Unit II

Electromagnetic Relays
Protective Relays
• It is an electrical device connected between the main circuit and the
circuit breaker that detects the fault and initiate the operation of
the circuit breaker to isolate the defective section from the rest of
the system.

• The devices that detect abnormal conditions in electrical circuits by

constantly measuring the electrical quantities which are different
under normal and fault conditions.
Terms Related to Relays
• Operating Torque
This is a torque which tends to close the contacts of relay.
• Restraining force or torque
It opposes the operating torque and tends to prevent the closure of relay
contacts.
• Operating or Pick-up (level)
It is the threshold value of current or voltage above which the relay will
close its contacts.
• Drop out or Reset (level)
It is the value of current or voltage below which the relay will open its
contacts and return to normal position
Terms Related to Relays
• Flag or Target
It is a device for indicating the operation of a relay
• Power Consumption (Burden)
It is the power consumed by the relay which is expressed in Volt-amperes
with AC and watts in DC

• Operating time
It is the time between the moment the actuating quantity attains equal
value to the pick-up and the instant at which the relay operates its
contacts.
• Over Reach
A relay is said to over reach when it operates at a current which is lower
than its setting.
 Terms Related to Relays
• Under Reach
A relay is said to under reach when it opens the trip coil at a current which is
higher than its setting.
• Plug Setting Multiplier (P.S.M)

It is the ratio of fault current in relay coil to its pick up current.

• Time Setting Multiplier

– Generally a relay is provided with a control to adjust the time of operation
which is known as time setting multiplier
– Time is adjusted from 0 to 1 sec in steps of 0.05 sec
Various Currents
• Normal Current
It is the current designed to be drawn by a load under normal operating
conditions.
• Overload Current
It is greater in magnitude than the normal current and flows only in the
normal current path.
• Short Circuit Current
It is greater in magnitude than the normal current of thousands of
amperes due to the short circuit between lines.
• Ground Fault Current
It flows outside the normal circuit path (i.e. through neutral grounding).
Classification of Relays
Construction
& principle
of operation

Numerical
Application
relays

Relays
Digital Time of
relays operation

Static
relays
 • Electromagnetic relays
Constr • Induction relays
uction • Electro thermal relays
& • Physico – electric relays
Princip •
le of
Electro – dynamic relays
Operat
ion
 • Under voltage/current, Over voltage/current relays
• Directional relays
Appli • Differential relays
catio • Distance relays
n

• Instantaneous relays
• Definite time lag relays
Time
• Inverse time lag relays
of
oper • Inverse definite minimum time lag relays
ation
Non Directional Overcurrent Relay
Non Directional Overcurrent Relay
Inside of an Overcurrent Relay
Necessity of Directional Relays
• Consider a radial system fed at both ends.
• If only one relay is installed, then fault current may be supplied from
the other source.
• Hence, relays are also installed at other end of line to detect fault and
disconnect transmission line from the other end as well.
Necessity of Directional Relays
• Additional discrimination feature is to be provided to distinguish
between faults that it should respond to, and others that it should not
respond to.

• The relay R2 should operate if fault is at F1 because it is on primary

feeder but not behind i.e. at F2.

Directional Overcurrent Relay
Distance Relays
• It is used widely for the protection of HV and EHV transmission lines.

• It employs a number of relays which measure the impedance of the

line at relay location.

• The measured impedance is proportional to the line length between

the relay and fault.

• The relay operates when the impedance is less than a predetermined

value.
 Distance
Relays

Impedance Reactance Admittance

Relays Relays Relays
Basic Principle of Impedance Relays

• The relays in which the operation is based on the ratio of applied voltage to
the current in the protected circuit are called impedance relays.

• This type of relay operates whenever the impedance (V/I) of the protected
zone falls below a predetermined value.
Impedance Relays
Impedance Relays
• Torque produced by voltage element is α K1.V2

• Torque produced by current element is α K1.I2

• The equation for the operating torque is given by,

• Hence the relay will operate when

Operating Characteristics
• We know that is the equation of a circle
having a radius of Z.

• When the value of measured impedance Z L is

less than the radius Z, the relay will produce a
positive torque.

• If it is greater, the relay will produce negative

torque.

• The region outside the circle is the blocking

zone. If a fault occurs in this zone, the relay will
not operate.
Directional Unit with Impedance Relays
• It is always desired that the
relay operates for the faults
lying only in the forward
direction.

