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Different types of line protections

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Different types of line protection

There are different types of line protections suitable for different
applications. The requirements on and the possibility for
different types of line protection is dependent of different
factors:
• System earthing: High impedance earthing or Effectively
earthing
• Voltage level: What is the economical value of correct fault
clearance
• Network structure: Meshed or radial
• History: What protection system is used in the past
The fault clearance system shall detect and initiate trip of line
fault that can occur.

Reasons for faults

Different types of faults can occur in the power system such as
short circuits, phase-to-earth faults and two or single-phase series
faults.
The shunt faults (short circuits and phase-to-earth faults) often
result in very large fault currents and large voltage drop. It is
important that these faults are tripped rapidly to minimise the
thermal stress of equipment and to ensure transient stability.
Series faults, which often are due to malfunction of one or two
breaker poles, normally result in small fault currents. A series
fault normally results in the occurrence of zero sequence current
in the power system. Zero sequence current gives disturbances to
telecommunication. Due to the low fault current level it is not
necessary to have a very rapid tripping of this type of fault.
Different types of faults on transmission lines can occur due to
different reasons. Below some of them are described. Also the
types of faults, caused by the particular reason, are described.
Lightning is in many power systems the most common cause of
shunt faults. A flash of lightning can cause an overvoltage wave
on either phase conductors or earthed equipment, e.g., shield
wires. This can happen even if the lightning does not hit the
phase conductor or shield wire directly. The result will be that
the insulation between the phase conductor and the earthed
equipment cannot be maintained for the voltage wave caused by
the lightning. The voltage wave can have amplitude of more than
one MV and a rise time of a few microseconds. The result will
be that an arc, feed from the power system, will occur. The only
way to extinguish the arc, in an effectively earthed system, is to
disconnect the line from the grid for a time long enough for the
air to deionize.

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Different types of line protections
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Lightning can cause all different types of shunt faults (three-

phase short circuit, phase-to-phase short circuit, two-phase-to-
earth short circuit and single phase-to-earth short circuit).
Switching of equipment can, especially in power systems with a
very high system voltage (>400 kV), cause overvoltages. In the
case of reduced insulation capacity of the insulating material (air,
cable insulation, transformer oil, etc.) switching of equipment
such as transmission lines or capacitor banks can result in a fault.
This fault will usually develop to an arcing fault shunt fault with
a large fault current.
Pollution can cause a reduction in isolating capacity of the air.
Pollution in combination with humidity can further decrease the
isolating capacity.
Salt storms result in salt covering on insulator chains of
transmission lines. This covering can be considered as a type of
pollution and can, in combination with humidity, result in a low
isolating capacity. Because of this an arcing fault will arise.
Growing trees or other vegetation can cause fault on
transmission lines. If a tree grows so high so that the distance
between a phase conductor and the tree is much shorter than the
insulator chain of the line, the appropriate voltage withstand
cannot be maintained. An arc will arise between the phase
conductor and the tree. Usually this will result in a single phase-
to-earth fault. Even if the arc resistance is fairly low the total
fault resistance, which also includes the resistance of the tree and
the earthing resistance of the tree, can be very high. Therefor the
fault current is often quite low for this fault type. Because of this
it is very difficult for the protective relays to detect the fault. The
most effective protective relays, to detect this kind of faults, are
the overcurrent relays measuring the residual (zero sequence)
current on the transmission lines. Such a relay can be given a
very low current setting because no, or a very small, residual
current will flow at normal operation.
Damage can be the cause of some faults in the power system.
Usually damage will result in shunt faults with low fault
resistance.

Below different types of line protection are presented. The

application is discussed.

