Radial Feeder

Protection
by
N.Sarveshwar
G.Ravikumar
Panimalar Institute of Technology
 What is a Feeder?
• Overhead lines or cables which are used to
distribute the load to the customers. They
interconnect the distribution substations
• This is an electrical supply line, either overhead or
underground, which runs from the substation,
through various paths, ending with the transformers.
It is a distribution circuit, usually less than 69,000
volts, which carries power from the substation. with
the loads.
 Types of feeders
• Radial feeder
• Ring main feeder
• Parallel feeder
 Radial feeder
• It has only one path between each customer and the
substation.
• The power flows exclusively away from the substation
and out to the customer along single path, which if
interrupted results in complete loss of power to the
customer.
Why Protection Is Important?
• The modern age has come to depend heavily
upon continuous and reliable availability 0f
electricity and a high quality of electricity too.
Computer and telecommunication networks,
railway networks, banking and continuous power
industries are a few applications that just cannot
function without highly reliable power source.
• No power system cannot be designed in such a
way that they would never fail. So, protection is
required for proper working.
 Basic Requirements of
Protection
• A protection apparatus has three main functions:
1. Safeguard the entire system to maintain continuity of
supply
2. Minimize damage and repair costs where it senses
fault
3. Ensure safety of personnel
• Protection must be reliable which means it must be:
1. Dependable: It must trip when called upon to do so.
2. Secure: It must not trip when it is not supposed to.
 Basic Requirements of
Protection
• These requirements are necessary for early detection
and localization of faults and for prompt removal of faulty
equipment from service.
• Selectivity: To detect and isolate the faulty item only.
• Stability: To leave all healthy circuits intact to ensure
continuity or supply.
• Sensitivity: To detect even the smallest fault, current
or system abnormalities and operate correctly at its
setting before the fault causes irreparable damage.
• Speed: To operate speedily when it is called upon to
do so, thereby minimizing damage to the
surroundings and ensuring safety to personnel.
 What Is Fault?
• A fault is defined as defect in electrical systems due
to which current is directed away from its intended
path.

• It is not practical to design and build electrical

equipment or networks to eliminate the possibility of
failure in service. It is therefore an everyday fact that
different types of faults occur on electrical systems,
however infrequently, and at random locations.
 Classification of faults
• Faults can be broadly classified into two main areas
which have been designated as
• Active faults
• Passive faults
 Active Faults
• The ‘active’ fault is when actual current flows from one
phase conductor to another (phase-to-phase), or
alternatively from one phase conductor to earth.

• This type of fault can also be further classified into two

areas
• Solid Fault
• Incipient Fault
 Passive Faults
• Passive faults are not real faults in the true sense of the
word, but are rather conditions that are stressing the
system beyond its design capacity, so that ultimately
active faults will occur. Typical examples are:
• Overloading leading to over heating of insulation
• Overvoltage
• Under frequency
• Power swings
Basic Fault Clearing Mechanism
• The main requirement of line protection is

1. In the event of short circuit, the circuit breaker near

to fault should open and all other circuit breakers
remain in closed position.
2. If the circuit near to fault fail to trip, back up
protection should be provided by the adjacent circuit
breaker.
3. The relay operating should be the smallest possible
in order to preserve system stability without
unnecessary tripping of circuits.
 Types of protection
• The need to analyze protection schemes has resulted in
the development of protection coordination programs.
Protection schemes can be divided into two major
groupings:
• Unit schemes
• Non-unit schemes
 Non unit type protection
• The non unit type protection system
includes following schemes:
– Time graded over current protection
– Current graded over current protection
– Distance or Impedance Protection
 Over current protection
• This is the simplest of the ways to protect a line and
therefore widely used.
• It owes its application from the fact that in the event of
fault the current would increase to a value several times
greater than maximum load current.
• It has a limitation that it can be applied only to simple
and non costly equipments.
 Earth fault protection
• The general practice is to employ a set of two or three
over current relays and a separate over current relay for
single line to ground fault. Separate earth fault relay
provided makes earth fault protection faster and more
sensitive.
• Earth fault current is always less than phase fault current
in magnitude. Therefore, relay connected for earth fault
protection is different from those for phase to phase fault
protection.
Earth fault protection
 Time graded protection
• This is a scheme of over current protection is one in
which time discrimination is incorporated. In other words,
the time setting of the relays is so graded that minimum
possible part of system is isolated in the event of fault.
• We are to discuss the application of the time graded
protection on
– Radial feeder
 Protection of radial feeder
• The main characteristic of the radial feeder is that power
can flow in one direction only from generator to supply
end of the load line.
• In radial feeder number of feeders can be connected in
series and it is desired that smallest part of the system
should be off in the event of fault.
• This is achieved by time graded protection.
• In this system time setting time setting of a relay is so
adjusted that farther the relay from the generating
system lesser the time of operation.
 Drawbacks of time graded
protection
• The drawbacks of graded time lag over
current protection are given below:
– The continuity in the supply cannot be maintained at
the load end in the event of fault.
– Time lag is provided which is not desirable in on short
circuits.
– It is difficult to co-ordinate and requires changes with
the addition of load.
– It is not suitable for long distance transmission lines
where rapid fault clearance is necessary for stability.
 IDMT Relay
• In time graded protections IDMT (Inverse definite
minimum time) relays are used.
• As the name implies, it is a relay monitoring the current,
and has inverse characteristics with respect to the
currents being monitored. This relay is without doubt one
of the most popular relays used on medium- and low-
voltage systems for many years, and modern digital
relays’ characteristics are still mainly based on the
torque characteristic of this type of relay.
IDMT relay
It can be seen that the operating time of an IDMTL relay is
inversely proportional to function of current, i.e. it has a
long operating time at low multiples of setting current and
a relatively short operating time at high multiples of setting
current.
 Current graded protection
• It is an alternative to time graded protection and is used
when the impedance between two substations is
sufficient.
• It is based on the fact that short circuit current along the
length of protected length of the circuit decreases with
increase in distance between the supply end and the
fault point.
• If the relays are set to operate at a progressively higher
current towards the supply end of the line then the
drawback of the long time delays occurring in the graded
time lag system can be partially overcome.
 DISTANCE OR IMPEDANCE
PROTECTION
• A distance relay, as its name implies, has the
ability to detect a fault within a pre-set distance
along a transmission line or power cable from its
location.
• BASIC PRINCIPLE
The basic principle of distance protection
involves the division of the voltage at the relaying
point by the measured current. The apparent
impedance so calculated is compared with the reach
point impedance. If the measured impedance is less
than the reach point impedance, it is assumed that a
fault exists on the line between the relay and the
reach point.
BASIC PRINCIPLE OPERATION OF IMPEDANCE RELAY
 Three stepped distance
protection
• Zone 1
First step of distance protection is set to reach
up to 80 to 90% of the length of the line section. This
is instantaneous protection i.e. there is no
intentional delay
• Zone 2
second zone is requires in order to provide primary
protection to remaining 10 to 20% of the line and a
cover up to 50% of the next line section. The
operating time of this zone is delayed so as to be
selective with zone 1.
 Three stepped distance
protection
• Zone 3
The third zone is provided with an intention to give
full back up to adjoining line section. It covers the
line of the section, 100% of the next line section and
reaches farther into the system. The motivation
behind the extended reach of this step is to provide
full back up to the next line section. Its operating
time is slightly more than that of zone 2.
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