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G U I D E F O R M S P EC I F I C AT I O N

Transformer Protection and Control RET620

Numerical transformer protection
in medium voltage networks
The configurable transformer management relay is intended for
protection, control, measurement and supervision of two-winding power
and step-up transformers, including power generator-transformer blocks,
in medium voltage utility and industrial power distribution systems.

Mechanical and construction details Protection functions

• The relay shall have compact dimensions not Differential protection for two-winding
exceeding 4U in height. The depth of the relay transformers
shall, without any additional raising frame, not • The relay shall have stabilized (biased) differential
exceed 160 mm when flush mounted so as not to protection (87T) with two independently settable
foul with other equipment mounted inside the stages. The stabilized low-set stage shall provide
cabinet. The weight of the relay must not exceed fast fault clearance while remaining stable when
6 kgs to permit use of optimized sheet metal high currents are passing through the protected
thickness in construction of panels. zone, which increases current measurement errors.
• The relay shall support flush, semi-flush, rack and The instantaneous high-set stage shall provide
wall mounting options. very fast clearance of severe internal power
• As flush mounted, the relay shall meet the IP54 transformer faults with a high differential current
ingress protection requirements on the front side regardless of their harmonics content. The operate
and IP20 on the rear side and connection time of the instantaneous stage shall be less than
terminals. 25 ms.
• To facilitate quick unit replacement, the relay • The necessary adaptation to the current ratios and
design shall be of draw-out type with secure vector groups shall be made using software (with
current transformer (CT) shorting. It shall be internally settable adaptation for CT ratio
possible to quickly replace a faulty unit with a matching and vector group) and all current inputs
spare without disturbing the majority of the (1A and 5A) shall allow direct connection to the
wiring. The mean time to repair (MTTR) shall be main CT, i.e. no interposing current transformers
less than 30 minutes. for matching transformer group and main CTs
• To prevent unauthorized detachment of the relay ratio shall be required.
plug-in unit, the relay shall be provided with an • The differential protection functions shall be
integrated seal. provided with a 2nd harmonic blocking to avoid
• The relay shall have a graphical display with at least tripping at magnetizing inrush when the
7 rows of characters and up to 20 characters per transformer is energized either from the HV or LV-
row. side and with a 5th harmonic restraint to avoid
• The HMI shall include at least 16 freely configurable tripping at overexcitation. It shall be possible to
push buttons with integrated status LEDs. set the blocking and unblocking levels for the 5th
harmonic restraint to manage excessive
overvoltage situations.
• The relay shall detect CT saturation conditions and
prevent the differential protection from
malfunctioning during external faults.
• The biased stage of the differential protection
shall have a fully adjustable three-section restraint
characteristic to manage measuring errors due to
CT errors and tap changer position.
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• The relay shall be able to eliminate the zero- • The relay shall have two separate non-directional
sequence current from the measured current. earth-fault (50N/51N) stages for remote earth-
Elimination of the zero-sequence current shall be faults and internal transformer earth-faults. The
possible for either the HV or LV winding or both. operation characteristic of the low and high-set
• Tap changer position compensation shall be stages shall be settable to either definite time (DT)
included to enable more sensitive settings to be or inverse definite minimum time (IDMT),
used. The correction of the transformation ratio sup¬porting various types of inverse curves,
due to changing tap changer positions shall be including a user-definable one.
done automatically based on the tap changer • The number of overcurrent and earth-fault
position information. elements shall be available for the LV and HV-side
respectively. It shall be possible to select the
Restricted earth-fault protection number of started phases for overcurrent
• The relay shall have both high-impedance (87NH) operation, either one, two or all three phases.
and low-impedance (87NL) restricted earth-fault • The relay shall include two negative-sequence
protection, freely selectable for both the HV and overcurrent protection (46) stages settable
LV-side. between 0.01 and 5 times pu.
• The stabilized restricted low-impedance earth-
fault protection (87NL) shall be based on the Overload protection
numerically stabilized differential current principle • The relay shall include three-phase thermal
and the neutral-current second harmonic shall be overload protection (49T) and shall protect the
used for blocking the function in a transformer transformer mainly from short-time overloads. The
inrush situation. No external stabilizing resistors protection shall be able to utilize either one or two
or non-linear resistors shall be required. The time constants, which shall be selectable.
operating characteristics shall be according to the • To protect the generator and turbine from the
definite time mode. harmful effect of excessive power/motoring, the
relay shall have reverse power/directional
Backup protection overpower protection (32R/32O).
• The relay shall have three separate non-directional • The relay shall have overexitation (V/Hz) protection
overcurrent (50/51) stages settable between 0.05 (24) to protect the generators and power
and 40 times pu. The operation characteristic of transformers against an excessive flux density and
the low and high-set stages shall be settable to saturation of the magnetic core.
either definite time (DT) or inverse definite • The relay shall have temperature supervision to
minimum time (IDMT), supporting various types of monitor the thermal behavior of the transformer
inverse curves, including a user-definable one. The windings and cooling oil.
instantaneous stage shall support the peak-to-
peak measurement mode and include a possibility
to introduce a dedicated two-times setting value
peak detection for fast operation in conditions
when the current transformers have saturated.
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Other protections • The relay must have an option include manual and
• The relay shall have comprehensive voltage automatic voltage regulation (90V) of power
protection, including at least overvoltage (59), transformers with a motor-driven on-load tap-
undervoltage (27), positive-sequence undervoltage changer. The voltage regulator function shall have
(47U+), negative-sequence overvoltage (47O-) and the following features:
residual overvoltage (59G) protection. -- Parallel operation of up to four power
• The relay shall have six-stage frequency (81) transformers
protection. The frequency shall be measured using -- Parallel operation modes according to master-
the positive-sequence voltage. It shall be possible follower, minimizing circulating current and
to set each stage individually to operate based on negative reactance principles
underfrequency, overfrequency or rate-of-change -- Support for necessary data exchange between
of frequency. relays using IEC 61850-8-1 GOOSE messaging
• The relay shall have two-stage directional phase when power transformers are running in parallel
overcurrent protection (67) with voltage memory -- Line drop compensation for both single power
and positive and negative-sequence polarization. transformers and transformers running in
• The relay must have two-stage directional earth- parallel
fault protection (67N) with selectable negative and -- Out-of-step supervision for followers in the
zero-sequence polarization. I0 and U0 shall be master-follower mode
derived either from the phase voltages and -- Possibility to apply reduced set-point voltage
currents or from the measured neutral current and setting in case of a temporary power shortage
residual voltage. within the supplying network
• The relay shall have arc protection based on -- Both definite time (DT) and inverse definite
simultaneous detection of current and light. minimum time (IDMT)-based time delay modes
During maintenance work at the substation, it shall for the tap-changer steptimer. This allows either
be possible to change the operation criteria to a fixed time delay or an inverse time delay, based
light only via a binary input. on the difference between the measured and the
• The relay shall support local and remote control of target voltage level, to be applied for the step-
circuit breakers and motor operated timer.
disconnectors/earthing switches. The relay shall -- Fast lowering feature that is activated when a
provide status indication for manually operated specific set voltage value is exceeded due to
disconnectors/earthing switches. large load rejection. In this case, the voltage
• The relay shall have circuit breaker failure regulator drives the on-load tap-changer to
protection (51BF/51NBF) including independent reach the desired LV-side voltage as fast as
timers for repeated tripping of the same breaker possible.
and back-up tripping of the upstream breaker. The -- Blocking of the operation in an overcurrent
function shall allow higher selectivity by avoiding situation
tripping of the upstream breaker if the repeated -- Blocking of the operation in case the measured
tripping of the breaker closest to the fault is voltage is too low to be regulated by the tap-
successful. changer
-- Supervision of the tap-changer response to the
given control command and issuing of an alarm if
the performance is not within the set
performance limits
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Inputs and outputs Measurements, alarms and reporting

