Protection system
Protection system
Protection system
Overcurrent, Directional Overcurrent, Earth Fault, Directional Earth Fault, Differential Protection,
Distance protection
Abnormal conditions: Faults (SC), overvoltage and under voltage, over frequency and under
frequency, over load, reversal of power flow, loss of synchronization in generators
Pick up value/level: value of operating quantity (I,V,f) which is threshold, above which the relay
operates and gives signal to breaker to interrupt the circuit. Relay setting corresponds to pick up
value.
Fault clearing time: Time elapsed between the instance of occurrence of fault and instant of final arc
extinction in circuit breaker. Expressed in milliseconds or cycles
Relay time: Time interval between the instant of fault occurring and closure of relay contacts.
Breaker time: Time interval between the closure of relay contacts and final arc extinction of CB.
1. Relay backup:
a. Same CB is used by both main and back up protection but protective systems are
different.
b. Separate trip coils may be provided for the same breaker
2. Breaker backup:
a. Different breakers are provided for main and back up protection both the breakers
are being in the same station.
3. Remote backup:
a. Main and back up protection provided at different stations and are completely
independent.
4. Back up protection by time grading: coordination time of 0.3-0.5 seconds between CBs.
However, this results into larger isolated area in case back up operates, increases the time
required for fault clearing which should be max. 2 seconds and time of breaker increases
near the generator while the S.C. is higher.
5. Back up protection by duplication principle:
a. All equipment used in protection are duplicated.
b. Both primary and backup protections are provided at the same station and operate
at the same speed.
Protection zone is defined as the part of the power system which is protected by a certain protective
system. The entire protection system is protected with each element of power system provided with
a protection zone.
Neighbouring zones overlap so that no “dead spot” are left in the protected system.
The short circuit may be generated inside equipment (cable, motor, transformer, switchboard, etc)
and it general y leads to deterioration and is classified as internal fault.
The short circuit may be generated outside equipment (cable, motor, transformer, switchboard, etc).
The consequences are limited to disturbances which may, in the course of time leads to
deterioration of the equipment in question and thereby cause an internal fault.
Types of fault:
In order to choose the appropriate switching devices (CBs, fuses) and set the protection functions,
three short circuit values should be known:
1. RMS value of the maximum SC current (symmetrical 3 ph SC): Helps in determining breaking
capacity of CB, fuses.
2. Peak value of the maximum SC current: Helps in determining making capacity (closing of CB
when fault is there in the system) of CB, fuses.
3. Minimum SC current: determines appropriate tripping curve of CB or fuses and setting the
threshold of overcurrent protection.
RELAY
1. Pick up/Current Settings: Determine the min. value of the operating quantity at which the
relay operates
2. Time settings: Determine time delay before the relay operates when the current exceeds
the pick up current.
Types:
1. Main Relays:
2. Auxiliary relays: Used only in control circuits not in protection circuit. For contact
multiplication or providing time delay between primary and back up protection.
3. Signal relays: indicates the operation of main relays. Energize a signal or alarm circuit.
Based on function
1. Over current relay
2. Over and under voltage relay
3. Over frequency or over speed relay: Over frequency protection or over speed protection is
used to protect the generator from over speeding of generator’s rotor, reduce the eddy
current losses as the frequency increases and protect the winding against v/f over fluxing
protection. Overfluxing causes saturation of iron core.
4. Under frequency relay: Under frequency protection in used to protect the
transformer/generator when the frequency drops below the operating frequency. Under
frequency occurs die to turbine low speed, AVR failure, grid frequency fluctuation, load is
greater than generation capacity.
5. Distance protection: Use voltage and current to measure impedance to fault
6. Differential relay
1. ALF is for Protection class CT and ISF is for metering class CT.
2. ALF and ISF is the ratio of Primary current to the rated primary current.
3. IEEE C57.3: Have standard burden, terminal connection, ratings for CT with one or two
ratios, standard accuracy class for CT and PT
4. Standard Accuracy class for CTs as per IEC 61869-2 & Standard Accuracy class for PTs as per
IEC 61869-3
5. In PT, voltage factor is to be considered. Not solidly earthed system:1.9 and Solidly earthed
system:1.5
6. In primary and secondary of PT, fuses to be provided to prevent damage of PT from short
circuit. But in secondary of CT only shorting terminals to the secondary of CT should be
provided to short the CT secondary.
