MATLAB-SIMULINK-Based Simulation for Digital Differential Relay Protection of Power Transformer for Educational Purpose

B. VAHIDI,1 E. ESMAEELI2
1

Department of Electrical Engineering, Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran, Iran Department of Electrical Engineering, Iran University of Science and Technology, Tehran, Iran

Received 13 January 2010; accepted 1 August 2010 ABSTRACT: Differential protection was already applied toward the end of the 19th century and was one of the
rst protection systems ever used. Faults are detected by comparison of the currents owing into and out of the protected plant item. As a result of the fast tripping with absolute selectivity, it is suited as main protection of all important items of plant. The article presents an approach to teaching relay laboratory using specially designed exercises that can be done using MATLAB-SIMULINK. This article presents a MATLAB-SIMULINK-based technology to simulate differential relay for determining behavior of it during transformer internal fault protection. The results show that this simulation method can work properly and this design can be used for power system simulation in MATLAB-SIMULINK. Evaluation of the simulation with more than 60 students is very positive in terms of their developing condence in and understanding of this kind of relay operation. 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Comput Appl Eng Educ; View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com; DOI 10.1002/cae.20493 Keywords: MATLAB-SIMULINK; differential relay; protection

INTRODUCTION
Computer simulation plays an important role in engineering course teaching. Nowadays, a variety of software tools are available to simulate electrical circuits. While most of these tools are computationally very efcient and reasonably user-friendly, they have a closed architecture where it is very difcult or impossible to simulate component models. Further, most industrial-grade tools require substantial training before they can be used productively. A simulation package like PowerWorld Simulator has the power for serious engineering analysis and also it can be used to explain power system operations to nontechnical audiences. The simulator allows the user to visualize the system through the use of full-color animated oneline diagrams

Correspondence to B. Vahidi (vahidi@aut.ac.ir). 2010 Wiley Periodicals Inc.

although it has not protection component models. Power System Analysis toolbox (PSAT)a freely available MATLAB implementationis a MATLAB toolbox for electric power system analysis and control. PSAT includes power ow, continuation power ow, optimal power ow, small signal stability analysis, and time domain simulation, although it has no protection component models either. Some commercial tools like ETAP and DIgSILENT have most of protection component models but require substantial training. A widespread environment for simulation of power engineering problems is MATLAB-SIMULINK. Many simulations of different aspects of a power system and engineering application using MATLAB_SIMULINK have been presented by different researchers [111]. Martin and Fernandez [1] used SIMULINK to model the overcurrent relay and fault circuit breaker. Zhang et al. used MATLAB-SIMULINK to test and model the protection devices for shipboard power systems [2]. Luo and Kezunovic [3] introduced SIMULINK for modeling digital relay. Zocholl and Mooney [4] used MATLAB

VAHIDI AND ESMAEELI

simulation to compare with overcurrent relay testing. Chow and Cheung [5] introduced a MATLAB-based toolbox for power system dynamics and control engineering education and research. MATLAB simulation is used by El Sayed and Eldin [6] for discrimination between inrush current and fault current. Deep et al. [7] used MATLAB for optimal relay operating times determination. Using MATLAB for power systems simulation and analysis are described in Ref. [8]. Application of MATLAB in ferroresonance modeling is introduced in Ref. [9]. Kezunovic et al. [10] developed computer exercise by using MATLAB software. Karagiannis et al. [11] used MATLAB web server to facilitate the education of mathematical programming. Other methods are employed by other researcher, Larsson [12] described a power system library called ObjectStab for power system stability simulation. Lazaridis et al. [13] used visual LinProg in mathematical programming course to supplement the teaching. A power transformer, being a vital and expensive piece of equipment in a power system, requires critical attention from the standpoint of its protection. Therefore, it is highly desirable to simulate the differential protection of a transformer. The protection design for a transformer is the duty of power system engineers; therefore, the students of power system engineering should be familiar with differential protection of power transformers. Our course on power system protection is taken by students in 15 weeks (3 h per week). In this course fundamentals and different methods of protection are taught, one of them is differential protection of power transformers. The authors of this article have been using MATLABSIMULINK 7.1 as an instructional tool to teach differential protection of power transformer to undergraduate students. This method of instruction has enabled students to understand the techniques of this kind of protection (a power system together with relay are simulated and results are obtained from simulation). The success rate of students in understanding the subject shows the ability of this method.

