Received: 14 March 2018 Revised: 15 May 2018 Accepted: 16 June 2018

DOI: 10.1002/etep.2670

RESEARCH ARTICLE

A new algorithm to prevent maloperation of distance

protection zone 3 during wide‐area disturbances

Fethi Boussadia | Saad Belkhiat

Department of Electrical Engineering,

Faculty of Technology, Ferhat Abbas Setif
1 University, 19000 Sétif, Algeria
Correspondence
Fethi Boussadia, Department of Electrical
Engineering, Faculty of Technology,
Ferhat Abbas Setif 1 University, 19000
Sétif, Algeria.
Email: fboussadia@univ‐setif.dz
Summary
This paper presents a new algorithm to avoid cascading tripping of intercon-
nected transmission lines caused by maloperation of zone 3 distance relay dur-
ing major power system disturbances. Blocking of zone 3 distance relay and the
application of static var compensator controllers are the 2 corrective actions
that proposed algorithm use to protect the power system from cascade tripping.
Distance relay zone 3 blocking is achieved using real‐time information about
the balance between generation and load in each area of the power system.
However, the static var compensator controller allows injecting, rapidly and
efficiently, necessary reactive power in the system to mitigate the disturbance
development during the blockage of the distance relay protection. Results of
dynamic simulation on 400 kV Turkish transmission system, using SECRE
software, are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed
algorithm. Simulation results clearly indicate that the use of this algorithm
can improve reliability of zone 3 distance relay operation, enhance the stable
operation of power system, and can limit the spread of cascading outages
during wide‐area disturbance.

KEYWORDS
cascade tripping, distance relay, power system protection, static var compensator, wide‐area
disturbance

1 | INTRODUCTION

Over the 2 decades, several major blackouts were lived on different countries on the world. The causes of these
blackouts were multiple. Tripping of interconnecting transmission lines because of maloperation of distance relay zone
3 was 1 of those which often occurs.1 Distance relay zone 3 is traditionally installed to insure the protection for all faults
appearing on adjacent lines in the case of failure of the primary protection at the remote substation. However, the

List of symbols and abbreviations: XSVC, equivalent reactance XSVC of SVC; Xc, fixed capacitive reactance of SVC; XL, equivalent inductive
reactance of SVC; Isvc, current injected by SVC controller; Qsvc, reactive power generated by SVC; QMin, specific minimum limit of the reactive
power outputs of the SVC; QMax, specific maximum limit of the reactive power outputs of the SVC; Zseen, the measured zone 3 secondary
impedance; KVT, ratio of the voltage transformer; KCT, ratio of the current transformer;; VRelay, measured voltage value at the terminal of the tie
line; IRelay, measured current value at the terminal of the tie line; L1, balance between power generation and consumption for area 1; L2, balance
between power generation and consumption for area 2; α, firing angle of the thyristor controller; GPS, global positioning system; PMU, phasor
measurement unit; SCADA, supervisory control and data acquisition; RTU, remote terminal unit; FACTS, flexible AC transmission system; SVC,
static VAR compensator; NERC, North American Electric Reliability Council; EHV, extrahigh voltage

Int Trans Electr Energ Syst. 2019;29:e2670. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/etep © 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 1 of 13
https://doi.org/10.1002/etep.2670
2 of 13 BOUSSADIA AND BELKHIAT

