Power System Protection

Govt. College of Engineering and Textile Technology,

Berhampore
Bikash Das
Power System II (EE 602)
3rd Year EE
Protection Setting
 Why protection required?

The components of power system need to be

protected from :
1. Short Circuit (High Current)
2. Instrumental failure: insulator failure
3. Earth Fault
4. Over voltage (Surge)
5. Abnormal condition
 Protection devices
• Relay
• Circuit breaker
• Instrumental Transformer
• Isolator
• Lighting arrester
Relay
• PSM – plug setting multiplier
I
I – measured current PSM 
Is
Is – relay setting current
 How Do Relays Detect Faults?
• When a fault takes place, the current, voltage,
frequency, and other electrical variables behave in a
peculiar way. For example:
– Current suddenly increases
– Voltage suddenly decreases
• Relays can measure the currents and the voltages
and detect that there is an overcurrent, or an
undervoltage, or a combination of both
• Many other detection principles determine the
design of protective relays
 Primary Protection
• Short-circuit protection includes two protection systems: primary and
backup protection. Primary protection is the first line of defense. The
figure shows the one-line diagram of a power system section. We may
observe that we use breakers to connect adjacent system elements. Using
the breakers in this manner permits the protection system to completely
isolate a faulted element. An exception is the case of the generator-
transformer units. Generators have dedicated step-up transformers in this
arrangement, and we may omit the breaker between them.
• The zones indicated with dotted lines are the primary protection zones.
The significance of these zones is that a fault inside a zone implies the
tripping of all the breakers belonging to that zone. Protective relays
define these zones. Adjacent protection zones overlap to provide full
primary protection coverage in the power system. A fault in the
overlapping areas produces the tripping of more breakers than the
breakers needed to isolate the fault. We need the overlapping areas to be
as small as possible.
• Primary protection operation should be as fast as possible, preferably
instantaneous, for stability and power quality reasons.
Protective relays define the primary protection zones. Relays use system
currents and voltages as input signals. We will see during the course that
current information is instrumental for the relays in determining fault
location.
• Then, current transformer location defines the limits of the
primary protection zones in many cases.
In lower-voltage systems, we use bushing-type current transformers
installed inside breaker and transformer bushings. In this case, protection
zones overlap around the breaker, and the breaker lies in the ovelapping
zone. A breaker fault produces the tripping of all breakers at both zones.
In higher-voltage installations, we use multiwinding current
transformers. We use different secondary windings for the relays of the
two protection zones. The overlapping zone is inside the current
transformer. The probability of an overlapping-zone fault is very low.
The price we pay for this arrangement is that it could be necessary to trip
some Zone B breakers with Zone A relays to completely disconnect
some Zone B faults.
 Backup Protection
• To increase the reliability of a protection system, a backup system is
intended to operate in case one or more of the main protection
elements fail.
• The figure shows the one-line diagram of a power system and helps
illustrate the concept of backup protection. The tie circuit breaker
(T) is assumed to work normally closed. For a fault at CD, Line
Breakers 5 and 6 should operate as the primary protection. If
Protection 5 fails to operate, with existing technology we have two
possibilities for cutting the fault current contribution from A, B, and
F: open Breakers 1, 3, and 8; or open Breakers 2 and T. In any case,
backup protection needs time delay. The primary protection needs to
be given an opportunity to operate before using the decision of a
backup operation.
 Inverse-time relay Coordination
• Operating time of inverse-time overcurrent relays increases when the fault current
diminishes or, in an equivalent situation, when the electrical distance to the fault
increases.
• In the bottom diagram, we show the inverse-time relay operating time as a function
of the electrical distance. Note that each curve begins at the relay location and
extends beyond the end of the adjacent line. This means that the 51 elements
provide primary protection to the protected line and backup protection to the
adjacent line(s).
• We need to leave a selectivity or coordination interval T between the curves of the
primary and backup relays to ensure coordination. The value of T should include:
1) the breaker operation time; 2) the electromechanical relay overtravel time (0.1 s
typically); and 3) a security factor. Typical T values are 0.2 s to 0.4 s. Note that
the relay time-distance curves diverge, so the minimum separation occurs at the
beginning of the backed-up line. This happens when the primary and the backup
relays are of the same type. If the relay types are different, the minimum separation
between curves could occur at some other point. The basic idea of coordination is
that the backup relay should be slower than the primary relay, with a minimum
separation of T between curves calculated as follows:
• tbackup = tprimary + T
Protective Relays

• The function of the relay is to

discriminate between normal
operation and fault conditions.
• The OC relay in Figure 1 has an
operating coil which is connected to
the CT secondary winding, and a set
of contacts.
• When |I’| exceeds a specified
"pickup" value, the operating coil
causes the normally open contacts
to close.
• When the relay contacts close, the
trip coil of the circuit breaker is
energized, which then causes the
circuit breaker to open. Fig. 1
Class of Measuring Relays
1. Current relay: Operate at predetermined threshold value of
current.
2. Voltage relay: Operate at predetermined threshold value of
voltage.
3. Power relay: Operate at predetermined threshold value of
power.
4. Directional relay:
– Alternating current: Operate according to the phase relationship between
alternating quantities.
– Direct current: Operate according to the direction of the current and are
usually of the permanent-magnetic, moving-coil pattern
5. Frequency relays: Operate at a predetermined frequency.
These include over frequency and under frequency relays.
6. Temperature relays: Operate at a predetermined
temperature in the protected component.
7. Differential relays: Operate according to the scalar or
vectorial difference between two quantities such as
current, voltage, etc.
8. Distance relays: Operate according to the "distance"
between the relay's current transformer and the fault.
The "distance" is measured in terms of resistance,
reactance, or impedance.
Electromechanical and Induction Disc Relays

• Two types of electromagnetic attraction type of relay

are:
1. The plunger unit.
It has cylindrical coils with an external magnetic structure
and a center plunger. The plunger moves upward to operate
a set of contacts when the current or voltage applied to the
coil exceeds a certain value.

2. The clapper unit.

It has a U-shaped magnetic frame with a movable armature
across the open end. The armature is hinged at one side
and spring-restrained at the other.
 When the electrical coil is energized, the armature
moves toward the magnetic core, opening or closing
a set of contacts with a torque proportional to the
square of the coil current.

3. Induction disc relay

Induction disc units are based on the watt-hour
meter design and use the same operating principles.
They operate by torque resulting from the
interaction of fluxes produced by an electromagnet
with those from induced currents in the plane of a
rotatable aluminum disc.
 ф Keeper

• Disc

IS
Figure : Electromagnet Plunger type Main coil
I
Electromagnet
5
4 .фL .фR
6
Magnet
plugs
2

3 1 magnetic core Figure : Induction Disc Type Relay Unit.

1 2armature
3relay coil
4spring
5moving contact Bridge
6normally open relay contact

Figure : Electromagnet clapper

type