• The relay shall have at least 8 binary inputs • The relay shall provide comprehensive
and at least 13 binary outputs and all of them measurement of three-phase currents and
freely configurable. Optionally, it must be voltages (fundamental or RMS-based as
possible to add 8 more binary inputs and 4 selectable options) with an accuracy of
more binary outputs. ±0.5% and zero, negative and positive-
• To enable direct tripping of the circuit sequence current and voltage measurement
breaker, the relay must have 2 double-pole with an accuracy of ±1% within the range of
power output relays with integrated trip- ±2Hz of the nominal frequency. Power
circuit supervision (TCS). The two power measurement (P, Q & S) shall be provided
output relays shall be rated to make and with in the accuracy of ±1.5% and Power
carry 30 A for 0.5 s with a breaking capacity Factor measurement shall have an accuracy
of ≥1 A (L/R<40 ms). of ±0.015.
• To enable fast direct tripping of the circuit • To collect sequence-of-events (SoE)
breaker, the relay must have 3 optional high- information, the relay must include a non-
speed binary outputs with an operate time of volatile memory with a capacity of storing at
≤ 1 ms. The binary output contacts shall be least 1024 event codes with associated time
rated to make and carry 30 A for 0.5 s with a stamps.
breaking capacity of ≥1 A (L/R<40 ms). • The relay must support the storage of at
• The threshold voltage of the relay’s binary least 128 fault records in the relay’s non-
inputs shall be settable to 16...176 V DC. volatile memory.
• The binary inputs of the relay shall, when • The fault record values must at least include
energized, utilize a higher inrush current to phase currents, phase voltages, zero,
facilitate the breaking of possible dirt or negative and positive-sequence currents and
sulfide from the surface of the activating voltages, and the active setting group.
contact. • The relay shall have a disturbance recorder
• The relay shall offer at least two RTD inputs supporting a sampling frequency of 32
and one mA input. Additionally, the relay shall samples per cycle and featuring up to 12
also offer six optional RTD inputs and two analog and 64 binary signal channels.
mA inputs. • The relay’s disturbance recorder shall
• The phase current inputs and the residual support not less than 6 three-second
current input of the relay shall be rated 1/5 A. recordings at 32 samples per cycle for 12
The selection of 1 A or 5 A shall be software- analog channels and 64 binary channels.
based. • The relays shall support up to 100
disturbance recordings.
• The relay must have a load profile recorder
for phase currents and voltages supporting
up to 12 selectable load quantities and more
than 1 year of recording length. The load
profile recorder output shall be in
COMTRADE format.
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Communication Engineering and configurability