apparent impedance seen from the distance relays, in instability conditions, may lead to zone 3 distance relay operation.
Indeed, the operation of distance relay zone 3, in some cases of major power system disturbances, may contribute to the
propagation of cascading outages of the transmission lines and lead to a complete blackout.2-4
To insure a correct operation of zone 3 distance relay, during wide‐area disturbances, various methods and
techniques have been proposed and used. The conventional methods are based on the use of sensitivity factors to block
the relay operation in the case of no fault conditions. These factors are characteristics of the fault resistance,5 the power
flow in the transmission line,6 the rate of change of the voltage,7 the voltage stability indicator,8 the steady‐state signal,
and the transient‐state signal.9
Other techniques have used new technologies based on remotely measured data like synchronized phasor measure-
ments and optic fiber communications to prevent maloperation of zone 3 distance relays.10-13 Adaptive relaying tech-
niques have also been used to control the operation of zone 3 distance relay, in which settings of the latter will be
automatically adjusted by changing power system parameters.14,15 A detailed analysis of maloperation of zone 3 under
severe system contingency conditions has been carried out in AbuBakar et al.16 After the North American blackout on
August 14, 2003, North American Electric Reliability Council made some recommendations allowing to improve
protection system and to limit the spread of future cascading outages amid which the recommendation to consider
the load encroachment function. Thus, according to North American Electric Reliability Council recommendations,
all the distance relays installed in the EHV transmission system (200 kV and above) should be set with adequate
margins above their emergency thermal ratings (150% of emergency line load).17 The re‐examination of the application
of zone 3 in power system is carried out in Horowitz and Phadke,18 where authors give situations where it can be
properly used or removed without reducing the reliability of the system protection. Another method to prevent cascaded
event blackout caused by zone 3 elements of distance relays using a logic control is described in Henna.19 Another
approach is carried out in Aghamohammadi et al.20 It allows identifying the critical line outages and preventing their
undesirable outage by blocking zone 3 of their distance relay.
All the precited techniques have the same common approach which consists in blocking distance relay zone 3
during instability conditions. Nevertheless, blocking the relay operation during these conditions is not enough to
prevent a cascaded tripping of the power system. For this purpose, a new algorithm, based on the use of a static var
compensator, is proposed in this paper to avoid maloperation of zone 3 distance relay. Formulation and details of the
proposed algorithm are described in the ensuing sections.

2 | STATIC VAR C OMPENSATOR CONTROLLERS

A static var compensator (SVC) is a FACTS controller, which exploits power electronics to change quickly and
continuously the voltage at a given bus in accordance with its equivalent reactance. It consists in a group of capacitors
and reactor banks with fast control using thyristor switching circuits.21 Figure 1 shows shunt connection of an SVC in a
transmission line.
The equivalent reactance XSVC of SVC controller can be expressed by equation22:
πX C C L
X SVC ¼ (1)
X C ð2ðπ−αÞ þ sin 2αÞ−πX L

FIGURE 1 Schematics of a shunt connection SVC

BOUSSADIA AND BELKHIAT 3 of 13

FIGURE 2 Steady‐state and dynamic voltage/current characteristics of the SVC

where:
Xc: a fixed capacitive reactance, XL: equivalent inductive reactance, and Isvc: current injected by SVC controller in
node K.
The thyristor valves are fired symmetrically in the control angle range 90° to 180°, with respect to the SVC voltage.
At α = 90°, TCR conducts fully and the equivalent reactance XTCR is equal to inductive reactance XL, while at α = 180°,
TCR is blocked and its equivalent reactance becomes infinite.
Figure 2 shows the steady‐state and dynamic voltage/current characteristics of the SVC.
The reactive power generated by SVC is given by following equation,23

QMin ≤ QSVC ≤ QMax (2)

where QMin and QMax are respectively the specific minimum and maximum limits representing the reactive power
outputs of the SVC controller.

3 | BASIC P RINC IPLE OF DISTANC E R ELAYS

Distance relays are used in most countries of the world for the protection of high and ultrahigh voltage transmission
lines.24 They detect faults in the transmission lines and isolate only the faulted area, therefore allowing maintaining
continuity of service to customers. The basic principle of distance protection consists in the division of the voltage at
relaying point by current measurement. The apparent impedance so calculated is compared with the reach point
impedance. If the measured impedance is less than impedance of the reach point, it is assumed that a fault exists on
the line between the relay and the reach point (Figure 3).25
Distance relays may have several zones26:
Zone 1 This is set to protect 80% of AB line length and operates without any time delay.
Zone 2 This is set to protect 100% of AB line length, +20% to +50% of the shortest BC adjacent line. Its operation time
delay varies from 0.3 to 0.5 second.
Zone 3 This is set to protect 100% of the 2 AB and BC lines, in addition of 25% to 80% of the third CD line. This relay
operates with a time delay of t3 = 1.5 seconds. The zone 3 is used as remote backup for zone 1 and zone 2 at
the remote substation for all faults on adjacent lines in the case of primary protection failure.

FIGURE 3 Schematic principles of

distance relay protection
4 of 13 BOUSSADIA AND BELKHIAT

The calculated apparent impedance of the protected line and the impedance reach of distance relays can be
represented in a complex plane having resistance and reactance as coordinate axes known as distance relay tripping
characteristic.25 Distance relays may have many tripping characteristics such as Mho, offset Mho, quadrilateral, and
lenticular.26 The proposed approach suggested in this paper will now be detailed and explained. The calculated apparent
impedance of the protected line and the impedance reach of distance relays can be represented in a complex plane
having resistance and reactance as coordinate axes known as distance relay tripping characteristic.25 Distance relays
may have many tripping characteristics such as Mho, offset Mho, quadrilateral, and lenticular.26 The proposed approach
suggested in this paper will now be detailed and explained.