Figure 2

Characteristic of a percentage differential relay.

(stabilizing or bias current). Thereby, the protection sensitivity is automatically matched to the prevailing short circuit conditions [14]. Implementation of differential protection is simpler in the case of protected objects that are not geographically spread out (transformers, generators, busbars), where the CTs are situated close together. In this case, the CTs may be connected to the protection device directly via control cables [14,15]. Percentage restraint differential protection employs the restraint current IRT, together with the operating current IOP, to define the relay operation on a coordinate plane, as shown in Figure 2. A line divides the coordinate plane into two parts. The upper part is the operating region while the lower part is the restraining region. This dividing line is called the characteristic of the differential relay. Typical characteristic of differential relays presents a small slope for low currents to allow sensitivity to light internal faults. At higher currents, the slope of the characteristic is much higher, which requires that the operating current, IOP, be higher in order to cause operation of the differential relay IOP I1s I2s IRT kI1s I2s 1 2

PRINCIPLE OF DIFFERENTIAL PROTECTION

Differential protection calculates the sum of all currents owing into and out of the protected object. Apart from magnetizing currents and capacitive charging currents, this current sum must always be equal to zero (Kirchhoffs current law) if the protected object is unfaulted (Fig. 1). Internal faults are therefore detected by the appearance of a differential or operating current [1416]. For security against maloperation due to current transformer (CT) transformation errors, the pick-up threshold of the protection is increased in proportion to the total current ow

where k is a compensation factor, generally taken as 0.5 or 1. The operation of a percentage-differential relay can be expressed by the following equation: IOP > SLPi IRT 3

where SLPi is the slope of the ith characteristic of the differential relay. The effectiveness of the differential relay used for protecting transformers against faults is undisputed [17,18]. However, the major drawback of this technique stems from its potential for false tripping caused by the transient magnetizing inrush current. Given that harmonic content of the short circuit currents is negligible, the harmonic-based methods are used for either restraining or blocking the relay from operation during initial current inrush. Harmonicbased methods allow the differential relay to remain sensitive to fault currents while keeping the relay from operating due to magnetizing currents. The harmonic-restrained differential relay compares the fundamental component of the operating current with a restraint signal consisting of the unfiltered restraint current plus the harmonics of the operating current. The differential relay operation condition can be expressed as IOP > SLPi IRT k2 I2h k3 I3h 4

Figure 1

Differential protection principle.

MATLAB-SIMULINK-BASED SIMULATION

Table 1

Typical Amplitude of the Harmonics Amplitude (% of fundamental) 55 63 26.8 5.1 4.1 3.7 2.4

SIMULATED CIRCUIT
The circuit that is simulated on MATLAB-SIMULINK is shown in Figure 3 and simulated circuit for differential relay is shown in Figure 4. Descriptions of different parts of circuit are as follows [25,26]: (4) CT relay: The CT relay consists of three saturable transformer block model. The model takes into account the winding resistances and the leakage inductances as well as the magnetizing characteristics of the core, which is modeled by a resistance simulating the core active losses and a saturable inductance. In the present simulation for 800/10 A the CT burden is 1.62 j0.784 O. (5) Three-phase transformer: Power and voltage of power transformer that is used in the present simulation is Pn 150 MVA, Vlow voltage (phase to phase) 33 kV, Vhigh voltage (phase to phase) 132 kV. (8) Relay: Described in the next section. (2) Fcn block: The Fcn block applies the specified C language style expression to its input. This block removes the zero-sequence component of the input current. The math functions for these blocks are 1/ 3*(2*u(1) u(2) u(3)), 1/3*(u(1) 2*u(2) u(3)), and 1/ 3*(u(1) u(2) 2*u(3)) for a, b, c phases, respectively. (4) Fourier: The Fourier block performs a Fourier analysis of the input signal over a running window of one cycle of the fundamental frequency of the signal.

