,
maximizes sensitivity while maintaining security.
6. The a-plane analysis helps to visualize how various
power system and protection system phenomena
affect unit-type protective relay element security,
FIGURE IO -The a-plane element provides the same level of dependability, and sensitivity.

element for internal faults

The new relaying system described in this paper has 1. “Line Protection Design Trends in the USA and
five line differential elements; three phase segregated Canada,” IEEE Power System Relaying Committee
elements, one negative-sequence element, and one zero- Report, IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery, Vol.
sequence element. In additioq the relaying system has a 3, No 4, October 1988, pp. 1530-1535.
sensitive and secure phase selection algorithm that 2. IEEE Power System Relaying Committee Report,
provides accurate fault type selection that is essential for “A Survey of Optical Channels for Protective
single-phase tripping applications. The new relaying Relaying: Practices and Experience,” IEEE
system accommodates outfeed currents that sometimes Transactions on Power Delivery, Vol. 10, No 2,
are caused by high-resistance internal line faults, or by April 1995, pp. 647458.
strong back-ties between two line terminals in three-
terminal transmission line applications. The operating 3. A R van C. Warrington, Protective Relays: Their
time of the relaying system is less than one cycle, and it Theory and Practice, Volume 1, London, Chapman
is applicable for the protection of EHV lines, including and Hall, 1962.
series-compensated lines. In addition to the current 4. Rob&, J., Tziowaras, D.A, Benmouyal, G., and
differential elements, the relay system includes a Altuve, H., ‘The Effect of Multiprinciple Line
plethora of other protection elements such as distance, Protection on Dependability and Security,’’ 54th
directional and nondirectional phase and ground Annual Conference for Protective Relay Engineas,
elements, over- and underfrequency elements, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas,
synchronism check and reclosing elements, pilot USA, April 2001.
protection relaying scheme logic, and an advanced
control equation logic capability. All of these features 5. Calero, F. and Elmore, W., “Current Differential
provide users with a tremendous flexibility for the and Phase Comparison Relaying Schemes,” 19th
design of a complete, dependable, and secure protection Annual Western Protective Relay Conference,
system. Spokane, Washington, USA, October 1992.
6. Ernst, L.J., Hinman, W.L., Quam, D.H., and Thorp,
CONCLUSIONS -
J.S., “Charpe Comparison Protection of
Transmission Lines Relaying Concepts,” IEEE
~

Current-only differential schemes must balance Transactions on Power Delivery, Vol. I, No 4,

security challenges from CT saturation and channel October 1992, pp. 1834-1852.
asymmetry with sensitivity: the more secure the
scheme, the less fault coverage.
Copyright 0 SEL 2003
Percentage differential relays using a slope setting (All rights reserved)
cannot achieve the same sensitivity and security as PnntedinUSA
20031209
the new a-plane relay element when we consider