Power System Protection

Dr. Ibrahim El-Amin

Chapter Four

Non-pilot Overcurrent Protection of Transmission Lines

Techniques for Line Protection

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

Instantaneous Overcurrent Time Overcurrent Directional instantaneous and/or time Step time overcurrent Inverse time distance Zone distance Pilot relaying

Selecting a Protective System

1. Type of circuit
2. Line function and importance 3. Coordination and matching requirements 4. Economics

4.1 Introduction
Lines are subjected to phase-phase or phase-ground faults. Wide range of fault and load currents. System configuration and the issue of directionality of fault current. Line length has an impact on relay setting.

 A Relay is set to protect a line and provide a backup for other line sections. Relays can not differentiate between faults at end of a line section and beginning of an adjacent section.

Short vs Long lines

Short line has lower impedance than systems Little difference of fault currents at ends of line. Relay will overreach in other sections. Long lines will not overreach but the fault and load currents may be closer.

Available Protective Devices

Fuses Sectionalizer and Reclosures Instantaneous Overcurrent Inverse time-delay overcurrent Directional overcurrent Distance Pilot

4.2 Fuses, Sectionalizers, Reclosures

These devices are used in distribution system. A distribution system is made of mains(3-phase) & laterals (single phase). It is mostly radial. Most common protection device is the current-limiting fuse.

 Fuse characteristics are defined by minimum melt-time and total clearing time. Minimum melt-time is the time between the instant the element commences to melt & when arcing occurs. (pre-arcing time) Total Clearing Time (TCT)=melt-time +arcing time.

 Fuses are defined by 1. Continuous load current is the maximum current to be carried without fuse melting. 2. Hot-load current can be carried, interrupted and re-energized without damage. 3. Cold-load current follows a 30min. Outage is the high current after service is restored.

 Sectionalizer 1. Can not interrupt a fault

2. It counts the number of times, it sees the fault current. 3. It opens after a preset number while circuit is de-energized.

 Reclosurer 1. It senses & interrupts faults. 2. Has limited fault-interrupting capability 3. Recloses automatically in a programmed sequence.

 Fault at A cleared by branch fuse. Fault at B cleared by recloser & sectionalizer. The sectionalizer. sees the fault and registers one count. The recloser sees the faults and trips. Sectionalizer opens and allows recloser to restore service. Faults at C cleared by recloser.

 Distribution systems are now more complex because of Independent Power Produces . Short circuits vary because of the Non-utility generators (NUG). Fuses and Reclosers must recognize this.

 The tie switch S is open. Fault F1 recloser will open automatically. Open down stream breaker and close S to supply load. Fault at F2 both breakers 1 & 2 will work. Load will be supplied from transformer 2

4.3 Inverse Time-Delay Overcurrent Relays

Application a. Used mostly on radial systems. b. Two phase and one ground relays. c. A third phase relay provides backup & redundancy. c. Used in some industrial systems

Protection System for Phase Faults

Time overcurrent Instantaneous & time overcurrent Directional time overcurrent Instantaneous & directional time over current Directional Instantaneous overcurrent Step time overcurrent Directional Instantaneous and directional 51 50/51 67 50/67 67 51 67

Zone Distance

21

Protection System for Ground Faults

Time Overcurrent Instantaneous & Time Overcurrent Product Overcurrent Instantaneous and Product Overcurrent Directional time overcurrent Instantaneous and directional time overcurrent 51N 50N/51N 67N 67N/50N 67N 67N

Directional Instantaneous Overcurrent

Three-zone distance system

67N
21N

Setting Rules
Pickup Setting a. It should be above normal currents & below minimum fault currents.

b. If possible, it may provide a backup role. c. The setting is calculated using max load current and minimum fault current.

 Time-Delay Setting a. A time dial provides relative positions between the moving and fixed contacts. b. Dial setting from (fastest) to 10 (slowest)

 The operating speed is determined by the operating current. The operating time is determined by the distance it has to travel.