Harmonic components in magnetizing inrush current DC Second harmonic Third harmonic Fourth harmonic Fifth harmonic Sixth harmonic Seventh harmonic

where IOP is the fundamental component of the operating current, I2h, I3h, . . . are higher harmonics of the operating current, IRT is the unfiltered restraint current, k2, k3, . . . are constant coefficients. The second-order harmonic of the asymmetrical magnetization is peculiar to the inrush. A more recent set of techniques use only the second harmonic to identify inrush currents and the fth harmonic to avoid misoperations for transformer due to overexcitation [19,20] In Table 1 typical amplitudes of the harmonics are shown, compared with the fundamental (100%) [21]. Many studies based on the use of wavelet and neural network analysis to characterize inrush currents aim to recognize the inrush current and to distinguish it from an internal fault current [2224]; these methods are out of scope of this educational article.

Figure 3

Simulated circuit on MATLAB-SIMULINK [25].

VAHIDI AND ESMAEELI

Figure 4 Simulated circuit for differential relay [25].

The Fourier block can be programmed to calculate the magnitude and phase of the DC component, the fundamental or any harmonic component of the input signal. The voltage incidence angle and the residual ux are main factors to determine the rst peak value of the inrush current and it mainly contains the fundamental frequency and second harmonic. Both magnitudes decrease as the inrush current diminishes and we do not want the differential relay to declare a trip condition while energizing an unfaulted transformer. Digital lters (Fourier blocks) extract the fundamental, second-, and fth-harmonic (overexcitation can introduce fth-harmonic level) quantities from the digital signals. (10) Embedded MATLAB function: MATLAB and SIMULINK presently do not have a toolbox, which helps us in simulating power system protection equipment. Therefore, MATLAB scripts must be written in order to model the relays. Zero sequence elimination and extraction of fundamental component are implemented by blocks (2) and (4) and are inputs of the Embedded Function block (I(1:6)). Other inputs are second- and third-harmonic components (I(8:13)) to utilize in inrush current detection. Relay settings and command feedback are entered as I(14:16) and I(7), respectively. This decision block implements the characteristic of a percentage differential relay.

function x fcn(I) i1_m I(1:3); %I1s i2_m I(4:6); %I2s i_setting1 I(15); % current setting i_setting2 i_setting1; k1 I(16); % bias percent k2 k1; % I(8:10) ! k2*I2h (2nd harmonic) I(11:13) ! k3*I3h (3rd harmonic) inrush (I(8:10) I(11:13)); % k2*I2h k3*I3h idiff abs(i1_m i2_m) inrush; ibias sqrt(2)*abs(i2_m i1_m)/2; inrush max(I(8:10) I(11:13)); i 1; x 1; while i 3 if I(14) > 0.1 % energize the power transformer x 1; end if I(7) < 0.5 % if there is a fault x 0; break end if ibias(i) > i_setting1 if idiff(i) > (k1*ibias(i) i_setting1 inrush) % IOP SLPi IRT k2 I2h k3 I3h x 0; % open the circuit breaker if there is a fault break

MATLAB-SIMULINK-BASED SIMULATION

else x 1; % leave circuit in close circuit if there is a balanced situation end else if idiff(i) > (k1*ibias(i) i_setting1 (k1 k2)*i_setting2) x 0; % open the circuit breaker if there is an unbalanced situation break else x 1; % leave circuit in close circuit if there is balanced situation end end i i 1; end %while if x 0 x 1; else x 0; end

SIMULATION RESULTS Inrush Current

In order to check the behavior of the relay under inrush current, the transformer is energized at no-load condition and the result is shown in Figure 5. During energize period of transformer the differential relay should not operate. Results show that the designed differential relay is not operated under inrush current.

Fault Conditions
In order to show the behavior of differential relay under different fault conditions and conrm that the relay operate under fault condition a series of simulation is conducted and results are shown in Figures 69. For all these kinds of faults the relay should operate and remove the fault. Figure 6 shows the A Phase to B Phase to ground fault condition on the high-voltage side of transformer under load condition. Figure 7 shows the A Phase to B Phase to ground fault condition on the high-voltage side of transformer during inrush current process (fault inrush current) under load condition.

Figure 5

Currents and voltages during inrush current condition.

VAHIDI AND ESMAEELI

Figure 6 Currents and voltages during A Phase to B Phase to ground fault condition.

