GLIMPSES OF
POWER SYSTEM
PROTECTION
February 7, 2025 1
Compiled by
Dr.P.S.Subramanyam
VBIT, Aushapur, Ghatkesar(M),
Hyderabad-501301
February 7, 2025 2
• What should we teach students
about power system protection?
Power System
Protection
Fundamentals
February 7, 2025 3
Power system protection is a branch of electrical power
engineering that deals with the protection of electrical
power systems from faults through the isolation of
faulted parts from the rest of the electrical network. The
objective of a protection scheme is to keep the power
system stable by isolating only the components that are
under fault, whilst leaving as much of the network as
possible still in operation. Thus, protection schemes
must apply a very pragmatic and pessimistic approach
to clearing system faults. For this reason, the technology
and philosophies utilized in protection schemes can
often be old and well-established because they must be
very reliable.
February 7, 2025 4
Operation during severe disturbances:
– System element protection
– System protection
– Automatic reclosing
– Automatic transfer to alternate power
supplies
– Automatic synchronization If spinning
reserve is available.
February 7, 2025 5
Contents
1. Components
2. Protective devices
3. Types of protection
4. Coordination
5. Disturbance monitoring equipment
6. Performance measures
February 7, 2025 6
1.Components:
Protection systems usually comprise five components:
Current and voltage transformers to step down the high voltages
and currents of the electrical power system to convenient levels
for the relays to deal with.
Protective relays to sense the fault and initiate a trip, or
disconnection, order;
Circuit breakers to open/close the system based on relay and
autorecloser commands;
Batteries to provide power in case of power disconnection in the
system.
Communication channels to allow analysis of current and
voltage at remote terminals of a line and to allow remote tripping
of equipment.
…Contd.
February 7, 2025 7
Fuse
For parts of a
distribution system,
fuses are capable of
both sensing and
disconnecting faults. Transformer
February 7, 2025 8
Three-Phase Diagram of the Protection scheme
Failures may occur in each
part, such as insulation failure,
fallen or broken transmission
lines, incorrect operation of
circuit breakers, short circuits
and open circuits. Protection CTs CB
devices are installed with the
aims of protection of assets, Protected
and ensure continued supply of Control Equipment
energy.
Relay
VTs
February 7, 2025 9
+ DC Tripping Circuit
Relay
SI
Red
DC Station Lamp
Battery Relay
SI Contact
52a Circuit
Breaker
52
TC
–
February 7, 2025 10
Circuit Breakers
February 7, 2025 11
Current Transformers
Very High Voltage CT
Medium-Voltage CT
February 7, 2025 12
Voltage Transformers
Medium Voltage
Note: Voltage transformers are
also known as potential
High Voltage transformers
February 7, 2025 13
Protective Relays
February 7, 2025 14
Examples of Relay Panels
Microprocessor-
Based Relay
Old Electromechanical
February 7, 2025 15
2.Protective devices
Protective relays control the tripping of the circuit breakers
surrounding the faulted part of the network
Automatic operation, such as auto-reclosing or system
restart, Automatic transfer to alternate power supplies
Automatic synchronization if spinning reserve is available.
Monitoring equipment which collects data on the system for
data transmission control and post event analysis like
SCADA.
While the operating quality of these devices, and especially
of protective relays, is always critical, different strategies are
considered for protecting the different parts of the system.
Very important equipment may have completely redundant
and independent protective systems, while a minor branch
distribution line may have very simple low-cost protection.
February 7, 2025 16
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
February 7, 2025 17
Main Protection Requirements
• Reliability
– Dependability
– Security
• Selectivity
• Speed
– System stability
– Equipment damage
– Power quality
• Sensitivity
– High-impedance faults
– Dispersed generation
February 7, 2025 18
Primary Protection
February 7, 2025 19
Primary Protection Zone Overlapping
Protection
Zone A
R Protection
Zone B
To Zone A
Relays
To Zone B
Relays
Protection
Zone A
R Protection
Zone B
To Zone A
Relays To Zone B
Relays
February 7, 2025 20
3.Types of protection:
Generator sets – In a power plant, the protective relays are
intended to prevent damage to alternators or to the
transformers in case of abnormal conditions of operation,
due to internal failures, as well as insulating failures or
regulation malfunctions. Such failures are unusual, so the
protective relays have to operate very rarely. If a protective
relay fails to detect a fault, the resulting damage to the
alternator or to the transformer might require costly
equipment repairs or replacement, as well as income loss
from the inability to produce and sell energy.
