Protection

CT CB

Trip coil

PT

Relay coil
 Main Features of Good Protective System

• Reliability: It is defined as the probability that the system will function

correctly when required to act. It has two aspects (i) The system must
operate in the presence of a fault that is within its zone of protection and
(ii) It must refrain from operating unnecessarily for faults outside its
protective zone or in the absence of a fault. A quantitative measure for
reliability is defined as follows:
2 Security: security is a property used to characterize false
tripping on the relays. A relay is said to be secure if it
does not trip when it is not expected to trip. It is the
degree of certainty that the relay will not operate
incorrectly:
 3 Sensitivity:
The protective system must have ability to detect the
smallest possible fault current. The smaller the current
that it can detect, the more sensitive it is. One way to
improve sensitivity is to determine characteristic
signature of a fault. It is unique to the fault type and it
does not occur in the normal operation.
For example, earth faults involve zero sequence current.
This provide a very sensitive method to detect earth
faults. Once, this signature is seen, abnormality is rightly
classified and hence appropriate action is initialized.
 4. Selectivity
It refers to the overall design of protective strategy wherein only
those protective devices closest to a fault will operate to remove
the faulty component. This implies a grading of protective device
threshold, timing or operating characteristics to obtain the desired
selective operation.

A relay should not confuse some peculiarities of an apparatus with a

fault. For example, transformer when energized can draw up to 20
times rated current (inrush current) which can confuse, both over
current and transformer differential protection. Typically, inrush
currents are characterized by large second harmonic content.
• This discriminant is used to inhibit relay operation
during inrush, there by, improving selectivity in
transformer protection.
• Also, a relay should be smart enough, not just to
identify a fault but also be able to decide whether
fault is in its jurisdiction or not.
• For example, a relay for a feeder should be able to
discriminate a fault on its own feeder from faults on
adjacent feeders. This implies that it should detect
first existence of fault in its vicinity in the system and
then take a decision whether it is in its jurisdiction.
 5.Dependability:
A relay is said to be dependable if it trips only when it is expected to trip. This
happens either when the fault is in it's primary jurisdiction or when it is
called upon to provide the back-up protection. However, false tripping of
relays or tripping for faults that is either not within its jurisdiction, or
within its purview, compromises system operation. Power system may get
unnecessarily stressed or else there can be loss of service. Dependability is
the degree of certainty that the relay will operate correctly:
Zone of Protection
A relay's zone of protection is a region defined by relay's jurisdiction. It is
shown by demarcating the boundary. This demarcation for differential
protection is quite crisp and is defined by CT's location. On the other hand,
such boundaries for overcurrent and distance relays are not very crisp. It is
essential that primary zones of protection should always overlap to ascertain
that no position of the system ever remains unprotected. This overlap also
accounts for faults in the circuit breakers. To provide this overlap additional
CTs are required
 Terms Connected with Relays:

• Operating torque: It is the torque which tends to close the contacts of the
relay.
• Restraining torque: It is the torque which opposes the operating torque.
• Pick up: It is defined as the threshold value of current, voltage etc. above
which relay will close its contact.
• Reset: It is defined as the value of current, voltage etc. below which the
relay will open its contacts and return to normal position.
• Flag or Target: It is a device which indicates the operation of a relay.
• Plug Setting Multiplier (PSM): It is the ratio of fault current in relay coil
to pick up current
Primary current
PSM=
Relay Current setting× CT ratio
 Classification of Relay
1. According to the function in the
protection scheme.
(a) Main Relay: Responds to when any change in the
actuating quantity .
(b) Auxiliary Relay: Controlled by other relay to perform
some auxiliary function such as introduction of a delay,
increasing number of contacts, passing a signal from
one relay to another, energizing a signal or an alarm
etc.
(c) Signal relays: They function to register the operation
of some relay by flag indication, simultaneously it can
also actuate an audible alarm circuit.
(2) According to their construction and
principle of operation:
(a) Electromagnetic Attraction type: Operation depends
on the movement of an armature under the influence of
attractive force due to magnetic field set up by current
flowing through relay winding.
(b) Electromagnetic Induction type: operation depends
on the movement of a metallic disc or cylinder free to
rotate by the interaction of induced eddy currents and
the alternating magnetic field producing them.
(c) Thermal Relays: Movement depends upon the action
of heat produced by the current flowing through the
element of the relay.
(d) Gas Operated Relays: It operates when a specified
amount of gas has accumulated.
(e) Static Relays: Semiconductor devices such as diodes,
transistors, ICs etc. are used.
(f) Microprocessor based Relays: These relays are built
on the central processing unit like computers and variety
of functions can be achieved by mathematical
calculations based on algorithms.
(3) According to applications:
(a) Under / Over voltage, Under / Over current, under /
over freq. etc.
(b) Directional Relays: operation takes place when the
applied voltage and current assume a specific phase
displacement.
(c) Differential Relay: operation occurs at some specific
phase and magnitude difference between two or more
electrical quantities.
(d) Distance Relay: Operation depends upon the ratio of
voltage to current.
(4) According to their time of operation
(a) Instantaneous Relays: Operation occurs after a
negligibly small interval of time from the incidence of
the current or other actuating quantity which causes
operation.
(b) Definite time lag Relay: Operation takes place after
fixed time delay.
(c) Inverse time lag relay: Time of operation is inversely
proportional to magnitude of current or other quantity
causing operation.
(d) Inverse Definite Minimum Time (IDMT) lag Relay :
The time of operation is inversely proportional to smaller
values of actuating quantity and tends to a minimum
time as the value increases without limit.
(5) According to Number of operating
Quantities:
(a) Single quantity relay
(b) Two quantity relay
(c) Multi quantity relay