Introduction

The objective of Power System Protection is to isolate the faulty

portion of the system such that the healthy sections continue to serve
with out any or minimised interruption in supply of energy.

Protection systems have 3 main components:

• Instrument transformers: Current Transformer (CT), Voltage
Transformers (VT)
• (Protection) Relays, which discriminate between normal operating
(current/voltage) and fault conditions.
• Circuit Breakers

When a fault occurs, protection relays send signal to circuit breaker(s)

to isolate the faulty section of the system.
Introduction
Conventionally electromagnetic-actuated mechanical systems are
used in protection relays to trip circuit breakers. A simple
overcurrent protection scheme:

Relay’s operating coil is (part of)

the instrument transformer’s
secondary coil.
If |I2| > “pickup” value (Ip)→
operating coil closes the trip
circuit contact (normally open)→
With the advent of integrated
trip coil is energized → opens the circuits and microprocessor,
CB contact (normally closed) digital protection devices are
now common.
Introduction
• Main protection Scheme protects a defined zone of the power
systems.
• The protection zones are designed to overlap to cover the entire
system:

• There is ,normally at
generation and
transmission stages, a
back-up protection which
is a completely separate protection scheme which operates if the
main protection fails to operate
• The back-up system should be as independent of the main as
possible i.e. having its own CTs and relays.
Overcurrent protection

• Is applied to generators,
transformers and feeders.

Relay’s operating coil is (part of)

the instrument transformer’s
secondary coil.
If |I2| > “pickup” value (Ip)→
operating coil closes the trip
circuit contact (normally open)→
trip coil is energized → opens the
Instantaneous
CB contact (normally closed) overcurrent protection
Overcurrent protection
Inverse time overcurrent protection:
• Intentional time delay (Td) in
operation
• Td1<Td2 i.e. as the current gets
bigger than IP , the day time reduces
• Outside circles is trip area
• They come with different “time
dial setting”.
• Each curve represents one time
setting on relay
Overcurrent protection

Inverse time
overcurrent
protection

There are also

definite time
relays, which
apply a constant
delay regardless of
the fault current
value (next slide).

Ifault/Tap setting
Overcurrent protection- summary
•Inverse time relays:
•Slow to trip at low currents.
•Faster to trip at high fault currents.
•Used to co-ordinate over load protection,
which may have a high starting current.
•Generally the most sensitive to operate.

• Definite time relays:

•To co-ordinate over other definite time, or instantaneous protection.
• Generally less sensitive (higher pickup) to prevent operating for load
inrush.
•Generally faster operating time.
Overcurrent protection- summary

•Instantaneous relays:
•Used when co-ordination is not required.
•Usually the least sensitive of all relays, as the relay must not operate
for any kind of inrush, or operate before any downstream relay.
Overcurrent protection- radial systems
Inverse time relays are normally used in radial systems such that the
breaker closest to the fault opens while the upstream breakers with larger
time delays remain closed. Hence, minimum load interruption is
achieved.

E.g. for the radial system above, the time delay for the breakers are chosen
such that: Td-B3<Td-B2<Td-B1. Thus, for a fault at F,
B3 will operate first i.e. only L3 is interrupted.
If B3 fails, B2 will operate i.e. L3 and L2 are interrupted.
If B2 fails, B1 will operate i.e. L3, L2 and L1 are interrupted.
Directional overcurrent protection

In the 2 sources system above,

• Fault at F1, B23 and B32 should clear fault to minimise the interruption
• Hence, B23 is set to be faster than B21
• Fault at F2, B12 and B21 should clear fault to minimise the interruption
• Hence, B21 is set to be faster than B23 (contradiction with above!)
• If B23 is faster than B21, L2 will be disconnected unnecessarily

In such cases, Directional Relays, which operate for fault currents in only
one direction, are used!
Directional overcurrent protection

Directional relays have two

inputs:
• Reference voltage V=V∟0
• Current I=I∟θ

The relays are set such that they

operate for faults on feeder-side, not
on busbar-side, hence:
Assumptions:
If -90°<θ<0 (i.e. current lags
• Feeder-side is +ve direction
voltage), CB trips, otherwise blocks!
• Feeder is inductive
(2-8° tolerance is defined)
Directional overcurrent protection

So, to protect the above system:

• B1 and B3 only need inverse-time overcurrent (ITOC),
• The rest of breakers in addition to ITOC; need directional relay
• For fault at F1: B21 will not operate (Since F1 is on its bus-side)
• B23 and B32 will be given the smallest time delay
• B3 will be coordinated with B32
• B12 and B1 will be coordinated with B23

Explain the breakers operation for a fault at F2.

