1
Study on Action of SOTF Protection and Generation
Shutdown Caused by Power Swing due to Faults at
Transmission Lines
Lei Zhang 1,*, Xilai Yuan 1, Arnold Medina Sanchez 1, Wilbert Alvarez 1, Jianhua Ren1
1 Affiliation 1: Empresa de generación Huallaga. S. A,, Lima, Perú
* Correspondence: lei_zhang@ctg.p
Abstract— Large generator units, as the critical equipment of
modern power systems, will experience a transient process of
power-angle stability when experiencing load changes, line
faults, or changes in line operation mode. In the process, power
swings are generated within the system. Power swing is usually
detected by a mechanism based on continuous impedance
calculation, and through the function of power swing blocking
[1], the related functions of distance protection are blocked to
prevent the distance protection from malfunctioning [2], and
the large unit shutdown or island operation, resulting in damage
to system stability by avalanche effect. This article described a
two-generation unit shutdown event with pre-fault operation at
200MW each. Due to the lighting strikes on the 220kV
transmission line, the power swing was detected by distance
protection. Before the faulty phase reclosure, the power swing
triggered the action of the backup protection of the distance
protection SWITCH ON TO FAULT (SOTF) and tripped three
phases of the double circuit transmission line on the same tower.
In order to ensure the stability of the power swing during faults
and the safety of the blocking function, this study uses Power
Factory Digisilent to conduct a transient analysis of the power
system based on the published detailed electrical system model.
When it is greater than 320MW, the power swing caused by the
failure of the two circuits will cause the generator to lose
synchronization and cause system stability problems.
Therefore, under this extreme fault condition, an automatic
control mechanism for the unit to automatically reduce output
is proposed to ensure that the unit loses synchronization.
Keywords—synchronous generator, short-circuit fault, power
swing, single-phase reclosing scheme, SOTF， distance protection.
I. INTRODUCTION
Large generators, as the core equipment of modern power
systems, generate power angle (rotor angle of synchronous
motors) swings and power transmission line swing when their
load experiences major disturbances such as line faults or
switching of line operation modes. Power swings may cause the
distance protection of the line to malfunction. Normally, when a
short circuit fault occurs on a line, the differential protection of
the line will operate to cut off the faulty phase, while generating
power swing in the healthy phase conductors of other lines. At
this time, in order to ensure power transmission, especially for
large units, and ensure system frequency stability, the distance
protection of the healthy phase line is blocked by the Power
Swing Block (PSB) mechanism. However, this locking function
should be reactivated in the event of another short circuit fault
in the line, which requires the Power Swing Deblocking (PSD)
function to unlock.
There are many methods for monitoring power swings,
among which the most common is to detect the rate of change in
line impedance under fault conditions as a condition for the
activation of PSB and PSD [1] [2]. The PSD function under fast
power swing and high fault resistance is detailed in [3]. The
method for detecting the Swing Center Voltage (SCV) of
symmetrical faults in power oscillations is proposed by this
reference [4]. Recently, with the continuous innovation of
algorithms, the adaptive fuzzy neural inference system (ANFIS)
has also been used in this field.
This article is based on the analysis of a lightning strike
tripping fault on the transmission line of a certain power plant as
shown in Fig. 3 . The power plant has two 225MW units
operating at its rated power of 0.68 operating point and its 125-
kilometre double circuit 220kV power transmission line on the
same tower. After a lightning strike occurred on the S and T
phases of circuit 1, a phase-to-ground fault occurred. After 53
ms, the phase to ground fault was removed by the line
differential protection. At the same time, a single phase to
ground fault occurred on the S phase of circuit 2. After 54 ms,
the phase was removed by the line differential protection, and
the reclosing function was activated at 520 ms, At a distance of
560ms, the backup protection SOFT of the protection was
activated, and the other two healthy phases were cut off. The S
phase reclosed at 610ms and immediately tripped. The reclosing
failed, and all the power plant's power transmission lines were

