PG&E 500 kV Series-Compensated Transmission Line

Relay Replacement: Design Requirements and RTDS

Testing

PG&E

Davis Erwin
Rafael Pineda
Monica Anderson

SEL, Inc.

Demetrios A.Tziouvaras
Rick Turner

1
 Present Reliability of 500kV Protection

• Existing solid-state relay systems reached

the end of their useful life
• Systems placed out-of-service because of
• Misoperations and
• Lack of replacement parts
• Risk of forcing 500kV lines out of service
• NERC could impose substantial monetary
fines
2
 Mitigation Plan

• Six lines required immediate relay system

replacement to:
• Improve reliability
• Maintain maximum availability
• Used existing protection design philosophy
on 5 of the 6 lines
• The 6th line required special considerations
not covered by this paper
3
 Project Flow

Engineering Design

Define Develop Settings

Project Scope Field Work
Based on steady-
Targeted relay state fault studies RTDS Testing
Obtain
replacement, clearances;
maintain Prove and
Develop adjust settings install and
existing commission
scheme RTDS Model
test devices
philosophy
Gather detailed
system data;
determine
boundaries

4
Relay Replacement Project

Permissive Overreaching Transfer Trip (POTT)

Set A- Dedicated Microwave
Set B or C- Switchable Carrier
Project Replacement
No high speed communication
Set D- Time Delayed Back-Up

552 -1

Set A Set B
552 -2

Set D Set C

5
 Justification for High-Speed Protection

• Improve system transient stability

• Maintain 500kV system availability
• Reduce damage to insulators and
conductors
• Permit high-speed reclosing
• Reduced Zone 1 reach in SC lines
• One level of high-speed pilot protection is
required at all times for coordination
6
Series-Compensated Line Protection Challenges
Voltage Inversion

7
Series-Compensated Line Protection Challenges
Current Inversion

8
Series-Compensated Line Protection Challenges
Subharmonic Oscillations

Zone 1 distance element overreach

X (Ohms)
4

0
-2 -1 0 1 2
R (Ohms) 9
 Options to Prevent Zone 1 Overreach

• Introduce a Zone -1 time delay – not

recommended
• Further reduce Zone 1 reach and use
RTDS testing to validate setting
• Enable SC logic to block Zone 1 for faults
beyond a SC located in front of the relay

10
 Relay Setting Considerations and Criteria

• Used steady-state short circuit fault data

to develop initial relay settings
• Steady-state short circuit program cannot
model series compensation transients
• Relay settings for SC lines should be
verified using RTDS transient testing

11
West-Generator Station Line Under Study

Line under study

12
 West-Generator Station Line
Steady-State Settings

• Used multiple short circuit study base

cases to calculate relay settings
• Determined the required base cases
using all possible bypass combinations
on neighboring line series capacitors

13
Bypassed Capacitors

14
 Steady-State Settings for West-Generator Station Line

• Determined minimum and maximum fault

currents and apparent impedances for
the line under study
• Considered additional cases because a
generator or transformer can be off-line
for extended periods
• Used an Excel macro to tabulate all of
the single outage contingencies
15
Cases Created for West-Generator Station Line

Fault Data
North – North – West –
Case South Path South West South
1
2 BP
3 BP
4 BP BP
5 BP
6 BP BP
7 BP BP
8 BP BP BP
9 BP
10 BP BP
11 BP BP
12 BP BP BP
13 BP BP
14 BP BP BP
15 BP BP BP
16 BP BP BP BP 16
External Faults Past Capacitors

17
 Series Compensation Logic
Generator Station

• Observed lower apparent impedances at

the GS for faults beyond the SCs on the
• North-West and
• South-West lines

• Used the series compensation logic to

block Zone 1 for a fault beyond a capacitor
• Applied a capacitor setting equal to the
highest XC value at the West bus
18
 Series Compensation Logic
West Station

• Enabled series compensation logic

• Set XC to “OFF”
• Allows setting the Zone 1 element to
• Desired sensitivity
• Be secure during voltage inversions for
faults on neighboring SC lines

19
Custom Secure Echo Back POTT Logic

20
 Custom Secure Echo Back POTT Logic

• Supervised logic by all poles being open

• Prohibits echo keying for subsequent out-
of-section faults that occur during single-
pole open conditions
• Feedback loop ensures that a 4-cycle
echo only occurs once per 10-cycle
period