Phase overcurrent protection

Phase overcurrent protection is the most simple line protection to
be used in power systems. The protection can be used as short
circuit protection in high impedance earthed systems and
effectively earthed systems. In effectively earthed systems the
protection can also clear phase to earth faults.
The phase overcurrent protection is given one or more current
setting values:
• Pick-up current: the smallest current for protection function
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Different types of line protections
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• Functional current corresponding to a certain operation delay

• Functional value for instantaneous protection function
The time delay characteristics for the phase overcurrent relay can
be chosen in different ways:
• Instantaneous function: trip without intentional delay
• Definite time characteristics: trip after definite time setting
• Current dependent time delay (inverse time characteristics).
There are several standard time-current characteristics
• Any combination of instantaneous, constant time and inverse
time function
The phase overcurrent relay can also have either directional/non-
directional function. For the directional function the protection
must be fed with a polarizing voltage in order to distinguish
between faults in forward and backward direction.
For correct operation the phase overcurrent protection must be
given setting values chosen with great care. This is due to the
fact that the fault current will vary as the operational conditions
in the power system change. Also the load current must be
considered in the choice of current setting.
The phase overcurrent protection is mostly used as short circuit
protection in radial networks. It can also be used in meshed
networks, but in this case the coordination to other protections in
the system is often very difficult.
As the phase overcurrent protection is a non-unit protection it
can be used as a back-up for other types of protections, for
example unit protections such as differential protections.
An advantage with phase overcurrent protection is that the
protection itself is simple and therefor non-expensive.
A disadvantage is that the fault current level varies as the
operation conditions in the power system change. Therefor the
reach of the phase overcurrent protection varies with operation
conditions. The setting must be based on comprehensive network
calculations.

Residual overcurrent protection

Residual overcurrent protection can be used as phase to earth
fault protection in both effectively earth and high impedance
earthed systems. The protection is fed from current transformers
in summation coupling or from cable current transformers where
the core surrounds all the three phases. This means that the zero
sequence current, out on the line is fed to the protection. In
effectively earthed systems the current setting is in the same
range as the setting of phase overcurrent protection. In high
impedance earthed systems the protection has a current setting
significantly lower than the phase overcurrent protection (lower
than the load current). The residual overcurrent protection is
given one or more current setting values:
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Different types of line protections
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• Pick-up current: the smallest current for protection function

• Functional current corresponding to a certain operation delay
• Functional value for instantaneous protection function
The time delay characteristics for the phase overcurrent relay can
be chosen in different ways:
• Instantaneous function: trip without intentional delay
• Definite time characteristics: trip after definite time setting
• Current dependent time delay (inverse time characteristics).
There are several standard time-current characteristics
• Any combination of instantaneous, constant time and inverse
time function
The residual overcurrent protection can also have either
directional/non-directional function. For the directional function
the protection must be fed with a polarizing voltage in order to
distinguish between faults in forward and backward direction.
The polarization voltage is normally the zero sequence voltage.
This voltage is often fed from a group of phase voltage
transformers where the secondary windings are connected as a
broken delta to the protection.
For correct operation the residual overcurrent protection must be
given setting values chosen with great care. This is due to the
fact that the fault current will vary as the operational conditions
in the power system change. The load current does not influence
the choice of current setting.
The residual overcurrent protection is used as phase to earth fault
protection in radial as well as meshed networks.
As the residual overcurrent protection is a non-unit protection it
can be used as a back-up for other types of protections, for
example unit protections such as differential protections.
An advantage with residual overcurrent protection is that the
protection itself is simple and therefor non-expensive.
A disadvantage is that the fault current level varies as the
operation conditions in the power system change. Therefor the
reach of the residual overcurrent protection varies with operation
conditions. The setting must be based on comprehensive network
calculations.

