SIEMENS

Power Technology

Power Transmission and Distribution

Issue 102

Protective Relaying
Luis G. Prez, Ph.D. Senior Staff Consultant luis.perez@siemens.com

Control and Protection Power system automation is performed by a variety of devices and subsystems which can be hierarchized. Among these, the system human operators, the automatic control subsystem and the relay protection subsystem lie in the highest levels of the hierarchy. The automatic control and relay protection subsystems monitor the power system behavior on a permanent basis and automatically respond to system disturbances (see Fig. 1). The control system is comprised of generator voltage and speed controls, transformer automatic tap changers, automatically switched reactors and capacitors, FACTS, etc. These devices sensitively react to changes of the power system state variables (commonly voltage and frequency) caused by practically any disturbance. This system is intended to fix the deviation of frequency and voltage caused by relatively minor disturbances, like load connection/disconnection and normal maintenance switching. The control system must be set in order to respond to a series of pre-established design considerations. Power control engineers calculate the control settings with the help of dynamic simulation programs, like PSSE.

Settings

Control

Manual Orders Disturbances

Power System

System Outputs (V, f, P, etc)

Settings

Protection

Protection Hardware and Philosophy The protection system is based on the philosophy of what has been traditionally defined in the United States Figure 1 - The protection system as Protective Relaying. Its main elements are circuit changes the power system to minimize breakers, instrument transformers, protective relays and the impact of severe disturbances [1]. auxiliary devices (see Fig. 2). In medium and low-voltage systems, fuses are also part of the protective hardware. Unlike the control system, the protection system is designed to react primarily to severe disturbances, as in the case of short circuits caused by line insulation breakdowns during a lightning storm. The protection system quickly reacts to disconnect the faulted element (power line, transformer, generator, etc.). The automatic disconnection is achieved with the circuit breakers, which open their high-duty power contacts after receiving an order from the protective relays (see Fig. 2). This disconnection and the consequent extinguishing phenomenon is known as fault clearing. During the time the fault exists, and immediately after its clearance, the power system experiences a series of dramatic changes which may destroy individual components or, in cases where the system dynamics are negatively impacted, may lead to a major system dismembering and, eventually, to wide area blackouts. Protective relays are low-voltage low-current intelligent devices which detect the fault by measuring the current and/or voltage of the system as reflected at the secondary side of specially designed current and voltage transformers (see Fig. 2). The measured phase currents and/or voltages generally have sufficient information to feed a relaying algorithm (or mechanism) which determines the breaker disconnection. Relays are configurable and settable, so it is possible to use the same kind of line protective relay to protect different types of lines; however, there will be different relay settings for each particular

Power Technology

July 2008

application. These relay or protection settings are calculated according to a well established set of criteria. The protection system has to be: (a)sensitive, to detect all faults; (b)fast, to minimize the damage that faults may cause; (c)secure, to avoid operation for non-fault or out of reach disturbances; (d)selective, to strictly disconnect the minimum amount of service to clear the fault; and (e)dependable, to ensure a reliability close to 100%. When a short circuit occurs at some point in the power system, one or more protective relays in the neighborhood of the fault detect the fault; however, only those relays that accomplish conditions (a) to (d) should be allowed to disconnect their corresponding circuit breakers (see Fig. 3). A protection system that simultaneously accomplishes all these characteristics is said to be coordinated. Some relays, called backup relays, are set in a way that their circuit breakers clear a fault in case there is a failure in the operation of the relays originally intended to clear that fault. This system backup type of design redounds in reliability. Protection Coordination

SS Bus Side

Current Transformer

Circuit Breaker

Line Side

52 TC

CB Cabinet

52a

Relay
Voltage Transformer SS Battery
52 TC

(A

= Circuit breaker trip coil

52a = Circuit breaker auxiliary contact

When all the relay designs, schemes and configurations of a protection system are defined, the process of calculating the relay settings in order to make such a system coordinated, as defined in the previous paragraph, is commonly called protection coordination. Engineers perform coordination studies to assure that the protection system works according to the aforementioned philosophy. Protection (B coordination or relay coordination studies are traditionally carried out using short circuit simulation Bus Line programs and relay simulation programs. In traditional Side Side methods, the relay settings are calculated using rules of thumb based on engineers experience: faults are simulated over critical points of the system and the relays behavior is observed for each fault. If no coordination is achieved at one attempt, the process (C must be repeated as many times as needed until the protection system works according to the coordination criteria. Engineers use simulation programs (for Relay example, the protection modules of PSSSINCAL used at Siemens PTI) as a support in the iteration Figure 2 - Protection Hardware process. In some cases, due to the complexity of the A. Simplified scheme of line protection system, the volume of calculations involved is enormous; consequently, engineers cannot find a B. Engineers set the relays satisfactory coordination solution for all the relay C. One-line diagram of (A) settings. There are some (not many) automatic coordination programs that help in this task [2]. Among other characteristics, good automatic coordination programs have to be able to receive practical inputs from the protection engineer in order to adapt to any particular criteria and experience.

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Power Technology

July 2008

As any power system changes in the short, medium and long term, engineers have to re-calculate the optimum relay settings for each new power system configuration. In other words, coordination studies have to be performed on a regular basis to guarantee proper system performance. Relay coordination and all aspects related to protective relaying represent a continual source of work for the protection engineering specialists. Siemens PTI and Protective Relaying Siemens PTI US has the computer tools and professionals with the experience and skills needed to calculate relay settings and produce the optimum results in protection coordination studies as well as in all other aspects related to protective relaying. Siemens PTI offers the following consulting services in the protection area: Short-circuit calculation and fault analysis Current transformer analysis and dimensioning Dynamic and pseudo-static analysis and setting of electromechanical, solid-state-analog and microprocessor-based protective relays and schemes for transmission, distribution, generation and industrial systems Optimum setting calculation (coordination) of directional overcurrent relays in transmission and subtransmission systems Distance relay setting calculation (coordination) for high-voltage transmission lines Protective relay setting calculation (coordination) for power generators Protective relay setting calculation (coordination) for power transformers and other substation equipment Utility distribution feeder protection coordination using relays, fuses, sectionalizers, and reclosers Industrial system protective relay setting calculation (coordination) Protective relay database design and maintenance Protective relaying is a wide field of knowledge. Everyday, new applications, new situations, new problems to solve and new criteria are born. The list displayed above is just a subset of all the possibilities.
1 5 2 3 6 11 14

10 13

12

7 18 19

8 20

15 21

17 22

16 23

24 25 26 27 29 33 38 34 39 41 35 37 40 F 28 30 31 36 32

42 45

44

43 46

47

Note: This symbol means that the line is radial

Figure 3 - One-line diagram view of the power system and the protection system (only circuit breakers are shown). Example: for a fault at F1, breakers 29 and 35 automatically open in 5 cycles. If 29 failed to operate, then 31 and 26 should trip to clear the fault. This selective mode of operation is part of the whole coordination plan.

References: [1] Prez, L.; Venkatasubramanian, V.; Flechsig, A., Modeling the Protective System for Power System Dynamic Analysis, IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, vol. 9, no. 4, Nov. 1994. [2] Prez, L.; Urdaneta, A., Optimal Coordination of Distance Relays Second Zone Timing in a Mixed Protection Scheme with Directional Overcurrent Relays, IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery, vol. 16, no. 3, Jul. 2001.

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