shut down, resulting in a serious accident of the power plant's
large unit being cut off. The accident caused a loss of 306MW
power supply to the power system where the power plant is
located, resulting in a decrease of 0.59Hz in the power grid,
which is insufficient to trigger a stable power grid accident.
Therefore, the automatic load-shedding extreme value of the
power grid was not triggered.
This article first provides a detailed analysis of the distance
protection and backup protection of the factory's transmission
line, especially the detection and blocking functions of power
oscillations during line faults. In order to ensure the stability of
power oscillation during faults and the safety of locking
functions, this study conducted a transient analysis of the power
system using Power Factory Digitilent based on a published
detailed electrical system model. The results will provide a
theoretical basis for the transformation of line distance
protection and backup protection.
Figure 1 L2150 Fault recording and relay action
Figure 2 L2151 Fault recording and relay action
II. TRANSMISSION LINE POWER SWING DETECTION AND
BLOCKING FUNCTION
A common problem of the line being protected by distance
relay is to be de-energized incorrectly by a power swing.
Therefore Power Swing Blocking (PSB) and Deblocking (PSD)
function is applied to differentiate a power swing and a real fault.
In the event of a short-circuit, the impedance vector, which is
calculated by tracking voltage and current samples continually ,
would tumble dramatically and when it is lower than a pre-set
line characteristic value, an open command control the relevant
breaker opens, however, when there is a power swing of a power
system, such as shown in Fig. 1 and Fig. 2 case, calculated
impedance value by the more slowly increasing voltage than the
current periodically may lead to a wrong breaker action. In order
to solve the problem, some other parameters are tracked. In the
power plant, the time passed for the impedance value for
2
crossing the PSB range on a concentric mho circle is used. In the
case of a stable power swing, the detector observes the apparent
impedance vector initially enters the power swing range shown
in Fig.4 as PPOL and only later enters the fault detection range
as APOL in the figure. It is also possible that a power swing
vector will enter the power swing range and leave it again
without coming into contact with the fault range. If the vector
enters the power swing polygon and passes through it leaving on
the opposite side, then the section of the network seen from the
relay location has lost synchronism, which means the power
transfer is unstable.
Figure 3 Single-line diagram of the studied electrical system
Figure 4 Pickup characteristic of the power swing detection for a
polygon
The PSD function normally is used in the case of unstable
power swings and real faults during power swings to maintain
the reliability of power system protection. Various parameters
are used for this purpose. However, due to the complexity of
differentiating the symmetrical fault, more studies are
undertaken and tested. In our case study, we do not consider any
deblocking function at the power plant.
III. SYSTEM MODELLING FOR POWER SWING STUDIES
It is shown in the previous section that there is no PSD
function installed in the power protection system of the power
plant system, therefore several cases and symmetrical and
unsymmetrical faults combined with the various operation
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modes of the two generation units are simulated in order to test

the performance of the PSB and guarantee under the case of an
unstable power swing, an automatic generation decrease can be
applied. In this section, the time-domain EMT model of the two-
generation-units system and its transmission lines as shown in
Fig. 3 is built up.
A. Generator and transmission line model
The generator model is inspired by the database of the
published grid connection on the official website of the national
power system. Meanwhile, the updated 2022 and 2023 test
results were applied. Two generation units G1 and G2 are
connected to double-circuit overhead transmission lines L2150
and L2151 of 127.5km on the same transmission tower via two
transformers TR1 and TR2 with a capacity of 255MVA each.
The transmission lines are modelled with frequency-dependent
modes to reveal their transient behaviour. The saturation
characteristics of all the transformers in the system are Figure 6 Mathematical model of turbine
implemented. The main equipment details are listed in Table 1.
Table 1RATINGS OF THE EQUIPMENT IMPLEMENTED IN THE IV. SIMULATION RESULTS AND ANALYSIS
SYSTEM The fault event procedures of the system shown in Figure 1
and Figure 2 can be presented in Table 2.
Equipment Ratings Number of units
Table 2 EVENTS RECONSTRUCTION SIMULATED
Hydro Power 225MW 2
Generation t=0 Single phase to ground fault
Units on line L2151 (S phase)
Main 13.8/220kV,255MVA 2 t=0 Double phase to ground fault
Transformer (S phase and T phase) on line
Overhead 220kV, 127.5km 2 (L2150/L2151) L2150,
tranmission line t=53 ms P substation line L2150
three-phase disconnection

B. The Mathematical Model of Government and Turbines t=53 ms Line L2150 fault clearing
The concept of the governor and turbine control are vital for t=54 ms P substation line L2151
transient simulation under load and fault condition. In this phase S disconnected
section, the governor block diagram shown in Figure 5 and the
t=61 ms C Substation L2150 line
turbine model shown in Figure 6can be obtained. Table 5-1
three-phase disconnection
shows the parameterization of the model used for validation
records, and Table 5-4 shows the valve characteristics of the t=63 ms C line L2151, line S phase
model. disconnected
t=645 ms Line L2151 S Phase
Reclosing
t=662ms Line L2151 S Phase
disconnected

A. Event Reconstruction Simulation Results

The reconstruction simulation of the event shows that the
frequency due to the event drops to 59.41 Hz at 14.01s after the
fault occurred, which meets the reality situation. Based on the
record of the national grid, the load rejection scheme for
minimum frequency was not activated.

