Power system protection and control

Chapter one
• Protective zones
 Relaying elements and quantities, Operating
principles of relays
 Relay types and characteristics
 Protection of transmission lines, generators,
motors and transformers.

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INTRODUCTION
• The primary function of a protection system in an electrical
power network is to ensure the continuity of the electricity
supply.
• Protection scheme required for the protection of power system
components against abnormal conditions.
 Essentially consists of protective relaying and Circuit Breakers
 Protective relay functions as sensing device, it senses the fault,
then determines its location and finally, it sends tripping
command to the CB

 After getting the command from protective relay CB

disconnects faulted element.

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 ZONE OF PROTECTION

• Power system configurations, a fundamental concept is the

division of a system into protective zones.
• If a fault occurs anywhere within a zone, action will be taken to
isolate that zone from the rest of the system. Zones are
defined for:
– Generators
– Transformers
– Buses
– Transmission and distribution lines
– Motors

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ZONE OF PROTECTION
• Each zone is defined by a closed, dashed line. As shown in
Figure below, Zone 1 for example, contains a generator
and connecting leads to a transformer ,.
• In some cases a zone may contain more than one
component.
• For example, Zone 3 contains a generator-transformer unit
and connecting leads to a bus, and Zone 10 contains a
transformer and a line.
• Protective zones have the following characteristics:
– Zones are overlapped.
– Circuit breakers are located in the overlap regions.
– For a fault anywhere in a zone, all circuit breakers in that
zone open to isolate the fault.

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ZONE OF PROTECTION……

Figure : Power System Protective Zones

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 PROTECTIVE RELAYS

Relay is a device that detects the fault and initiates the operation of

the CB to isolate the defective element from the rest of the system.

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 Relay circuit
It consist of three parts,
1.Primary winding of a CT is connected in
series with the line to be protected.
2.Secondary winding of CT and the relay
operating Coil.
3. Tripping circuit which may be either AC or
DC. It consists of a Source of supply, trip coil
of CB and the relay stationary contact.

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Requirements/Qualities of Protective Relaying
Selectivity
 It is the ability of the protective system to select correctly part
of the system in trouble and disconnect the faulty part without
disturbing the rest of the system.
Speed
 The relay system should disconnect the faulty section as fast as
possible.
 Electrical apparatus may be damaged if they are made to carry
the fault currents for a long time.
 A relay must operate at the required speed.
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 Sensitivity
 It is the ability of the relay system to operate with low value
of actuating quantity.
Reliability
 It is the ability of the relay system to operate under the pre-
determined conditions.
• Without reliability, the protection would be rendered largely
ineffective and could even become a liability.
Simplicity
• The relaying system should be simple so that it can be
easily maintained.
• Reliability is closely related to simplicity.
• The simpler the protection scheme, the greater will be
its reliability.

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 CLASSIFICATION OF RELAYS

1. According to the construction and Principle of operation

₢ Ordinary Electromagnetic relays

₢ Electromagnetic induction or simply induction relays
₢ Electro- thermal relays
₢ Static relays and Electro- dynamic relays
2. According to their applications
 Under voltage, under current, and under power relay.
Operation occurs when the V,I or P falls below a specified
value.
 over voltage, over current, and over power relay.
When V,I or p rises above a specified value.
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  Differential relays.
–Operation occurs at some specific phase or magnitude
difference between two or more electrical quantities
 Distance relays.

– Operation depends upon the ratio of V to I

•3. According to their time of operation
 Instantaneous relays.
–Operation occurs after a negligibly small interval of time from
the incidence of the current other quantity which cause
operation.

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 Definite time – lag relays.
Operation is quite independent of the magnitude of the current or
other quantity which cause operation
 Inverse time – lag relays.
The time of operation is inversely proportional to the magnitude of
current other quantity which cause operation.

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Inverse- Definite minimum time lag (I.D.M.T) relays.
The time of operation is inversely proportional to the smaller values of current
other quantities which cause operation and tends to definite minimum time
as the value increases without limit.

This relay Inverse Definite Minimum Time (IDMT).

• The operating characteristic of a standard IDMT relay is defined as:
0.14  TMS
t
PSM 0.02  1
TMS – time multiplier setting
• PSM – plug setting multiplier
I – measured current
I Is – relay setting current
PSM 
Is
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ELECROMECHANICAL RELAYS

They work on the following two main operating principle

 Electromagnetic attraction and Electromagnetic induction

Electromagnetic Attraction Relays
 Operate by virtue of an armature being attracted to the poles of
an electromagnet
 Such relays may be actuated by DC or AC quantities.
(i)Attracted armature type relay.