7. The first value of insulation level voltage is called power frequency voltage and is measured
in V(RMS)
8. The second value of insulation level voltage is called lightning impulse voltage and is
measured in kV(peak)
Current Transformer:
1. Relay operates when the magnitude of current exceeds a preset value/ pick up current
(symbol- I>). Operation of the relay could be instantaneous or delayed for the purpose of
discrimination
2. Also protect against overloads and short circuits.
3. With overloading, there is an associated temperature rise. Overcurrent protection of
overloads is generally provided by thermal relays.
4. Short circuits (5 to 20 times of FLA) could be phase faults, earth faults or winding faults.
5. Primary requirements of Overcurrent protection:
a. Protection should not operate for starting currents, permissible overcurrent and
current surges
i. To achieve this, time delay is provided (in case of inverse relays)
b. Protection should be coordinated with neighbouring overcurrent protections so as
to discriminate
i. To achieve this, current selectivity, time selectivity, directional overcurrent
protection is provided.
6. Characteristics (C/Cs) of Overcurrent relay
a. Instantaneous C/C’s
b. Definite time C/C’s
c. Inverse time C/C’s
i. Normal Inverse
ii. Very Inverse
iii. Extremely Inverse
d. Inverse Definite minimum time C/C’s
7. Adjusting the overcurrent relay setting:
a. Pick up current (symbol- I>): Min. value of current required to operate the relay
i. Usually pick up current is 150% to 200% of full load current
b. Current setting (Plug setting): used to adjust the value of pick up current
i. How?- In electromechanical relay, this is achieved by changing the no. of
turns of the relay by providing the required no. of tapping in the coil.
ii. The current setting of relay is expressed in percentage ratio of relay pick up
current to the rated secondary current of CT.
iii. Current setting=[(Pick up current)/(rated secondary current)]*100
c. Plug setting multiplier (PSM): Ratio of fault/relay current in the relay to its pick up
current
i. PSM=[(Relay current)/(pick up current)]*100
ii. For relay to operate PSM>=1
d. Time setting multiplier (TSM): Range between 0<TSM<1. This is done by
i. Adjusting the distance to be travelled by the moving parts of the relay for
closing relay contacts
ii. How fast the moving parts of the relay cover this distance
iii. TSM is used to obtain family of curves of the Relay C/C’s
iv. To obtain operating time of relay, multiply the actual TSM to the operating
time corresponding to TM=1
8. Determining the actual Relay operating time
a. Determination of relay current from fault current and CT ratio from the expression:
i. Relay current= (Fault current)/(CT ratio)
b. Determination of the pick-up current from the expression:
i. Pick up current =current setting x rated secondary current of the CT
c. Determination of Plug setting multiplier (PSM) which is given by:
i. PSM=(Relay current)/(pick up current)
d. Determination of operating time of relay corresponding to calculated PSM from
Time-PSM curve at TSM=1.
e. Determination of actual operating time of relay by multiplying the time obtained in
step (d) by time-setting multiplier in use.
i. Actual operating time = Operating time x TSM (at use)
DIRECTIONAL OVERCURRENT RELAY (ANSI 67)
1. Operated only when flows in the selected direction (forward or reverse) of current flow.
2. A directional overcurrent relay measures current and voltage at a given point of the circuit
3. From these measurements, the directional element is able to determine the direction of
current flow
4. Require PT also
5. Operate by measuring phase angle between V and I
6. The main settings to the directional overcurrent relay are :
a. Current threshold, also referred to as the current setting. This is the minimum
current for which the directional overcurrent relay may trip.
b. Time delay, also referred to as the time setting or the operate delay
c. Direction of current flow (forward or reverse)
d. Characteristic angle. Angle by which the reference voltage is rotated to allow proper
operation of the directional overcurrent relay. This angle is generally set to 45°. This
angle depends mainly on the length of the cable and conductor material. If the
length of the cable is very long so the capacitive current will increase and make the
current lead the voltage and make the load capacitive due to the high capacitive
current that is flowing in the feeder. So as the capacitive current increases in the
feeder the characteristic angle should increase in order to prevent operation at
normal operation when the current leads voltage in leading power factor.