February 7, 2025 21
Differential Protection Principle
CTR CTR
Protected
Equipment
Internal
Fault
50 IDIF > ISETTING
Relay Operates
February 7, 2025 22
Problem of Unequal CT
CT
Performance CT
Protected
Equipment External
Fault
50 IDIF ¹ 0
• False differential current can occur if a CT saturates
during a through-fault
• Use some measure of through-current to desensitize
the relay when high currents are present
February 7, 2025 23
Possible Scheme – Percentage
Differential
Ī
ProtectionĪ
Principle
SP RP
CTR Protected CTR
Equipment
ĪS ĪR
Relay
(87)
Compares: I OP I S I R
| IS | | IR |
k I RT k
February 7, 2025 2 24
Differential Protection Applications
• Bus protection
• Transformer protection (Types and Ratio of CT’s are
to be proper)
• Generator protection
• Line protection ( If communications between two
ends of the line are made available-GPS Relays)
• Large motor protection
• Reactor protection
• Capacitor bank protection
• Compound equipment protection
February 7, 2025 25
Summary of Differential Protection
• The overcurrent differential scheme is simple and
economical, but it does not respond well to unequal
current transformer performance
• The percentage differential scheme responds better
to CT saturation
• Percentage differential protection can be analyzed in
the relay and the alpha plane
• Differential protection is the best alternative
selectivity/speed with present technology
February 7, 2025 26
High voltage transmission network – Protection on
the transmission and distribution serves two
functions: Protection of plant and protection of the
public (including employees). At a basic level,
protection looks to disconnect equipment which
experience an overload or a short to earth. Some
items in substations such as transformers might
require additional protection based on temperature
or gas pressure, among others.
February 7, 2025 27
Electric Power System Exposure to External
Agents
February 7, 2025 28
Damage to Main Equipment
February 7, 2025 29
Short Circuits Produce High
Currents
Three-Phase Line
a
b
c
I
Substation Fault
Thousands of Amps I
Wire
February 7, 2025 30
Electrical Equipment Thermal
Damage
t
Damage Damage Curve
Time
I
In Imd Short-Circuit
Rated Value
February 7, 2025 Current 31
Mechanical Damage During
Short Circuits
• Very destructive in busbars, isolators, supports,
transformers, and machines
• Damage is instantaneous
Mechanical
Forces
f1 f2
i1
i2
Rigid Conductors f1(t) = k i1(t) i2(t)
February 7, 2025 32
Earth fault – Earth fault protection again
requires current transformers and senses an
imbalance in a three-phase circuit. Normally
the three phase currents are in balance, i.e.
roughly equal in magnitude. If one or two
phases become connected to earth via a low
impedance path, their magnitudes will
increase dramatically, as will current
imbalance. If this imbalance exceeds a pre-
determined value, a circuit breaker should
operate.
February 7, 2025 33
Distance (Impedance Relay)– Distance protection
detects both voltage and current. A fault on a circuit
will generally create a sag in the voltage level. If the
ratio of voltage to current measured at the relay
terminals, which equates to an impedance, lands
within a pre-determined level the circuit breaker will
operate. This is useful for reasonable length lines,
lines longer than 10 miles, because its operating
characteristics are based on the line characteristics.
This means that when a fault appears on the line the
impedance setting in the relay is compared to the
apparent impedance of the line from the relay
terminals to the fault.
February 7, 2025 34
Under Distance Protection scheme, Three Zone Protection using
Directional mho relays are generally used.
If the relay setting is determined to be below the apparent impedance it
is determined that the fault is within the zone of protection. When the
transmission line length is too short, less than 10 miles, distance
protection is becomes more difficult to coordinate. In these instances
the best choice of protection is current differential protection.