4 | METHODOLOG Y OF P ROPOSED ALGORITHM

During wide‐area disturbances, power‐load unbalance is the most dangerous event for power system operation upon
interconnecting tie line tripping by zone 3 distance relay. Every unbalance between generation and load causes a drift
of the frequency from its steady‐state value and can lead to the separation of power system in several areas or
subsystems. This separation may cause significant underfrequency and overfrequency conditions in each subsystem.
This situation can widen the blackout area and might lead to total power system blackout. Balance between generation
and load information in each area of the power system is thus proposed in the new algorithm as a criterion for blocking
operation of distance relay zone 3 in some critical tie lines. Figure 4 depicts a simple transmission system upon which
the new algorithm could be applied.
The application of this algorithm requires monitoring of the following:

• Voltage and current values at the terminals of tie lines between 2 areas or power systems.
• Real‐time power generation and consumption in each node of the power system.

To capture the fast power system dynamics of the corridor transmission, this algorithm proposes the implementation
of PMUs at both sides of each tie line. This allows the direct and the synchronized measurements of real‐time phasor of
voltages and currents. Synchronization is achieved by the same time sampling of voltage and current wave forms using
timing signals from the global positioning system.
As described in the previous section, real‐time power generation and consumption are measured in each node of the
power system. However, because of the high integration costs of PMUs, it is not practical to equip PMUs at all the nodes
in the network. While supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system covers the entire area, the time delay
between RTU and PMU is less than 1 second. The difference between RTU and PMU measurement curves is also less
than 2% for the active power measurements. Moreover, the magnitudes of power generation and consumption do not

FIGURE 4 Illustration of the new

algorithm principle
BOUSSADIA AND BELKHIAT 5 of 13

change hurriedly excluding under the condition of large disturbance. The SCADA system is used in the proposed
algorithm to measure the real‐time power generation and consumption in each node of the power system. The SCADA
system obtains these sing remote terminal unit RTUs. So, the measurements of PMUs can be complemented by those
from widely installed SCADA.27 Moreover, the magnitudes of power generation and consumption do not change
hurriedly excluding under the condition of large disturbance. The SCADA system is used in the proposed algorithm
to measure the real‐time power generation and consumption in each node of the power system. The SCADA system
obtains these sing remote terminal unit RTUs. So, the measurements of PMUs can be complemented by those from
widely installed SCADA.
The measured zone 3 secondary impedance is calculated by using the following equation:
 
V Re lay K VT
Z seen ¼ ¼ K Z ⋅Z 3 ¼ ⋅Z 3 (3)
I Re lay K CT

where:
V PRIMARY
K VT ¼ (4)
V SECONDARY

I PRIMARY
K CT ¼ (5)
I SECONDARY
KVT and KCT are respectively the ratios of the voltage and current transformers.
The balance between power generation and consumption for each area L is calculated through the following
equations:

∑ðPG1 þ PG2 þ PG3 Þ−∑ðPL1 þ PL2 þ PPL3 Þ

L1 ¼ : (6)
∑ðPG1 þ PG2 þ PG3 Þ

∑ðPG4 Þ−∑ðPL4 þ PL5 þ PL6 þ PL7 Þ

L2 ¼ : (7)
∑ðPG4 Þ
L1 and L2 represent the balance between power generation and consumption for area 1 and area 2 respectively. The
effective reactance value of SVC controller XSVC will be calculated using Equation 1.
Like other FACTS controllers, SVC is an expensive device; therefore, it is important to find the optimal location and
its size in a power system, so that the system can be operated with voltage security even under severe line outages. In
this paper, SVC controller is inserted in optimal location to bring the system back into secure state when a large sudden
disturbance such as loss of a generating unit or a heavily loaded line leads to a cascade tripping of tie lines. So, to
determine the best location of SVC controller, the proposed methodology begins with identifying the critical contingen-
cies that led to abnormally low voltages in a significant part of the corridor transmission. Thus, critical contingencies are
determined based on the dynamic limit margins of bus voltage magnitude. Dynamic limits of voltage magnitude (lower
and higher) are summarized in Table 1. The node that has the lower dynamic limit margin is selected for the placement
of the SVC controller. The required reactive power injection, to rapidly support and regulate the bus voltages of corridor
transmission, is used to determine the size of SVC controller.
The measured values by PMU and system SCADA could be sent to a central computer using a flexible communica-
tion network. At the central computer, secondary zone 3 impedance values, the balance between generation and
consumption for each area of the power system, and the required reactive injection from SVC controllers will be
calculated. The flow chart of new algorithm is shown in Figure 5.