(ii) Solenoid type relay.

(iii) Balanced beam type relay.

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 Electromagnetic Induction Relays

Electromagnetic induction relays operate on the principle of

induction motor and are widely used for protective relaying
purposes involving AC quantities.
In this type of relay a metal disc is allowed to rotate between two
electromagnets.
The torque is produced in the disc by the interaction of one of the
magnetic fields with the currents induced in the disc by the other.

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 Induction relays
Based on the structures used in the induction relays, they are
classified as
 Shaded-pole structure
 Watt hour-meter structure
 Induction cup structure
Important Terms
Pick-up current:
 It is the minimum current in the relay coil at which the relay
starts to operate.
 So long as the current in the relay is less than the pick-up value,
the relay does not operate and the breaker controlled by it
remains in the closed position.
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 However, when the relay coil current is equal to or greater than
the pickup value, the relay operates to energize the trip coil which
opens the circuit breaker.
Current setting:
 It is often desirable to adjust the pick-up current to any required
value.
 This is known as current setting and is usually achieved by the use
of tapping's on the relay operating coil.
Pick-up current = Rated secondary current of C.T. × Current setting

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Example suppose that an overcurrent relay having current setting of
125% is connected to a supply circuit through a current transformer of
400/5
The rated secondary current of C.T. is 5A
Therefore, the pick-up value will be 25% more than 5 A i.e. 5 × 1·25
= 6·25 A
The relay will actually operate for a relay coil current equal to or
greater than 6·25
Plug-setting multiplier (P.S.M.):
It is the ratio of fault current in relay coil to the pick-up current.
i.e.P.S.M. =Fault current in relay coil / Pick - up current

=Fault current in relay coil / Rated secondary current of CT×

Current setting

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Example , suppose that a relay is connected to a 400/5 current
transformer and set at 150%. With a primary fault current of 2400
A, the plug-setting multiplier can be calculated as under :
Pick-up value = Rated secondary current of CT × Current setting
= 5 × 1·5 = 7·5 A
Fault current in relay coil = 2400× 5/400=30 A
∴ P.S.M. = 30/7·5 = 4

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 Time-setting multiplier:
 A relay is generally provided with control to adjust the time of
operation.
 This adjustment is known as time-setting multiplier.
 The time-setting dial is calibrated from 0 to 1 in steps of 0.05 sec.
 The actual time of operation is calculated by multiplying the time
setting multiplier with the time obtained from time/P.S.M. curve
of the relay.

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Time/P.S.M. Curve
•Shows the curve between time of operation and plug setting
multiplier of a typical relay
•If the P.S.M. is 10, then the time of operation (from the curve) is 3
seconds
•The actual time of operation is obtained by multiplying this time
by the time-setting multiplier.

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EXERCISE
Calculate the plug setting and time multiplier setting for an IDMTL
relay on the following network so that it will trip in 2.4 s using the
curve

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 Induction Relays
Induction relays are three types based on the operation
Non directional relays
Directional Power relays
Directional current relays Difference between the three:…………?

Non directional relays are activated by only current flowing in the

circuit to be protected.
Directional power relays are activated by power flowing in the
specific direction.
Hence it requires both current and voltage of the circuit to be
protected.
Directional current relays requires specific direction of current
flow.
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Functional Relay Types
Relays are generally classified according to the function they are
called upon to perform in the protection of electric power circuits

For example, a relay which recognizes overcurrent in a circuit, is an

overcurrent relay
Similarly, overvoltage relay is one which recognizes overvoltage in a
circuit
Types:
(i) Induction type overcurrent relays
(ii) Induction type reverse power relays
(iii) Distance relays
(iv) Differential relays

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Distance or Impedance Relays
It consists of two element.
 Current element
 Voltage element.
Also called voltage restrained over current relay.

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The relay operates when the ratio V/I is less than a predetermined
value
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 Types of Distance Relay
 A distance or impedance relay is essentially an ohmmeter and operates
whenever the impedance of the protected zone falls below a pre-
determined value.
There are two types of distance relays
(i) Definite-distance relay : operates instantaneously for fault up to a
pre-determined distance from the relay.
(ii) Time-distance relay :in which the time of operation is proportional to
the distance of fault from the relay point.
A fault nearer to the relay will operate it earlier than a fault farther
away from the relay. Operating time, T ∝ V/I
∝Z
∝ distance
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 Differential Relays

A differential relay is defined as the relay that operates when the phase
difference of two or more identical electrical quantities exceeds a
predetermined amount.