Overload & Backup for Distance (Overcurrent) – Overload protection
requires a current transformer which simply measures the current in a
circuit. There are two types of overload protection: instantaneous
overcurrent and time overcurrent (TOC). Instantaneous overcurrent
requires that the current exceeds a pre-determined level for the circuit
breaker to operate. TOC protection operates based on a current vs time
curve. Based on this curve if the measured current exceeds a given level
for the preset amount of time, the circuit breaker or fuse will operate.
February 7, 2025 35
Back-up – At all times the objective of protection is to remove only the
affected portion of plant and nothing else. Sometimes this does not occur
for various reasons which can include:
Mechanical failure of a circuit breaker to operate
Incorrect protection setting
Relay failures
Backup Protection
Breaker 5
Fails
C D
A E
1 2 5 6 11 12
T
B F
3 4 7 8 9 10
February 7, 2025 36
A failure of primary protection will usually result in
the operation of back-up protection. Remote back-up
protection will generally remove both the affected
and unaffected items of plant to clear the fault. Local
back-up protection will remove the affected items of
the plant to clear the fault.
Low-voltage networks – The low voltage
network generally relies upon fuses or low-
voltage circuit breakers to remove both
overload and earth faults.
February 7, 2025 37
4.Coordination:
Protective device coordination is the process
of determining the "best fit" timing of current
interruption when abnormal electrical
conditions occur. The goal is to minimize an
outage to the greatest extent possible.
Historically, protective device coordination
was done on translucent log-log paper.
Modern methods normally include detailed
computer based analysis and reporting.
February 7, 2025 38
Application of Inverse-Type
Relays
Relay t
Operation
Time
I
Radial Line
Fault Load
February 7, 2025 39
Inverse-Time Relay Coordination
Distance
t
T T T
February 7, 2025
Distance40
Addition of Instantaneous OC
Element
Relay t
Operation
Time
I
Radial Line
Fault Load
February 7, 2025 41
Relay Coordination
Distance
t
T T T
February 7, 2025 Distance 42
Directional Overcurrent Protection
Basic Applications
L
February 7, 2025 43
Directional Overcurrent Protection
Basic Principle
V I
F2 F1
Relay
Reverse Fault (F2) Forward Fault (F1)
I
V
V I
February 7, 2025 44
Overcurrent Relay Problem
E
I SETTING
Z S1 (0.8) Z L1
Relay operates when the following condition holds:
I FAULT I a I SETTING
As Z changes, the relay’s “reach” will change, since
s1
setting is fixed
E
I FAULT ( LIMIT )
Z S1 (0.8) Z L1
February 7, 2025 45
Distance Relay Principle
L
d
I a , Ib , Ic
Radial
21 Three-Phase
Va ,Vb ,Vc Line
Solid Fault
Suppose Relay Is Designed to Operate When:
| Va |(0.8) | Z L1 || I a |
February 7, 2025 46
The Impedance Relay
Characteristic
2 2 2
R X Z r1
X Plain Impedance Relay
Operation Zone
Z Z r1 Radius Zr1
Zr1
February 7, 2025 47
Need for Directionality
F2 F1
1 2 3 4 5 6
RELAY 3 X
Operation Zone
F1
F2 R
Nonselective Relay
Operation
February 7, 2025 48
Directionality Improvement
F2 F1
1 2 3 4 5 6
RELAY 3 X
Operation Zone Directional Impedance
F1 Relay Characteristic
F2 R
The Relay Will
Not Operate for
This Fault
February 7, 2025 49
Mho Element Characteristic
(Directional Impedance Relay)
Operates when: V I Z M cos MT
X Z Z M cos MT
ZM
Z
MT
R
February 7, 2025 50
Three-Zone Distance Protection
Time
Zone 3
Zone 2
Zone 1
1 2 3 4 5 6
Time
Zone 1 Is Instantaneous
February 7, 2025 51
Line Protection With Mho
Elements
X
A
R
D
E
February 7, 2025 52
Circular Distance Relay Characteristics
X X
PLAIN OFFSET
IMPEDANCE MHO (2)
R
R
X
X
LENS
MHO (RESTRICTED MHO 1)
R R
X X
OFFSET TOMATO
MHO (1) (RESTRICTED MHO 2)
R R
February 7, 2025 53
Semi-Plane Type Characteristics
X X
DIRECTIONAL RESTRICTED
DIRECTIONAL
R
R
X X
REACTANCE RESTRICTED
REACTANCE
R R
X X
OHM
QUADRILATERAL
R
R
February 7, 2025 54
Summary of Distance Protection
• Current and voltage information
• Phase elements: more sensitive
• Ground elements: less sensitive
• Application: looped and parallel lines
February 7, 2025 55
Directional Comparison
Pilot Protection Systems
L IL IR R
T Communications R
Relays Relays
R Channel T
Exchange of logic information
on relay status
February 7, 2025 56
Permissive Overreaching
Transfer Trip
Bus A Bus B
1 2 3 4 5 6
FWD
FWD
February 7, 2025 57
Basic POTT Logic
Key XMTR
Zone 2 Elements
AND Trip
RCVR
February 7, 2025 58
Types of relays used in protection
Electro mechanical Relays : Are constructed with electrical, magnetic and
mechanical components.