TABLE 1 Dynamic limits of voltage magnitude

Network Voltage Lower Higher

400 kV 360 380

220 kV 198 209
60 kV 54 57
6 of 13 BOUSSADIA AND BELKHIAT

FIGURE 5 Flow chart of the new

algorithm

The principle of this approach will now be described. When the measured impedance encroaches on the zone 3 tripping
characteristic, the algorithm checks the load and generation levels L for each power system area. If the algorithm finds that
the measured value of the unbalance between generation and load in each area L is within range (less than 20%),28 the trip-
ping signal of distance relay zone 3 must be unblocked. Otherwise, in the case where there is a severe power/load unbal-
ance in areas of the power subsystem (L value is greater than 20%), a large amount of real and reactive power flow will pass
from the exporting area to importing area through tie lines. The tripping of any tie line may lead to excessive real and reac-
tive power transfer through tie lines. Because of inability of the power system to meet the demand for reactive power and
heavily loaded systems, the transmission corridor experienced abnormally low voltages. So, additional tie lines were tripped
by zone 3 distance protection, leading to the complete disconnection of the 2 areas. As a consequence, each area experi-
enced a significant and fast underfrequency or overfrequency conditions. This situation may drive the system above a man-
ageable operation margin. So, fast cascading line tripping throughout the power system was trigger, and the power system
experienced a wide‐area blackout. So, the tripping signal of zone 3 distance relay, for some critical transmission lines located
between 2 areas, should be blocked in such conditions. It is worth noting that blocking the relay operation during such
conditions is not enough to prevent a cascaded tripping of the power system. To prevent the propagation of cascading
failures across a transmission network, a large amount of quickly controllable reactive power is needed for short time
duration. The SVC controller allows injecting, rapidly and efficiently, necessary reactive power in the system to regulate
and control the voltage to the required set point during such conditions. Thus, according to Equation 1, by improving the
system voltage via SVC devices, it is possible to prevent maloperations of zone 3 distance relay. So, the trajectory of
impedance comes out of the third zone of distance relay, and cascade tripping of transmission line can be prevented.
To design a robust and reliable algorithm, the proposed algorithm is developed to consider the unavailability of
wide‐area data for 1 end of supervised tie line (loss of communication to 1 PMU). With time‐synchronized phasor
measurements, of currents and voltages from adjacent PMU, the impedance of the line can be calculated continuously
over time. Wide‐area data missing for all busses in power system is considered also by proposed algorithm. So, the
observation of the local modes at the locations, from which no data are available, is not possible. Because the time
measurement of PMU is faster than the local distance relay protection time, the PMU located at a relay location is
considered by proposed algorithm as local backup protection. Therefore, each PMU is able to incorporate logic that
identify the appropriate voltage limits and prevent zone 3 distance relay protection from false operating.
The principle of this local backup protection is very simple and is based on measuring the apparent impedance seen
by distance relay and the rate of change of voltage magnitude index dv/dt. When the measured impedance encroached
on the zone 3 area of tripping characteristic, the algorithm must be able to distinguish between a fault and stress
condition. The primary aspect of distinction is the speed at which the 2 phenomena occur: A fault trajectory moves into
a zone almost instantaneously (few milliseconds) while a stress condition moves more gradually. So, if the trajectory
speed of the impedance locus travels relatively quickly, it is treated to be a fault, and take the corresponding action.
BOUSSADIA AND BELKHIAT 7 of 13

However, if the transition is gradual, the phenomenon is identified as a stress condition. As a result, the tripping signal
of distance relay is blocked. Then, the calculation of rate of change of voltage dv/dt is used by the algorithm to
determine the amount of reactive power that should be injected in the corridor transmission by the SVC.
The quality of PMU measurement data is impacted by the presence of a typical data like outliers. Outliers refer to
data that are significantly different from the normal measurement. In this algorithm, distinguishing between the outlier
caused by bad data from those caused by disturbances is based on the state estimation. The operation of proposed
strategy needs the use of PMU and SCADA measurements to supervise and to control the power system. So, the system
can use hybrid state estimation algorithm combining conventional SCADA and PMU measurements to detect and
eliminate the main bad data.27 Implementation of PMU at both ends of each tie line can also significantly improve
the monitoring of the corridor transmission dynamics. This minimizes also the impact of measurement device failures
on the power system.