Figure 7

Currents and voltages during A Phase to B Phase to ground fault condition inrush current.

MATLAB-SIMULINK-BASED SIMULATION

Figure 8

Currents and voltages during A Phase to ground fault condition.

Figure 9

Currents and voltages during A Phase to B Phase to C Phase fault condition.

VAHIDI AND ESMAEELI

Figure 10

Number of students who have understood the concept before using the simulator.
Figure 12

Figure 8 shows the A Phase to ground fault condition on the high-voltage side of transformer under load condition. Figure 9 shows the A Phase to B Phase to C Phase fault condition on the high-voltage side of transformer under load condition. From the above results, it can be concluded that the designed relay is working properly and can discriminate inrush from internal faults and it works on different fault condition. The designed relay is tested for high impedance fault and it works properly on this kind of internal fault.

Students understanding chart.

The following questions are prepared for testing the students whether they gained all the concepts or not: (1) How is differential relay acting? (2) Explain the differences between voltage and current waveforms due to inrush current phenomena and fault phenomena. The test is performed on four groups (i.e., G1, G2, G3, and G4) of students (15 students per group). Before using the simulator, the understanding rate of students in each group is shown in Figure 10. As it can be seen from this chart, the learning rate in all four groups is low. However, after the rst try, the rate of understanding increases. Figure 11 shows the understanding rate of students of each group in four successive tries. The nal result is also shown for cumulative number of learning of students during four tries in Figure 12. After four tries, all the students have got the concepts by using the simulation utilities (at the end of each try the same questions are asked). It is good to mention that during each try, the students may focus on the questions that they have not answered correctly. In a different test, with different learners, it may take more than four tries for educators to learn the subject to all the learners.

STUDENTS FEEDBACK
Assessment of learning outcomes refers to specic processes through which learners demonstrate the attainment of learning outcomes. In a course, the instructor has the obligation to check learners whether they have attained the learning outcomes or not. To assess the depth of learning of learners of this test, a question sheet is prepared. The students are required to answer the questions after theoretical sessions are attained and before using the simulator. Same questions are asked of students after each try of using the simulator. To be noted is that before the rst try of using the simulator, working procedure with simulator is taught rst and the questions are based only on the machine itself. A student is said to understand the concept, if he/she answers all the questions correctly.

CONCLUSION
The present article has outlined and illustrated a MATLABSIMULINK model to simulate power transformers digital differential protection. The method considerably reduces the time and cost needed to teach power transformers differential protection. Therefore, it is very useful for educational purposes where the budget is limited, or to serve as useful preparatory exercises during the power system protection course. Several fault conditions are simulated and interruption of current shows that designed differential relay work properly. The students can get the idea from this article and design differential relays or other kind of relays for different simulation jobs. The undergraduate students can learn how to model and simulate the relay for power system protection studies.

Figure 11

Number of students in each group who have understood the concept in successive four tries of using the simulator.

MATLAB-SIMULINK-BASED SIMULATION

Several semesters evaluation of the project involving 60 students indicates benets of this project in teaching the power transformer differential protection.

[12] [13]

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BIOGRAPHIES
Behrooz Vahidi was born in Abadan, Iran in 1953. He received the BS in electrical engineering from Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran in 1980 and MS degree in electrical engineering from Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran, Iran in 1989. He also received his PhD in electrical engineering from UMIST, Manchester, UK in 1997. From 1980 to 1986 he worked in the field of high voltage in industry as chief engineer. From 1989 to present he has been with the Department of Electrical Engineering of Amirkabir University of Technology where he is now a professor. Prof. Vahidi is a senior member of IEEE. His main fields of research are high voltage, electrical insulation, power system transient, lightning protection, and pulse power technology. He has authored and co-authored five books and 200 articles on high-voltage engineering and power system. Ehsan Esmaeeli was born in Najafabad, Iran in 1981. He received the BS in electrical engineering from Isfahan University of Technology, Isfahan, Iran in 2004, and MSc in electrical engineering from Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran, Iran in 2006. Presently, he is a PhD student at the Department of Electrical Engineering of Iran University of Science and Technology, Tehran, Iran. His main fields of research are power system and high-voltage engineering.