1. The electrical earthing is done by connecting the non-current carrying part of the equipment
or neutral of supply system to the ground.
2. The earthing is essential because of the following reasons :
a. The earthing protects the personnel from the short circuit current.
b. The earthing provides the easiest path to the flow of short circuit current even after
the failure of the insulation.
c. The earthing protects the apparatus and personnel from the high voltage surges and
lightning discharge.
3. Important terms: Earth, Earth electrode, Exposed conductive part, Protective earth
(Conductor used for connection between conductive parts and the earthing electrode.)
4. Types of earthing: 1. Neutral earthing=System earthing and 2. Equipment earthing
5. Protection
a. The protection is activated when the residual current I(rsd) = I1 + I2 +I3 rises above
the setting threshold.
b. At normal operation: I(rsd) = I1 + I2 +I3=0
c. How to measure residual current? By two ways it can be done
i. Using core balance transformer (CBCT): Three phase current pass through
CBCT, the output of the CBCT is I(rsd) which will be input to EF relay.
ii. Using three CTs whose neutrals are connected.
iii. Measuring the I(rsd) using CBCT is preferable as it provides more accurate
measurement.
6. Earthing system in low voltages:
a. TT Earthing system
i. First ‘T’: The neutral point is directly connected to earth
ii. Second ‘T’: The exposed conductive parts are directly connected to earth
iii. Advantages:
1. The fault current is low
2. The residual current device (RCD) is obligatory as fault current is low
for the C.B. to detect
iv. Maximum safe touch voltage is 50 V
v. For setting the RCD, first find the actual touch voltage when fault current is
flowing. This touch voltage should be limited to 50V. At 50V, find fault
current the setting of RCD should be less than this fault current.
b. TN Earthing system
i. First ‘T’: The neutral point is directly connected to earth
ii. Second ‘N’: The exposed conductive parts are directly connected to the
neutral point.
iii. Two types:
1. TN-C (4 wire system): PE conductor is combined with the neutral
conductor.
a. Earth fault loop impedance is low
b. It is preferrable if the distance between the source and the
electrical equipment is long unlike TN-S system
c. For detection of earth fault, PEN conductor mustn’t travel
inside the CBCT.
2. TN-S (5 wire system): PE conductor is separate from the neutral
conductor
a. Earth fault loop impedance is low
b. It is preferrable if the distance between the source and the
electrical equipment is short
3. TN-C-S:
a. Neutral and protective functions are combined in a single
conductor in a part of the TN-C-S system. The supply is TN-C
and the arrangement in the installation is TN-S.
b. Use of a TN-S downstream from a TN-C
c. IT Earthing system:
i. First ‘I’: The supply source is either connected to earth through high earthing
impedance (Impedance earthed IT system) or is isolated from earth.
ii. Second ‘T’: The exposed conductive parts are directly connected to earth
iii. Advantages:
1. Provides the best system continuity (as Ifault =0 )
2. It will increase electrical device life time, as faulty current is low, it
causes less stress on the equipment.
iv. Disadvantages:
1. Insulation of the equipment should withstand phase to phase
voltage (line voltage)
2. Earth fault protection for unearthed system is difficult
3. Risks of over voltages
7. Earthing system in MV:
a. Directly earthed neutral
i. Very high fault current as resistance is very low and can damage to electrical
equipment and fire hazard.
ii. Operation of RCDs in case of earth fault during first instance
b. Unearthed neutral
i. Maximum service continuity as fault current is almost zero
ii. Tripping upon occurrence of second fault i.e. during first fault, suppose V3
touches metallic frame but since neutral is unearthed no tripping occurs.
However, during second fault, suppose V1 touches metallic frame. This
results into short circuit fault as V1 and V3 both are touching metallic frame.