Static Relays: These type of relays use electronic
switches such as transistors, triacs ,diodes etc.
Digital relays or : digital protective relays using a micro processor or
Microprocessor microcontroller with software-based protection
Based relays Or algorithms. to analyze power system voltages and
Numerical Relays: currents for the purpose of protection.
GPS Relays : Are communication based protection schemes.
Phase Measuring Units A brand-new Protection Scheme using adaptive
based Protection : phasor measurement units(PMUs) .
One more: In the offing proposed by Dr.P.S.Subramanyam &
G.Chandra sekhar
February 7, 2025 59
Advantages of Digital Relays
Compatibility with
Low maintenance
Multifunctional digital integrated
(self-supervision)
systems
Highly sensitive,
Highly reliable
secure, and Adaptive
(self-supervision)
selective
Reduced burden
Programmable
on Low Cost
Versatile
CTs and VTs
February 7, 2025 60
5.Disturbance monitoring equipment
Disturbance monitoring equipment (DME) monitors and
records system data pertaining to a fault. DME accomplish
three main purposes:
1.model validation,
2.disturbance investigation, and
3.assessment of system protection performance.
DME devices include:
Sequence of event recorders, which record equipment
response to the event
Fault recorders, which record actual waveform data of the
system primary voltages and currents.
Dynamic Disturbance Recorders (DDRs), which record
incidents that portray power system behavior during dynamic
events such as low frequency (0.1 Hz – 3 Hz) oscillations and
abnormal frequency or voltage excursions
February 7, 2025 61
6.Performance measures:
Protection engineers define dependability as the
tendency of the protection system to operate
correctly for in-zone faults. They define security as
the tendency not to operate for out-of-zone faults.
Both dependability and security are reliability
issues. Fault tree analysis is one tool with which a
protection engineer can compare the relative
reliability of proposed protection schemes.
Quantifying protection reliability is important for
making the best decisions on improving a protection
system, managing dependability versus security
tradeoffs, and getting the best results for the least
money. A quantitative understanding is essential in
theFebruary
competitive
7, 2025 utility industry. 62
Typical Short-Circuit Type
Distribution
Single-Phase-Ground: 70–80%
Phase-Phase-Ground: 17–10%
Phase-Phase: 10–8%
Three-Phase: 3–2%
February 7, 2025 63
Blackouts
Characteristics Main Causes
• Loss of service in a • Overreaction of the
large area or protection system
population region • Bad design of the
• Hazard to human life protection system
• May result in
enormous economic
losses
February 7, 2025 64
The Future
• Improvements in computer-based protection
• Highly reliable and viable communication
systems (satellite, optical fiber, etc.)
• Integration of control, command, protection,
and communication
• Improvements to human-machine interface
• Much more
February 7, 2025 65
Dr.P.S.Subramayam
Ph (Res) : 040-23306999 ; 040-40177929
Mobile: 9989126669
Email: [email protected] ;
[email protected]
February 7, 2025 66
THANK YOU
February 7, 2025 67
