DIRE DAWA UNIVERSITY

Dire Dawa Institute of Technology

School of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Power System Protection and Control (PSP)
Chapter 1 Fundamentals of PS Protection

By Dawit Adane
Basics
• A good electric power system should ensure the availability of electrical power without any
interruption to every load connected to it.
• Since it is not economical to design a system to withstand all possible system failures, the
alternative is to design a protective system that can quickly detect abnormal conditions and
take appropriate action. The type of action taken depends on the protective device and on the
environmental condition that is observed by that device.
• Protection system plays a vital role in reliability of power system.
• Protective relays and relaying systems detect abnormal conditions like faults in electrical
circuits as quickly as possible, and automatically operate the switchgear to isolate faulty
equipment from the system as quick as possible.
• This limits the damage at the fault location, prevents the effects of the fault spreading into the
system and ensures the continuity of power supply to the remainder of the system.
• Relay does not prevent the appearance of faults. However, there are some devices which can
anticipate and prevent major faults. For example, Buchholz relay is capable of detecting the
gas accumulation produced by an incipient fault in a transformer.
• Therefore, the protective system must be able to discriminate between the normal operating
conditions, abnormal operating conditions and faults.
The two basic types of protective devices are defined as follows:
Reactionary devices: These devices are designed to recognize/detect a specific system hazard,
such as a short circuit, on a system component and to take predetermined action to remove
that hazard.
To trip the device:
1. Violate the inequality constraint, x > Xm , and
2. Violate the time constraint, t > Tm .
Safeguard devices: These devices are designed to recognize a certain hazard in the power
system environment and to take predetermined action to change that environment to a less
hazardous condition. Examples of safeguard devices are fire sprinkler systems, apparatus
supplementary cooling systems, and detectors that monitor unbalanced currents or voltages in
equipment.