The various types of differential relays are,

(i) Current differential relay

(ii) Biased beam relay or percentage differential relay

(iii) Voltage balance differential relay

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 Current Differential Relay
•Pair of identical current transformers are fitted on either end of the section to be
protected.
• Secondary of CT’s are connected in series in such a way that they carry the
induced currents in the same direction.
•Operating coil of the overcurrent relay is connected across the CT secondary
circuit.
•The differential relay compares the current at the two ends of the alternator
winding.

1000 A

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i) If some current (500 A in this case) flows out of one side while a
larger current (2000 A)enters the other side as shown in Fig. (i),
then the difference of the CT secondary currents i.e. 500* 1/200
=2.5A
2000*1/200 = 10A
10 − 2·5 = 7·5 A will flow through the relay.

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Contd..
(II) If current flows to the fault from both sides as shown in Fig.
(i) above then sum of CT secondary currents
i.e. 10 + 5 = 15 A will flow through the relay.

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 GENERETOR PROTECTION

Major Faults & abnormal conditions in Protective schemes are employed for
case of generator: generator protection
1. Stator or rotor winding 1.Differential protection
insulation failure 2.Inter-turn fault protection
2. Unbalance loading 3.Stator e/f protection
4.o/c & e/f protection
3. Field failure 5.Rotor e/f protection
4. Over load 6.Negative phase-sequence
5. Over voltage protection
6. Failure of prime mover 7.Field failure protection
7. Loss of synchronism 8.Over load protection
9.Over voltage protection
8. Over speed 10.Reverse power protection
9. Under frequency 11.Back up impedance
10. Over heating protection
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 Continued…
• Obviously, the short circuit currents caused by these faults can
cause damage to the generator winding & core.
• Hence, these faults should be cleared by high speed
instantaneous relays.
• Faults between conductors can sometimes be repaired by re-
tapping or replacing the conductor,
• Figure below shows the simplified scheme of differential
protection.
• The protection is a unit system of protection & it responds to
internal faults only.
• It must be stable against external faults.

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 Continued…

Figure principle of generator differential protection

 For the generator differential protection, identical CTs & relay
connection should fulfill the basic requirement.
 But ideally identical CTs & equal lead lengths (from CT1 to relay
& CT2 to relay) can not be obtained in practice.
 If the lead lengths are not equal, adjustable extra resistances can
be connected in series with pilot wires so that the relay coil is
connected to the equipotential points (or for non identical CTs, a
biased differential relay can be used).
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 Continued…
 Another way to solve the problem of non-identical CTs & unequal
lead lengths is by the use of stabilizing resistance in series with
the relay coil.

 The value of the stabilizing resistance can be find out by

considering the worst case i.e. absolute saturation of one of CT
while other is working in its linear range.

 This is the simple way of assessing the criteria of stability against

through faults, since if the relay setting is greater than the spill
current calculated by this method, stability is assured.

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Referring figure below & for the worst condition…..
Lm1, Lm2 – Magnetizing Inductances of CT1 & CT2
RCT – CT secondary resistance
RL – lead resistance
RR – relay resistance
LR – relay inductance
RSTAB – stabilizing resistance.

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 Figure below shows the equivalent circuit of figure above.
 From figure, voltage across the relay VR,
VR = IR (RR + XR) = if (RCT + RL)
Normally LR is small & hence XR << RR

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• The current through relay IR as given in above equation can be
limited by connecting extra stabilizing resistance Rstab in series
with the relay coil. IR will then reduced to ….

• The desired value of stabilizing resistance can be calculated

from the expression….
• where IS = pick up setting of the relay

• Rstab need not to be as high as indicated by equation above, it

can be about 1/3rd of this value.
• The stabilizing resistance assures stability against external faults
& also avoids unwanted operation of the relay due to unequal
lead lengths.
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 Restricted e/f protection by differential system:
 When the neutral is solidly grounded, it is possible to protect
complete alternator winding against phase-to-ground fault.
 However neutral is earthed through resistance to limit e/f current.

 With resistance earthing, it not possible to protect complete

winding from e/f and the percentage of winding protected depends
on the neutral-earthing resistor and the relay settings.

 While selecting the value of resistor & earth fault relay setting, the
following aspect should be kept in mind…
Current rating of the resistor
Resistance value
Relay setting
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 Continued….
• Earth faults are not likely to occur near the neutral point due
to less voltage w.r.to earth.

• It is usual practice to protect about 80 to 85% of winding

against earth fault. The remaining 15-20% winding from neutral
side left unprotected by differential protection.

• A separate e/f protection is provided to take care of complete

winding against e/f.

• A restricted e/f relay in the differential protection is shown in

figure below.

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 Continued….

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 Continued….

 In above figure, during earth fault the current if in the

alternator winding flows through a part of winding and neutral
to ground circuit.

