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GE Power Management
Technical Notes

T60 Restricted Ground

Fault Protection
Calculations
GE Power Management No. GET-8427

Copyright © 2002 GE Power Management

DESCRIPTION The T60 Transformer Protection Relay is equipped with a number of RGF (Restricted
Ground Fault) protection elements that provide restricted ground fault protection.

The RGF element uses the maximum phase current as a restraining signal and the differ-
ential neutral current as an operating signal. Pickup and slope are settings of a single-
slope differential characteristic of the RGF protection function.

EXAMPLE Consider a transformer with the following nameplate data:

• Transformer Type: Delta/Wye 30°
• Rated MVA: 10 MVA
• Nominal Phase-Phase Voltage: 33 kV (Winding 1) / 11 kV (Winding 2)
• Phase and Neutral CT Ratio: 600:1
• Impedance: 10%
• Winding neutral grounded through resistance of Rg = 6.3 Ω

The Rated Load Current is calculated as:

Rated MVA 10 MVA

Irated = -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- = ----------------------------- = 525 A (EQ 1)
3 × Winding 2 Nominal Voltage 3 × 11 kV

The Maximum Phase-to-Ground Fault Current is calculated as:

Igf (max) = Winding 2 Nominal Voltage- = ----------------------------

----------------------------------------------------------------------- 11 kV - = 1000 A (EQ 2)
3 Rg 3 × 6.3 Ω

For a winding fault point at 5% from the neutral:

Ifault = 0.05 × I gf (max) = 50 A (EQ 3)

The phase currents (Iph) increases due to the fault are negligible, and therefore 3I0 = 0.

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 GET-8427: T60 Restricted Ground Fault Calculations

Therefore, we have the pickup setting as:

I fault 50 A
- = ------------ = 0.08 × CT
I gd = 3 I 0 – Ig = 0 – -------------------- (EQ 4)
CT ratio 600

The slope is calculated as:

Igd 50 A
Slope = ------------------- × 100% = ---------------- × 100% = 9.5% (EQ 5)
Iph ( max ) 525 A

Select a Slope setting equal to 9%.

The time delay is dependent on downstream protection coordination (100 ms typical).

The RGF protection may pickup during external faults with saturation on
either phase CTs or the ground CT. It is recommended to add an appropri-
NOTE
ate time delay to cope with CT saturation on external faults.

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