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Directional Earth Fault Protection - Electrical Concepts

This document discusses directional earth fault protection in power systems. It explains that earth faults produce zero sequence current I0 that protection relays can detect. For systems with multiple sources or parallel paths, directional relays are needed. The document describes how voltage and current polarization methods provide directional features by using the zero sequence voltage V0 or current I0 as a reference phasor. It shows phasor diagrams to illustrate how faults in different directions cause I0 to lead or lag the reference phasor, allowing the relay to determine the fault direction and only operate for faults in the intended protection zone.

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sridharan
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220 views

Directional Earth Fault Protection - Electrical Concepts

This document discusses directional earth fault protection in power systems. It explains that earth faults produce zero sequence current I0 that protection relays can detect. For systems with multiple sources or parallel paths, directional relays are needed. The document describes how voltage and current polarization methods provide directional features by using the zero sequence voltage V0 or current I0 as a reference phasor. It shows phasor diagrams to illustrate how faults in different directions cause I0 to lead or lag the reference phasor, allowing the relay to determine the fault direction and only operate for faults in the intended protection zone.

Uploaded by

sridharan
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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07/03/2022, 15:03 Directional Earth Fault Protection - Electrical Concepts

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Directional Earth Fault Protection


April 12, 2016 by admin

Generally earth faults are Single Line to Ground (SLG) and Line-Line to Ground (LLG) faults.
Earth faults are characterized by the presence of Zero Sequence Curren I0. Since, except for
unbalance, normal system operation is not having Zero Sequence Current I0, much more
sensitive pick-up is possible for earth fault by using zero sequence current component I0 =
(Ia + Ib + Ic) / 3 and declaring a fault if I0 exceeds a threshold.

We know that I0 = (Ia + Ib + Ic) / 3

However, in a system with multiple sources or parallel paths, we require earth fault relays to
be directional as discussed in earlier post How to Incorporate Directional Featurein a Relay.

As we discussed in earlier post How to Incorporate Directional Feature in a Relay, that for
making a Relay directional we need Reference Phasor. The reference phasor is called as
Polarizing Quantity. For ground fault relaying both Voltage and Current Polarization can be
used.

We will consider each Voltage and Current Polarization separately for Earth Fault Protection.

Voltage Polarization:

Let the system be initially unloaded and a ground fault occur on phase A.

Therefore Ib = Ic = 0 and Ia = 3I0.

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07/03/2022, 15:03 Directional Earth Fault Protection - Electrical Concepts

For Single Line to Ground fault there is a drop in voltage of phase A while phase B and C
voltages remain unchanged. Phasor diagram for Voltage and current for SLG fault can be
drawn as below.

Voltage and Current Phasor under Single Line to Ground Fault:

In the phasor diagram only 3I0 is shown as Ib = Ic =0 and Ia = 3I0 for Single Line to Ground
fault.

Now we will find the Zero Sequence Voltage under the fault.

As V0 = (Vag+Vbg+Vcg)/3, phasor sum of Va,Vb and Vc is to be taken.

     3V0 = Vag+Vbg+Vcg, phasor sum

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07/03/2022, 15:03 Directional Earth Fault Protection - Electrical Concepts

From phasor diagram it is clear that Zero Sequence Voltage 3V0 is in phase opposition with
Vag (Phase Voltage of A). Therefore it is appropriate to take -3V0 as a reference phasor.

In normal power system V0is not present but available only during the fault. Let the
maximum torque be drawn at 60 degrees lag with respect to -3V0 phasor as shown in figure
below.

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07/03/2022, 15:03 Directional Earth Fault Protection - Electrical Concepts

As we know that Zero Torque Line is perpendicular to the Maximum Torque Line, therefore
we draw Zero Torque Line as shown in figure above.

It is then clear that zero Torque Line which separates the plane into Operate and Do Not
Operate zone leads -3V0by 30 degrees. Thus, for fault in the correct region, 3I0 lags -3V0
hence falls in operate region. If fault is behind the relay, 3I0 will lead -3V0 by about 45 to 60
degrees and hence will lie in do not operate region. Hence, earth fault directional unit will not
pick-up.

Current Polarization:

For providing direction feature in earth fault relay we can also use current as refrenec phasor
which is called current polarization. It is an alternative for voltage polarization. It does not
require an additional Potential Transformer (PT).

For balanced system,

Ia+Ib+Ic = 0, phasor sum is taken here.

Therefore, I0 = (Ia+Ib+Ic)/3 = 0 which means absence of Zero Sequence Current in balanced


system.

During ground fault say at phase A, 3I0 flows from ground to neutral of a Wye connection of
Transformer. If we assume for simplicity that Ib = Ic = 0, then 3I0 and Ia are in phase. This
indicates that directional unit for ground relay should pick-up as Ia is in phase with 3I0. Thus
we place maximum torque line at zero degrees with respect to I0 phasor. The corresponding
Operate and Do Not Operate zones are marked in figure below.

If fault is behind the relay, then the Ia will fall in Do Not Operate region and hence relay will
not pickup as Zero sequence Current through the neutral of Wye connection and Relay will
be in phase opposition.
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