What breakers will operate for a fault at bus-2?
Distance (impedance) relay

Coordinating directional overcurrent relays in large

systems, especially large loops, is very difficult if
not impossible. E.g. for fault at:
• F1 , B21 should be faster than B32
• F2, B32 should be faster than B13
• F3, B13 should be faster than B21 i.e.
contradiction!

To solve this, relays sensitive to V/I ratio (i.e. impedance) are used!
Distance (impedance) relay
• During a fault, current↑, voltage (close to fault place)↓→ V/I↓↓
• E.g. if I increases 5 times, V reduces by half →V/I reduces by 10
• I.e. V/I is more sensitive than current or voltage alone.

• Since impedance of a line is

directly proportional to its length,
the relay can only operate if a fault
is occurred within a predetermined
distance or length of line.
• Distance relay will only operate
when this voltage to current ratio
(i.e. impedance) becomes less than
its predetermined value (Zr).
Distance (impedance) relay
• A directional relay is normally connected in
series to the impedance relay to add
directional property to it:
• Fig shows a directional distance relay (with
2-8° tolerance for possible errors)

Therefore, CB will trip for a fault on feeder-side, not the busbar-side!

 Distance (impedance) relay

Three zones are normally defined for each impedance relay (e.g. for RA):
• Zone-1 is instantaneous and covers first 80% of the length of feeder (AB)
• Zone-2 has a time delay (0.2-0.3 sec) and covers 100% of the main feeder
(AB) plus 20-30% of the next feeder (BC)
• Zone-3 has a longer time delay and covers 100% of the main feeder (AB)
plus up to 100% (normally 40-50%) of the next feeder (BC)
• Note that each zone also operates as a back-up for the previous zone.
Differential relay are used to protect generators, transformers, and
busbars. Protected zone e.g.
Gen./Trans./ Busbars
We need two identical CTs: CB I1 CT CT I2 CB

• Normal operation: I1’≈I2’→ block

Relay
• Faults within protected zone: I1'
I1'-I2' operating I2'
coil
direction of I2 changes, I1’≠I2’→ trip
• Faults outside protected zone: Relay restraining coils

I1=I2→ I1’= I2→ block

No two CTs are identical →even

if: I1=I2, maybe: I1’≠ I2’ → trip.
Restraining coil with balance
beam relay is used to solve it.
Differential relay 2+k
I2' Slope =
2-k
Since electromagnetic force ∝ Trip 2−k
Block Slope =
2+k
(mmf)2, condition for relay trip:
𝑁0 𝐼1′ − 𝐼2′ 2 > [0.5𝑁𝑟 𝐼1′ + 𝐼2′ ]2 Trip
Defining k=Nr/N0 I1'
𝐼1 ′ − 𝐼2 ′ > 0.5𝑘 𝐼1′ + 𝐼2′
k↑→block zone↑, sensitivity↓
For I2’>I1’:

2+𝑘 ′
𝐼2′ > 𝐼1
2−𝑘
For I2’<I1’:

2−𝑘 ′
𝐼2′ < 𝐼1
2+𝑘
Using restraining coil and
adjusting k :
• I1=I2 (i.e. normal operation
and faults outside protected
zone): mmfs by I1’ and I2’ (on
restraining coil) are additive >
mmf by I1’-I2’ (on operating Protected zone e.g.
Gen./Trans./ Busbars
coil)→block. CB I1 CT CT I2 CB

• Faults within protected zone:

Relay
I1' I1'-I2' I2'
mmfs by I1’ and I2’ are operating
coil
I1'+I2'
opposing < mmf by I1’+I2’ →
Relay restraining coils
trip.