Application Note

System-based Testing of Line Distance Protection

Author
Jens Baumeister | Jens.Baumeister@omicronenergy.com

Date
February 28, 2017

Related OMICRON Product

CMC, RelaySimTest

Application Area
Distance Protection Testing

Keywords
RelaySimTest, System-based Testing, Distance Protection, End to End Testing

Version
v2.0

Document ID
ANS_15005_ENU

Abstract
This application note describes the distance protection test template of the RelaySimTest software.

© OMICRON Page 1 of 24
 General information

OMICRON electronics GmbH including all international branch offices is henceforth referred to as
OMICRON.
The product information, specifications, and technical data embodied in this application note represent the
technical status at the time of writing and are subject to change without prior notice.
We have done our best to ensure that the information given in this application note is useful, accurate and
entirely reliable. However, OMICRON does not assume responsibility for any inaccuracies which may be
present.
OMICRON translates this application note from the source language English into a number of other
languages. Any translation of this document is done for local requirements, and in the event of a dispute
between the English and a non-English version, the English version of this note shall govern.

All rights including translation reserved. Reproduction of any kind, for example, photocopying, microfilming,
optical character recognition and/or storage in electronic data processing systems, requires the explicit
consent of OMICRON. Reprinting, wholly or partly, is not permitted.
© OMICRON 2017. All rights reserved. This application note is a publication of OMICRON.

© OMICRON 2017 Page 2 of 24

 Content

1 Safety Instructions ................................................................................................................................4

2 About this Application Note .................................................................................................................5
2.1 General Requirements....................................................................................................................5
2.2 What this Application Note describes .............................................................................................5
2.3 Distance Protection .........................................................................................................................5
3 System Under Test ................................................................................................................................7
3.1 Application Example .......................................................................................................................7
3.2 Settings of the System Under Test Menu in RelaySimTest ...........................................................8
4 Test Sets Configuration ..................................................................................................................... 10
5 Test Cases ........................................................................................................................................... 11
5.1 Suitable Test Cases ..................................................................................................................... 11
5.1.1 General Test Information ................................................................................................................ 11
5.1.2 Test Case 1 – Single Infeed, Time Grading Forward ...................................................................... 12
5.1.3 Test Case 2 – Single Infeed, Time Grading Reverse ...................................................................... 13
5.1.4 Test Case 3 and 4 – Double Infeed, Close-In Fault Forward and Reverse, Load Current .............. 14
5.1.5 Test Case 5, 6, 7 – Double Infeed, Fault on Line, RF, Load Current .............................................. 14
5.1.6 Test Case 8, 9, 10 – Double Infeed, Fault on Line, RF, Load Current, Parallel Line ...................... 16
5.1.7 Further Test Cases ......................................................................................................................... 17
6 Illustration of the Impedances ........................................................................................................... 20
7 List of Literature ................................................................................................................................. 22

© OMICRON 2017 Page 3 of 24

1 Safety Instructions
This application note may only be used in combination with the relevant product manuals which contain all
safety instructions. The user is fully responsibility for any application that makes use of OMICRON products.
Instructions are always characterized by a  symbol even if they are included to a safety instruction.

DANGER
Death or severe injury caused by high voltage or current if the respective
protective measures are not complied.

 Carefully read and understand the content of this application note as well as
the manuals of the involved systems before starting its practical application.
 Please contact OMICRON before you continue the process if you do not
understand the safety instructions, operating instructions, or parts of it.
 Follow each instruction mentioned there especially the safety instructions
since this is the only way to avoid danger that can occur when working at
high voltage or high current systems.
 Furthermore, only use the involved equipment according to its intended
purpose to guarantee a safe operation.
 Existing national safety standards for accident prevention and
environmental protection may supplement the equipment’s manual.

DANGER
Death or severe injury caused by high voltage or current.

 Before wiring up or rewiring the equipment always turn off each system
involved to the test process.

WARNING
Equipment damage or loss of data caused by high voltage or current possible.

 Before wiring up or rewiring the equipment always turn off each system
involved to the test process.
 Before starting a test always check that the test signals are suitable for your
system under test.

Only experienced and competent professionals that are trained for working in high voltage or high current
environments may perform this application note. Additional the following qualifications are required:
• authorized to work in environments of energy generation, transmission or distribution and familiar
with the approved operating practices in such environments
• familiar with the five safety rules
• familiar with protection testing
• good knowledge of the OMICRON CMC test sets and RelaySimTest

© OMICRON 2017 Page 4 of 24

2 About this Application Note

2.1 General Requirements

Before you get started with this application note, read the “Getting Started” manual [1] of RelaySimTest.
Please make sure that you also have a good knowledge about the CMC test system.

