Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
Application Oriented Testing of Line Differential Protection Devices Theory and Practice
Cord Mempel / Michael Albert, OMICRON, Austria
Abstract
Conventional testing of modern protection devices with
their numerous functions and configuration options
results in more and more complex test sequences.
Frequently this involves an increasing amount of time
spent on protection testing. The approach of application-oriented testing requires only a limited effort and
furnishes easily understandable and plausible statements about whether the protection device fulfills its
operational function or not. In contrast to conventional
parameter testing, this test is based on power system
parameters rather than the specific relay settings.
This approach is explained with the example of line
differential protection. Testing for protection devices of
various manufacturers is performed using an identical
test sequence which guarantees the function of the
protection devices at their location in the field. The
differences between conventional parameter tests and
the new application-oriented test approach are discussed.
Keywords: Application-oriented testing, deviceindependent test templates, black box testing, simulation, parameter test.
Introduction
The intervals of innovation in protection engineering
have become short. Along with the ever more powerful
but also ever more complex protection devices, automated test templates become more and more important
for commissioning and maintenance of protection
devices (e.g. upgrading to new firmware version).
For this purpose, the OMICRON "Protection Testing
Library" (PTL) provides a powerful library of relayspecific test templates which adjust themselves automatically to the specific relay settings [1].
Nevertheless such an automated test template only
covers the main functions of the protection device and
only a subset of the protection settings of these functions.
Checking the protection parameters
had only a few parameters, but each of these parameters intervened in the circuit by means of particular
components. Figure 1 shows an example of such a
circuit. The arrows indicate examples of points where
settings intervene by means of potentiometers, pins or
mechanically operated contacts.
Application-oriented testing
The application-oriented testing approach aims at
solving these problems. A transient simulation of
realistic faults is to ensure that the device has useful
settings for the job and will fulfill its task correctly in
actual operation. This means that the focus of the test is
on checking the correct function of the protection device
at the place of installation rather than checking individual parameter settings.
Presentation 23.2
Concept
Figure 2 shows a typical process for defining the
protection concept and the settings for commissioning
the protection device [3]. A test focusing on the protection functions and parameters - such as defined, for
example, in the PTL test templates - is used to verify
that the protection functions operate properly according
to their settings. In this way, the process steps P9 to
P12 are verified and errors are likely to be detected.
The basis for this conventional test is the relay settings
sheet which is used as a reference for the tests.
Electrical
network
P1
P2
Aquiring network
data
Protection concept
P3
Network calculation
P4
Selection of
protective functions
P5
Selection of
protection relay
P6
P7
Standard
settings
Setting calculation
P8
Transfer
to relay setting
sheet
P9
P10
Standardized
Master setting
file
P12
Commissioning
Relay
Presentation 23.3
Application-oriented testing
The faults (and selected operating states like switching
of a line) which the protection device should be able to
handle have to be defined in the preparation phase for
the application-oriented test. Since these faults are
needed as early as when calculating the protection
settings (see Fig. 2), this group of faults is already
available for the test.
So the test cases to be applied comprise:
Internal faults in order to exclude under function
(see Figure 5)
External faults and selected operating states in
order to exclude hyper function (see Figure 6)
Falsification of the secondary measurement currents (CT error).
These parameters have to be entered for each protection device involved in the protection system and have
to be tested for each of these protection devices.
Hence, a parameter test involves the following test
steps:
-
As shown in Figure 3, these faults and the corresponding power system data are used for producing transient
simulation data which are supplied to the protection
device by means of a test set.
The following quantities for internal faults can be
specified from the power system calculation for the
calculation of the test points:
The maximum fault current Ik,max,in for internal faults
and single-end feeding,
the minimum fault current Ik,min,in for internal faults,
the maximum measurement error fl,
and, for trouble-free operation and external shortcircuits,
the maximum differential current IL (for example,
the maximum charging current of a line),
the maximum fault current Ik,max,au for external
faults.
Presentation 23.4
For application-oriented testing, the same test procedure can be used for different protection devices. The
actual test does not depend on the protection device
but is essentially governed by the location of the protection device within the power system. This makes it
possible to test different protection devices with the
same test procedure regardless of their precise algorithmic functionality (black box testing).
Presentation 23.5
Summary
Modern protection devices make ever increasing
demands on testing technology in conventional protection device testing as a consequence of their intelligent
algorithms. The settings sheet is used as a reference
and is not questioned during the test. The test sequences are relay-specific and also depend on the
settings; this means that they have to be redefined
again and again, taking the technical requirements of
the protection devices into account. This complexness
involves an increased time requirement.
Literature
[1] B. Bastigkeit
How a library of relay specific test templates can
support the protection engineer
OMICRON IPTS 2007, Bregenz
[2] C. Mempel
Optimization Strategies for Protection Maintenance
OMICRON IPTS 2006, Dornbirn
[3] North American Electric Reliability Corporation
Letter to industry for the NERC System Protection
Initiative,
dated
April
24,
2009
www.nerc.com
[4] A.
Ludwig,
R.
Luxenburger,
M.
Albert,
R. Marenbach
Anforderungen moderner Schutzgerte an die Prftechnik
VDN/ETG Fachtagung Dortmund, 2007
[5] S. Eldmrdash
System testing A new approach for testing digital
protection relays
Master Thesis, Deggendorf University of Applied
Sciences, 2008
[6] Siemens, 7SD610 manual
[7] ABB, RED615 manual
[8] OMICRON PTL:
www.omicron.at
Protection
Testing
Library