ELECTRICAL POWER SYSTEM PROTECTION

Electrical power system protection is the specialty of Electrical Engineering that

concerned with the principles of design and operation of protective equipment
used in the electrical network.
The objective of using this scheme is to keep power system stable by isolating only
the components that are under fault. It should be ensures through the
disconnection of faulted parts from the rest of electrical network. The devices that
are used to protect the power systems from faults are called Protection devices.
Generally, power is transmitted through high voltage transmission line and lines
are exposed, there may be chances of their breakdown due to storms, falling of
external objects, and damage to the insulators etc. These can result not only
mechanical damage but also in an electrical fault. To counter the danger of any loss,
we use protection devices.
There are three major protective devices used in panels at Substations,
 Relay (are intelligent devices that initiate a trip sequence when any specific
parameter goes beyond the normal range)
 Instrument Transformer (are used for both the metering and protection at
substation. The purpose of these transformer is to limit the voltage & current
so that it could be used by relay for operation)
 Circuit breaker (operate on the trip sequence initiated by the relays in order to
open the circuit)

RELAY:
A relay is an electrically operated switch, an electromechanical relay switch
composed of electromagnet (coil), armature, spring and set of electrical contacts.
The basic principle of working is electromagnetic attraction or induction. Relays are
the primary protection as well as switching devices in most of the control processes
or equipment.
Below is the diagram of electromechanical relay,
In the electrical engineering, the protective relay is a relay device designed to trip
the circuit breaker when fault is detected.
Diagram of protection relay with HT line, circuit breaker and CT

The most common types of protective relays include:

  Overcurrent relays
 Over/under voltage relays
 Directional relays
 Distance relays
 Differential relays

Overcurrent relay:
Overcurrent relay is a sensing relay, which operates when the current increases
beyond the operating value of the relay. Depending upon the time of operation,
overcurrent relays may be categorized as instantaneous over current relay, inverse
time overcurrent relay, definite time overcurrent relay, inverse definite time
overcurrent relay, very inverse overcurrent relay and extremely inverse
overcurrent relay. These relays are explained below in details.

Instantaneous Overcurrent Relay

In such type of relay, there is no intentional time delay is provided for operation.
The relay contacts are closed immediately after the current in the relay coil exceeds
the operating value. Although there will be a short time interval between the
instant of pick up value and the closing of the relay contacts, no intentional time
delay is provided.

This characteristic can be achieved with the help of the hinged armature relay. This
relay has a unique advantage of reducing the time of operation to a minimum for
faults very close to the source where the fault current is the greatest. The
instantaneous relay is effective only where the impedance between the relay and
source is small compared with the impedance of the section to be provided.

The most important considerations in overcurrent and overvoltage protection are

the speed of operation. With hinged armature relays, the time of operation of 0.01
second at three times the setting can be obtained. Such type of relay is used for
controlling earth fault and other types of circulating current protection.

Inverse-Time Overcurrent Relay

In such type of relay, the operating current is approximately inversely proportional

to the magnitude of the actuating quantity. At values of current less than pick up
value, the relay never operates. At, higher values, the operating time of the relay
decrease regularly with the increase of the current. The more pronounced the
effect is, the more inverse the characteristic is said to be.

Inverse Definite Minimum Time Relay

In this relay, the operating time is inversely proportional to the fault current near
pick-up value. The relay becomes considerably constant slightly above the pickup
value of the relay as shown in the figure above. This is achieved by using a core of
the electromagnet which gets saturated for current slightly greater than the pick-
up current.

Very Inverse Relay

In such relay, the saturation of the current occurs at a still later stage. The time-
current characteristic is inverse over a greater range and after saturation tends to
the definite time. Relays with very inverse time characteristic are employed on
feeders and long sub-transmission lines.

Extremely Inverse Relay

In this type of relay, the core saturation occurs at the very large stage. Such types
of relays are quite suitable for the protection of transformer, cables, etc. This is
because of their ability to ride through starting current and surges providing at the
same time fast operation under relay fault conditions.

Relay with inverse time-current characteristic is widely employed in distribution

networks and industrial plant systems. Their relatively flat time-current
characteristic permits them to achieve reasonably fast operation over a wide range
of short-circuit currents.