21
 RTDS Modeling

• Accurately modeled network around the

line under test
• Created reduced network model

• Matched load flow and short circuit currents

• Modeled SC MOV and TPSC protection

• SC bypass breakers and their controls
• High-MOV energy and current bypass
• SC reinsertion controls 22
 RTDS Modeling

• Simulated single- and three-pole reclosing

controls for line under test
• Simulated relay operation and reclosing
controls for adjacent lines
• Modeled CCVT transient response
• Modeled frequency dependence of lines

23
RTDS Testing

24
 RTDS Testing

• Continuous real time with a 50 – 70 µsec

time step
• Simulator is connected directly to relays
• COMTRADE files
• Analog voltages and currents
• Monitored pertinent digital elements to
capture as discrete points in time
25
 RTDS Testing Order

• Compare RTDS fault currents with short

circuit steady-state base case
• Verify proper connections to the relays
and RTDS
• Perform manual tests for extreme
conditions
• Perform scripted tests for
• External faults
• Internal faults
26
 RTDS Manual Testing

• Verify relay operation for

• Switch on to fault
• Loss of potential and
• Faults during a single-pole trip open
interval
• Apply ground faults with varying fault
resistance
• At the zero-sequence center of the line
• Determine relay sensitivity for High-R faults
27
 RTDS Testing
Variation of Fault Inception Angle

• Tests relays with different level of dc transients

• Generates different levels of subharmonic
frequency transients

0º 90º

VA

45º
28
 Automatic RTDS Scripting

• Automates fault simulation and data

collection
• Generates thousands of test cases in a
relatively short period of time
• Software analysis tools simplify the
analysis of the large amount of data

29
Faults for One RTDS Script Test

Power Flow Cases & 4

Contingencies
Fault Locations 10

Fault Types 10

Fault Inception Angles 3

Total (4 • 10 • 10 • 3) = 1,200

30
RTDS ASCII File Discrete Points

– Reclose block and initiate

– Zone 1 pickup (phase or ground)
– Zone 2 pickup (phase or ground)
– POTT forward ground overcurrent pickup
– POTT key permissive
– POTT receive permissive
– POTT reverse element pickup
– Series compensation block Zone 1
– Out-of-step blocking (if utilizing this element)

31
 RTDS Data Capture

• Captured the operating time of the

monitored points in a text file
• Created a file for each fault location within
each tested scenario

32
 RTDS Data Manipulation

• Created an Excel workbook to assist in

the data analysis
• The workbook utilizes a VB macro
• Analyzed internal and external fault
simulation data
• Graphs illustrate important data results

33
 RTDS Internal Fault Data Manipulation
• Formatted cells indicate relay tripping
action (green) and nonaction (red)

34
 RTDS Internal Fault Data Manipulation
Relay Operating Time – Left Terminal
0.049
0.042
Seconds

0.033
0.025
0.017
0.008

Fault Location 5 (30 faults per case, 10% from generator bus)
Left Generator Terminal Zone 1 Statistics
30 30
Number of Zone 1

25 25
Operations

20 20
15 15
10 10
5 5
0 0
1I_G 2U_A 2U_C 2U_E 35
Case
 RTDS Internal Fault Data Manipulation

• Formulas calculate the results of the

Zone 1 elements for each line terminal
as a percentage of all faults simulated at
each location
• The histogram displays the effect of the
right terminal adjacent line series
capacitors on the Zone 1 reach of the
left terminal

36
RTDS Internal Fault Data Manipulation

37
RTDS External Fault Data Manipulation

38
 RTDS External Fault Data Manipulation

• The summary worksheet has two tables

• One table displays the results of the relays
for faults behind the left terminal
• The other presents the results for faults
behind the right terminal
• For each fault location, a column is
created with four rows of data

39
RTDS External Fault Data Manipulation

40
 Conclusions

• RTDS transient testing is the best method

to verify relay settings and custom logic
• Increases familiarity with applied relays
and 500kV SC system transients
• Helps to identify and improve relay designs
• Provides updated 500kV transient model
for future project work
• Ready pool of COMTRADE files for
accurate field End-to-End testing 41