Static Relay

1. Need of Static Relay

• With the rapid growth of electrical transmission and distribution systems during last fifty
years and with the advent of much larger power stations and interconnected systems, the
duty imposed upon protective gear become more and more severe.
• The basis of so called static relaying is the use of circuit components to obtain a variety of
functions and operating characteristics which for the protection purposes have traditionally
been obtained using electromechanical devices.
• The need of fast and reliable protective schemes was realized because short circuit levels,
circuit ratings and complexity of interconnection have increased.
• Shorter operating time have become more essential for preserving dynamic stability of the
system.
• Experience shows that such requirements can readily be met by using static relays, which
are capable of performing electronic circuit control functions in a manner similar to that of
an electromagnetic relay without using moving parts.
2. Comparison of Static and Electromagnetic Relay
Advantages of Static Relay:
• The power consumption in case of static relays is usually much lower than that in case of
electromagnetic relay. Hence the burden on CT and PT is reduced and their accuracy is
increased.
• Quick response, long life, high reliability and high degree of accuracy.
• Absence of moving contacts and associated problem of arcing.
• Use of printed circuit avoids the wiring errors.
• Static relay are very compact. A single static relay can perform several function. Space
required for installation is reduced.
• Ease of providing amplification enables greater sensitivity to be obtained.
Disadvantage of Static Relay:
• Auxiliary DC supply is required.
• Semiconductor components are sensitive to electrostatic discharge.
• Static relays are sensitive to voltage spikes and voltage transients.
• Characteristics of static relays are influenced by ambient temperature and ageing.
• The static relay have low short time overload capacity compared to electromagnetic relay.
• Highly trained person are required for their servicing.

3. Essential Components of Static Relay:

• The relaying quantity i.e. output of CT or PT or transducer is rectified by a rectifier. The
rectified output is supplied to measuring unit of comparators, level detector, filters or logic
circuit. The output is actuated when the input attains the threshold value. This output is
amplified by amplifier and fed to output device which is usually an electromagnetic one.
• The relaying quantity such as voltage/current is rectified and measured. When the quantity
under measurement attains certain well defined value, the output device is triggered and
thereby the circuit breaker trip circuit is energized.

4. Classification of Static Relays

a. Electronic Relays
b. Transducer or magnetic amplifier relays
c. Rectifier bridge relays
d. Transistor relays
e. Hall effect relays
f. Gauss effect relays
5. Static Overcurrent Relay and Over voltage/Under voltage Relay
• The block diagram of static over current relay is shown in the figure. The same construction
may be used for under voltage and overvoltage.

• The secondary's of the line CTs are connected to a summation circuit. The output of this
summation is fed to an auxiliary CT, whose output is rectified, smoothened and supplied to
the measuring unit( level detector). The measuring unit determines whether the quantity has
attained the threshold value or not. When the input to measuring unit is less than the
threshold value, the output of level detector is zero. For an over current relay.

• After the operation of measuring unit, the output is amplified by the amplifier. The amplified
output is given to output circuit to cause trip/alarm.
6. Directional Static Overcurrent Relay
• Directional relay senses direction of power flow by means of phase angle between V and I.
When the phase angle between V and I exceeds certain predefined value, the directional relay
operates with condition that the current is above pickup value. Thus directional relay is a
double actuating quantity relay with one input as current from CT and the other input as V
from PT.

• Figure shows the static directional relay with two input inputs ( V and I ). The inputs are
supplied to the phase comparator. A phase shifter is included in the voltage input circuit,
whose output is fed to the phase comparator; so that the output from phase comparator under
phase faults/earth fault condition is maximum. The output of the level detector is amplified
and in case a timer is necessary, the output is applied to the output device through timer.
7. Static Differential Relay
• The differential relay measures the phasor difference between two similar electrical
quantities ( voltage-voltage or current-current). The rectifier bridge amplitude
comparator is the most common static form for applications such as a differential relay
element.
• Input I and II are supplied to the comparator. The output of the comparator (phase difference
of I and II) is amplified and used to operate relay. The static differential relays are most
commonly used for protection of generators and transformers for any type of internal faults.
• These relays are advantageous over electromagnetic differential relays as they are very
compact, highly sensitive for internal faults and have absolute stability for heavy through
faults, extremely short tripping times (20-50 ms) regardless the magnitude of auxiliary
voltage.
• Static type percentage difference relay is as shown in figure. The difference of current in the
operating coil and restraining coil is fed to the output element for relay operation.

Static Type Percentage Differential Relay Relay characteristics

 Static Distance Relay
Static Impedance Relay
a. Static Impedance Relay using an Amplitude Comparator
b. Static Impedance Relay using Phase Comparator:
Static Reactance Relay:

Operating Characteristics of a Reactance Relay

a. Reactance Relay using an amplitude Comparator
b. Static Reactance Relay using Phase Comparator
Static Mho Relay
Block Diagram and Components of Digital Relay
• The three phase AC input s derived from CTs and PTs are fed to Block 2. Block 2 comprises
analog processing compensating circuits. In this block the measured currents and voltages
are developed into a set of quantities required for the measurement processing and operation
of the relay.
• In Block 4 A/D conversion the phase information contained in these quantities are converted
from the analog signals to representative square wave digital signals.
• The equivalent digital signals from Block 4 fed Block 7 for digital processing. Block 7
consists of phase comparators, logic gates and other digital circuits required for signal
processing. Block 7 also receives other external digital signals from Block 3. These include
external data regarding back up breaker and other circuits which have an interface with the
protective relay.
• The digital processing carried out in Block 7 is controlled by current and voltage supervision
functions carried out in Block 5.
• Block 8 provides an interface between relay and circuit breaker trio coils. Block 9 gives
indication display on the front face of the relay and is called Man-Machine Interface. In the
event of the power system disturbance, for which the relay reacts, the events are displayed on
Block 9. Signaling contacts enable communication with peripheral devices like sequence of
event recorders, reclosing relays etc. With digital relays there is a provision of fault recorder,
fault locater etc.
• Block 1 provides the galvanic separation between the station auxiliary DC system and
protective relay. The time lag relays in Block 6 determine the operating time of the back up
function of the relay and therefore linked with Block 7.

Block Diagram of Microprocessor based Digital Relay

• With the rapid growth of modern complex large power system networks, fast, accurate and
reliable protective schemes are essential. Microprocessor based schemes are becoming more
and more popular for power system protection as they offer attractive compactness and
flexibility.

Fig: Block diagram of Microprocessor based Digital relay

• Figure shows the block diagram of a microprocessor based digital relay. The three phase ac
input quantities received from the power system through CTs and PTs are sampled
simultaneously or sequentially at uniform time intervals. They are then converted into the
digital form through an A/D converter and transferred to digital processor. Digital signals are
in the form of coded square pulses which represent discrete data. The signals are in binary
form. The microprocessor/ digital processor being set with the recommended values
compares the dynamic inputs and decides accordingly to generate trip/alarm signal to the
output device.