Basics of Distance

Protection

Drawbacks of Over-current Protection

Overcurrent protection is widely used due to its
simplicity.
Overcurrent relay reach depends on the type of fault
as well as on the source impedance.

Drawbacks of Over-current Protection

What if the source impedance changes?
Therefore we must
look for a relay
whose reach does
not depend upon
the actual
magnitude of the
fault current.

Drawbacks of Over-current Protection

Consider Line AB as shown.

Now, let us compare the relay voltage VR with the

product of relay current IR and Zset.
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Drawbacks of Over-current Protection

Consider the results.

We can see that the trip law that emerges is:

This can be written as:

OR

The Modern Distance Relay Element

In the past two decades, the use of polarised mho
distance relays for the protection of high-voltage
transmission lines has become widespread, because of
their inherent property of being simultaneously an
impedance and a directional measuring element.

The Modern Distance Relay Element

General formula for cross-polarized mho distance
element:

The Modern Distance Relay Element

Mho Element response during faults:

Self-polarized
Element

Polarized
Element on
Reverse fault

Polarized
Element on
Forwad fault

The Modern Distance Relay Element

Another Distance is used for ground faults and phase
fault protection, these are preferred over mho distance
elements for ground protection of impedance-grounded
systems:
Shaping a quadrilateral distance characteristic requires
three types of elements:
Reactance element
Resistance element (right and left side lines)
Directional element (supervises the reactance and
resistance elements)
The element operates when all elements operate.
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The Modern Distance Relay Element

Simplified Quadrilateral Distance Characteristic:

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The Modern Distance Relay Element

Reactance Element calculation:

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The Modern Distance Relay Element

Resistance Element calculation:

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The Modern Distance Relay Element

Directional Element calculation:

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Setting the reach and operating time

Relays are set on the basis of the positive-sequence
impedance from the relay location on line to be
protected.
Since voltage and current measurement come from
instrument transformers, primary impedance must be
converted into a secondary value using the following
expression:

= =

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Setting the reach and operating time

Zone 1 = 80-85% of AB @ time = instantaneous

Zone 2 = 100% of AB + 50% of the shortest next line
@ 0.25 to 0.4 s
Zone 3 = 100% of AB + 100% CD + 25% of the next
shortest next line @ 0.6 to 1.0 s
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The infeed effect on distance relays

Consider the figure below:

The voltage at A:

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Arc resistance effect on distance relays

For solid faults, the impedance measure is equal to
the impedance up to the fault point.
When arc faults, it has been found that the voltage
drop in the fault and the resultant current are in
phase, indicating that the impedance is purely
resistive.

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Impedances seen by distance relays

Distance relays are designed to protect against four
basic types of fault.
In order to detect any of the above faults, each one of
the zones of distance relays requires six units three
units for between phases (A-B, B-C, C-A) and three
units for phase-to-earth (A-E, B-E, C-E).

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Example
The relay is installed at the Pance substation in the
circuit to Juanchito substation.
CT = 600:5 and VT=1000:1

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Example
The relay is installed at the Pance substation in the
circuit to Juanchito substation.
CT = 600:5 and VT=1000:1

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