Distance protection
The distance protection is the most commonly used protection
for meshed sub-transmission and transmission networks. The
protection is connected to the three phase current and voltage
transformers of the line to be protected. An alternative is to use
the busbar voltage transformers. The distance relay makes a
decision if the impedance from the terminal to the fault point is
within a characteristic area of the complex impedance plane. The
impedance can be defined as the ration between voltage and

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Different types of line protections
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V
current. Z = The choice of voltage (phase-phase or phase-
I
earth) is dependent of the fault type to be detected.
The design and ability of a distance protection relay vary
between different types. The hardware of the distance relay can
be of the following types:
• Electromechanical relays. This is the oldest type of distance
relay and the function is based on magnetic forces in balance
relays. Electromechanical relays have very complicated
mechanical design.
• Static electronic relays. This type of distance relays uses
analogue electronics. The phase comparison principle is
mostly used. The technique is based on time measurement
between zero-crossings of sinusoidal quantities.
• Digital computer based relays. In this type of relay the input
quantities (voltage and current) are sampled. The sampled
values are processed in the relay to check the locus of the
apparent impedance to the fault point.
For correct judgement of the apparent impedance different faults
loops are available, depending on the fault type. The impedance
to be studied by the protection can be defined as:
V faultloop
Z apparent =
I faultloop

We have the following fault loops for the different fault types:

Fault Voltage Current

R-Earth VR IR + Kn ⋅3I0
S-Earth VS IS + Kn ⋅3I0
T-Earth VT IT + Kn ⋅3I0
R–S VR - VS IR - IS
S–T VS - VT IS - IT

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T–R VT - VR IT - IR
R-S–T Any phase- Corresponding phase current
earth voltage Corresponding phase-phase
any phase- current
phase voltage
R-S-T– Any phase- Corresponding phase current
Earth earth voltage Corresponding phase-phase
any phase- current
phase voltage

It can be seen that for phase to earth faults a factor Kn is included

in the description of the fault loop. This factor reflects the
difference between the positive sequence and zero sequence
impedance of a transmission line. Kn is defined as:
Z 0 − Z1
Kn =
3 ⋅ Z1
Where Z0 is the zero sequence impedance of the line and Z1 is
the positive sequence impedance. The definition is valid for a
single circuit line. For a double circuit line, with mutual coupling
to between the lines the factor will be more complicated.
As showed above 6 different detection loops must be available to
detect all types of faults.
The distance protections are divided into the types full scheme
protection and switched mode protection, depending on the way
to use the fault loops.
• Full scheme protection: All the six fault loops, for each zone,
are always active. If, at a fault, the apparent impedance of
any fault loop enters the trip area the protection will operate.
• Switched mode protection. Only one protection unit is
available for all the fault loops. In case of a fault the fault
type and the involved phases are recognized by special
starting elements. Depending on which starting elements that
detect a fault the appropriate fault loop voltages and currents
are fed to the protection unit. This type of distance protection
is mostly used for electromechanical and analogue static
relays. Most digital computer based relays are of the full
scheme type.
Another factor that differ the distance relays from each other are
the number of zones to be used. The number of zones is in the
range 2 – 5. The different zones have different impedance reach
and different time delay. The use of the zones can be described:
Zone 1: The impedance reach is set to cover almost the whole
protected line (about 85% of the line impedance). Normally the
trip from zone 1 is undelayed.
Zone 2: The impedance reach is set to cover whole the protected
line and the remote busbar, with some margin (> 120% of the

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Different types of line protections
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line impedance). Normally the trip from zone 2 has a short delay
(about 0.4 s).
Zone 3: The impedance reach is set to cover a remote back-up
zone (for example adjacent lines) with some margin. Normally
the trip from zone 3 has a short delay (about 0.8 s).
Zones 4 and 5: The impedance reach is set to cover a remote
back-up zone (for example adjacent lines) with some margin.
Normally the trip from zone 4 and 5 has a longer delay than zone
3. Zones 4 and 5 can also be used for special functions such as
reverse looking zones in blocking communication schemes.
The characteristics of the impedance zones of the distance relays
differ between the distance protections. The most common
characteristics are:
• The mho circle
• Any type of polygon
As the distance protection is a non-unit protection it can be used
as a back-up for other types of protections, for example unit
protections such as differential protections.
The distance protection is also very commonly used in protection
schemes using communication such as blocking schemes and
permissive under- and overreach schemes.
An advantage with the distance protection is that the reach is
almost independent of the fault current level.

