Power System Protection

Professor A K Pradhan
Department of Electrical Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur
Elements and Features of Protection Scheme
Lecture 02

Welcome, today in this session we will talk on the lecture 2, the introductory part.

(Refer Slide Time: 0:40)

In this, we will talk on Elements and Features of Protection Scheme specifically we will
address on the functionalities of different elements in their protection scheme, different
relaying principles and their features on different protection schemes.
(Refer Slide Time: 1:06)

So, we know the usage of fuse that we use in our house wiring also so whenever there is a
fault or a short circuit in the circuit, then the current becomes high and the fuse is blown out.
So, in that case the faulted part becomes isolated from the rest and the rest of the circuit
remains intact. Repair the faulted portion and then replace the fuse that circuit also can be
restored.

Now, fuse is very comprehensive and easy to and a very cost effective solution for protection
but it has limitation in terms of current interrupting capability and therefore it is not suitable
for high voltage applications. In that case, circuit breaker and relays are being used, the tasks
of circuit breaker is to isolate the circuit it provides a physical isolation of the faulted circuit.

Relay makes the command to the circuit breaker to be opened as and when required. Come to
this circuit two buses connected through a transmission line and this line is to be protected by
this protection arrangement. Here, we have the circuit breakers which is to be open in case of
fault at any point in the line, this circuit breaker is being actuated by this relay. The relay
takes signals of the system through this sensor and the relay and the circuit breaker are being
actuated by this battery, the battery provides the required power to this arrangement.

Going into details of the circuit, if you see here this relay take signals from the voltage
transformer, otherwise called as potential transformer and also from current transformer. So,
using these signals the relay makes a decision regarding the fault in the line or not, and if
decision is a trip decision, then this path will be closed. So once that is so, the battery supply
the corresponding current to the trip coil and the trip coil opens the circuit breaker and
thereby the corresponding fault can be successfully intervened. In this arrangement we see
that there are two important components, the relay and the circuit breaker, the relay takes
time for a decision, actuates the circuit breaker, and the circuit breaker opens. So in terms of
time we have two aspects; relay decision time and the circuit breaker opening time.

Therefore, the time for fault clearing, from fault inception till the clearance of the fault
equals to relay decision time plus the circuit breaker opening time. So, by a faster decision,
we can clear the fault early. The circuit breaker also can intervene the fault at earlier, then
also we can add the advantage of the clearing the fault early.

(Refer Slide Time: 5:49)

Now come to an example, on this aspect, so in a system there is a phase-B-to-ground fault

and a relay that is numerical relay records the event. See in this case U1, U2 and U3 are the
voltages for the RYB phases, where I1, I2, I3 are the corresponding currents. Now if you see
the plots corresponding to I1, I2 and I3, phase B current suddenly jumps up to a very high
magnitude, this means that this is the inception of the fault and the fault continues.

Now this you see here that the relay trips. The trip signal of the relay is being actuated here,
it becomes high and from the fault inception to the trip signal this time elapse you can say 26
millisecond. So the relay decision time from fault inceptions to the trip signal generation
comes out to be 26 millisecond (ms) here for this 50 Hz system application.

(Refer Slide Time: 7:10)

Now, following the trip signal, the circuit breaker starts opening and after sometime it
successfully intervenes the fault. So you see here in that phase B where the fault current was
high, now suddenly comes out to be 0, the fault is successfully intervened. Now following
that you see here in the phase voltages also, the voltages also comes out to be 0, therefore the
circuit breaker has successfully isolated the faulted part. So, this fault means the trip, trip
circuit, relay trip command till the circuit breaker opening this is nothing but the circuit
breaker opening time and that is what I can say in this case comes out to 70 ms time.
(Refer Slide Time: 8:07)

So in total we see from fault inception till the opening of the circuit breaker successfully.
This total time is nothing but fault clearing time and the fault clearing time in this case comes
out to be 26 ms for the relay decision time and 70 ms for the circuit breaker opening time:
total is 96 ms. This 96 ms for the 50 Hz system, where each cycle consists of 20 ms,
consequently 5 cycles corresponds to 100 millisecond, comes out to be less than 5 cycle
period of time.

So we see that in this case that the fault clearing time is controlled by the relay decision time
and the circuit breaker opening time. Circuit breaker gives us physical isolation, mechanical
functioning actuated by the relay, so that takes 2-3 cycles and the rest period you can say that
in general it taken by the relay decision time.
(Refer Slide Time: 9:17)

Going more into this protection scheme, we have breaker, we have the relay actuated by the
DC supply we have sensors voltage transformers and the current transformers. In addition to
that, today numerical relays are having a facility to communicate the information to other
relays or any substation devices or they can also receive information from other relays also to
have a better decision making for the protection.

So, this communication helps in total system protections perspective much better, and that is
why the decision process becomes more improved one. The different communication
facilities that can be incorporated in such a protection scheme can be dedicated fibre optic,
can be telephone line or also can be a power line carrier communication based approach or
so.
(Refer Slide Time: 10:33)

So, we say that there are different elements in a protection schemes like relays, breaker,
sensors, communication channel, DC supply systems and the control cables connecting to
such devices in a protection scheme. The instrument transformer are the sensors, basically we
have two types that are current transformers and the voltage transformer. Current
transformers scale down the current to a suitable level because relay is a small signal device
to make it more cost-effective and this provides you can say that a magnetic isolation from
the high voltage system; voltage transformer similar to that scale down the voltage to a lower
voltage level compatible to the relay and then also we can say that a galvanic isolation is
being provided by the VT from the high voltage system.

The different functionalities of these elements in the protection system, the relay detects the
fault, makes a decision, triggers the trip circuit which commands the circuit breaker, it can
store information on the fault aspect voltage current samples and it can have a reporting
which can be very useful for the fault diagnosis and further analysis following a fault. It can
continuously monitor voltage current and other things which can be also useful in metering
purpose also. Similarly, circuit breaker interrupts the faulted path successfully where current
can be very high during that period of time. It isolates the faulted section, it provides a
physical isolation. So thereby I can say that the damage and the safety perspective are being
can be addressed.

Circuit breaker can be it needs to be reconnected to restore that line after the fault being
cleared, so circuit breakers makes and breaks a circuit. There are different types of circuit
breakers available like air brake, SF6 sulphur hexafluoride circuit breaker, vacuum circuit
breaker depending upon the medium of insulation. However, in this course will only confined
to protective relays and its different application perspective.

(Refer Slide Time: 13:39)

These elements combinely provide a protection scheme, a protection scheme has different
features which need to be looked into for a reliable operation of the protection scheme. The
first important point is the reliability, it must be reliable, the protection scheme must be
reliable otherwise at times it may fail, which implies a dangerous situation and which will
lead to destruction in a system. It should be accurate, say a protection scheme for one line,
takes a decision for a fault in another line, so that is a malfunction situation inaccurate or
improper you can say that decision situation, so that is undesirable.

Therefore, a protection system should be as accurate as possible. Fastness, speed is essential

otherwise, may lead to damage. Any system any element may fail at times, so protection
scheme for a power system may also fail, so in that case you can see that the whole protection
scheme should have a backup arrangement also.

Power system is dynamic, system condition changes always. The relay should adapt to that
system condition and during all such situations or so it should function accurately, properly
reliably. Today's numerical relays have this capability of recording data for further analysis, it
can integrate other relays in the system or in the substation through dedicated communication
system. A relay should draw minimum power from the battery, the burden to this sensors:
CTs and PTs should be as low as possible; otherwise, it will be a lossy system.
As compared to the power system cost, the cost of the protection scheme is concern from
implementation point of view, relay engineers are also concerned about maintenance of such
protection scheme, calibration, setting aspect; it should be as simple as possible. Technology
changes and with numerical technology, computer based technology is changing very fast, so
the life cycle of the relay is a concern for the decision on the protection schemes to be
implemented for an application in power system.

(Refer Slide Time: 17:01)

Relay should be reliable, reliable implies two aspects, first one is on dependability, it is a
measure of certainty that relay operates for all faults for which it is designed, that implies
whenever a fault is there in a line, a corresponding relay must take a decision; otherwise, the
fault will continue which will be detrimental. The other aspect is the security that is a
measure of certainty that the relay will not operate otherwise; the relay which is protecting a
line should not operate during normal loading condition or if the fault is beyond the line.

So, it means that, say for example to clarify on this: a 2 Ampere (A) load is there full load,
that is a device load draws 2 A full load current and we have to two ratings of fuse: 3 Ampere
or 5 ampere. Now we have to select out of these two, say for 3 A, if we select 3 A, for this
load any fault happens to be there, the fuse will take care, but if there will be momentary
overload in this circuit, then there is a chance that this 3 A fuse will be blown out which is
undesirable.

Now, if you select 5 A, then that undesirable tripping for overload can be avoided better way,
but with 5 A many faults which will have a lesser amount of current, not significant amount
of current may not be detected and fuse may not be blow out, so that becomes a challenging.
So, in this perspective when you pick up 3 A, dependability is high, but security is less.

When you pick up 5 A security is high, dependability is low, but reliability is a combination
of dependability and security. In general, protection schemes are more inclined towards
dependability; however, with today's numerical technology the overall reliability can be
enhanced and when you make a decision on which protection scheme is to be incorporated in
a system, the reliability is one of the important aspects on the decision process.

(Refer Slide Time: 20:02)

Now, on other aspects of protection scheme, let us see this circuit, substation source, we have
two sections or line. And let us say that a fault happens to be at point F. Now, in this case,
there is a clear mandate here that the relay should make a decision and trip the breaker so that
this section can be isolated and the rest of the portions including this load can be made from
this substation.

So, it means that for the fault at F the current through this R1 and R2 are will be both same;
therefore, you can say that it becomes a challenge to R1 and R2 that which one should act
first, but as you see the requirement is that R2 should act first for this case before the R1. So
there is a perspective we call selectivity, it required with that the faulted element is isolated
successfully and also reliably.

This selectivity you can say that is an important factor and this is being addressed by different
features of a protection scheme. Magnitude of current, magnitude of current when the line
sections becomes longer then the faults in different sections can be easily identified from the
magnitude of current, but if the lines sections becomes smaller, like this: 1 kilometre here and
1.5 kilometre here. Then for fault in this section or fault in this sections will lead to similar
level of current; therefore, we can say that distinction through simple magnitude may not be
possible.

Faults can be discriminated also, whether the fault is with the left or to the right or call it
upstream or downstream and that can be done through fault direction or through the
directional relay. There is another option also, that is by time grading in case of overcurrent
link principle or so. That this the relay R2 here should act fast as compared to the relay R1 for
the fault at F. So, we can have a time grading principle embedded into the relay decision
process then you can have a better selectivity solutions in that perspective

(Refer Slide Time: 22:50)

The other things that, see this circuit here, we have a transformer connecting to a source or
substation and we have a line section. This fault happens to be closed to the transformer and
we have relay protecting the transformer at R, then the relay using only the over current
principle may not be able to distinguish whether the fault is in the inside the transformer or
beyond the transformer.

So that means that we require more different principles to have a better protection for the
different elements and in this case for transformer a better protection scheme can be a
differential relay principle using sensors at the both the sides of the element. So, what you see
is that different elements and different systems may be requiring different relaying principles
and, the fault behaviour of different elements in the systems may be different and their
functionality may be different. Therefore, we need different relaying principle for better
protection of the power system elements.

(Refer Slide Time: 24:19)

In this perspective, we have numerous relaying principles available and based on that we
have different relay available; time overcurrent relay, instantaneous overcurrent relay,
directional overcurrent relay, distance relay, differential relay, frequency relay, under
frequency relay, under frequency relaying and so many others. These relays are we can say
have a device number like here, 51 for time overcurrent relay and 50 for instantaneous
overcurrent relay, 21 for distance relay and so. These are in terms of IEEE standard and they
are being widely used by the protection engineers.
(Refer Slide Time: 25:05)

We have a different areas, sections allocated to different protection schemes, like the
generator portion is being protected by an arrangement of the protection, the transformer
being protected by another one, and these line sections can be protected by different
protection schemes. So these protection regions are divided into different parts; you can say
that as different zones, but note that these zones must be over lapping because not an inch of
the section in the power system should be left out from the protection. Otherwise if a fault
happens to be there, and the fault will continue and that will be detrimental to the system.

In this perspective the different zones can be classified into two categories, closed type or
open type. Closed type is having sensors at both the ends; like differential relay and they are
also called as unit protection scheme. Non-unit protection type otherwise also known as open
type or open zone; you can say from the perspective that they can have sensor set only one
side like the relaying principle applications to overcurrent and distance relay.
(Refer Slide Time: 26:30)

Now see this network, source or substation, feeding to two line sections and a fault in the
second line. In this case R2 relay should actuate the breaker, and let us think of a situation
when the relay R2 fails, or the breaker fails to open, or the communication between R2 and
the breaker or the battery you can say that supply fails at this point. That means that the fault
will continue and that will lead to damage in the system and issue that life security and so.

Therefore, in case of failure of any protection schemes there must be a backup, so in this case
of fault we can say that R2 is the primary and the backup should be provided by R1 and the
corresponding circuit breaker arrangement perspective.
(Refer Slide Time: 27:39)

The other functions which are available in protection schemes, like you see here in this
example we have a fault in this lateral and then we have a recloser arrangement. Now what
the recloser does is that because in an overhead line most of the faults are transitory in nature
they remain for some time and they vanish.

Therefore, the recloser what it does that, whenever it finds a fault, it opens and again recloses
after sometime; by that time if the corresponding fault has vanished, the full system supply
can be restored automatically. So this kind of trials it makes two- three times, and by that
time if the fault has vanished, then the system has been completely restored.

And if the fault is permanent, then recloser finally opens the circuit and thereby whole system
can be without supply. The advantage of the recloser is that because most of the faults are
transitory in nature therefore the restoration becomes automatic in most of the cases and also
it helps in stability or so. But recloser is meaningful, purposeful because most of the
transitory faults are single to line ground faults but if faults happens to be three phase faults,
then they are mostly permanent.

So therefore, the recloser should able to distinguish these two. Further, in case of cable faults,
those are permanent in nature so recloser should not be used in that case. The other thing you
can say that if the fault being permanent and in that case the recloser opens; then the whole
network supply is being affected.
Now, what we see here if the fault is permanent and if we add a sectionalizer which counts
the number of reclosing, number of operation of the recloser and if the corresponding current
through this branch is high, then this sectionalizer opens the circuit when the recloser was in
the open condition that successfully isolates this portion. Thereby we can say that rest of the
network still remains intact. In addition to the protection scheme this also helps in the fault
location perspective which can pinpoint that where the fault has occurred and accordingly
you can say that the maintenance crew can restore the service as early as possible.

So, through this lesson, we see the different elements of a protection scheme, and their
features; also selectivity, reliability, zones of protection and so in terms of that. In the next
lesson, we will address on the review on the fault analysis which will be very useful in
developing the different relaying principle or so. Thank you.