Restricted Earth Fault protection in Dyn

Transformers
Transformers form the heart of all distribution systems. As a member of the Medium Voltage
community, I have to explain Transformer Protection schemes routinely to my clients. Although
I manage to answer most of their questions, some questions make me go to my library. This
article is about answering some of the questions on a particularly interesting topic.

What is Restricted Earth Fault protection? How is it used in combination with Differential
Protection? I believe many of us must have had these questions in mind and also found answers
at various places. I am only trying to combine the answers to derive a coherent understanding.

Restricted Earth Fault (REF) means an earth fault from a restricted/localized zone of a circuit.
The term "REF protection method” means not to sense any earth faults outside this restricted
zone. This type of protection is prevalent in Dyn group of transformers (Delta Primary and Star
Secondary). The basic scheme for REF Protection is as below
Under normal conditions, the vector sum of currents in RYB current transformers (CTs) and
NCT equals zero. If there is an earth fault between the CTs then some current will bypass the
CT's and the sum of currents will not be zero. By measuring this current imbalance faults
between the CTs can be easily identified and quickly cleared.
Fault detection is confined to the zone between the two CTs hence the name 'Restricted Earth
Fault'.
REF protection is fast and can isolate winding faults extremely quickly, thereby limiting damage
and consequent repair costs. If CTs are located on the transformer terminals only the winding is
protected. However, quite often the secondary CT is placed in the distribution switchboard,
thereby extending the protection zone to include the main cable.
Now this scheme is similar to differential protection in many aspects. Differential protection
scheme is as below

Differential protection is to detect phase faults within the TRF on both primary and secondary
sides. Restricted earth fault is to detect earth faults in the zone from secondary winding to
Secondary CTs. The working principle is "Merz-Prize Circulating Current Principle". In Normal
scenario, Current entering and leaving the zone will be same . The CT arrangement will generate
equal and opposite currents which cancel out each other at the relay. During an internal fault,
there shall be a difference between the current entering and leaving which shall be sufficient to
operate the relay.

Please note that the differential relay will operate for earth faults inside the zone only if the earth
fault current is more than the bias setting in the relay. The normal bias setting in a differential
relay is 20%. So, complete earth fault protection is not possible with differential relay. That is
why you need a restricted earth fault relay with sensitive settings like 5%.
Without REF, faults in the transformer star secondary winding need to be detected on the
primary of the transformer by the reflected current. As the winding fault position moves towards
the neutral, the magnitude of the current seen on the primary rapidly decreases and could
potentially not be detected (limiting the amount of winding which can be protected). As the
magnitude of the currents remain relatively large on the secondary (particularly if solidly
earthed), nearly the entire winding can be protected using REF. REF cannot have an intentional
time delay. They must operate instantaneously in the event of an internal fault.

The above discussion only refers protection in Dyn transformers with solidly earthed systems
which are one of the most common schemes. Any other schemes will need separate study and
case-to-case analysis.

DIFFERENTIAL VS RESTRICTED EARTH FAULT.

DIFFERENTIAL PROTECTION

The protective zone of a differential relay includes faults in transformer , faults on buses or
cables between CT & Transformer. Therefore it has a larger protective zone.

Following points are to be considered for Differential protection:

1. The CT sec connections must be arranged so that any phase shift due to vector
group of main transformer--- to be compensated.
2. The CT ratios must be chosen to suit the transformer ratio and where the main
transformer ration is variable by means of tap changing --- to be compensated.
3. The effect of magnetizing current inrush which only appears in the winding from
which the transformer is energized. – To be compensated.
Now, let us understand the need of REF relay:

Normally, the setting of differential protection is normally kept at 20%. So, differential relay
shall pick if the differential current exceeds 0.2 A. Now let us consider a case where earth
fault occurs just near the neutral point. Since the location of fault is very near to the neutral
point, the voltage driving the fault current will be very less and hence the reflection of such
a low current in primary side of transformer will also will be low. Thus in such case,
Transformer differential protection may not operate as its setting is quite high at 20%.
Therefore for protection of Transformer from such a fault we need more sensitive protection
scheme which is implemented by using Restricted Earth Fault Protection.

The sensitivity of REF protection is superior as compared to Differential Protection. Normally

the setting of REF protection is kept as low as 5%. Basically the sensitivity of REF protection
increases as we are using CT in neutral of transformer and whenever an earth fault takes
place it is damn sure that current will complete its path through the neutral and hence
increasing the sensitivity of REF protection.