National Power & Energy Conference (PECon) 2004 Proceedings, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

I58

On Site Dynamic Testing Of The Power Swing

Blocking Element In Distance Relay
Abdul Halim Abu Bakar
Absfmuct-Power systems w e subjected to a wide range of then blocks the operations of the distance relay elements
small and large disturbances during operation. The power before the impedance enters the positive relay operation
system must adjust to these changing conditions and continue characteristics. This is done by the use of two impedance
to operate satisfactorily and within the desired bounds of measurement elements together with a timing device. Ifthe
voltage and frequency. The power system should be designed measured impedance stays between two impedance
to survive disturbances such as double circuit faults and lost of
a large generator. Recently Peninsular Malaysia experienced a measurement elements for a predetermined time, then a
major system disturbance in the north resulting in a partial power swing is declared and a power swing blocking signal
blackout. This paper describes the investigation carried out is issued to block the distance element .
To ensure there is enough time to carry out blocking of
pertaining to the operation of power swing blocking element in
distance relay which is the cause o f the major disturbance .On the distance element after power swing is detected, the inner
site dynamic testing of the power swing blocking ekment was impedance measuring element of the power swing blocking
performed by using .the OMICRON Advanced Transplay must be placed outside the largest distance protection region
Module. .
that is to be blocked. The outer impedance measurement
element for the power swing has to be placed away form the
1. FNTRODUCTION
load region to prevent inadvertent power swing operation
during heavy loads.
Power system in Peninsular Malaysia has experienced
111. TESTING TOOLS
three blackouts and more recently the partial northern
blackout during the last two decade. These blackouts cause
considerable impact on customers and the economy of the
The OMICRON Test Universe h3s a few software test
country. The recent 1' September 2003 partial blackout modules suitable for testing power swing as follows [2]:
resulted in power oscillation through the system.
i. Ramping
Power system faults result in sudden changes of electrical
ii. State Sequences
power whereas the mechanical power input to the generators
iii. Advanced Transplay
remains relatively constant. These disturbances cause
There is also a CMC 256 module which will replicate the
severe oscillations in machine rotor angles and severe testing of power swing using the Turf Set. However, the
swings in power flaws. The response of the power system Ramping, State Sequence and CMC 256 Module are not
to a disturbance depends on both the initial operating state suitable for investigation purposes as the above three
of the system and the severity of the disturbance. A fault on methods will not be able to replicate the actual happenings
a critical element of the power system followed by its during the I" September major disturbance.
isolation by protective relays will cause oscillations in
The method chosen is the Advanced Transplay Module by
power flows, bus voltages and machine rotor speeds. using the waveform captured by the fault recorder during the
Depending on the severity of the disturbance and the actions disturbance. The waveform captured by the fault recorder
of protective relays and other power system controls, the during the disturbance is segmented into five events.
system may remain stable and return to a new equilibrium
The four events indicates power swing whereas the fifth
state, experiencing what is referred to as a stable power event indicates load encroachment. In order to play back, the
swing. If the system is transiently unstable it will cause waveform captured has to be joined and this waveform is
large separation of generator rotor angle, large swings of used for testing swing as in Fig. I.
power flows, large fluctuations of voltages and currents that
can result in a loss of synchronism [I].
IV. TESTMG WITH THE ADVANCED TRANSPLAY
11. POWER SWING DETECTION

Protection function detects power swing by using the fact

that voltagdcunent %variationis gradual while it is a step
change during fauk. Both faults and power swing may cause
the measured apparent positive-sequence impedance to enter
hto the operating characteristics of a distance relay element.
The rate of change of the positive - sequence impedance is
much slower during a power swing than during a fault.
The difference in the rate of change of the impedance has
been traditionally used to detect power swing condition and
Abdul Hdim Abu Bakar is with Asset Maintenance Depanmcnt,
Transmission Division, Tcnap Nasion& Behad.

0-7803-87244/04/$20.00 02004 IEEE.

Downloaded from http://www.elearnica.ir

MODULE

Testing were performed at various chosen substations to

evaluate power system behaviour under transient condition
at various chosen substation. First it was done on YTG
relays and subsequently on the THR relays. During the l a
September major disturbance, Main 1 is YTG distance reiay
and MI is THR. One of the criteria for selecting the
substations is the distance of the line between substation i.e.
>1OOkm, 8Okm and short lines. The substations are Kenyir
- Tanah Merah, KL North - KL South and Port Dickson
Malacca Lines. The results indicate that tripping only occurs
for long line Kenyir - Tanah Merah which is greater than
l00h as in Fig. 2. For other lines the power swing blocks
tripping as in Fig. 3.