Differential protection
The differential protection is the often used as protection for
short lines in meshed distribution, sub-transmission and
transmission networks.
The principal function of the differential protection is very
simple. All current flowing into the protected zone is put into the
protection. In normal operation and in case of an external fault
the instantaneous sum of all currents into the protected object
will be zero. In case of an internal fault there will be a
differential current, which is a criterion for operation of the
differential protection.
The line differential protection must have exchange of data with
the remote terminal (terminals) of the line. The instantaneous
current values are sent to one (master-slave system) or to all
terminals (master-master system). The requirements on the
communication media are therefor quit hard. For line differential
protections the following communications are used:
• Galvanic wire: Applicable for relatively short distances only
• Optic fibre communication
The line differential protection can be described as follows:
• The protection is an absolutely selective unit protection. This
means that it will only detect and give trip for faults within
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Different types of line protections
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the protected zone, between the two current transformers

feeding the protection. The protection shall not give function
for faults outside the protected zone. Therefor a line
differential protection can not serve as remote back-up
protection for other lines, transformers, etc. in the power
system.
• The function of the line differential protection is normally
undelayed.
• The charging current of a line will be seen as a differential
current of the protection. This must be considered in the
choice of current sensitivity of the protection.
• Difference between the current transformers feeding the line
differential protection can give a false differential current. A
special case is when one of the current transformers saturates
at a fault outside the protected zone (line). The design of the
line differential protection must be done so that unwanted
trips are prevented in such cases.
• There is always a risk that the communication link between
the line ends will be lost. In such cases the line differential
protection must be blocked. Therefor there should be a local
back-up protection operating without need of
communication.
• The line differential protection can be of the phase
segregated or non-phase-segregated type. For a phase
segregated line differential protection the differential current
for each of the three phases is measured. This means that
information of each phase current has to be transferred
between the line ends. For a non-phase-segregated line
differential protection the phase currents are combined to
one measurement quantity. The differential current is
dependent of the fault type.

Phase comparison protection

The phase comparison protection is an absolute selective type of
protection. The function is based on comparison between the
phase angles of the currents flowing through the two line bays.
The function can be explained as follows. When the current has a
positive half period a signal is sent to the remote line end. If the
received signal coincide with a negative half period this is
classified as an external fault (see the figure below).

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Different types of line protections
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External fault

I1 I2

I1

I2

If the received signal coincide with a positive half period this is

classified as an internal fault (see the figure below) and the line
is tripped.

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Internal fault

I1 I2

I1

I2

The line differential protection has the following properties:

• The protection is an absolutely selective unit protection. This
means that it will only detect and give trip for faults within
the protected zone, between the two current transformers
feeding the protection units at each line end. The protection
shall not give function for faults outside the protected zone.
Therefor a phase comparison protection can not serve as
remote back-up protection for other lines, transformers, etc.
in the power system.
• The function of the phase comparison protection is normally
undelayed.
• The charging current of a line will give a phase angle
difference between the currents at the two line ends. This
must be considered in the choice of angle difference setting
of the protection.

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• Difference between the current transformers feeding the line

differential protection can give a false phase angle
information. A special case is when one of the current
transformers saturates at a fault outside the protected zone
(line). The design of the phase comparison protection must
be done so that unwanted trips are prevented in such cases.
• There is always a risk that the communication link between
the line ends will be lost. In such cases the phase comparison
protection must be blocked. Therefor there should be a local
back-up protection operating without need of
communication.
• The phase comparison protection can be of the phase
segregated or non-phase-segregated type. For a phase
segregated phase comparison protection the phase angle of
the current for each of the three phases is measured. This
means that information of each phase current angle has to be
transferred between the line ends. For a non-phase-
segregated phase comparison protection the phase currents
are combined to one measurement quantity.

Travelling wave protection

When a fault occurs on a transmission line, the abrupt changes of
charging on the line will give traveling waves (voltage and
current) from the fault point to the line ends as shown in the
figure.