 The corresponding secondary current Is flows through the

operating coil & restricted e/f coil of the differential
protection.
 The setting of the restricted e/f relay can be selected
independent of the setting of the o/c relay.
 earth fault occurs at point F of the alternator winding,Vaf is
the available voltage to drive e/f current “if ” through neutral
to ground connection.

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 Continued….

 If the point is nearer to a (i.e. nearer to neutral point), the

forcing voltage Vaf will be relatively less. Hence e/f current if
will reduce or less. Hence it is not practicable to keep the
relay setting too sensitive to sense the earth fault currents of
small magnitude.
 Because, it too sensitive the relay may respond during through
faults of other faults due to inaccuracies of CTs, CT saturation
etc.

 Hence a practice is to protect about 85% of the generator

winding against phase to earth fault and to leave the 15%
portion unprotected by the differential protection against e/f.

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 Continued……

 The following equation gives the value of % of winding

remains unprotected.
Where
R = ohmic value of impedance (L to G)
Io = Minimum operating current in primary of CT
V = line to neutral Voltage
If 15% of relay setting is used, Io is 15% of F.L. current of
the machine.
%of winding unprotected= (R.I0/V ) x100

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TRANSFORMER PROTECTION
 The type of protection for the transformers varies depending
on the application and the importance of the transformer.
 Transformers are protected primarily against faults and
overloads.
Why transformer protection ???
 To Protect the Transformer from severe damages.
 Time required to rectify the Transformer in case of damages is
more and it is very difficult.

 Operation of a power network when the power transformer is

out of service is always difficult.

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 Basic Differential Connections for transformer

PROTECTED
I APPARATUS I

im1 im2

Relay

im1 im2 – im1 im2

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 Basic Differential Connections for transformer……

Number of considerations should be dealt with in applying

differential protection including:-

 Transformer ratio
The CT should have rating to match the rated currents of the
transformer winding which they are applied.
 The current transformer should be connected in Y for ∆
winding and ∆ for Y winding ( see next figure)
Allowance should be made for taping changing by providing
restraining coil.

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 Power
transformer
C. T.’s C. T.’s
Circuit Circuit
Breaker Breaker

A
A
B
B

C
C

Relay
Example of Differential
o Protection of a Δ/Y
R R Phase A
transformer.

o
R R
Phase B

o
R R Phase C

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 What cause transformer failure?
Winding Bushing
 Insulation deterioration come Bushings deterioration come
from: from:
 Moisture  General aging
 Contamination
 Vibration
 Cracking
 Overheating  Internal moisture
 Voltage surge

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Transformer Protection Scheme

Mechanical Electrical
1. Bias Differential Protection
1. Buchholz relay 2. Over Fluxing
2. Sudden pressure 3. Over Voltage
4. Under Voltage
3. Pressure relief 5. Neutral Unbalance
4. Temperature 6. Restricted Earth Fault
protection 7. Back up O/C & E/F

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• Buchholz protection provides an alarm for a number of fault
conditions including:
1. Inter turn faults or winding faults involving only lower power
levels.
2. Core hot spots due to short circuits on the lamination
insulation.
3. Faulty joints.
4. Core bolt insulation failure.

• Major faults resulting in tripping include severe earth or inter

phase winding faults and loss of oil through leakage.

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 EXAMPLE
Consider a Δ/Y connected, 20 MVA, 33/11 kV transformer with differential
protection applied, for the current transformer ratios shown in Figure
below. Calculate the relay currents on full load. Find the minimum relay
current setting to allow 125 percent overload.

Figure

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 SOLUTION

The primary line current is given by

20MVA
Ip   349.91 A
3  33kV

The secondary line current is

20MVA
Is   1049.73 A
3 11kV

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SOLUTION….
The C.T. current on the primary side is thus
5
i p  349.91   5.832 A
300
The C.T. current in the secondary side is

5
is  1049.73 A   3  4.545
2000
Note that we multiply by 3 to obtain the values on the line side of the Δ
connected C.T.’s.
The relay current on normal load is therefore
ir  is  i p  5.832  4.545  1.287A
With 1.25 overload ratio, the relay setting should be

ir  1.25 1.287  1.61 A

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PROTECTION OF INDUCTION MOTOR:

The type of protection used for a particular motor depends on the

switchgear used for its control (starting, stopping, speed variation
etc.)
In general two basic protections are provided for each motor
which are
Thermal overload protection
Short circuit protection

Since the induction motor is connected to the supply, possibly

through some kind of power electronics controller and on the
other side, it is mechanically coupled to the load.