5 | S I M U L A TI O N R E S U L T S A N D D I S C U S S IO N

To examine the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm on a real example, Turkish blackout which occurred on March
31, 2015 is analyzed. To analyze the effect of distance relays and SVC controllers, firstly a single line diagram was
created as similar to Turkish power system. Then, the detailed analysis work using SICRE software has been carried
out to study the behavior of distance relay protection with and without SVC controllers during this blackout. SICRE
is an integrated software tool for static and dynamic analyses of large power systems.
Figure 6 shows the test system created in this study. It consists of 2 areas where power is exported from area 1 to area
2. The exporting corridor is divided into 8 400 kV transmission lines. These lines are protected by distance relays which are
located at both ends of the lines. The tests are performed taking into account the same conditions that of Turkish power
system on March 31, 2015.29 The parameters and distance relay impedance zones of these transmission lines are summa-
rized in the Appendix. The impedance zones settings are calculated according to the setting guideline of Turkish grid code.
Zones 1 to 3 were set to operate in the forward direction. Mho characteristics were also considered in the simulation.
The first transmission line that initially tripped during the blackout, namely line 1‐2, was considered as critical tie
line. Indeed, the tripping of this transmission line has caused an overload of other lines located between area 1 and area
2. So, zone 3 distance relay operation of 400 kV transmission lines was first tested and evaluated after the tripping of line
1‐2 without using SVC controllers. Figures 7 and 8 show the impedance trajectory seen by distance relays located at
substation 8 and substation 9 respectively after tripping of line1‐2 tie line.

FIGURE 6 Single diagram of test

system
8 of 13 BOUSSADIA AND BELKHIAT

FIGURE 7 Impedance trajectory seen

by distance relay located at substation 1
without SVC controller

FIGURE 8 Impedance trajectory

encroaching third zone of distance relay
located at substation 8 without SVC
controller

5.1 | Analysis of distance relay operation without SVC controllers

In this section, zone 3 distance relay operation of line 1‐2 tie line was first tested and evaluated under overloading
conditions without using SVC controllers. The simulation tests have been conducted for different loading values
(from 550 MVA to maximum load transfer conditions 1625 MVA). Figure 7 depicts the impedance trajectory seen
by the distance relay located at substation 1 when the load is increased up to the maximum power value available
(1625 MVA).
Based on the impedance trajectory seen by the distance relay located at substation 1, the results show that the
impedance shifted gradually from load area toward the tripping characteristic of distance relay. Therefore, from
1285 MW, this impedance is encroached on the zone 3 area and the overload is detected by the relay like a 3‐phase fault.
As a result, the tripping signal of distance relay is activated and consequently disconnecting of line 1‐2 tie line.
The tripping of line 1‐2 tie line has caused an overload of other tie lines located between area 1 and area 2. The
currents of line 6‐81 and line 9‐10 respectively raised to 2163 and 1992 A. The impedance measured by the distance
relays located at substations 8 and 9 respectively fell within the zone 3 tripping characteristic of distance relay as shown
in Figures 8 and 9. As a result, both tie lines have also been tripped by zone 3 distance relay.
The trigging of these 2 tie lines has accelerated the speed of the cascading tripping of further transmission lines until
complete disconnection of the 2 areas. As a consequence, unbalance between generation and consumption in each area
kept increasing. With a predisturbance load of 22 370 MW, the area 1 underwent a displayed power deficit of 4700 MW
(ie, 21%) and the frequency dropped to 48.02 Hz. This sudden unbalance caused the collapse of this area within 10 seconds.
On the other hand, the second area, with a predisturbance load of about 11 080 MW, remained with a surplus of
generation of about 4700 MW (∼42%) and the frequency increased to 52.5 Hz. This area also collapsed within a few
seconds. As a result, the sudden unbalance between generation and consumption in both 2 areas triggered a major power
system blackout.
To avoid such a disastrous scenario and circumvent cascaded tripping of transmission lines by maloperation of
distance relay under such situations, a new algorithm for blocking distance relay zone 3 of some critical interconnecting
BOUSSADIA AND BELKHIAT 9 of 13