• Hence a directional unit is

included with the distance
relays.
Protective Scheme using Impedance relays
• At any location, three impedance relays and a directional unit are
employed.
• 1st relay protects up to 90% of the primary line.
• 2nd relay protects the whole primary line and a 50% of the adjacent
line.
• 3rd relay protects the entire primary line + adjacent line + 25% of the
3rd line.
Mho Relays
• Impedance relays normally not used because it requires an additional
directional relay.
• Mho relays naturally have the directional feature and hence they are
used widely.
• This relay measures the admittance of the line and operates when
the measured value of line admittance is less than the pre-set value
of admittance.
 Operation of Mho Relays
• Flux produced in the operating coil
interacts with the polarizing coil flux to
produce an operating torque.

• Flux produced in the restraining coil

interacts with the polarizing coil flux to
produce a restraining torque,
 Operation of Mho Relays

• Now the relay will operate when the torque T is positive. i.e. when,
Operating Characteristics of Mho relay
Reactance Relays
• A reactance relay is similar to an overcurrent relay. It does not have
directional feature in it.
• It measures the reactance of the line at the relay location.
• Hence the performance of the relay will not be affected by variations
in impedance of the line due to arcing ground.
• Whenever a fault occurs in the line, the measured reactance will be
less than that of the preset reactance and hence the relay operates.
 Operation of Reactance Relays
• Torque produced on the relay,

• For a positive torque,

Operating Characteristics of Reactance relay
 Differential Relay
• It is a relay that operates when the phasor difference between two or more
currents exceeds a predetermined value.

• It is a method of protection in which an internal fault is identified by comparing

the currents at the terminals of the protected equipment.

• It is based on the fact that any internal fault in an electrical equipment would
cause the current entering it to be different from the current leaving it.

• Differential protection is applicable to all elements of power system such as

generators, transformers, motors and busbars.
 Differential
Relays

Simple Percentage Balanced Voltage

Differential Differential Differential
Relay Relay Relay
Simple Differential Relay – During No Fault
Simple Differential Relay – External Fault
Simple Differential Relay – Internal Fault
 Disadvantages of Differential Relay
• A relay should not operate instantaneously for the faults occurring beyond its
protected zone.

• But a simple differential relay may operate unnecessarily for an external or

through fault condition or even during no fault conditions. The reasons are,

 CTs may not have identical secondary currents due to their constructional
errors.

 During heavy external fault, the fault current may saturate the CTs and
cause unequal secondary currents.
Percentage or Biased Differential Relay
• Ampere Turns on the left side of the
restraining coil

• Ampere Turns on the right side of the

restraining coil

• Total Ampere turns on the restraining coil

Percentage or Biased Differential Relay

• The relay will operate when,

Percentage or Biased Differential Relay
• The relay will be on the verge of operation when,

• For the operation of the relay, the differential current must be greater than
this fixed percentage of the restraining current. Hence this relay is called
percentage differential relay.
• Under normal condition or through fault condition, the restraining toque
will be more than the operating torque. Hence the relay is inoperative.
• During any internal fault condition, the operating torque will be more than
the restraining torque. Hence relay will operate.
Percentage or Biased Differential Relay
Balanced Voltage Differential protection
Normal condition & External Fault
Balanced Voltage Differential protection
Internal Fault
Negative Sequence Relays
• Negative sequence relays are generally used to give protection to
generators and motors against unbalanced currents.

• Unbalanced current results from line to line or line to ground faults.

• These unbalanced currents are dangerous from generators and

motors point of view as these currents can cause overheating.
Negative Sequence Relay - Operation
• Currents from R phase divide into two equal components IZ1 and IZ3 at
point A. IZ1 leads IZ3 by 600.
IZ1 IR

𝐼𝑅
𝐼 𝑍 1=𝐼 𝑍 3=
√3
300
600 300
IZ3

• Currents from B phase divide into two equal components IZ2 and IZ4 at
point C. IZ2 leads IZ4 by 600.
Relay Operation for Positive sequence current
-IY

IB IZ4 IZ1 IR

300 300
300 300
IZ2 IZ3

It means that the current in the relay is zero

when the positive sequence current flows .

IY
 Relay Operation for Negative sequence current

IY
• From phasor diagram, it is clear that,

• Therefore, current flowing through relay is,

• Hence the relay will operate and trip the circuit breaker for the
flow of negative sequence current.
IZ4 IZ1

IB IZ2 IZ3 IR