2012 IEEE International Conference on Power and Energy (PECon), 2-5 December 2012, Kota Kinabalu Sabah, Malaysia

Teleprotection Simulation Lab: Understanding the

Performance of Telecommunication Aided
Protection Systems under Impaired
Telecommunication Network Conditions
1
Husni Azam Yusof Ahmad Qisti Ramli Mohd Iqbal Ridwan
2
Aminuddin Musa UNITEN TNB Research Sdn Bhd
Tenaga Nasional Berhad [email protected] [email protected]
1
[email protected]
2
[email protected]

Abstract— Protection using telecommunications, such as the Transmission grid systems often take the form of a very
current differential protection schemes, are well known for complex meshed network, making it a major challenge for the
their selectivity, sensitivity and fast operating times. Such protection engineers to design a fast, reliable, sensitive and
advantages make them a desirable choice for the selective protection system which will trip the correct faulty
protection of high voltage transmission lines. However, the line in the fastest time possible.
reliability and security of these protection schemes
depends heavily on the performance of the One of the most effective ways to improve sensitivity and
telecommunication network, which itself is subject to selectivity of any protection system is by using the aid of a
various form of impairments. Tenaga Nasional Berhad telecommunications system [1]. A telecommunication aided
(TNB), Malaysia’s electrical utility company, depends protection system would allow protection relays to
heavily on the use of current differential protection scheme communicate and exchange information between one another
to protect its high voltage transmission lines. Therefore it in real time, thus making a more accurate tripping decision in
is very important to understand how these protection a much faster amount of time. The telecommunication systems
schemes behave when the telecommunication network is which are used for this purpose is generally referred to as the
impaired. teleprotection system, and its implementation in TNB is
described in more detailed in the next section.
Learning by experience, as several tripping incidents have
shown, can be very costly and time consuming. By building In TNB, telecommunication aided protection, in particular
a teleprotection simulation lab and using it together with a the current differential protection scheme, is used as the main
real-time digital simulator for real load and fault form of protection for all its high voltage transmission lines.
conditions, the performance of these protection schemes Current differential protection is used mainly because it has
under an impaired telecommunication network can be the advantage of being very selective, sensitive to earth faults,
examined and studied in much greater detail under a easy to configure and provides fast tripping decision.
controlled lab environment. This will enhance the learning
process and allow proactive measures to be taken before Although the telecommunication aided protection has many
any unwanted incidents occur. advantages, it has one major weakness. Since its operation
relies purely on the exchange of real time information between
the relays for its correct operation, any failure or impairment
Keywords- Current differential protection; Simulation lab;
on the telecommunication network will affect the reliability
Teleprotection;
and stability of the protection system. Thus the reliability of
the protection system is basically as reliable as the
I. INTRODUCTION communication link [2].
Protection of high voltage transmission lines is extremely
critical for the stability of the electrical grid system and
ensuring a continuous supply of electricity. Fault occurring in II. TELEPROTECTION DESIGN IN TNB
any of the transmission lines must be cleared quickly and
correctly. Failure to do so may result in the lost of multiple A. Special Requirements for Teleprotection in TNB
cascading lines, and may even lead to nationwide blackout. Teleprotection system carries critical information required
for the correct operation of the protection system. Therefore it
must adhere to very strict performance criteria on reliability

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 2012 IEEE International Conference on Power and Energy (PECon), 2-5 December 2012, Kota Kinabalu Sabah, Malaysia

