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Calculation of Stabilizing Resistor in High

Impedance Differential Protection
October 13, 2016 by admin

Before going into the calculation part of Stabilizing Resistor, I will first explain the purpose of
Stabilizing Resistor in High Impedance Differential Protection.

Stabilizing Resistor in High Impedance Differential Protection is used to prevent the operation of
Relay in case of through fault. Through fault is a fault outside the zone of protection. Lets us
assume that High Impedance Differential protection is used to protect a Bus bar as shown in
figure.
It shall be noted here that, in High Impedance Differential Protection, all the CTs are connected
in parallel and then the four wires i.e. R, Y, B and N are connected with the Relay as shown in
figure above. If there is any fault in the bus, the according to Kirchhoff’s current law, the
summation of current will not be zero and a net current will flow through the Relay coil to
operate it. In normal condition, the summation of current will be zero and hence no current will
flow through the Relay coil and hence the Relay will be stable.   Mathematically under normal
condition,

I1+ I2 + I3 = 0

As Relay sees only summation of current hence we normally employ an overcurrent element in
High Impedance Differential Protection. This is the main difference between a high impedance
and low impedance differential protection.

Let us consider a through fault i.e. fault outside the zone of protection. To be more specific, let a
fault take place after the CT of any feeder. If all the CT’s maintain the same nominal ratio for all
external faults the assumed scheme is perfectly valid since no current can flow in the relay coil.

However, when the instantaneous overcurrent relay is set low enough to give useful sensitivity
to internal faults the Relay may in practice operate falsely on external faults due to a reduction
of the nominal ratio of the fault CT resulting from fault CT core saturation. This reduction of the
fault CT nominal ratio results in a “false” differential relay current that may operate the
instantaneous overcurrent relay. The wort condition will be when a CT gets completely
saturated. Thus we need to make Relay insensitive for through fault. To do this we use
Stabilizing Resistor.
How Stabilizing Resistor makes Relay Insensitive to through Fault?

Well, the main cause for the flow of current through the Relay coil in High Impedance Differential
Protection is the Voltage across the terminals of CT. We consider the worst case here when a
CT gets completely saturated for through fault. When a CT gets completely saturated, it will no
longer will be a source of current rather it will behave purely as a Resistor having a value equal
to the CT secondary winding. Thus the fault current will not go toward the relay rather it will go
circulate through the saturated CT secondary only as current always chooses a path having
least resistance. Let the fault current be IF and the resistance of CT secondary be RCT. Therefore
the voltage developed across the saturated CT will be,

Vs = IFRCTwhen looping of CT secondaries are done at CT Junction Box only.

Or,

Vs = IF(RCT+ 2RL) when looping of CT is done at Panel or near Relay end.

Here looping of CT secondaries means parallel connection of CT secondaries. It may happen so

that we are doing the paralleling at the CT Junction Box (JB) or at Panel (Relay end). If
paralleling is done at Relay end then lead resistance of saturated CT up to panel shall be
considered for the calculation of driving voltage across the common point of CTs but if
paralleling is done at CT JB only then lead resistance of saturated CT from CT core to CT JB
shall only be considered which is very less and can be ignored.
Now, let us assume that the setting of High Impedance Differential Relay for internal fault be Is.
So to make Relay insensitive for through fault, the voltage developed shall not drive a current Is
through the Relay, hence we put a Stabilizing Resistor Rstbin series with the Relay Coil and the
value of Stabilizing Resistor Rstbis given as

Rstb= Vs / Is

So, Rstb = IFRCT / Is when paralleling is done at CT JB

Or

Rstb= Vs = IF(RCT + 2RL) / Iswhen looping of CT is done at Panel or near Relay end.

Thus during through fault, for the worst condition of CT saturation, the current through the Relay
coil will not be enough to cross setting value of Is and thus will not operate.

Hope you enjoyed this post. Please write your views and comments. Thank you!           
 Power System Protection
 High Impedance Differential Protection, Stabilizing Resistor
 Concept of Subtransient, Transient & Steady State
 Rated Normal, Short Circuit Making & Breaking, Short Time Current Rating & Operating
Duty Cycle of Circuit Breaker
9 thoughts on “Calculation of Stabilizing Resistor in High Impedance
Differential Protection”

Sumit
March 6, 2018 at 6:41 pm

Same logic and calculations are applicable for REF also? Please advise.

Reply

Aditya Kumar
March 6, 2018 at 6:42 pm

Yes, the same theory applies to REF protection.

Reply

Sara
March 19, 2018 at 12:21 am

I was stuck in a old PVD manual for the last 2 hours and your article made it much
easier to understand. Thank you! May I ask what's your background?

Reply
 Aditya Kumar
March 19, 2018 at 12:22 am

I am an electrical engineer.

Reply

F13
March 19, 2018 at 12:23 am

As what I read IF(RCT + 2RL) is the voltage developed across the CT for the
maximum through fault current.Hence Vs should be greater than this value but
less than the half of the the knee point to ensure the quick operation of the relay
.For the second condition ,how it will happen since the protection is already
instantaneous ?

Reply

Unknown
March 19, 2018 at 12:24 am

yes

Reply
 Suhag Patel
October 19, 2018 at 9:33 pm

Nice clarification.

Reply

Rathinavel P
April 24, 2020 at 5:15 pm

Nicely explained.

Reply

admin
April 26, 2020 at 1:24 am

Thank you Rathinavel P! Please share.

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