Protection of Power

Systems

8. Impedance (Distance) Relays

Zones of Protection
 Protection of simple systems has been discussed so
far.
 For more general power system configurations, a
fundamental concept is the division of a system into
protective zones.
 If a fault occurs anywhere within a zone, action will
be taken to isolate that zone from the rest of the
system.
 Zones are defined for: generators, transformers,
buses, transmission and distribution lines, and
motors.
 Figure 10.23 illustrates the protective zone concept.
 Each zone is defined by a closed, dashed line.
 Zone 1, for example, contains a generator and
connecting leads to a transformer.
 In some cases a zone may contain more than one
component.
 For example, zone 3 contains a generator-
transformer unit and connecting leads to a bus, and
zone 10 contains a transformer and a line.
 Protective zones have the following characteristics:
 Zones are overlapped.
 Circuit breakers are located in the overlap regions.
 For a fault anywhere in a zone, all circuit breakers
in that zone open to isolate the fault.
 Neighboring zones are overlapped to avoid the
possibility of unprotected areas.
 Without overlap the small area between two
neighboring zones would not be located in any zone
and thus would not be protected.
 Since isolation during faults is done by circuit
breakers, they should be inserted between
equipment in a zone and each connection to the
system.
 That is, breakers should be inserted in each overlap
region.
 As such, they identify the boundaries of protective
zones.
 For example, zone 5 in Figure 10.23 is connected to
zones 4 and 7.
 Therefore, a circuit breaker is located in the overlap
region between zones 5 and 4, as well as between
zones 5 and 7.
 If a fault occurs anywhere within a zone, action is
taken to open all breakers in that zone.
 For example, if a fault occurs at P1 on the line in zone
5, then the two breakers in zone 5 should open.
 If a fault occurs at P2 within the overlap region of
zones 4 and 5, then all five breakers in zones 4 and 5
should open.
 Clearly, if a fault occurs within an overlap region, two
zones will be isolated and a larger part of the system
will be lost from service.
 To minimize this possibility, overlap regions are kept
as small as possible.
 Overlap is accomplished by having two sets of
instrument transformers and relays for each circuit
breaker.
 For example, the breaker in Figure 10.24 shows two
CTs, one for zone 1 and one for zone 2.
 Overlap is achieved by the order of the arrangement:
first the equipment in the zone, second the breaker,
and then the CT for that zone.
Line Protection with Impedance
(Distance) Relays
 Coordinating time-delay overcurrent relays can also
be difficult for some radial systems.
 If there are too many radial lines and buses, the time
delay for the breaker closest to the source becomes
excessive.
 Also, directional overcurrent relays are difficult to
coordinate in transmission loops with multiple
sources.
 Consider the use of these relays for the transmission
loop shown in Figure 10.27.
 For a fault at P1, we want the B21 relay to operate
faster than the B32 relay.
 For a fault at P2, we want B32 faster than B13.
 And for a fault at P3, we want B13 faster than B21.
 Proper coordination, which depends on the
magnitudes of the fault currents, becomes a tedious
process.
 Furthermore, when consideration is given to various
lines or sources out of service, coordination becomes
extremely difficult.
 To overcome these problems, relays that respond to
a voltage-to-current ratio can be used.
 Note that during a three-phase fault, current
increases while bus voltages close to the fault
decrease.
 If, for example, current increases by a factor of 5
while voltage decreases by a factor of 2, then the
voltage-to-current ratio decreases by a factor of 10.
 That is, the voltage-to-current ratio is more sensitive
to faults than current alone.
 A relay that operates on the basis of voltage-to-
current ratio is called an impedance relay.
 It is also called a distance relay or a ratio relay.
 Impedance relay block and trip regions are shown in
Figure 10.28, where the impedance Z is defined as
the voltage-to-current ratio at the relay location.
 The relay trips for Z < Zr, where Zr is an adjustable
relay setting.
 The impedance circle that defines the border
between the block and trip regions passes through Zr.
 A straight line called the line impedance locus is
shown for the impedance relay in Figure 10.28.
 This locus is a plot of positive sequence line
impedances, predominantly reactive, as viewed
between the relay location and various points along
the line.
 The relay setting Zr is a point in the R-X plane
through which the impedance circle that defines the
trip-block boundary must pass.
 Consider an impedance relay for breaker B12 in
Figure 10.27, for which Z = V1/I12.
 During normal operation, load currents are usually
much smaller than fault currents, and the ratio Z has
a large magnitude (and some arbitrary phase angle).
 Therefore, Z will lie outside the circle of Figure 10.28,