and dependability. TNB in particular follows the IEC 60834 TABLE II. TNB’S TELEPROTECTION SYSTEM DESIGN ASPECT AND
CONSIDERATIONS
standard [3] on the performance criteria of a teleprotection
which is summarized in Table I: Design
Adopted Technology Reasons
Aspects
• Immune against
TABLE I. DEPENDABILITY AND SECURITY REQUIREMENTS EMI
BASED ON IEC 60834-1 • Perfect electrical
isolation
Scheme Dependability Security
• No crosstalk
Transmission between fibers
Blocking >99.9% >99.9% Fiber Optics
Media • Little influence by
atmospheric
Permissive Underreach >99% >99.99% conditions
(PUTT) • High bandwidth
• Long distances
Permissive Overreach >99.9% >99.9% possible
(POTT)
• Fixed data rate
guaranteed
Intertripping >99.99% >99.9999%
• Deterministic
behaviour
Dependability is defined as the scheme should operate • Mature and proven
when it is required to operate, where security is defined as the Telecommunication TDM technology for
Technology (SDH or PDH) teleprotection usage
scheme should restrain from operating when it is not required
to do so [4]. Using the intertripping scheme as an example, the • Network resilience
(SDH)
requirements based on IEC 60834-1 can be interpreted as
• Network
follows [4]: management
1. 99.99% dependability is interpreted as the (SDH)
intertripping scheme should be 99.99% available • Internationally
at any point of time when it is required or should recognized standard
interface
have only 0.01% probability of failure at any point
• Simple
of time. implementation (2
2. 99.9999% security is interpreted as the pairs of wires only)
intertripping scheme should have 99.9999% • Galvanic isolation
Teleprotection using isolating
probability of restraining from operating during ITU-T 64k G.703
Interface Type transformers (DC
normal (no actual fault) conditions or should only isolation)
have 0.0001% probability of mal-operation during • G.703 signal
normal conditions. structure provides
Furthermore, since any delay in the teleprotection system good timing
information
would directly contribute to a delay in the protection systems
• Long cable wiring
response, the teleprotection system should also have very low distances possible
and deterministic propagation delay to ensure a fast and
reliable operation of the protection system. For TNB’s
requirements, the delay introduced by the teleprotection In the past, TNB has been using the Power Line
system must be less than 10ms. Communication (PLC) as the main communication medium
for teleprotection purposes. The system was used mainly for
inter-tripping and permissive schemes such as the Permissive
B. TNB’s Teleprotection System Architecture Underreach Transfer Trip (PUTT) distance protection scheme.
To achieve the dependability and security requirements in However, this system has a limited bandwidth capability
IEC 60834-1, TNB has adopted a cluster of technologies on the which makes it unsuitable for current differential protection.
three main design aspects of the teleprotection system which Furthermore, it is also more susceptible to interference and
are transmission media, telecommunication technology and noise.
interface type. Table II describes the technologies chosen for
the design aspects and states the reasons of the technology Since the early 1990s, TNB has upgraded its teleprotection
selection. system using the Optical Ground Wire (OPGW) and the All-
Dielectric Self Supporting (ADSS) fiber optics as the main
communication medium. The use of fiber optics allows much
higher bandwidth suitable for current differential applications,
and is also more immune to noise and electromagnetic
interferences.

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 2012 IEEE International Conference on Power and Energy (PECon), 2-5 December 2012, Kota Kinabalu Sabah, Malaysia

The Plesiochronous Digital Hierarchy (PDH) technology was not possible to simulate such situation during
was originally used as the main transmission equipment. The the investigation.
PDH technology are developed using the Time Division Therefore, it is imperative for TNB to have a facility to
Multiplexing (TDM) technique, which has deterministic simulate the behavior of teleprotection system which can also
network behavior suitable for teleprotection requirement [1]. be utilized to perform investigations when similar incident
The multiplexing capabilities also allow more than one occurs.
application to be used on the same fiber. Therefore other
applications such as SCADA, remote metering, voice and as A. Objectives of Teleprotection Simulation Laboratory
well as other corporate applications can be transmitted over
The previous incidents have shown the need for better
the same fiber. The PDH network was later upgraded to the
understanding on how a protection system performs under the
Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH) to give higher
various types of impairment that may be experienced by the
bandwidth and better network management.
teleprotection channel. The past experience only gives a small
indication of what could go wrong with the protection system
A dedicated primary multiplexer is then used to interface
whenever the network is not behaving as expected.
to the protection relay. The primary multiplexer operates at
Furthermore, learning by experience can be very costly and
the 2Mbps E1 level and provides a 64kbps ITU-T G.703
time consuming. It is much better if the system can be
interface to the protection relay for current differential
analyzed methodically under a controlled lab environment.
protection schemes or to a teleprotection signaling equipment
for intertripping and permissive schemes.
With this view in mind, TNB Research Sdn Bhd, a
subsidiary of TNB, has decided to develop a teleprotection
However, most of the current differential protection relays
simulation lab, in order to facilitate and meet the following
in TNB uses various different types of interface, including
objectives:
proprietary optical interfaces. Therefore an external converter
is normally required to convert the relay’s interface into the
1. To simulate real network conditions for accurate
64kbps ITU-T G.703 interface. Figure 1 shows the overview
assessment of protection systems under various load
of a typical TNB’s teleprotection system architecture.
conditions using the Real Time Digital Simulator
(RTDS)
2. To evaluate the performance of protection systems
under impaired telecoms network condition
3. To evaluate various different teleprotection designs,
configurations and interfaces for better performance.
4. To acquire more knowledge and understanding on the
behaviour of the current differential protection
schemes under a safe and secure lab environment
5. To assist in the troubleshooting process for future
incidents
6. To evaluate the use of Ethernet over SDH as the
WAN network technology of choice for the future
IEC 61850-90 standard.
B. Laboratory Design and Architeture
Figure 1. Typical TNB’s Teleprotection System Architecture
The teleprotection simulation laboratory is designed to
III. TELEPROTECTION SIMULATION LABORATORY follow the existing teleprotection setup in TNB and is shown
in Figure 2. Two bays are used to represent two remotely
TNB has encountered several incidents which involved the
located substations. The SDH equipment is used as the main
abnormal behavior of teleprotection system and its related
components. Some of the incidents are: telecommunication transmission equipment, with two STM-1
optical links connecting the two bays. The first link is a direct
1. Single ended switching has caused an point to point connection, while the second link goes through a
asymmetrical delay between the send and receive digital SDH Network Impairment Emulator. The network is
paths. This has resulted in the wrong operation of basically configured as a ring network, with the SDH Network
protective relays. Impairment Emulator simulating a large SDH network. The
2. Current differential protective relay mal-operating SDH is equipped with 16 x 2Mbps E1 interfaces for legacy
under a normal (no fault) condition. Investigations TDM circuits and 4 x 10/100Mbps FE interface for Ethernet
revealed an interface converter was faulty and this over SDH (EoSDH) circuits.
may have caused a misinterpretation of the
corrupted telegram by the current differential
relay. However, this finding was inconclusive as it