• The relay must support IEC 61850 Edition 1 and • The relay must have 6 independent settings
Edition 2. groups for the relevant protection settings (start
• The relay must support, besides IEC 61850, value and operate time). It must be possible to
simultaneous communication using one of the change protection setting values from one setting
following communication protocols: Modbus® group to another in less than 20 ms from the
(RTU-ASCII/TCP), IEC 60870-5-103 or DNP3 (serial/ binary input activation.
TCP). With external adapter it shall support • The relay must have a web browser-based human-
Profibus where needed. machine interface (WHMI) with secured
• The relay must have an Ethernet port (RJ45) on the communication (TLS) and shall provide the
front for local parametrization and data retrieval. following functions:
• The relay shall support up to five IEC 61850 (MMS) -- Programmable LEDs and event lists
clients simultaneously. -- System supervision
• For redundant Ethernet communication, the relay -- Parameter settings
shall offer either two optical or two galvanic -- Measurement display
Ethernet network interfaces with HSR and PRP-1. -- Disturbance records
• The relay shall have a third Ethernet port for -- Phasor diagram
providing connectivity of any other Ethernet -- Single-line diagram (SLD)
device to an IEC 61850 station bus inside a -- Importing and exporting of parameters,
switchgear bay. sequence-of-event (SoE) information and
• The relay must support IEC 61850 GOOSE disturbance records
messaging and meet the performance • When a protection function is disabled or removed
requirements for tripping applications (<10ms) as from the configuration, neither the relay nor the
defined by the IEC 61850 standard. configuration tool shall show the function-related
• The relay shall support sharing analog values, such settings.
as temperature, resistance and tap positions using • The relay HMI and configuration tool shall have
IEC 61850 GOOSE messaging. multilingual support.
• The relay must support IEEE 1588 v2 for high- • The relay HMI and configuration tool shall support
accuracy time synchronization (< 4 µs) in Ethernet- both IEC and ANSI protection function codes.
based applications. The relay shall also support the • The relay shall have at least 11 freely configurable
SNTP (Simple Network Time Protocol) and IRIG-B and programmable two-color LEDs.
(Inter-Range Instrumentation Group - Time Code • The relay must have at least 10 user-configurable
Format B) time synchronization methods. local HMI views including measurements and SLDs.
• The relay must support IEC 61850-9-2LE process • The relay shall have a graphical configuration tool
bus for sending sampled values of currents and for the complete relay application including multi-
voltages. level logic programming support, timers and flip-
flops.
 • The relay configuration tool must include online Type tests and other compliance requirements
visualization of the relay application state. • The relay shall have an operating temperature
• It must be possible to keep the relay configuration range of -25 … +55 ⁰C and transport/storage
tool up-to-date using an online update temperature range of -40...+85 ⁰C.
functionality. • The relay must fulfill the mechanical test
• The relay configuration tool shall support viewing requirements according to IEC 60255-21-1, -2 and
of relay events, fault records and visualization of -3, Class 2 for vibration, shock, bump and seismic
disturbance recordings. compliance.
• The relay configuration tool must include the • The relay’s maximum DC auxiliary power
complete relay documentation including operation consumption shall be less than 20 W (all inputs
and technical details. activated and over the full supply range).
• The relay configuration tool must include • The relay must have an IEC 61850 Edition 1
functionality for comparing the archived certificate from an accredited Level A testing
configuration to the configuration in the relay. laboratory.
• The relay configuration tool must allow • The relay must have an IEC 61850 Edition 2
configuration of IEC 61850 vertical and horizontal certificate from an accredited Level A testing
communication including GOOSE and sampled laboratory.
values. • The relay must fulfill the electromagnetic
• The relay configuration tool must support compatibility (EMC) test requirements according
importing and exporting of valid IEC 61850 files to IEC 60255-26.
(ICD, CID, SCD, IID). • The relay must be tested according to the
• The relay configuration tool must be compatible requirements of the IEC or an equivalent standard.
with earlier relay versions. • The relay must be certified by independent test
laboratories for marine applications.

Additional information
For more information, please contact your local ABB
representative or visit our website at:
www.abb.com/substationautomation
www.abb.com/mediumvoltage

1MRS758531 B © Copyright 2018 ABB. All rights reserved.

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