Hence, 50/51 operates.
iii. Insulation of the equipment should withstand phase to phase voltage
c. Resistance earthing neutral
i. Most commonly used
ii. Tripping upon occurrence of first fault
iii. High heat dissipation at neutral resistor P=(I fault)^2*Rn
iv. Fault current is limited to protect the load from damage
1. Rn is decided in such a way that fault current is limited to
a. 200-300A in case of fault at transformers and cables
b. 20-30A in case of fault at motors
8. Earthing transformer in MV network
a. Earthing by artificial neutral. Mainly in delta winding
b. Earthing transformer can be made in several ways
i. Using a star delta transformer
ii. Mainly used on the main bus bar as this avoids the usage of separate
neutral resistors for several parallel sources
9. Earth fault current is summation of resistive earth fault current and capacitive earth fault
current
a. Resistance earthed neutral
i. In = Vph / Rn
ii. Ic = -3VphWC negative sign means capacitive current during fault is reverse
to capacitive current during normal operation i.e. from phase to earth
b. Unearthed neutral
i. In = 0
ii. Ic = -3VphWC
10. For low voltage system, capacitive current is very small and can be neglected as Vph is low.
But in medium voltage capacitive current cannot be neglected as Vph is high.
11. Setting of earth fault protection when several outgoing feeders
a. Setting of Residual current in faulty feeder should be greater than current setting of
EF relay to operate the relay
b. Setting of Residual current in healthy feeder should be less than current setting of EF
relay so that EF relay does not operate
1. It is the protection whose operation depends on the phase difference of two or more
electrical quantities
2. How is the differential protection activated?
a. It operates when the phase difference between similar electrical quantities (Current
& Voltage) exceeds a predetermined value.
b. Differential protection is generally unit protection meaning the protected zone is
exactly determined by location of CT's.
3. Working principle of current differential protection
a. The current transformer is placed at both the ends of the protection zone
b. The secondary of the transformers is connected in series with the help of the pilot
wire. Pilot wire are used for control protection or telecommunication or data
transmission purposes usually used in power distribution and transmission system.
c. Thereby, the current induces in the CTs flows in the same direction. The operating
coil of the relay is connected on the secondary of the CTs.
d. At normal operation and external fault:
i. The two secondary currents of the C.Ts are the same
ii. No current passes through the relay. Thus relay will not operate.
e. For internal fault
i. The two secondary currents of the C.Ts are not the same
ii. The relay will operate
4. Difficulties in differential protection:
a. Difference in pilot wire lengths
i. To overcome this problem: By connecting adjustable resistors in series with
pilot wires
b. Magnetizing Current Inrush in transformer while switching on.
i. To overcome this problem: Harmonic restraint is provided for differential
relay.
ii. The harmonic restraint unit (HRU) has a second-harmonic blocking filter in
the relay coil circuit. Inrush current=Second harmonic current
c. CT Ratio errors & Saturation of CT magnetic circuits during short circuits
i. To overcome this problem: Percentage Differential Relay, or 'Biased
Differential Relay' is used
5. Percentage Differential Relay, or 'Biased Differential Relay'
a. Operating current=i1-i2
b. Restraining current= (i1+i2)/2
c. Since torque is proportional to current, therefore, relay will only operate if operating
torque is greater than restraining torque
d. The ratio of the differential operating current to the average restraining current is
the operating characteristics of the relay.
e. Relay setting = slope of the operating characteristics of the relay i.e.
i. Pick up value % = [(i1-i2)/(i1+i2)/2]*100
f. If [(i1-i2)/(i1+i2)/2] > slope of operating characteristics of the relay, relay will operate
g. If [(i1-i2)/(i1+i2)/2] < slope of operating characteristics of the relay, relay will not
operate.
6. Voltage balance differential relay
a. For feeder protection of several Kilometers long , the secondary currents of the CTs
will flow in the pilot wires of high resistance
b. This will increase the burden of the CT which will be impractical for any economic
design of the CT
c. Thus for feeder differential protection, voltage balance differential relays are used.
i. The relays are connected in series with the secondary of the current
transformer
ii. The relays are connected in such a way that no current flows through it in
the normal operating condition (or through faults)
1. Used for protection of Transmission and Distribution lines due to limitation of overcurrent
protection.
2. Distance protection setting is independent on type of fault and generator characteristics.
3.
CIRCUIT BREAKERS:
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