FIGURE 9 Impedance trajectory

encroaching third zone of distance relay
located at substation 9 without SVC
controller

tie lines is proposed. The new algorithm is based on the use of real‐time information of the balance between generation
and load in each area of the power system as criterion for blocking or unblocking the operation of distance relays. So,
the tripping decision of the zone 3 distance protection, at some critical interconnecting tie lines, is only dependent on
the value of the balance (L) between generation and load in each area. Generally, the range of L depends on the proper
corrective actions used by power system utilities. In this work, the value of L is chosen equal to 20% for both areas.
In that case, the algorithm found that the measured value of the unbalance between generation and load in each
area L is outside ranges (greater than 20%), and the tripping signal of zone 3 distance relay line 6‐81 and line 9‐10
located between 2 areas is blocked. However, blocking the zone 3 relay operation during such conditions is not enough
to mitigate the risk of tripping of others interconnecting transmission lines by distance relays.

5.2 | Analysis of distance relay operation with SVC controllers

Installation of FACTS controllers in electrical network to improve distance relay operation and to prevent cascaded line
tripping during instability conditions is investigated in this section. A shunt SVC controller is first inserted in the
midpoint of line 1‐2 tie line. The parameters of the SVC controller are summarized in the Appendix. Once the
impedance encroaches on the zone 3 tripping characteristic, the algorithm calculates the required reactive power to
be injected by using SVC controller. Figure 10 illustrates the required reactive power injecting from the SVC controller
to regulate system voltage of corridor transmission.
Figure 11 illustrates the change of bus voltage of most of tie lines before fault and after fault.
Figure 12 depicts the variation of the measured impedance seen by Mho distance relay located at substation 1 for 250
Mvar as injected reactive power from SVC controller.

FIGURE 10 Required reactive power

injecting from the SVC controller
10 of 13 BOUSSADIA AND BELKHIAT

FIGURE 11 Bus voltages of most tie

lines before fault and after fault

FIGURE 12 Impedance trajectory seen

by distance relay located at substation 1
with SVC controller

Figures 13 and 14 show the impedance trajectory seen by distance relays located at substations 8 and 9 respectively
after SVC connection.
As can be seen in Figure 11, the SVC controller has a direct impact on the measured impedance by the distance relay
protection. This impedance is being increased and is located out of the zone 3 of tripping characteristic. According to the
impedance trajectory seen by distance relay located at substations 8 and 9, the measured impedances are also larger

FIGURE 13 Impedance trajectory seen

by distance relay located at substation 8
with SVC controller
BOUSSADIA AND BELKHIAT 11 of 13

FIGURE 14 Impedance trajectory seen

by distance relay located at substation 9
with SVC controller

than that of the system without SVC. The distance relay in this case could correctly operate, and the cascaded tripping
will be prevented. The results clearly indicate that installation of SVC controllers could improve reliability of distance
relay operation during no fault conditions, and therefore, the power system will be secured against the cascade events
which could further lead to a wide spread blackout. The relay in this case could operate correctly and does not cause
further disturbances to the power system during overloading conditions.
The proposed method has the following advantages over methods mentioned in the state of the art. It develops a
new improved strategy to prevent cascaded tripping of some critical interregional tie lines because of operation of zone
3 distance relay during stressed conditions. This strategy is based on 3 steps:

• Firstly, it is based on online monitoring of the impedance of transmission lines instead of conventional offline
backup protections which they cannot consider all possible circumstances because of their limited access to the
power network data. So, it will detect quickly and reliably the stressed conditions that may cause cascade tripping
of transmission lines and generators.
• Secondly, it develops a new criterion for the third zone relay blocking for some critical tie lines during stressed
conditions. This criterion is based on the real‐time information about the operational state of power system. When
there is large power/load unbalance in the power system, the tripping of any tie line by distance relay may drive the
system above a manageable operation margin (a significant and fast underfrequency or overfrequency conditions in
areas that formed after splitting). This situation may cause cascading line tripping throughout the power system and
might lead to total power system blackout.
• Finally, a SVC controller is inserted in optimal placement, to supply reactive power and thereby control the reactive
power balance in a desired manner. In fact, in most of the cases, cascade tripping of transmission line is not totally
avoidable by the blockage of zone 3 distance relay protection. Thus, the inability of the transmission network for
power transfer and voltage support may eventually drive a power system to a state of voltage instability and may
cause a voltage collapse. So, the system voltage of the transmission corridor can only be adjusted by injecting a rapid
reactive power until the system voltage stability is maintained. Thus, the trajectory of impedance comes out of the
third zone of distance relay, and cascade tripping of transmission line can be prevented.