Figure 5 Governor mathematical model

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Figure 8 Simulation result of rotor angle, rotor frequency and output

power of the main generators at 450MW Generation

C. Successful Reclosing Simulation Result with 450MW

Generation
In the case of the total output power of the two-generation
units reaching 450 MW before the fault occurred on the lines,
in Fig. 9 the curves of the rotor angle, frequency, and output
power are calculated. It can be seen that the output power
significantly decreases to 200MW, and the rotor angle increases
from 0 degrees to 150 degrees within 0.5 seconds. It is believed
that when the rotor angle increases by more than 90 degrees
Figure 7 Simulated frequency during the event. (accurate values should be calculated based on structural
parameters), the synchronous generator loses stable operating
B. Successful Reclosing Simulation Result with 306MW conditions. From the above power curve, the synchronous
Generation generators lose stability at 0.3 seconds and each generator
The pre-fault generator operation point is 306MW. After the output power begins to plummet to zero. The frequency curve
fault occurred, the total output power of each generation unit shows that the rotor frequency continues to rise from 60Hz
suddenly decreased from 150 MW to 70 MW simultaneously. during this process, proving that when the total output power is
The sudden drop in load leads to an increase in rotor angular 450MW, the synchronous motor loses stability. This situation
velocity. All the parameters including the rotor angle, rotor should be avoided by properly configuring the protection and
frequency and output power are seen in Fig. 8 . The above rotor control of the system. One quick solution is to implement an
angle curve shows that it rapidly increases from -10 degrees to automatic generation unit cut-off scheme in the control system.
50.18 degrees, and the rotor frequency increases from 60 Hz to
the highest 60.5Hz. Then, due to the action of the governor, the
output power of the rotor gradually increases. After 645
milliseconds when the reclosing is realized, the output power
instantly increases to 319.1 MW per unit, meaning that the total
output reaches the transient peak of 640MW. The following 10
seconds undergo periodic attenuation, and after 10 seconds, the
rotor angle and frequency gradually return to the rated
frequency. From the analysis of the above process, the
maximum transient rotor angle of the synchronous generator is
50.18 degrees, which is still within the limit of system stability.
Therefore, the system ultimately periodically attenuates the
transient overshot to achieve stability.

Figure 9 Simulation result of rotor angle, rotor frequency and output

power of the main generators at 450MW Generation

D. Successful Reclosing Simulation Result with various

Generation
The following Fig.10 shows the rotor frequency curve under
various output conditions. If both the automatic load shedding
of the national power grid at 59.2Hz and the unit output power
limit are considered, the pre-fault output power of 320MW is
the highest pre-fault output requirement.

Figure 10 Simulation result of Rotor frequency and power of the
generators at 360MW,340MWaand 320MW output
E. Successful Reclosing Simulation Result with 450MW
Generation(Not exceeding 200ms, disconnect one 225MW
unit)
To implement the automatic generation unit cut-off scheme,
the fault reconstruction and successful reclosing was simulated.
All the parameters including the rotor angle, rotor frequency
and output power are seen in Fig. 11. When the two generation
units operate at their nominal operation power of 450MW in
total before the fault, it is required to disconnect one of the
generation unit of 200MW within 200ms after the fault. The
transient simulation result shows in this situation the power
system returns to stable within 8 seconds. Although the
frequency is lower than the 59.2Hz threshold specified by the
power grid between the 0.697- and 0.780-second interval.
However, due to this short interval of only 0.031 seconds, and
if it is less than 0.150 seconds of national grid criteria to trigger
the automatic load-shedding program, it still can be considered
a stable case.
5
Figure 11 Simulation result of rotor angle, rotor frequency and
output power of the main generators in Chaglla Electrical System for
Type 1 fault and 456MW output with one unit disconneted after fault
within 200ms
V. CONCLUSIONS
The application of EMT studies has allowed the large signal
non-linear dynamic analysis of the fault event under various
generation output, fault and operation mode conditions, where it
has been possible to assess if the reclosing was successful, the
power swing is stable or unstable. The result shows that when
the two-generation unit operates at its nominal output, the fault
event may lead to an unstable power swing, where the PSD
should be installed and activated. The other solution is to cut off
one of the generation units after the fault occurred within 200ms,
so that the power system stability will be maintained. Further
work can explore the two solutions' viability.
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