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 2012 IEEE International Conference on Power and Energy (PECon), 2-5 December 2012, Kota Kinabalu Sabah, Malaysia

Figure 2. Architecture of TNB Teleprotection Simulation Laboratory

C. Laboratory Function and Features
The primary multiplexer (PMUX) act as the teleprotection The teleprotection simulator is able to provide
interface to the protection relays. The PMUX is equipped with teleprotection channel via four different interfaces:
8 x 64kbps G.703 interface and 4 x IEEE C37.94 optical
interfaces for connection to the current differential relays. The 1. 2Mbps G.703 E1 interface
Protection Signalling Equipment (PSE) provides 4 x 110/48V 2. 64kbps G.703 co-directional interface
I/O port which can be used to connect to the relay’s I/O port for 3. Nx64kbps IEEE C37.94 optical interface
intertrip and permissive signals. Besides connecting the PMUX 4. 4 x 110/48V I/O port for teleprotection signalling
directly to the laboratory’s SDH equipment, there is also an interface
additional option of connecting the teleprotection equipment
directly to TNB’s existing telecommunication network via an In addition, the teleprotection simulator also provides
E1 circuit whenever required.
10/100Mbps FE interface for future testing using IEC61850
At the moment, the laboratory is designed for a two over an EoSDH WAN.
terminal protection system, although a three terminal system
can also be created in the future by simply adding a third The SDH equipment performs basic SDH functions such
similar communication bay, if required. The actual picture of as add-drop multiplexing and cross connect functions, as well
the teleprotection system simulator is shown in Figure 3. as standard network protection features such as the Sub-
Network Connection Protection (SNCP) and 1+1 Multiplex
Section Protection (MSP).

Network delays and impairment are simulated using the

Spirent SDH Network Impairment Emulator. The emulator is
able to simulate several network impairment conditions such
as:

1. Propagation delay up to 600ms in 1us increments

2. Asymmetrical delay up to 600ms in 1us increments
3. Bit Error ranging from 10-12 up to 10-3
4. Loss of Frame
5. Loss of Signal

Figure 3. Teleprotection System Simulator in TNB

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 2012 IEEE International Conference on Power and Energy (PECon), 2-5 December 2012, Kota Kinabalu Sabah, Malaysia

IV. APPLICATION OF TELEPROTECTION SIMULATION the WAN connectivity and test the new IEC 61850-90
LABORATORY configurations for better understanding.

A. Provide actual network delays for protection system V. PRELIMINARY TEST RESULTS
performance analysis
The teleprotection simulation lab is currently being used to
The teleprotection simulation laboratory is located inside evaluate the performance of a 2-terminal current differential
the TNB IEC 61850 System Verification and Simulation (SVS) protection scheme using the G.703 co-directional 64kbps
laboratory in TNB Research Sdn Bhd which houses the
communication protocol.
existing Real Time Digital Simulator (RTDS). The RTDS is
used to evaluate the performances of various protection
schemes under several load and fault scenarios. Previously, The initial test consists of benchmarking the relay
protection relays are connected back-to-back while the various performance when using an error free G.703 64kbps channel.
load and fault scenarios are generated by the RTDS as input Next, the G.703 64kbps channel is impaired by introducing a
into the relays. However, performance of telecommunication high bit error (1.0x10-3) using the teleprotection network
aided protection scheme depends heavily on simulator.
telecommunication performance, in particular the propagation
delay. The teleprotection simulator will be able to simulate this The test uses the RTDS™ equipment to simulate various
delay and thus the performance of such protection schemes can different line faults, such as single phase-to-ground faults and
be more accurately examined and analyzed. phase-to-phase internal faults. The faults generated by the
RTDS™ equipment is then amplified and fed into the current
differential relays. The preliminary results for a typical phase-
B. Understanding the performance of different protection to-phase internal fault are as given below:
relays under impaired telecommunications condition
There are many different types of relays currently in used in
TNB. Past experiences have shown that different relays
perform differently when operating under an impaired network
condition. By using the teleprotection simulator, various
different kinds of relays currently in service can be tested
against different telecommunications impairment scenarios to
better understand the behaviour of each relays. This will help in
the operation and maintenance of existing protection system in
TNB.