159

55

sa
4s
40

31

30

25
20

is
to

--_

.5 1

:
d

-20
-2 5

do

UN

do

40

-40

-I

-125

TRIP

PSB

UR TMRH 2 A

UY TMRH 2 B

IR TMRH 2 A

IY TMRH 2 B

UB TMRH 2 C

IBTMRH2C -

F i g 2. Power swing t a t result on Kcnyir-Tanah Merah lint.

10

11

vs

UN
100

75

50

25
0
-25

-50

-75
-100
-125

TRIP

UR TMRH 2 A

UY TMRH 2 B

UB TMRH 2 C

IR TMRH 2 A

IY TMRH 2 B

I6 TMRH 2 C

I
- .

PSB
I

10

.
I
"

12

14

16

Fig. 3. POWW swing test result on K1.N-KIS IIIK

Testing were also performed on numerical relays on the

500kV lines such as Janamanjung - Air Tawar and Air

Tawar - Bukit Tarek lines. This was done to verify the

behaviour of quadrilateral characteristic during disturbance.
The results indicated that there as no load encroachment
after power swing as shown Fig, 4 and Fig. 5 .

us

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"1

"1

Fig. 5. Powerswing test result on Air Tawar-Bukit Tarek line.

V. TEST RESULTS

VI. CONCLUSIONS
For the case of mho characteristic, it is observed that>for
long lines i.e. greater than lOOkm when one line is on
outage, during the disturbance the power swing blocking
element will block from 2s to 3s and from 4.5s to 7.5s and
trip when the load impedance locus stays in zone 3 during
event 5 more than the setting time of zone 3 i.e. 3 seconds
(4.5s to7.5~). However if the line is less than 100krr1, the
impedance locus does not enter zone 3 even after event 5.
As for THR the characteristic of power swing element is
that once the power swing is detected, it will block and reset
when the event is over.
Quadrilateral characteristics of numerical reIays have the
shapes that take into account the possibility of load
encroachment. Hence when testing was performed on the
500kV Jaaamanjung - Air Tawar and Air Tawar Bukit
Tarek lines the load is a distance away form the zone 3.
Another contributing factor is the C T ratio. The CT ratio
for Kenyir - Tanah Merah line is 1000/1 whereas for the
5OOkV line is 4000/1. Hence, besides the characteristics of
the relay, the CT ratio also plays an important part in
determining whether load impedance locus will encroach
zone 3 during disturbance.

A thorough anilysis using'Advanced Transplay Module

of the OMICRON Test Equipment enables the
determination of the behaviour of the power swing during
the 1" September partial bIackout ofthe Northern Peninsular
Malaysia. Thus it resulted in the need for the utility to
review the philosophy of power swing blocking either 2
seconds or throughout the event, This facility is available in
the new numerical relays. The philosophy to be adopted has
to be done after system studies have been carried out for
TNB national grid to survive during major disturbances.
US utility according to Demerious et. a1 [3] sometimes
requires power swing to be used for islanding purposes.
.Hence in this situation power swing element has to make
decision to trip the line. In Malaysia islanding is done by
means of underf?equency relay. From this study it is
realised that for long lines with small C,T ratio and using
mho characteristic distance relay, tripping will occur during
disturbance when one line is on outage.

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VII.
[l]

[2] Dr. Fred Stcinhwscr, "'l'cstinp 01' tlic t'owcr Swing Illockmg in

REFERENCES

Distnncc rclny." 2000 OMICRON clcclrnrric.

Semens Siprotec 7SA523 Distance Prwtection Insbclion Manual

[3] Dcmclrious A . Tziciuvilrils."Oul-O~-si~pI'roclcclion l~undanrnlals

and Advanccmnis" 30'" hnnuul Westcm I'rotcclion ILloy
Confercncc Octobcr 2 1-23.2003.

TABLE 1
DISTANCE AND CT RATIO FOR CRITICAL LMES

Notes:
CT Ratio

PGAU-TMRH

TMRH-KNYR

2OOO/L (PGAU)
120011 (TMRH)

KNYR-PAKA

1000/1 (KNYR)

1200/1 (TMRH)
1000/1 (KNYR)
1600/1 (PAKA)

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