and the relay will not trip during normal operation.
 During a three-phase fault at P1, however, Z appears
to relay B12 to be the line impedance from the B12
relay to the fault.
 If Zr in Figure 10.28 is set to be larger than the
magnitude of this impedance, then the B12 relay will
trip.
 Also, during a three-phase fault at P3, Z appears to
relay B12 to be the negative of the line impedance
from the relay to the fault.
 If Zr is larger than the magnitude of this impedance,
the B12 relay will trip.
 Thus, the impedance relay of Figure 10.28 is not
directional; a fault to the left or right of the relay can
cause a trip.
 Two ways to include directional capability with an
impedance relay are shown in Figure 10.29.
 In Figure 10.29(a), an impedance relay with
directional restraint is obtained by including a
directional relay in series with an impedance relay,
just as was done previously with an overcurrent relay.
 In Figure 10.29(b), a modified impedance relay is
obtained by offsetting the center of the impedance
circle from the origin.
 This modified impedance relay is sometimes called
an mho relay.
 If either of these relays is used at B12 in Figure
10.27, a fault at P1 will result in a trip decision, but a
fault at P3 will result in a block decision.
 Note that the radius of the impedance circle for the
modified impedance relay is half of the corresponding
radius for the impedance relay with directional
restraint.
 The modified impedance relay has the advantage of
better selectivity for high power factor loads.
 For example, the high power factor load ZL lies
outside the trip region of Figure 10.29(b) but inside
the trip region of Figure 10.29(a).
 The reach of an impedance relay denotes how far
down the line the relay detects faults.
 For example, an 80% reach means that the relay will
detect any (solid three-phase) fault between the relay
and 80% of the line length.
 This explains the term distance relay.
 It is common practice to use three directional
impedance relays per phase, with increasing reaches
and longer time delays.
 For example, Figure 10.27 shows three protection
zones for B12.
 The zone 1 relay is typically set for an 80% reach and
instantaneous operation, in order to provide primary
protection for line 1–2.
 The zone 2 relay is set for about 120% reach,
extending beyond bus 2, with a typical time delay of
0.2 to 0.3 seconds.
 The zone 2 relay provides backup protection for
faults on line 1–2 as well as remote backup for faults
on line 2–3 or 2–4 in zone 2.
 Note that in the case of a fault on line 2–3 we want
the B23 relay to trip, not the B12 relay.
 Since the impedance seen by B12 for faults near bus
2, either on line 1–2 or line 2–3, is essentially the
same, we cannot set the B12 zone 1 relay for 100%
reach.
 Instead, an 80% reach is selected to avoid
instantaneous operation of B12 for a fault on line 2–3
near bus 2.
 For example, if there is a fault at P2 on line 2–3, B23
should trip instantaneously; if it fails, B12 will trip after
time delay.
 Other faults at or near bus 2 also cause tripping of
the B12 zone 2 relay after time delay.
 Reach for the zone 3 B12 relay is typically set to
extend beyond buses 3 and 4 in Figure 10.27, in
order to provide remote backup for neighboring lines.
 As such, the zone 3 reach is set for 100% of line 1–2
plus 120% of either line 2–3 or 2–4, whichever is
longer, with an even larger time delay, typically one
second.
 Typical block and trip regions are shown in Figure
10.30 for both types of three-zone, directional
impedance relays.
 Relay connections for a three-zone impedance relay
with directional restraint are shown in Figure 10.31.
 Remote backup protection of adjacent lines using
zone 3 of an impedance relay may be ineffective.
 In practice, buses have multiple lines of different
lengths with sources at their remote ends.
 Contributions to fault currents from the multiple lines
may cause the zone 3 relay to underreach.
 The impedance relays considered so far use line-to-
neutral voltages and line currents and are called
ground fault relays.
 They respond to three-phase, single line-to-ground,
and double line-to-ground faults very effectively.
 The impedance seen by the relay during unbalanced
faults will generally not be the same as seen during
three-phase faults and will not be truly proportional to
the distance to the fault location.
 However, the relay can be accurately set for any fault
location after computing impedance to the fault using
fault currents and voltages.
 For other fault locations farther away (or closer), the
impedance to the fault will increase (or decrease).
 Ground fault relays are relatively insensitive to line-
to-line faults.
 Impedance relays that use line-to-line voltages Vab,
Vbc, Vca and line-current differences IaIb, IbIc, IcIa
are called phase relays.
 Phase relays respond effectively to line-to-line faults
and double line-to-ground faults but are relatively
insensitive to single line-to-ground faults.
 Therefore, both phase and ground fault relays need
to be used.