This an inverse time-current characteristics.

 Time delay allows coordination between relays. A family of curves must be provided so that relays seeing same fault current can operate at different operating times. Addition of time delay will convert a single characteristics into a set of curves

 Examples 4.2 and 4.3

 Setting of Phase Relays Relay setting is between 2* maximum load current and 1/3 of minimum fault current.

The minimum fault current is taken as the phase-phase fault current.

 Closer to maximum load current: Increase dependability and reduce security. Closer to minimum fault current: decrease dependability and increase security.

 Setting of Ground Relays: must see all phase-to-ground faults. No need to consider load current.

Relay setting is between 2* normal ground current and 1/3 of minimum ground fault current.
The normal ground current is taken as the 10% of load current.

 Example 4.4

Relay co-ordination
For fault at F1, Rd operates first. Rcd has higher time lever including coordination time S to provide a backup Rab has the longest time delay

 For faults Between 3-4, Rd will not see the current & will not operate. Rcd will trip first before Rbc

 Fault should be cleared by Rd and CB4. Rcd sees the fault and start to close its contacts. Rcd will reset after some over travel.

 Rcd must be set longer than: -Rd operating time U - CB4 clearing time V - Safety factor X (including over travel W) Usually 0.3-0.5

Example 4.5

 In a network, relay co-ordination is complicated by the problems of infeed or outfeed. There might be different current in downstream relays than the setting.

Example 4.6

4.4 Instantaneous Overcurrent Relays

Application -Used when short circuit current reduces substantially as fault moves away from the source.

 The closer fault to the source, the higher is the current. If 51 Relays used, yet the longer the time Relay 50 can be set to see faults almost up to the end of line but not including next bus.

 Setting Rules Instantaneous Relays as follows: Set at about 125-135 % above maximum current for which Relay should not work. And 90 % of the minimum value for which it should operate.

 Example 4.7

4.5 Directional Overcurrent (67) Relays

Application -Used in multiple source circuits. - Require two inputs; an operating current and a reference or polarizing quantity (Voltage/current)

 If X is open, breakers 4 & 5 receives no current for fault F1. If X is closed, Breaker 4 can not be set above B5 to be selective for F2 and still maintain coordination for fault F1. Use 67 Relays if ratio between forward & backward current is 4:1

 Example 4.8

 There are two method to provide directionality: 1. Directional Control 2. Directional Overcurrent

1. Directional Control Overcurrent element will not operate till the directional element has worked. Directional contact in series with overcurrent contact

2. Directional Overcurrent Has Independent contacts in series

Both contact must close for relay operation.

 Directional Control is more secure. Consider directional overcurrent below. If fault occurs , overcurrent element of breaker 4 picks up, but the directional contact will not close.

 Assume breaker 2 has opened. Current direction changed. There will be a race between overcurrent & directional elements. If Directional element of 4 closes, that is a false trip.

 This case can not happen in directional control design. Directional contact at 3 will close, but the overcurrent will not close as it has to co-ordinate with 2. But it is difficult to apply the directional control relay

4.6 Polarization
Directional relay works by comparing an operating quantity (fault current) and a constant parameter (system voltage) . The constant parameter is referred to as Polarizing Quantity.

 Power Directional Relays : 1.Relays work for balanced V, I & high Power factor. 2. Vectors are almost in phase. 3. Relay will pick for power in one direction and reset for opposite direction 4. An auxiliary Transformer is needed.

 Fault Directional Relays 1. System voltage collapse under faults. 2. Polarizing must not include faulted phase. 3. Power factor is very low.

Potential Polarizing
For ground faults, The current is obtained fro residual circuits of the CTs (In=3I0). Use polarizing voltage (3E0). It has same direction regardless of fault location. The mag. of 3E0 depends on fault location, ground impedance, zero sequence impedance.