Wave Wave
velocity v velocity v

By comparison of the polarity of the current wave and the

voltage wave the direction to the fault point can be detected.
With a simple communication between the line ends the
traveling wave protection can serve as a unit protection with
directional comparison. The wave propagation velocity v is
dependent of the line parameters:
1
v= m/s
L ⋅C
Where L is the line inductance (H/m) and C is the line shunt
capacitance (F/m).

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Different types of line protections
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Also the traveling wave protection is a unit protection using

communication between the line ends.

Application of different types of line protection

The choice of line protection is dependent of the primary power
system and of tradition. For different types of lines the following
can be said about the line protection.
Radial lines in high impedance grounded systems. Normally
simple phase overcurrent protection is used as phase to phase
short circuit protection. Non-directional function is normally
used. As the overcurrent protection is a non-unit protection the
selecticity between different protection is achieved by different
time delay. Constant time delay as well as dependent (inverse)
current time delay can be used. In some special cases, when the
load current is large compared to the fault current to be detected
by the protection, distance protection can be used as phase to
phase short circuit protection.
In some radial systems the lines (often cables) are very short.
This is the case for sub-transmission and distribution systems
within urban areas. In such systems it is difficult to enable
selectivity and short fault clearance time by using overcurrent
protection. Current differential protection is often used in those
applications.
For phase to ground faults very sensitive residual overcurrent
protection is normally used. To achieve selectivity normally
constant time delay of the protections is used.
Radial lines in effectively grounded systems. Normally simple
phase overcurrent protection is used as phase to phase and phase
to ground short circuit protection. Non-directional function is
normally used. As the overcurrent protection is a non-unit
protection the selectivity between different protection is
achieved by different time delay. Constant time delay as well as
dependent (inverse) current time delay can be used.
Single circuit lines in meshed high impedance grounded
systems. Overcurrent protection with or without directional
function can be used as phase to phase short circuit protection. It
is however very difficult to achieve selectivity with such a
protection system. The settings must be based on a large number
of fault calculations. Distance protection is therefor used more
often as phase to phase short circuit protection in such systems.
For phase to ground faults very sensitive residual overcurrent
protection is normally used. To achieve selectivity normally
constant time delay of the protections is used.
Single circuit lines in meshed effectively grounded systems.
The most common protection for such lines is to use distance
protection both for phase to phase short circuits as well as for
phase to ground faults. If undelayed fault clearance is a
requirement for all line faults the distance protection uses some
kind of communication scheme.

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Different types of line protections
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Alternative protections used for the lines are current differential

protection and phase comparison protection.
Overcurrent protection, with delayed operation, can be used as
back-up protection.
Lines with mutual zero-sequence mutual impedance (e.g.
double circuit lines). There are some special problems related
with selective fault clearance on lines with mutual zero-sequence
impedance. In case of faults with connection to ground the reach
of distance and residual overcurrent protection is dependent of
the fault point. For a fault at the remote busbar, with the parallel
line in operation, a distance protection or a residual overcurrent
protection will underreach. On the other hand, with a phase to
ground fault at the parallel line a distance protection or a residual
overcurrent protection will overreach. This must be considered in
the setting of a distance or residual overcurrent protection.
Another solution is to use a current differential protection.
Multi terminal lines. If distance protections are used for multi
terminal lines, it can be difficult to assure selectivity at the same
time as all faults on the line are tripped fast enough. The
following protection schemes can be used to realize selective and
fast clearance of the line faults on multi terminal lines:
• Distance protections with communications scheme
• Distance protection with direct intertrip
• Current differential protection with multi current input
Series compensated lines. If a series capacitor is situated close
to one line terminal there is a risk that a distance protection will
detect some of the line faults to be in the reverse direction, as the
impedance to the fault point is capacitive. To assure selective
and fast fault clearance the following protection schemes can be
used:
• Distance protection with logic to detect and compensate for
series compensation
• Traveling wave protection
• Current differential protection
Lines with weak end infeed. Sometimes the fault current infeed
from one terminal is so small that the protection (e.g. distance
protection) can not operate. In such cases a special
communication scheme can be used for the distance protection.

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