2.2 What this Application Note describes

The application note describes the tests of the RelaySimTest predefined Distance Protection template. It
covers the following content of the test template.

1. Distance Protection (general information)

2. System Under Test
3. Test Sets Configuration
4. Test Cases

The application note does not describe wiring checks and parameter tests. To test the protection
thoroughly such tests are also recommended.

2.3 Distance Protection

Usually a distance protection is used to protect a line as main protection and connected devices like a
busbar, a transformer or a successor line as backup protection. If a fault occurs within the protected area the
protection relay calculates the short circuit impedance by using measured voltages and currents. This
impedance depends on the distance from the relay to the fault location.

The relay uses different distance zones. They define the trip time delay for each fault location. Usually Zone
1 (Z1) is used to protect 80 to 90% of the mainly protected line. If the short circuit impedance indicates a
fault in Z1 the relay has to trip immediately. In case the fault is in Z2 the trip is delayed, because the fault
probably is on the successor line, hence the successor relay (relay B in Figure 1) has to trip. Only if this does
not lead to a successful fault clearance the relay of the predecessor line (relay A in Figure 1) has to trip as
backup.

Figure 1: Fault in zone 2

With an ordinary distance protection it is not possible to protect 100% of the line length with Zone 1, because
there is an inaccuracy in the calculated impedance due to measurement errors and other influences like an
© OMICRON 2017 Page 5 of 24
 arc resistance, a second infeed, mutual coupling and so on. This means if the calculated impedance seems
to belong to a fault at the end of the line it could also belong to a fault on the successor line. Hence it is
useful to delay the trip by using Z2 for the end of the line to ensure selectivity.

Another challenge for a distance protection relay is a fault close to the relay location. As the measured
voltage is nearly 0V, it cannot be used for directional decisions. If a fault occurs in forward direction, the
relay has to use the tripping time of Z1, if the fault is reverse the relay has to use its tripping time of the
reverse Zone e. g. Z3. To solve the problem the relay can either use the voltages of the healthy phases or
prefault-voltages of its internal memory.

Figure 2: Faults close to the relay location

All these influences can affect the behavior of the distance protection. With RelaySimTest such influences
can be simulated to check the protection is able to deal with them. The corresponding test template shows
an example of how this could look like. This application note describes the application example and the
tests.

For more information about distance protection see [2].

© OMICRON 2017 Page 6 of 24

3 System Under Test

3.1 Application Example

The following figure shows the power system protected by distance protection that is used as example in the
RelaySimTest template.

Z3
80% Z2
Z1

Figure 3: Example – Line protected by distance protection using a CT and a VT (CT: Current Transformer; VT: Voltage Transformer)

Figure 3 shows that the distance relay protects the line with Zone 1 (Z1) and 2 (Z2). Furthermore it is using
Z3 in reverse direction to protect the predecessor system like busbar, infeed and so on as back up
protection.

© OMICRON 2017 Page 7 of 24

 In many applications the distance protection has more than two zones oriented in forward direction. To keep
the template simple only two forward zones are used in the example. Nevertheless chapter 5.1.7 shows
some considerations that should be done if the distance protection has further zones.

Figure 4 illustrates the time grading of the distance protection. The first zone has no time delay, which
means the nominal trip time is 0 s. In the second zone the nominal trip time is 400 ms. The reverse zone has
a delay time of 0.8 s.

0.8 s Z3
Z2
0.4 s
Z1
0s
A

Figure 4: Example - Time grading for relay A

3.2 Settings of the System Under Test Menu in RelaySimTest

The power system parameters according to the example (see chapter 3.1 ) are in the submenu Power
system of the menu System Under Test. A click on an element like “Infeed A” opens the associated input
mask on the right side of the screen.

Figure 5: Power system

A double click on the protection relay opens the corresponding configuration menu. It contains details like
general settings and device connections as well as the description of signal in- and outputs. The distance
protection relay is connected to VT and CT A as well as to CB A1 (trip signal).

© OMICRON 2017 Page 8 of 24

 Figure 6: Protection relay

© OMICRON 2017 Page 9 of 24

4 Test Sets Configuration
This chapter assumes that the following steps are already done:

> The PC is running RelaySimTest

> The wiring between the CMC and the relay is already done.
> The CMC is already switched on
> The PC is already associated to the CMC used for the test, if the connection between PC and CMC is
realized via Ethernet
The menu Test sets configurations defines the CMC and its configuration used for the tests. At first the
test template includes a general CMC as shown in Figure 7.

Figure 7: Test sets configurations menu of RelaySimTest

After a click on the button “Choose test set” on the right site of the CMC icon, a new window opens and
shows the CMC that is connected to the PC. A click on the CMC selects it.

The Getting Started manual of RelaySimTest [1] describes how the wiring between the CMC and the relay
can be configured in the menu Test sets configurations. To perform the tests of this application note the
following signals have to be configured:

> three test voltages

> three test currents
> the trip signal of the relay

© OMICRON 2017 Page 10 of 24

5 Test Cases

5.1 Suitable Test Cases

5.1.1 General Test Information
Figure 8 shows the menu Test cases. It contains the test scenarios and test steps of the corresponding
RelaySimTest template. A double click on a test case opens it.

Figure 8: Test cases menu

After a click on the relay in the power system model, a menu pops up showing a pin needle (Figure 9). A
click on the pin needle opens the corresponding relay widget. With the wrench icon in the widget header it is
possible to configure it to show the steady state impedances resulting from the test signals. This feature is
useful to check the impedances that the relay under test calculates.

Figure 9: Power system widgets

© OMICRON 2017 Page 11 of 24

 To keep the template simple, it uses only the following fault types:

> L1-N
> L2-L3
> L1-L2-L3

All test cases with faults include these fault types. Depending on the relays under test, on the relay’s
parameters and on the grid where the protection system is used, it can be necessary to add more fault
types.

To get particularly high currents the fault inception angle is set to 0°.

The nominal trip time of the protection is between 0 and 0.8 s. All test cases should have an adequate
simulation time to cover the whole test scenario and to ensure that the relay has enough time to show its
reaction on the test.

Sometimes distance protection relays use the voltages of their voltage memory, if the voltages during a fault
are too small to use them. Therefore it is necessary to fill this memory before the fault occurs. How long this
takes, depends on the relay type. The template uses a prefault duration of 300 ms to fill the memory.

Some of the test cases use a certain fault resistance RF to find out if the protection system can handle it. In
all test cases where the influence of RF is not considered RF is set to 0 Ohm.

The following chapters describe the different test cases of the template in detail. To use the template power
system and test cases have to be adapted to the respective application, because each protection system is
very individual. In all test cases the trip command of the relay is observed. Chapter Error! Reference
source not found.describes how to measure and to assess the trip times.

5.1.2 Test Case 1 – Single Infeed, Time Grading Forward

This test case should show that the time grading of the different forward directed zones is correct. The fault
is placed on different fault locations close to the zone borders.

Figure 10: Test case 1 - Fault close to the zone border Z1/Z2

> Only infeed A is connected. This is sufficient to get the relays test signals for a forward directed fault.

Fault locations:

© OMICRON 2017 Page 12 of 24

 > 0% of the protected line (zone border between Z1 and Z3): A fault at this location will cause a voltage
drop of 0 V in the faulty phase(s) if there is no fault resistance. Digital relays normally use in such a case
either the voltages of the healthy phases or the voltage of the relays voltage memory to determine the
fault direction.

→ The fault is located in Z1 on the protected line. Therefore the relay has to trip immediately. The relay
should be able to detect that as the voltages of the healthy phases as well as the voltages of the voltage
memory are not affected by the fault.

> 74% and 86% of the protected line: close to the zone border of Z1 and Z2 (80%) but out of the 5% zone
tolerance

→ A fault at 74% is located in Z1. Hence the relay has to trip immediately. A fault at 86% is located in Z2,
therefore the relay has to trip after 400 ms.

5.1.3 Test Case 2 – Single Infeed, Time Grading Reverse

This test case should show that the time grading of the reverse directed zone (Z3) is correct.

> Only infeed B is connected. This is sufficient to get the relays test signals for a reverse directed fault.

> The fault is placed on busbar A: A fault at this location will cause a voltage drop of 0 V in the faulty
phase(s) if there is no fault resistance (see test case 1 fault location 0%).

Figure 11: Test case 2 - Fault on busbar A

→ The fault is located in the relays reverse direction. Therefore the relay has to trip after 800 ms (trip time
of Z3).

© OMICRON 2017 Page 13 of 24

5.1.4 Test Case 3 and 4 – Double Infeed, Close-In Fault Forward and Reverse, Load Current

This test cases should show that the relay detects the correct direction of a fault that is close to the relay
location even if the prefault voltages are affected by a load current.

> In test case 3 (TC 3) the fault is located at 0% of the protected line (forward direction).

> In test case 4 the fault is located at busbar A (reverse direction).

> Infeed A and B are connected.

Figure 12: Test case 4

> The angle of infeed B is varied between -20 and +20° while the angle of infeed A stays at 0°. This
causes a load current of about 340 A during the prefault time, which is assumed to be the maximum load
current of the application example.

→ A fault at the locations of TC 3 and TC 4 will cause a voltage drop of 0V in the faulty phase(s) if there is
no fault resistance. Digital relays normally use in such cases either the voltages of the healthy phases or
the voltages of the relays voltage memory to determine the fault direction. The load current due to the
phase angle difference of the infeeds influences the voltages of the healthy phases as well as the
prefault voltages stored in the relays memory. This can cause problems for the determination of the fault
direction. Nevertheless the relay has to detect a fault at 0% of the line in forward (Z1) and a fault on
busbar A in reverse direction (Z3).

5.1.5 Test Case 5, 6, 7 – Double Infeed, Fault on Line, RF, Load Current

These test cases should show that the reach of Z1 is high enough to cover the main part of the line but
shorter than 100% to be selective even under unfavorable conditions.

> The distance zone 1 typically covers 80 to 90% of the protected line. In the example of the application
note the reach of Z1 is 80%. The reserve of 20% to the remote busbar is used to ensure selectivity,
because influences like a fault resistance (for example an arc resistance) affect the fault loop impedance

© OMICRON 2017 Page 14 of 24

 measured by the relay.

RF

ZL
ZM

Figure 13 illustrates such an effect, if there would be only a single infeed at the relays site and no infeed
at the remote line end. Furthermore the influence of a load current is neglected.

RF

ZL
ZM

Figure 13: Influence of a fault resistance (ZL: Line impedance from the relay to the fault location; RF: Fault impedance; ZM: Measured
Loop Impedance)

> The influence of the fault resistance increases, if there is an infeed at the remote end and if there is a
load current. The reason is the additional voltage drop over the fault resistance due to the current from

© OMICRON 2017 Page 15 of 24

 the remote infeed (see Figure 14)

Z1 Inf 1 A Z1` PL Z1`` PL Z1 Inf 2

IA IB
IA IB
Relay A
Inf 1 RF VF Inf 2

Z1`PL = Impedance of the Protected Line from the relay to the fault location
Z1``PL = Impedance of the Protected Line from the fault location to busbar B
VF = Voltage drop over the fault resistance

Figure 14: Voltage drop over a fault resistance

> Depending on the phase angles of the infeed voltages and the impedance from an infeed to the fault
location the measured reactance increases or decreases (see Figure 15).

ZF

ZL
ZM

Figure 15: Influence of a fault resistance with an infeed at the remote end and a load current (ZL: Line impedance from the relay to the
fault location; ZF: Impedance due to the fault resistance; ZM: Measured loop impedance)

> For the test cases 5 to 7 a fault resistance of 3 Ohm is used. (Number [2] of the bibliography shows how
to estimate a fault resistance)

> The angle of infeed 2 is varied between -20 and +20° while the angle of infeed 1 stays at 0° to create a
load current (see Test Case 3 and 4).

> The fault is placed between 70% and 100% of the line to find out where the relay trips with Z1 and where
it uses Z2. It is assumed that there would be a requirement to trip with Z1 for at least 70% of the line.
Therefore the variation of the fault location starts at 70%.

© OMICRON 2017 Page 16 of 24

 > For test case 5 a phase to ground (L1N), for TC 6 a phase to phase (L2-L3) and for TC 7 a three-phase-
fault (L1-L2-L3) is used.

→ Even if there are unfavorable conditions the protection should ensure selectivity. Therefore a fault at
100% of the line should be cleared with the trip time delay of Z2, because the line end leads to nearly
the same fault loop impedance as a fault at the beginning of the next line. A relay cannot distinguish
between these fault locations so it has to trip delayed. On the other hand there is a demand to clear a
line fault as fast as possible. That means a tripping with Z1 for all fault locations <100% is desired. Due
to measurement errors this is not possible. So there must be a compromise between selectivity and fault
clearance time. For example a requirement could be that the reach of Z1 even under unfavorable
conditions must be at least 70% of the line.

5.1.6 Test Case 8, 9, 10 – Double Infeed, Fault on Line, RF, Load Current, Parallel Line

The test cases are similar to the previous test cases 5 to 7 with the difference that the parallel line is in
operation. Mutual Coupling between the lines is not considered, chapter 5.1.7 shows some considerations
about mutual coupling.

Figure 16 Test Case 8, 9, and 10

> The current flowing through the parallel line and the current from the remote infeed cause an additional
voltage drop over the fault resistance.

→ At 70% of the line the relay should trip with Z1 even under unfavorable conditions (it is assumed that Z1
should cover at least 70%). At 100% the relay has to trip delayed with the trip time of Z2 to ensure
selectivity.

5.1.7 Further Test Cases

The test cases described in the previous chapters are focused on testing faults on the protected line and on
the connected busbars. If the distance protection uses more than two forward zones similar tests should be
done on the successor line(s) and its busbars. For this reason this chapter gives an idea of how this could
look like. To keep the test template simple such tests are not included.

> All tests shown before have to be extended for the additional zone(s) of the successor line(s).

© OMICRON 2017 Page 17 of 24

 > The whole protected area might consist of mixed overhead lines and cable sections. The menu System
under Test offers the possibility to model such an arrangement.

Figure 17: Time grading tests

→ The trip times and reaches of all zones must ensure selectivity even under unfavorable conditions (load
currents, fault resistance, mutual coupling, mixed line characteristic)

> There might be more than one successor line. The tests have to be done for all.

Figure 18: Several successor lines

→ The zone reaches have to ensure selectivity. Therefore the zone reach of the second forward zone has
to depend on the shortest successor line

> Intermediate infeeds have to be taken into account.

© OMICRON 2017 Page 18 of 24

 Figure 19: Intermediate infeeds

→ An intermediate infeed causes an additional voltage drop on the fault impedance measured from its
location to the fault location on the successor line. Furthermore it causes an additional voltage drop on
the fault resistance. Both influence the calculated impedance of the relay.

> The successor lines could also have parallel lines. All the different possible switching topologies should
be analyzed.

Figure 20: Parallel lines

→ While the first parallel line acts like an intermediate infeed, the second parallel line decreases the
measured impedance.
> Furthermore mutual coupling could be taken into consideration. For a phase to ground fault the mutual
coupling of the two parallel lines will increase or decrease the relay’s measured voltage and therefore
influence the calculated impedance. By the way there are relays that measure the zero sequence
current of the parallel line to compensate such an effect.

> According to [2] the measured voltage increases if the fault currents in both lines have the same
direction, and decreases if they are in opposite directions.

© OMICRON 2017 Page 19 of 24

 Figure 21: Left: both fault currents have the same direction / Right: the fault currents are in opposite directions

> Number [3] of the bibliography shows further considerations about mutual coupling.

© OMICRON 2017 Page 20 of 24

6 Illustration of the Impedances
The OMICRON TransView software is useful to analyze the test results. Here it is possible to display the
impedance trajectories resulting from the test voltages and currents. The feature Synchronize to
TransView in RelaySimTest offers the export of the signals.

Figure 22: Synchronize to TransView button

It is also possible to display the distance zones of the protection relay in the TransView circle diagrams, if
they are available as RIO file for example in the Menu Test Object of the OMICRON Test Universe.
The RIO file can be exported from the Test Universe Test Object as follows:
Select File in the Test Object main menu.
Select Export … in the submenu.
Select RIO file type and enter %TEMP%\SIMULATIONTEST.RIO as file name. The RIO file will be
saved in the same location where the RelaySimTest signal export is saved
(C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Local\Temp).
Save the file.

Figure 23: RIO export from the menu Test Object of the OMICRON Test Universe

The illustration of the test signals and the distance zones in TransView allows to double check that the relay
trips in the correct zone.

© OMICRON 2017 Page 21 of 24

 Figure 24: Illustration of the impedances in TransView

© OMICRON 2017 Page 22 of 24

7 List of Literature

[1] Getting started with RelaySimTest; OMICRON electronics GmbH; 2017

[2] “Numerical Distance Protection: Principles and Applications”; 4th edition; Gerhard Ziegler;
PUBLICIS; 2011
[3] “Prüfungen zur Analyse des Schutzverhaltens bei Parallelleitungen mit mutueller Kopplung“,
Thomas Hensler, OMICRON electronics GmbH

© OMICRON 2017 Page 23 of 24

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