The proposed algorithm is also developed to overcome the problems of communication network failure. If the
communication is partially or totally lost, PMUs located at a relay location is able to incorporate logic that identify
the appropriate voltage limits and prevent zone 3 distance relay protection from false operating.

6 | CONCLUSION

The conclusions of this research are summarized as below:

• The blackout of Turkish power system has occurred because of complete isolation of eastern part with the western of
the system after tripping of 1 tie line by zone 3 distance relay protection on stressed conditions.
• Dynamic analysis results have demonstrated that Turkish power system, after disturbance, was incapable of
transferring excessive reactive and active power on 400 kV transmission lines from eastern area to western area.
12 of 13 BOUSSADIA AND BELKHIAT

So, because of inadequate reactive power support at the transmission corridor, the power system experienced a
voltage instability.
• The effectiveness of proposed wide‐area protection algorithm has been demonstrated to mitigate the effects of
disturbance by preventing false tripping of tie lines through blocking of zone 3 distance relay protection and
increasing voltage stability margin of corridor transmission by SVC controllers. Turkish power system was stabilized
with most optimum voltage recovery by using these 2 actions simultaneously.
• Incidents of cascaded tripping of each element can happen any time in a power system because of a vast number of
stressed conditions. However, the effects of such incidents can be prevented by improving power system dynamics
using online wide‐area protection system. This facilitates the prediction of the stressed conditions that may leave
the system vulnerable to a cascade tripping of transmission lines and generators.
• With the increased complexity of the system and reduced margin, wide‐area backup protection algorithm can
provide an interesting alternative to the conventional backup protective relays. The likelihood of the false operation
will be reduced, and the security of power systems during emergency operating condition will be improved
significantly using this algorithm.

ACK NO WLE DGE MEN TS

This work is the result of my research activities at the Smart Grid Laboratory of Gazi University, where I stayed almost
11 months. I thank Prof. Ibrahim Sefa for allowing me to work at his laboratory. I would like to express my sincere
thanks to all the members of the laboratory for their support, guidance and help.

ORCID
Fethi Boussadia http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5866-354X

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How to cite this article: Boussadia F, Belkhiat S. A new algorithm to prevent maloperation of distance
protection zone 3 during wide‐area disturbances. Int Trans Electr Energ Syst. 2019;29:e2670. https://doi.org/
10.1002/etep.2670

A P P EN D I X

1. Transmission line parameters and impedance zone settings:

• Line1‐2: length = 206.9 km; positive sequence X = 55.1 Ω; R = 4.8 Ω; zero sequence: X0 = 206.8 Ω; R0 = 63.1 Ω.
Zone 1: X1 = 46.83 Ω, R1 = 4.08 Ω; Zone 2: X2 = 82.65 Ω, R2 = 7.2 Ω; Zone 3: X3 = 110.2 Ω, R3 = 9.6 Ω
• Line 6‐8(1): length = 216.5 km; positive sequence X1 = 57.2 Ω; R1 = 5 Ω; zero sequence: X0 = 216.3 Ω;
R0 = 66.4 Ω. Zone 1: X1 = 48.62 Ω, R1 = 4.25 Ω; Zone 2: X2 = 85.8 Ω, R2 = 7.5 Ω; zone 3: X3 = 114.4 Ω,
R3 = 10 Ω
• Line 9‐10: length = 175 km; positive sequence X1 = 52.8 Ω; R1 = 5.2 Ω; zero sequence: X0 = 180.4 Ω;
R0 = 50.9 Ω. Zone 1: X1 = 44.8 Ω, R1 = 4.42 Ω; Zone 2: X2 = 79.2 Ω, R2 = 7.8 Ω; Zone 3: X3 = 105.6 Ω,
R3 = 10.4 Ω

2. SVC controller

QSVC ¼ þ250 MVar; Bmax ¼ 0:484; Un ¼ 11 kV: