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Power System Protection and control

Chapter 1 Lecturer : Leul G

MIT-MU University
 Introduction
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Need for protective system
 An electrical power system consists of a generator , transformer

,transmission and distribution lines etc.

 Short circuits and other abnormal condition often occurs on a power system

 The heavy current associated with the short circuits is likely to cause damage to

the equipment if suitable protective relays and circuit breakers are not provided

for the protection of each section of the power system

 Con’d…
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 If short circuit(fault ) occurs in an element of a power system an

automatic protective device is needed to isolate the faulty element as
quickly as possible to keep the healthy section of the power system in
normal operation.
 The fault must be cleared within a fraction of a second
 If a short circuit persist on a system for a longer time, it may cause a
damage to the important section of the system
 A heavy short circuit current may cause a fire and it may spread in the
system and damage a part of it.
 Con’d…
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 The system voltage may reduce to a low level and individual

generators in power system or group of generators in different stations
may lose synchronism

 A protective systems includes circuit breakers ,transducers (CTs and

VTs) and protective relays to isolate the faulty section of the power
system from the healthy sections.
 Con’d…
 A circuit breaker can disconnect the fault element of the system when it is called

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upon to do so by the protective relay.

 Transducers (CTs and VTs) are used to reduce currents and voltages to lower values
and to isolate protective relays from the high voltage of the power system

 The function of the protective relay is to detect and locate a fault and issue a
command to the circuit breaker to disconnect the healthy sections.

 It is a device which senses abnormal conditions on the power systems by

constantly monitoring electrical quantities of the power system ,which differ
under normal and under abnormal conditions
 Con’d…
 The basic electrical quantities which are likely to change during
abnormal conditions are current , voltage ,phases (direction), and
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frequency.

 Protective relays utilise one or more of these quantities to detect

abnormal conditions on the power system

 Protective is needed not only against short circuit but also against any
other abnormal conditions which may arise on a power system.
 A few examples are of generators and motors, overvoltage ,under frequency, loss
of excitation etc.
 Con’d…
Nature and causes of faults
 Faults are caused either by insulation failures or by conducting paths
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failures

 The failures of insulations results in short circuit which are very

harmful as they may damage some equipment of the power system

 Most of the faults on the transmission and distribution lines are caused
by over-voltages due to lightening or switching surge or by external
conducting objects falling on the overhead lines
 Protective zones
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 Protective zones
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 In power system , there is a separate

protective schemes for each elements
such as generator protection ,transformer
protection , bus bar protection ,
transmission line protection etc.

 Thus , a power system is divided into

numbers of zones for protection
 A protective zone covers one or at most two elements of a power system
 Adjust protective zone must overlap each other in such away that failing a
fault on the boundary of the zones may not lie in any of the zones
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 There are primary and back-up protection

 If a fault occurs in a particular zone , it is the duty of the primarily relay to isolate
the faulty elements

 If due to any reason , the primarily relay fails to operate ,there is a back –up
protective scheme to clear the fault as a second line of the defence

 A back-up relay operates after a time delay to give the primarily relay sufficient
time to operate
 Essential qualities of a protection
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The basic requirement of a protective systems are as follows:

 Selectivity :
 Ability to discriminate between a fault in the protected sections and the normal
conditions.

Ability to distinguish whether a fault lies within its zone of protection or outside the
zone.

 Ability to distinguish between a fault and transient conditions like a surge current or
inrush of a transformer’s magnetic current
  Reliability : Cont’d…
 A protective element must operate reliably when a fault occurs in its zone of a
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protection
 Sensitivity :
 The protective system should operate when the magnitude of the current
exceeds the preset value.
 Stability :
 A protective system should remain stable even when a large current is flowing
through its protective zone due to an external fault
 Fast operation
 Should be fast enough to isolate the fault element of the system as quickly as
possible
 Relay operating principles
 Relay is a sensing device which sense the abnormal voltage or current
in a power system and sends signal to circuit breaker to remove the
13 faulty part from rest of the power system
 When a short circuit occurs at point F on the transmission line, the
current flowing in the line increases to an enormous value
 This results in a heavy current flow through the relay coil, causing the
relay to operate by closing its contacts
 This in turn closes the trip circuit of the breaker, making the circuit
breaker open and isolating the faulty section from the rest of the
system
 Relay operating principles
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i. First part is the primary winding of

a CT which is connected in series
with the line to be protected
ii. Second part consists of secondary
winding of C.T the relay operating
coil
iii. Third part is the tripping circuit
which may be either a.c or d.c. It
consists of a source of supply, the
trip coil of the circuit breaker and
the relay stationary contacts
 Basic relays
 1
5

 Most of the relays used in the power system operate by virtue of the
current and/or voltage supplied by current and voltage transformers
connected in various combinations to the system element that is to be
protected
 Based on their construction aspect and way of operation relays can
classified into three categories , depending on the technologies they
use for their construction and operation
1. Electromagnetic and electro thermal

2. Static using -semi conductor devices

3. Microprocessor based
 Electromagnetic relay
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This types of relays are

 Operated based on the comparison between operating
torque/force and restraining torque/force
 The VA burden of such relays is high
 Each relay unit can perform only one protective
function
 Such relays are used for simple and less costly
protection purpose
 Electromagnetic relay
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 Electromagnetic relay
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 Cont’d…

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 Most of the relays in service on electric power system today are

of electro-mechanical type

 They work on the following two main operating principles

a. Electromagnetic attraction
b. Electromagnetic induction
 Electromagnetic attraction relays
• Electromagnetic attraction relays operate by virtue of an
armature being attracted to the poles of an electromagnet or
a plunger being drawn into a solenoid
• Such relays may be actuated by d.c. or a.c. quantities
• The important types of electromagnetic attraction relays are :
1. Attracted armature type relay
2. Solenoid type relay
3. Balanced beam type relay.
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 Attraction armature type relay
• Figure below shows the schematic arrangement of an attracted
armature type relay
• It consists of
a laminated electromagnet M
a coil C and
a pivoted laminated armature.
• The armature is balanced by a counter weight and carries a pair of
spring contact fingers at its end

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 Cont’d
• Under normal operating conditions, the current through the relay coil
(C) is such that counterweight holds the armature in the position of
open contact
• However, when a short-circuit occurs, the current through the relay
coil increases sufficiently and the relay armature is attracted upwards
• The contacts on the relay armature bridge a pair of stationary contacts
attached to the relay frame
• This completes the trip circuit which results in the opening of the
circuit breaker and, therefore, in the disconnection of the faulty circuit
• The minimum current at which the relay armature is attracted to close
the trip circuit is called pickup current 22
 Solenoid type relay
• Fig below shows the schematic arrangement of a solenoid type relay
• It consists of
a solenoid and
movable iron plunger

• Under normal operating conditions , the current through the relay coil
C is such that it holds the plunger by gravity or spring in the position
shown

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 Cont’d
• However, on the occurrence of a fault, the current through the
relay coil becomes more than the pickup value, causing the
plunger to be attracted to the solenoid
• The upward movement of the plunger closes the trip circuit,
thus opening the circuit breaker and disconnecting the faulty
circuit

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 Balanced beam type relay
• It consists of an iron armature fastened to a balance beam Under
normal operating conditions, the current through the relay coil is such
that the beam is held in the horizontal position by the spring
when a fault occurs, the current
through the relay coil becomes
greater than the pickup value and
the beam is attracted to close the
trip circuit
This causes the opening of the
circuit breaker to isolate the faulty
circuit
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 Induction relays
• Electromagnetic induction relays operate on the principle of induction
motor and are widely used for protective relaying purposes involving
a.c. quantities
• They are not used with d.c. quantities owing to the principle of
operation
• An induction relay essentially consists of a pivoted aluminum disc
placed in two alternating magnetic fields of the same frequency but
displaced in time and space

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 Cont’d
• The torque is produced in the disc by the interaction of one of the
magnetic fields with the currents induced in the disc by the other

• The two a.c. fluxes ϕ2 and ϕ1 differing in phase by an angle α induce

e.m.f.’s in the disc and cause the circulation currents i2 and i1
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 Cont’d
• There are three types of structures are commonly
used for obtaining the phase difference in the fluxes
and hence the operating torque in induction relays :
i. shaded-pole structure
ii. watt-hour-meter or double winding structure
iii.induction cup structure

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 Watt metric type induction- disc relay
• Robust and reliable construction
• Flux displaced in space and time
• Eddy current in the disc
• Disc rotation and driving torque
• Braking magnet to avoid over run
• Used for over current protection
• Used for slow speed relays
• Reset/ pick up ratio >95%

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 Induction cup relay
• Robust and reliable construction
• Stationary core inside rotating cup
• Spindle carries arm closes relay contact
• Spring for resetting torque
• No brake magnet
• Principle of induction motor
• Two pair coils produce rotating field
• Cup has less inertia than disc
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Force produced in an induction relay

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Moving coil relay

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 Functional relay types
• Most of the relays in service on power system today operate on the
principle of electromagnetic attraction or electromagnetic induction
• Some of special function relays are
i. Distance relays
ii. Differential relay
Distance or impedance relay
• The operation is governed by the ratio of applied voltage to current in
the protected circuit
• In an impedance relay, the torque produced by a current element is
opposed by the torque produced by a voltage element
• The relay will operate when the ratio V/I is less than a predetermined
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value
• Fig illustrates the basic principle of operation of an impedance relay
• The voltage element of the relay is excited through a potential
transformer (P.T.) from the line to be protected. The current element
of the relay is excited from a current transformer (C.T.) in series with
the line.

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 Cont’d
• The portion AB of the line is the protected zone
• Under normal operating conditions, the impedance of the protected
zone is Z
• The relay is so designed that it closes its contacts whenever impedance
of the protected section falls below the pre-determined value i.e. ZL in
this case
• Now suppose a fault occurs at point F in the protected zone
• The impedance Z (= V/I) between the point where the relay is installed
and the point of fault will be less than Z1 and hence the relay operates
• When the fault occur beyond the protected zone (say point F2 L), the
impedance Z will be greater than Z and the relay does not operate
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 Cont’d
• There are two types of distance relays in use for the protection of
power supply, namely ;
i. Definite-distance relay which operates instantaneously for fault up to
a pre-determined distance from the relay
ii. Time-distance relay in which the time of operation is proportional to
the distance of fault from the relay point. A fault nearer to the relay
will operate it earlier than a fault farther away from the relay

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 Differential relays
• It operates when the phase difference of two or more similar
electrical quantities exceeds a pre-determined value
• Most of the relays need excess of current/voltage for their
operation, because they cannot make correct distinction
between heavy fault conditions and minor fault conditions in
order to over came this difficult, differential relays are used
• There are two fundamental systems of differential or balanced
protection
1. Current balance protection
2. Voltage balance protection
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 Current balance differential relay
• Fig below shows an arrangement of an overcurrent relay
connected to operate as a differential relay
• A pair of identical current transformers are fitted on either end
of the section to be protected
• The secondary's of CT’s are connected in series in such a way
that they carry the induced currents in the same direction

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 Cont’d
• The operating coil of the overcurrent relay is connected across the
CT secondary circuit
• This differential relay compares the current at the two ends of the
alternator winding
• Under normal operating conditions, suppose the alternator winding
carries a normal current of 1000 A
• Then the currents in the two secondary's of CT’s are equal
• These currents will merely circulate between the two CT’s and no
current will flow through the differential relay
• Therefore, the relay remains inoperative
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 Cont’d

If a ground fault occurs on the alternator winding as shown in Fig below

The two secondary currents will not be equal and the current flows
through the operating coil of the relay, causing the relay to operate
 Cont’d
i. If some current (500 A in this case) flows out of one side while a
larger current (2000 A) enters the other side as shown in Fig (i),
then the difference of the CT secondary currents i.e. 10 − 2·5 = 7·5
A will flow through the relay

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 Cont’d
ii. If current flows to the fault from both sides as shown in Fig (ii),
then sum of CT secondary currents i.e. 10 + 5 = 15 A will flow
through the relay
 Cont’d
Disadvantages
i. The impedance of the pilot cables generally causes a slight
difference between the currents at the two ends of the section to be
protected. If the relay is very sensitive, then the small differential
current flowing through the relay may cause it to operate even
under no fault conditions
ii. Pilot cable capacitance causes incorrect operation of the relay
when a large through-current flows
iii. Accurate matching of current transformers cannot be achieved due
to pilot circuit impedance
 Voltage balance differential relay
• Fig below shows the arrangement of voltage balance
protection
• In this scheme of protection, two similar current transformers
are connected at either end of the element to be protected (e.g.
an alternator winding) by means of pilot wires
• The secondary's of current transformers are connected in
series with a relay in such a way that under normal conditions,
their induced e.m.f.s’ are in opposition

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 Cont’d

• Under healthy conditions, equal currents (I1 = I2) flow in both

primary windings
• Therefore, the secondary voltages of the two transformers are
balanced against each other and no current will flow through the
relay operating coil 45
 Cont’d
• When a fault occurs in the protected zone, the currents in the two
primaries will differ from one another (i.e. I1 ≠ I2) and their
secondary voltages will no longer be in balance
• This voltage difference will cause a current to flow through the
operating coil of the relay which closes the trip circuit

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 Cont’d
• The voltage balance system suffers from the following
drawbacks :
i. A multi-gap transformer construction is required to achieve
the accurate balance between current transformer pairs
ii. The system is suitable for protection of cables of relatively
short lengths due to the capacitance of pilot wires. On long
cables, the charging current may be sufficient to operate the
relay even if a perfect balance of current transformers is
attained

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 Relay setting
• An important operation of a relay is its time of operation. That is
the time from the instant when the activating element is
energized to the instant when the relay contacts are closed
• Some times it is desirable and necessary to control the operating
time the relay
• For this purpose, mechanical accessories are used with relay,
such as
a. Current setting
b. Time setting

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 Current setting
• It is often designed to adjust the pick-up current to any required
value
• This is usually achieved by the use of tapings on the relay operating
coil
• The values assigned to each tap are expressed in terms of
percentage full-load rating of CT
• The current plug setting usually range from 50% to 200% in steps
of 25% as shown figure a

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 Cont’d

• Pick up current = rated secondary current of CT * current setting

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 Cont’d
• Example: suppose that an over current relay having current setting
of 125% is connected to a supply circuit through a CT of 400/5.
The rated secondary current of CT is 5A
Therefore, the pick-up value will be 25% more than 5A
i.e. 5*1.25 = 6.25A
It means that with above current setting, the relay will actually
operate for a relay coil current equal to or greater than 6.25A

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 Time setting
• A relay is generally provided with control to adjust the time of
operation
• This adjustment is known as time setting multiplier
• The time setting indicator is calibrated from 0 to 1 in steps of 0.05

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 Types of protection

• When a fault occurs on any part of electric power system, it

must be cleared quickly in order to avoid damage (interference)
with the rest of the system
• It is a usual practice to divide the protection scheme in to two
class
a. Primary protection
b. Buck up protection

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 Primary protection
• It is the protection scheme which is designed to protect the
component parts of the power system
• In figure below, each line has an over current relay that protects
the line
• If the fault occurs in any line, it will be cleared by its relay and
circuit breaker

26-Feb-20 54
 Cont’d

• However, sometimes faults are not cleared by primary relay

system because of trouble with in the relay, wiring system or
breaker
• Under such conditions, back up protection does the required job 55
 Back up protection
• It is the second line of defense in case of failure of the primary
protection
• It is designed to operate with sufficient time delay so that primary
relaying will be given enough time to function
• If the line fault is not cleared by its relay and breaker the next relay
will operate after a time delay and clear the entire group of lines

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 Static type relay
• Comparison or measurement of the electrical quantities performed by
a static circuit
• The static circuit gives an output signal for the trip of a circuit breaker
• A static relay employs semiconductor diodes , transistors ,thyristors,
logic gates,etc
• Comparison or measurement of the electrical quantities performed by
a static circuit
• The static circuit gives an output signal for the trip of a circuit breaker
• A static relay employs semiconductor diodes , transistors ,thyristors,
logic gates etc

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 Merits and Demerits of static relay
Advantage of static relay over electromagnetic
• Low burden on the CTs and PTs
• Fast response
• Long life
• High resistance to shocks and vibrations
• Less maintenance due to the absence of moving parts and bearings
• Quick resetting and absence of overshoot
• Compact size
• Greater sensitivity as amplification can be provided easily

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 Merits and Demerits of static relay
Disadvantage of static relay over electromagnetic

• Static relay are temperature sensitive

• Sensitive to voltage transients
• Need an auxiliary power supply

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 static relay
Comparator

• When a fault occurs on the system , the magnitude of voltage and

current ,phase angle between current and voltage may change
• The static relay circuit is designed to recognize the changes and to
distinguishes between healthy and faulty conditions.
• Either of the stated parameters are compared and a trip signal is
sent to the circuit breaker
• The part of the circuit which compares the two actuating
quantities either in magnitude or phase is called comparator

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 Microcontroller based relay
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• Now a days fast and sophisticating µp at low prices are

available
• In the power system ;results fast , accurate and reliable
protectively
• Provides protection at low cost and competes with
conventional relays
 Over current protection
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• A protective relay which operates when the load current

exceeds a preset values , is called a over current relay

• The value of the preset current above which the relay

operates is known as its pick-values
• Overcurrent relays is used for the protection of the
distribution lines, large motors and power equipment's
 Over current protection
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• over current relays are fed from current

transformer
• When the current through the relay exceeds
the preset values the relay operates and
actuates the trip of the circuit breaker
• Isolating the faulty section from the bus bar.
 Over current protection
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Time-current characteristics
• Definite time over current relay
• Operates after predetermined time when the
current exceeds its pick up value
• Definite curve in the fig shows the time-current
characteristics of this type relays
• The operating time is constant ,irrespective of the
magnitude of the current above the pick up values.
• There is an intentional time delay set provided in
the relay unit
 Over current protection
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Time-current characteristics
• Instantaneous Over current relay
• Operates as soon as the current in
the coil exceeds higher than the
preset values
• There is not intentional time delay
set
• There is always an inherent time
delay of the order a few seconds
 Over current protection
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Time-current characteristics

• Inverse time over current relay

• Operates when the current exceeds the its pick-up values.
• The operating time depends on the magnitude of the current.
• The operating time decrease as the current increases
• The inverse current in the previous slide, shows the time-current
characteristic of this type of relay
 Over current protection
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Over current protective scheme

• Overcurrent protective schemes are widely used for the
protection of distribution lines.
• A radial feeder may be sectionalized and two or more
overcurrent relays may be used
• For proper selectivity of the relays, one of the following
schemes can be employed , depending on the system condition
I. Time grade system
II. Current grade system
III.A combination of time and current grading
 Over current protection
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Over current protective scheme

• Time-graded system:

• n the this scheme defined time current relays are used

• When the definite-time relay operates for a fault current , it starts a time unit
which trips the circuit breaker after a preset time, which is independent of the
fault current
• The operating time of the relay is adjust in increasing order from the far end the
feeder as depicted in the time graded diagram before.
• The difference in time setting of two adjacent relay is usually kept at 0.5s.
• This difference is to cover the operating time of the circuit breaker and errors in
the relay and C.T.
 Over current protection
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Over current protective scheme

• As shown in the fig , if fault occurs beyond C, the

circuit breaker at the substation C should trip.
• The circuit breaker A and B shouldn’t operate as far as
the normal operation is concerned
• If the circuit breaker at C fails to operate , the circuit
breaker at B should trip as a buck-up protection
• Similar if faults occurs between C and B , circuit
breaker B should trip. The circuit breaker at shouldn’t
operate
 Over current protective scheme

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• The least time setting is for the relay placed C, so it operates after 0.5s and the
fault is cleared
• Now the relays at A and B are reset
• If the relay or circuit breaker at C fails , the fault remains unclear. In this situation
,after 1s ,the relay at B will operate and the circuit breaker at B will trip
• If the circuit breaker at B also fails to operate , after 1.5s , the circuit breaker at A
will trip
• The draw back of this scheme , is that for faults near the power source , the
operating time is more
• This scheme is suitable for a system where the impedance(distance) between the
substation is low
 Over current protection
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Over current protective scheme

• Current graded-System
• In a current graded scheme , the relays are set to pick-up at
progressively higher values of current towards the sources .
• The relays employed in this scheme are high set instantons
over current relay
• The operating time is kept the same for all relays used to
protect different sections of the feeder
• The long time delay occurring in the time-graded can be
partly avoided
 Over current protection
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Over current protective scheme

• Fig illustrates the protection of the
radial feeder with instantaneous over
current relay
• For a fault beyond C relay at C
actuated. For fault between C and B ,
protective relay at B is actuated. For
fault between B and A relay at A is
actuated
 Over current protection
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Over current protective scheme

 Over current protection
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Over current protective scheme

Difficulties (i)The relay at A is not able to differentiate between

faults very close to B which may be either side of B. If a fault in section BC is

very close to station B,the relay at A understands that is in section AB.

This happens due to the fact that ,there is very little difference in fault currents

if a fault occurs at the end of the section AB or in the beginning of section BC

 Over current protection
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Over current protective scheme

Difficulties:
(ii) The magnitude of the fault currents cant be accurately determined as the

circuit parameters may not be known

(iii) During a fault ,there is a transient condition and the performance of the
relay is not accurate
 Over current protection
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Over current protective scheme

• Therefor, to obtain discrimination only about 80% lines protected by relay
at one section.

• Since only 80% of line is protected this system should be supplemented by

time graded inverse definite minimum time relay system.

• (b), the fault currents for different type faults are different ,this bring a
certain difficulty