The general layout of a protection

system may be viewed as given in
the following figure
The objective of power system protection
• Limit the extent and duration of service interruption. (Safeguard the entire system to
maintain continuity of supply)
• Minimize damage to the system components and repair costs where it senses fault
• Ensure safety of personnel
Functions of Protection System
• Stand watch and sense in the event of a fault or abnormal operating conditions
• De-energize the unhealthy section of the power system
• To indicate and report the type and location of failure so as to access the effectiveness of
the protective schemes.
Problems on the power system include:
1.Parallel and series fault (Short circuit and open circuit fault)
2.Abnormal conditions
3.Equipment failures
The main types of faults in a power system are:
• Short-circuit faults (3Ф, 2 Ф, Ф g, 2 Ф g)
• Open-circuit faults (open conductor)
• Complex/multiple or simultaneous faults (inter-circuit, broken conductor, cross-country etc)
• Inter-turn/winding faults in windings
Abnormalities:
• Real power deficit - underfrequency
• Power swings
• Overload and excessive operating temperature
• Power frequency overvoltage or undervoltage
• Under-excitation of synchronous machines
• Over-fluxing of power transformers
• Asynchronous operation of synchronous machines
• Over-frequency
• Mechanical defects i.e. leaking oil, tap changer mechanism faults.
Fault Statistics
• It is evident that 50% of the total
faults occur on overhead lines.
Hence it is overhead lines that
require more attention while
planning and designing protective
Schemes for a power system.
• From the table it is evident that
the frequency of line to ground
faults is more than any other type of fault, and hence the protection against L-G fault
requires greater attention in planning and design of protective schemes for overhead lines.
• In the case of cables, 50% of the
faults occur in cables and 50% at
end junctions. Cable faults are
usually of a permanent nature and
hence, automatic reclosures are
not recommended for cables.
Nature and Causes of Faults
• Fault implies any abnormal condition which causes a reduction/breakdown in the basic
insulation strength between phase conductors, between phase conductor and earth or any
earth screen surrounding the conductors.
• System insulation may fail either of its own weakening, or due to overvoltage.
Factors affecting weakening and breakdown of system insulation:
(i) The deterioration of insulation due to
• ageing, high temperature, rain, hail, snow accumulation on the conductor
• The chemical pollution on an insulator string caused by deposited soot or cement dust in
industrial area.
• Salt deposited due to wind borne or see spray in coastal area
• Void formation in the insulation compound of underground cable due to unequal expansion
and contractions caused by the rise and fall of temperature.
(ii) Physical damage to the insulation due to unpredictable causes such as perching of birds,
accidental short circuiting by snakes, tree branches, Poles collapsing, Dig-ups for
underground cables etc.
(iii) Breakdown of insulation may occur because of abnormal voltages/transient overvoltage’s
• This may happen because of internal overvoltage’s (switching surges) or external
overvoltage’s (lightning surges)
Consequences/Effects of Faults
1. A great reduction of the line voltages on healthy feeder .
2. Damage to the element of the system by the electrical arc which causes fire.
3. Damage to other parts due to overheating by generating zero/negative sequence currents.
4. Disturbance to the stability of the electrical system and this may even lead to a complete
shutdown of the power system due to out of synchronism operation of power generator.
5. Reduction in the voltage may fail the supply potential for coil of the relay.
6. Causes the unbalancing of supply voltages and currents, thereby heating rotating machines.
7. The mechanical damage due to excessive mechanical forces developed during over-current.
Transformers are known to have suffered mechanical damage to their windings, due to
faults.
8. Causes an interruption of supply to consumers, thereby causing a loss of revenue.
9. Hazard to personnel
Characteristics/Attributes/Requirement of Power system protection
Properties/requirements that a protective system should possess:
A. Reliability (Dependability and security) of Protection
• The ability of protection devices to operate properly during they are in service and during their
operational life time.
• Means operate when required and not operate unnecessarily(a qualitative indicator).
• It cannot be rule out the possibility of failure of the (primary) protection system. Therefore, it can
be enhanced the reliability and dependability of the protective system by adding features like
back-up protection.
• Dependability - Operate when it should within its zone of protection
• Security - No mis-operations for faults outside its protective zone or in the absence of a fault
Factors affecting reliability are as follows:
i) Quality of relays ii) Component and circuits involved in fault clearance e.g. circuit breaker trip and
control circuits, instrument transformers, high contact pressure, dust free enclosures
iii) Maintenance of protection equipment iv) Quality of maintenance operating staff
• Records show that the order of likelihood of failure is relays, breakers, wiring, current
transformers, voltage transformers and battery. When relays using transistors are considered, the
B. Selectivity
• The property by which only the faulty element of the system is isolated and the
remaining healthy sections are left intact. It should be able to distinguish whether a
fault lies within its zone of protection or outside the zone.
• required to prevent unnecessary loss of plant and circuits.
• Ideally, the protective system should zero-in on the faulty element and isolate it, thus
causing minimum disruption to the system.