Over/under voltage relays:

Over/Under Voltage Relays provide protection to equipment where an over or
under voltage condition is potentially damaging. They are designed to energize
when the operating voltage reaches a preset value and drop-out when the
operating voltage drops to a level below the preset value.
Under voltage occurs when the average voltage of three-phase power system drops
below intended levels, and is sometimes referred to as a brownout.
Under voltage conditions are usually be caused by undersized or overloaded utility
and facility transformers. During peak demand periods and/or when the utility is
experiencing problems, the demand for power exceeds the capability of the
transformer and as a result, the voltage drops. These conditions can occur without
warning and provide no obvious indications. To protect motors and equipment, use
a three-phase monitor relay, also known as a phase failure relay, as a cost-effective
solution to prevent costly damage from under voltage.

A three-phase monitor relay, with under voltage protection, can shutdown

equipment when under voltage occurs preventing damage. A clear indication of the
fault present is provided by these relays for rapid troubleshooting and reduced
downtime.

Over voltages occur in a system when the system voltage rises over 110% of the
nominal rated voltage. Overvoltage can be caused by a number of reasons, sudden
reduction in loads, switching of transient loads, lightning strikes, failure of control
equipment such as voltage regulators, neutral displacement,. Overvoltage can
cause damage to components connected to the power supply and lead to insulation
failure, damage to electronic components, heating, flashovers, etc.

Overvoltage relays can be used to identify overvoltage and isolate equipment.

These relays operate when the measured voltage exceeds a predetermined set-
point. The voltage is usually measured using a Potential Transformers. The details
of the ratio of the potential transformer are also entered into the relay. These
relays are usually provided with a time delay. The time delay can be either
instantaneous, fixed time or for IDMT (inverse definite minimum time) curves.
Generally, overvoltage relays are provided with sufficient time delay in order to
avoid unwanted tripping due to transients.

These relays can be used to isolate feeders and other equipment connected to the
network. In the case of generators, these relay also switch off the excitation system
to the generators thereby preventing voltage build-up.

Directional relays:
Directional relay operates when the fault is driving power to flow in particular
direction. It senses the direction of current flowing. For example, consider a
three-phase synchronous motor. Assume fault on the system. Power supply to
motor is not available. But 3-phase armature is rotating in magnetic field due
to inertia. So motor starts generating power. Which feeds fault. To avoid this,
Directional Relay is used.
Directional relay is used in transmission lines where the power flow is associated
in a specific direction.For example, due to any reason at a relay location if power
flows in the reverse direction( can be from load side to generating side), a
POSITIVE torque is produced{ angle between the actuating quantities in less than
90 degrees}

T=VI cos{Ø}

during normal power flow—→ v=+ ve and I= -ve

during abnormal power flow——→ V=+ve and I= +ve

Hence positive torque is created.

Distance relays:
There is one type of relay, which functions depending upon the distance of fault
in the line. More specifically, the relay operates depending upon the impedance
between the point of fault and the point where relay is installed. These relays are
known as distance relay or impedance relay.
Working Principle of Distance or Impedance Relay
The working principle of distance relay or impedance relay is very simple. There is
one voltage element from potential transformer and a current element fed from
current transformer of the system. The deflecting torque is produced by
secondary current of CT and restoring torque is produced by voltage of potential
transformer.
In normal operating condition, restoring torque is more than deflecting torque.
Hence relay will not operate. However, in faulty condition, the current becomes
quite large whereas voltage becomes less. Consequently, deflecting torque
becomes more than restoring torque and dynamic parts of the relay starts moving
which ultimately close the No contact of relay. Hence, clearly operation or
working principle of distance relay depends upon the ratio of system voltage and
current. As the ratio of voltage to current is nothing but impedance so a distance
relay is also known as impedance relay.
The operation of such relay depends upon the predetermined value of voltage to
current ratio. This ratio is nothing but impedance. The relay will only operate
when this voltage to current ratio becomes less than its predetermined value.
Hence, it can be said that the relay will only operate when the impedance of the
line becomes less than predetermined impedance (voltage/current). As the
impedance of a transmission line is directly proportional to its length, it can easily
be concluded that a distance relay can only operate if fault is occurred within a
predetermined distance or length of line.

Differential relays:
The relay whose operation depends on the phase difference of two or more
electrical quantities is known as the differential protection relay. It works on the
principle of comparison between the phase angle and the magnitude of the same
electrical quantities.

For example: Consider the comparison of the input and output current of the
transmission line. If the magnitude of the input current of the transmission line is
more than that of output current that means the additional current flows through
it because of the fault. The difference in the current can operate the differential
protection relay.
The differential protection relay is used for the protection of the generator,
transformer, feeder, large motor, bus-bars etc. The following are the classification
of the differential protection relay.

 Current Differential Relay

 Voltage Differential Relay
 Biased or Percentage Differential Relay
 Voltage Balance Differential Relay