C. Evaluating different kinds of teleprotection interfaces and

configurations for optimum stability and performance
There are many different ways to design and configure a
teleprotection network. An SDH circuit for example can be
configured as a bidirectional circuit, unidirectional circuit, non- Figure 4. Snapshot of the COMTRADE file generated when the Current
protected, protected with revertive features or protected with Differential relays are tested using an error free G.703 64kbps channel
non-revertive features. The teleprotection interfaces can also be
of various types, such as the 64k G.703 co-directional, 2Mbps
G.703 E1, 64kbps IEEE C37.94 or Nx64kbps IEEE C37.94
interface. Until previously, TNB has no method of gathering
empirical data for assessing which teleprotection configuration
yields the best result in terms of protection system performance
and stability. Using the teleprotection simulator, proper test can
be conducted under a controlled lab environment to properly
evaluate and assess these different configurations.

D. Providing the WAN connectivity required to evaluate

IEC61850-90
Currently, the SVS laboratory is focused more on testing
IEC61850 within a local substation. However, the new released
IEC 61850-90-1 has extended the communication over the
Wide Area Network (WAN) [6]. One of the ways this
communication link can be achieved is by using the Figure 5. Snapshot of the COMTRADE file generated when the Current
“tunneling” approach [5]. By using the Ethernet over SDH Differential relays are tested using a high bit error G.703 64kbps channel
features available in the SDH equipment, the teleprotection
simulator will be able to provide the “tunneling” required for

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 2012 IEEE International Conference on Power and Energy (PECon), 2-5 December 2012, Kota Kinabalu Sabah, Malaysia

Table III below gives a comparison of the relay tripping systems, as well as finding ways to further improve the
times when it is error free and when subjected to a high bit reliability and performance of TNB’s teleprotection system.
error channel:
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
TABLE III. COMPARISON OF THE RELAY TRIPPING TIMES DURING ERROR
FREE NETWORK AND HIGH BIT ERROR NETWORK The authors would like to thank TNB Research Sdn Bhd
for providing the fund for the development of the teleprotection
G.703 64k Network Condition Relay Trip Time
system simulator. The authors would also like to acknowledge
PESTECH Sdn. Bhd. for their assistance in the setup and
Ideal Network (Error Free) 26ms
configuration of the teleprotection system simulator
High Bit Error (1.0x10-3) 89ms
REFERENCES

The preliminary tests results indicate that the current [1] CIGRE JWG 34/35.11, “Protection Using Telecommunications”,
differential relays would still be able to detect an internal fault CIGRE Technical Brochure, 2000
and operate correctly, even during a high bit error condition in [2] O. Rintamaki and J. Ylinen, “Communicating Line Differential
Protection For Urban Distribution Networks”, China International
the telecommunications network. However the tripping time Conference on Electricity Distribution, December 2008
becomes much slower when there is a high bit error condition [3] IEC 60834-1 Standard, “Teleprotection Equipment of Power Systems
in the telecommunications network. - Performance and Testing - Part 1: Command systems”, Ed. 2, 1999
[4] S.Ward, T. Dahlin and W. Higinbotham, “Improving Reliability for
VI. CONCLUSION Power System Protection”, 58th Annual Protective Relay Conference,
Atlanta, GA April 28-30, 2004.
The teleprotection simulation lab will allow TNB research
[5] C. Brunner and F. Steinhauser, “Application of IEC 61850 for
and development team to comprehensively test and evaluate Protection Communication between Substations”, PAC World, June
the performances of various telecommunication aided 2011
protection schemes under a controlled lab environment. The [6] IEC 61850-90-1 Standard, “Use of IEC 61850 for the Communication
data gathered from these test results are important for TNB to between Substations”, Ed.1, 2010
better understand the behavior of the existing protection

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