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Protection of Low Voltage Induction Motor:
Motor is connected to three phase supply via..
1. Fuse
2. Isolating switch
3. Thermal relay
4. Contactor
5. Control coil
6. ON push button usually green normally off
7. OFF push button usually red and normally closed.

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 Figure….magnetic contactor starter for LV I.M.

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• When we push button 6 is pressed by the operator control coil 5
gets voltage from supply.

• The coil current flows through contact of 6 & 7. The energized

coil lifts contactor 4 and closes main contact RYB and auxiliary
contact C.

• The ON push button 6 is then shunted by auxiliary contact C.

Motor starts.

• If motor is to be stopped, OFF button 7 is pressed. The control

coil is de-energized. The contactor opens by spiring action &
gravity. Motor Stops.

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 If supply voltage fails, control coil is de energized and contactor
opens.

 During overloads, the thermal relay 3 operates & thereby control

circuit is intentionally disconnected.

 HRC fuses 1 provides very rapid short circuit protection. Current

is cut-off by HRC fuse even before it reaches prospective.

 The selection of thermal relay 3 is such that for normal starting

conditions, the relay does not operate.

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 TRANSMISSION LINE PROTECTION

• In transmission line protection system, it is necessary to

provide the desired selectivity such that relay operation result
in the least service interruption while isolating the fault.
• In transmission line protection scheme, relay coordination is
MUST.
Three methods of relay grading:
• Current Grading.
• Time Grading
• Inverse Time Over Current Relaying

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CURRENT GRADING
 Current graded systems normally employ high speed high set
o/c relays.
 They operate at pre-determined setting without a time lag
 Operates at suitable graded current
 Fault current are higher near the source.
 Relays are set that decreases as distance from the source is
increased.

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Time Grading
1. Ensure the breaker nearest to the fault open first, by choosing
an appropriate time setting for each of the relay.
2. Time setting increase as the relay get closer to the source.

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 Inverse Time Over Current Relaying
1. Evolved because of the limitation imposed by the use
either current or time alone.
2. Time of operation is inversely proportional to the fault
current level. Relays type CO-7 is in common use.

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Inverse Time Over Current Relaying
The operating time over current relay varies with the current
magnitude.
There are two setting for this type of relay:
1. Pick-up current is determined by adjusted current coil tap
setting (C.T.S).
The pick-up current is the current that causes the relay to
operate and close the contacts.
2. Time dial setting (or time multiplier setting) refers to the
reset position of moving contact, and it is varies the time of
operation at a given tap setting and current magnitude.

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Radial System Protection
• Many radial systems are protected by time delay overcurrent
relays.
• Adjustable time delays can be selected such that the breaker
closest to the fault opens, while other upstream breakers with
larger time delays remain closed.
• That is, relays can be coordinated to operated in sequence so
as to interrupt minimum load during faults.
• Successful relay coordination is obtained when fault currents
are much larger than normal load currents
• Also, coordination of overcurrent relays usually limits the
maximum number of breakers in a radial system to five or less,
otherwise the relay closet to the source may have an excessive
time delay

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• Consider a fault at P1 to the right of breaker B3 for the radial
system of figure below.
• We want breaker B3 to open while B2 and B1 remains closed.
• Under these condition, only load L3 is interrupted
• We could select a longer time delay for the relay at B2 so that
B3 operates first
• Thus, for any fault to the right of B3, B3 provides primary
protection
• If B3 fails to open, B2 will open after time delay, thus providing
backup protection

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• Similarly, consider a fault at P2, we want B2 to open while B1
remains closed
• Under these conditions, loads L2 and L3 are interrupted
• Since the fault is closer to the source, the fault current will be
larger than for the previous fault considered
• We also select the B1 relay with a longer time delay than B2,
so that B2 opens first.
• Thus, B2 provides primary protection for faults between B2
and B3, as well as back up protection for faults to the right of
B3.

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• Similarly, B1 provides primary protection for faults between
B1 and B2, as well as back up protection for further
downstream faults
• The coordination time interval is the time interval between
the primary and remote backup protective devices
• It is the different between the time that the backup relaying
operates and the time that circuit breakers clear the fault
under primary relaying
• Typical time interval between 0.2 to 0.5 seconds are selected
to account in most practical applications

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 Disadvantages of graded time lag o/c relaying:
 Time lag is to be provided, time lag is not desirable for short
circuits.
 The method is not suitable for ring mains or interconnected
lines.
 It is suitable for radial lines with supply at the one end only.

 It is difficult to co-ordinate & need changes with new

connections.

 It is not suitable for important, long distance transmission lines

where rapid fault clearing necessary to ensure stability of the
system.

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