Unit-8

Protection Scheme
Transformer faults:
i. Overheating
ii. Winding faults
iii. Open circuits
iv. Through faults
v. Over fluxing
Overheating:
 Overloading or short circuits causes
overheating
 Failure of cooling system also causes
overheating
 Thermal overload relays & temperature relays
used to protect against overheating
Open circuits:
If any one phase gets opened causes
undesirable heating
Winding faults:
These are internal faults
 Phase to phase faults
 Earth faults
 Inter-turn faults
 Overheating or mechanical shocks leads to
weakening the insulation leading to SC between
phases or phase to ground or between adjacent
turns of the same phase winding
 Differential protection for T/F > 5MVA
 Overcurrent protection for T/F < 5MVA
 Earth fault protection for earth faults
Through faults:
• These are external faults
• Overcurrent relays with under-voltage blocking,
zero sequence & negative sequence protection
used to protect against these faults
Over-fluxing:
 Power transformers are designed for certain flux
𝑉
density 𝐵 ∝
𝐹
 Saturation of magnetic circuit leads to over-
fluxing
 Higher core flux more core loss and leads to
overheating of the core
 V/f relays are used to protect from over-fluxing
Percentage Differential Protection
• Gives protection against phase faults & ground
faults
• Compares the currents entering & leaving the
ends of the transformer
• Vector difference of currents ( I1-I2) passes thru
operating coil
• Average current passes thru restraining coil
• Normal condition current thru operating coil is
zero
• Abnormal condition the difference in current
activates the operating coil and relay trips the
circuit
• As currents on both sides of t/F are different
CT’s of different ratio to be used
• As phase difference exist between LV & HV
winding, this introduce phase difference in CT
secondary currents
• To compensate / achieve this CT of Y-T/F are
connected in delta and vice-versa
Power Transformer CT connections
Primary Secondary Primary Secondary
Star Delta Delta Star
Delta Delta Star Star
Star Star Delta Delta
Delta Star Star Delta
Delta-Delta transformer
Differential protection for Alternators
• Phase elements (PA & PC) and balancing
resistor BR connected in star
• Earth relay connected between star point &
fourth wire of pilot circuit
• Under normal condition, no current flows thru
operating coils of the relay
• Earth fault occurs on any one phase and flows
thru Earth relay and this will operate
• when Phase faults occurs circulating current
will be there between any two coils and will
not flow into ER
 Earth fault protection for Alternator
• Small size alternators, difficult to
accommodate CT’s and not possible to use
Merz-price scheme
• To provide protection against earth faults
balanced earth fault protection scheme is
used
• The secondaries of CTs are connected in
parallel and connected to the CT placed in
neutral
• Under normal condition, current in neutral
wire is zero. Therefore secondary of CT in
neutral supplies no current to the relay
• When earth fault is external to the protected
zone F2, sum of currents at the terminal is
equal to current in neutral hence no current
flows thru neutral
• When fault occurs in protected zone say F1,
differential current exist and current flows
thru relay coil and it operates.
 Stator inter turn protection
• Merz price scheme cannot provide protection
for turn-to-turn fault
• Usually this type of faults invariably develop
into earth faults
• Inter-turn protection is provided for multi-
turn generators ( double winding)
• These faults produce current locally in the
circuit between the turns involved.
Stator inter turn protection
 Rotor protection
1) Field ground-fault Protection
 Single rotor fault to earth affect the operation
of generator because stator transients induce
extra voltage in the field circuit
 Thus probability of the occurrence of the
second ground fault is increased.
 rotor earth fault protection is provided to
avoid the above problem
2) Loss of Excitation
 When excitation is lost, the speed rises up and
behaves as induction generator
 Rotor gets overheated due to heavy induced
currents
 Large system draws reactive power when run
as Induction generator
 When run as Synchronous generator it
supplies reactive power
 Directional impedance relay is used as
protection
3) Protection against rotor overheating because of
unbalanced 3-ph stator currents
negative sequence component of Unbalanced
stator currents result in inducing double frequency
current in rotor, leading to rotor overheating
Unbalance can happen due to:
i. Faults in stator winding
ii. Open circuit in any phase
iii. Failure of one contact of CB
iv. Unbalanced external fault not cleared on time
 Prime mover failure
 When prime mover fails the alternator runs as
a synchronous motor by drawing power from
the line
 Reversal of power is harmful to the prime
mover ( in steam turbines the steam gets
trapped and damages the turbine blades & In
hydro turbines water flow reduces , bubbles
are formed causing cavitation in the turbine)
 This is sensed by reverse power relay and trips
the alternator
Problems in differential protection
 Unmatched characteristics of CT
Due to ratio error , difference in currents exists. To
avoid this restraining coil is used
 Ratio change due to tap change
Tappings are provided on CTs also, when tap change
operate in T/F , correspondingly tapp changing
happens in CT
 Difference in lengths of pilot wires
To avoid this taps are provided on operating &
restraining coil
Magnetising current inrush
When T/F energised , heavy inrush of
magnetizing current ( 10 times the rated
current) flows
To avoid
 Relay given with more time setting
 Relay set for higher magnetising current
 Harmonic current is filtered out and passed
thru restraining coil called as harmonic
current restraint
Buchholz relay
• Gas operated relay
• Used to protect oil
immersed T/F against all
types of internal faults (
core heating, bad switch
contacts, faulty joints,
internal phase faults,
earth faults etc.)
• Contains two mercury
switches
• One placed in the upper
part , attached to float &
other in lower part,
attached to flap valve
• Float closes the alarm circuit and flap closes
the trip circuit
• When fault occurs hydrogen gas is released ,
as it is light moves upwards and gets
accumulated in the upper part, oil inside the
housing falls, float tilts and closes its alarm
contacts.
• When severe faults occur , considerable
amount of gas is generated , pressure is
generated and oil rushes towards conservator,
due to this flap valve gets deflected and trip
contacts close, thus disconnecting the T/F
Advantages:
1) Simplest protection
2) Gives an indication of fault at early stage ( alarm),
there by T/F can be taken out from service without
any damage
Limitations:
i. Used for oil immersed T/F
ii. Slow relay, operating time is 0.2 seconds
iii. Setting of mercury switches cannot be kept too
sensitive as it may operate due to bubbles,
vibrations, earthquakes, mechanical shocks etc.
iv. Faults below oil level are detected
WAMS (Wide Area Measurement Systems)
• new data acquisition technology of phasor
measurement to monitor the power system
• Current, voltage and frequency measurements
are taken by Phasor Measurement Units (PMUs)
• stored in a data concentrator every 100
milliseconds
• Provides the status of the nodes , thereby
dynamic monitoring of critical nodes in power
systems is achieved
• This early warning system contributes to increase
system reliability
• WAMS process can be divided into the three
interconnected sub-processes; data acquisition,
data delivery and data processing.
• These sub-processes are respectively performed
by measurement, communication and energy
management subsystems.
• Each sub-system has different tasks to perform on
system data.
• helps power system operators to overcome
generation, operation and planning challenges
that may be resulted from system restructuring
• WAMS is an essential part of power system
operation and control.