• The possibility of failure of protective relays and CBs should be considered in
determining the selectivity of protective relays.
• Selectivity is absolute if the protection responds only to faults within its own zone
(This systems of protection are known as unit protection – e.g.:- differential protection,
frame leakage protection.) and relative if it is obtained by grading the setting of
protections of several zones which may respond to a given fault (This systems of
protection are known as system protection – e.g.: current time graded/overcurrent/
protection, distance protection.).
C. Speed
• Operate rapidly to minimize fault duration and equipment damage.
• Protective relays are required to be quick acting due to the following reasons:
(a) Critical clearing time should not be exceeded, so that the system will not lose
stability.
(b) Electrical apparatus may be damaged, if they are made to carry fault currents
for a long time.
(c) A persistent fault will lower the voltage resulting in crawling and overloading of
industrial drives.
(d) To reduce the extent of outage duration
• However, relays should not be extremely fast; otherwise the relay will operate for
transient conditions.
• Factors affecting fault clearance time and speed of relay is as follows:
i) Economic consideration ii) Selectivity
iii) System stability iv) Equipment damage
• The total time to remove the fault, called fault clearing time, is the sum of operation
D. Sensitivity
• It is the ability of the protective device to operate correctly to the faults or abnormal
conditions inside the zone of protection.
• It refers to the minimum level of fault current at which the protective device operates.
• Protection must be sufficiently alive/active to operate reliably under minimum fault
current for a fault within its own zone while remaining stable under maximum load or
through fault condition.
• The smaller the fault current it can detect, the more sensitive it is.
• The sensitivity factor usually determines the sensitivity of protective relays, which
depends on the parameters of protected elements and operating condition of the power
system.
E. Discrimination
• Protection must be sufficiently sensitive to operate reliably under minimum fault
condition for a fault within its own zone while remaining stable under maximum load
i.e. a relay should be able to distinguish between a fault and an overload either by its
inherent characteristic or with the help of an auxiliary relay.
• Protection system should be able to discriminate between fault and loading conditions
even when the minimum fault current is less than the maximum full load current as
well as transient conditions like power surges or inrush of a transformer’s magnetizing
current.
• In the case of transformers, the inrush of magnetizing current may be comparable to
the full current, being 5 to 7 times the full load current. The relay should not operate
for inrush exciting current.
• In the case of Induction motor, the starting current is much higher than the full load
current. Therefore, the relay should not operate for inrush starting current.
• In interconnected systems, there will be power swing, which should also be ignored by
the relay.
F. Stability
• The protection device should remain stable even if mal-operation occurred in the
protection system.
• It is the quality of any protection system to remain stable within a set of defined operating
scenarios and procedures. For example the biased differential scheme of differential
protection is more stable towards switching transients compared to the more simple and
basic Merz Price scheme in differential protection.
G. Simplicity
• minimum protective equipment and associated circuitry to achieve the protection
objectives and hence easy for maintenance, supervision and setting of relay; further more
improving the reliability.
H. Economics
Protection Zones
• Zone of protection of a relay is the place or the distance that the relay can protect easily.
• An electric power system is divided into several zones of protection. Each zone of
protection, contains one or more components of a power system in addition to two circuit
breakers as shown in figure below. The point of connection of the protection device with
the power system normally defines the zone boundary and generally corresponds to the
position of the current transformers.
• When a fault occurs within the boundary of a particular zone, then the protection system
responsible for the protection of the zone acts to isolate (by tripping the Circuit Breakers)
every equipment within that zone from the rest of the system.
• Overlapping zones of protection are provided so that no part of power system remains
unprotected. So that each zone covers one or more components of the power system.
• Different neighboring zones of protection are made to overlap each other, which ensure
that no part of the power system remains without protection.
• It must be realized that if the fault takes place in the overlapped portion, more than the
minimum number of circuit breakers will trip, causing a major interruption to the system.
• A relatively low extent of overlap reduces the probability of faults in this region and
consequently, tripping of too many breakers does not occur frequently.
• Fault between CT and the circuit breaker will not trip the feeder CB and fault current will
continue to flow until cleared by back up protection.
• In power systems, all power system elements must be encompassed by at least one zone.
Important points about zone of protection
 The more important elements must be included in at least two zones
 Zones must overlap to prevent any element from being unprotected.
 The overlap must be finite but small to
minimize the likelihood of a fault inside this
region.
 A zone boundary is usually defined by a CT
and a CB.
 The CT provides the ability to detect a fault
inside the zone
 The CBs provide the ability to isolate the fault.
 There is a suitable protective scheme for each
zone.
D

One line diagram of a system showing

primary protection zones
Overlapping zones of differential protection

• Protection should be provided in overlapping

zones so that no part of the power system
remains unprotected
Closed and Open Protection Zones
(Unit Protection Scheme and Non-unit protection scheme)
Unit Protection Scheme
• A scheme that operates for a fault within its protection zone only so called closed
protection zone.
• Here, zone protection is decided on basis of current transformers (CTs), and it includes
each and every fault point inside the CTs where measurement of current is carried out.
• This type of protection is widely used in generators, transformers, and large induction
motors. Differential protection scheme is the best example of this type of protection
scheme.
Non-unit protection scheme
A scheme that achieves protection using grading of successive relays (coordination of
several relays).
Overcurrent and distance protection schemes are the best examples.
G.
Types of protection:
Primary and Back up Protection
• Primary relaying is - the first line of defense for protecting the equipment.
• The primary protection scheme ensures fast and selective clearing of any fault within the
boundaries of the circuit element, that the zone is required to protect.
• If a fault occurs in a particular zone, it is the duty of the primary relays of that zone to
isolate the faulty element.
• If there is failure of the elements provided by primary protection scheme, so that the fault
in a given zone is not cleared by the main or primary protection scheme, some of the back
up protection scheme is generally provided to clear the fault as a second line of defense.
• Therefore, it is a normal practice to provide another zone of protection which should
operate and isolate the faulty element in case the primary protection fails and to allow for
periodic maintenance of the interrupting devices, sensing devices, and protective relays.
• It is essential that provision be made to clear the fault by some alternative protection
system in case of the primary protection fails to operate. These are referred to as backup
protection systems
• Backup protection should be isolated so that a failure in one will not affect the other. It
should also preferably be located at a place different from where the primary protection is
located. Eg: overcurrent or distance protection
• The operating time of the back-up protection must be delayed by an appropriate amount over that
of the primary protection to give the primary relay sufficient time to operate. Thus, the operating
time of the back-up protection should be equal to the operating time of primary protection plus the
operating time of the primary circuit breaker.
• When a back-up relay operates, a larger part of the power system is disconnected from the power
source, but this is unavoidable.
• Backup protection may be either remote or local or it may be a combination of both schemes.
• Remote backup protection consists of relays that are set to respond to faults in the next zone of
protection/ located at a neighboring station. This type of protection is relatively slow as it should
allow time for the primary relaying in that zone to operate. Hence, When the back-up operates, the
time for which the fault persists is longer and disruption to the loads also lasts longer. It also may
cause interruption to large portions of the electric supply system.
• It is the cheapest and simplest form of backup. They are located at neighboring station and backup
the entire primary protective scheme (relay, CT, PT, and CB etc). They are widely used backup for
transmission lines.
• Remote backup protection clears the fault on the station away from where the failure has occurred.
• Local backup protection consists of two sets of independent primary protection and breaker-
failure relaying. Ideally, this should include two independent sets of current transformers,
voltage transformers, protective relays, and breaker trip coils, but only one breaker-failure
relaying system is required.
• It is intended for clearing the fault in the same station where the failure has occurred.
a) Relay back up: it is a kind of local backup where additional relay is provided for backup
that trips the same CB if primary relay fails. This operation takes place without delay. The
principles of operation are selected that are different from those of primary; they are
activated using separate CTs and PTs. They are costlier and they are used where remote
backup is not possible.
b) Breaker back up: it is also a kind of local back up where number of CBs connected are
more i.e., mainly Bus-bar system. When primary relay activates but the primary CB fails
to operate the fault is treated as Bus-bar fault. So, all the CBs on that Bus-bar should trip.
If proper CB doesn’t open in specified time after the trip coil is energized, after some time
delay the main relay closes the contacts of the backup relay resulting in opening of all
other CBs.
Properties of Back up Protection:
 Ideally primary and backup are independent (relay, breaker, CT, PT)
 Slower than primary
 Sometimes backup protection opens more circuit breakers than absolutely necessary to clear
the fault
 Provide primary protection when usual primary equipment out of service
• d
D

Figure – Primary and back-up protection:

sequence of events: normal operation
Example : Consider the following simple power system
Discuss the local and remote backup protection for two fault locations as follows:
For fault at F1: Suppose that breaker J operate and breaker H failed to operate.

Therefore G and I must operate as local backup protection.

For fault at F2: Suppose that breakers P and Q operate and breaker M failed to operate.

Therefore, L must operate as local backup protection and I should trip by communication
For fault at F1: Suppose that breaker J operate and breaker H failed to operate

Therefore, E, F, L and M must operate as Remote backup protection. Or

For fault at F2: Suppose that breakers P and Q operate and breaker M failed to operate.

Therefore, I, B and C must operate as Remote backup protection. Or