European Journal of Scientific Research

ISSN 1450-216X Vol.31 No.1 (2009), pp. 59-71

© EuroJournals Publishing, Inc. 2009
http://www.eurojournals.com/ejsr.htm

A New Method to Prevent Undesirable Distance Relay Tripping

During Voltage Collapse

Ahmad Farid Abidin

Department of Electrical, Electronic and Systems Engineering
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia , Selangor, Malaysia
E-mail: ahmad924@eng.ukm.my
Tel: +603-89216590; Fax: +603- 603-8921 6146

Azah Mohamed
Department of Electrical, Electronic and Systems Engineering
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia , Selangor, Malaysia
E-mail: azah@eng.ukm.my
Tel: +603-89216590; Fax: +603- 603-8921 6146

Afida Ayob
Department of Electrical, Electronic and Systems Engineering
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia , Selangor, Malaysia

Abstract

This paper presents a new approach to prevent undesirable distance relay tripping
by using the rate of change of voltage, dv/dt and voltage stability index (VSI). By using the
dv/dt, the distance relay is able to block the false trip signals due to voltage instability.
However, the dv/dt approach is inappropriate to identify between a fault and close to
collapse and may lead to undesirable tripping. Hence, an appropriate indicator based on
VSI is proposed to block such false tripping during voltage collapse. The result from the
application of dv/dt for both events has been carried out to ascertain such hypothesis. In the
proposed method, the performance of the VSI is evaluated for its accuracy in
discriminating a fault and voltage collapse by comparing it with the System Status
Indicator (SSI). Then, the combination of dv/dt and VSI is applied to the distance
protection to ensure the reliability of such approach. To illustrate the effectiveness of the
proposed approach, simulations were carried out on the IEEE 39 bus test system using the
PSS/E software. Test results show the effectiveness of the combined approach in blocking
the relay false trip signals.

Keywords: Distance relay, fault, voltage collapse

1. Introduction
Distance protective relays are widely used as the main protection scheme for transmission lines in
power systems. These relays operate based on the measured impedance calculated from the monitored
voltage and current signals. The setting of distance relays operating zones is obtained from the line
impedance. Basically, a relay initiates a trip signal to the associated circuit breaker when a fault occurs
A New Method to Prevent Undesirable Distance Relay Tripping During Voltage Collapse 60

within its operating zone. During a fault, the apparent impedance trajectory falls inside the operating
zone and as a consequence, the trip signal will be activated by the relay. However, many studies have
shown that undesirable zone 3 distance relay operations have initiated tripping which lead to cascading
events and finally wide-area voltage collapse (Jonsson and Daadler, 2003; Kim et al, 2005; Jin and
Sindhu, 2008 ; Lim et al, 2008). During voltage instability, the apparent impedance seen by the
distance relay is decreased and it can enter the zone 3 operation boundary if the progressive decline of
voltage continues. Zone 3 protection of the relay sends trip signals if the apparent impedance remains
in that zone after the elapse of zone 3 time delay.
To improve reliability of relay operation, adaptive scheme for distance protection has been
introduced by many researches (Horowitz, Phadke and Thorpe, 1988, Thorpe et al, 1988: Jonsson and
Daadler, 2003; Kim, Heo and Aggarwal, 2005; Lim et al, 2008). In adaptive distance protection
relaying, an important aspect to be considered is developing an indicator that can differentiate between
faults and other events such as overload, voltage instability and load encroachment. The objective is to
permit the trip signals during faults and block the trip signals during other events.
The adaptive scheme of distance protection operation to avoid unnecessary tripping of distance
protection devices during voltage instability has been reported by Jonsson and Daadler (2003). The
algorithm is based on dv/dt as an additional criterion along with apparent impedance. Nonetheless, the
adaptive scheme needs the support from communication devices to avoid undesired operation due to
load shedding events and fault clearance issues. A novel zone 3 protection schemes based on
combining the steady state component and transient component of the voltage signals has been
discussed by Kim, Heo and Aggarwal, (2005). The state diagram is deployed to facilitate the sequence
of studies that emanate from the sequence of events. This algorithm prevails over the shortcomings of
the conventional relay by clearly distinguishing different events such as three-phase fault, load
encroachment and voltage stability. However, this algorithm is still in conceptual level. A novel
technique, based on the combination of the system status indicator and dv/dt has been introduced by
Shen and Ajjarapu (2007). This technique aims to improve the performance of the adaptive relay since
dv/dt solely may fail to perform when the system is close to voltage collapse. The technique considers
both the identification of the critical relays and the corresponding algorithm. However, the
effectiveness of the SSI during faults has not been verified and therefore it cannot be used to
differentiate between faults and voltage instability conditions. Moreover, this indicator is proven to be
computationally inefficient as the relays need to compute both the magnitude and phasor angle
simultaneously.
A new reliable and computationally fast indicator needs to be applied to combat false tripping
relay associated with zone 3 relay. To achieve this, the VSI has been introduced as a complementary
technique for dv/dt in order to improve the reliability of distance relay. This index is developed based
on the apparent power loss which is formulated from the local voltage magnitude and current
measurements (Verbic and Gubina, 2006; Haque, 2007). The technique has been tested on the IEEE 39
bus test system to ensure the reliability of the proposed technique during faults and voltage collapse
conditions.

2. Theoretical Background
The distance relay operates in three different operating zones namely, zone 1, zone 2 and zone 3, which
is referred to as multi-zone distance protection. Zone 1 provides instant tripping for faults along the
transmission line and it is used as a primary protection. This zone covers about 80%-90% of the
protected lines. The relay sends the trip signals instantaneously if a fault occurs within the coverage of
zone 1. Zone 2 distance relay provides protection coverage to the remaining part of a transmission line
not reached by zone 1 and extends into the neighboring transmission line.
In order to ensure the selectivity of relay operation, the operating time of zone 2 is delayed by a
certain time referred to as zone 2 operating time. Often, zone 2 operating region is designed to cover
100% of the protected line plus 10-20% of the adjacent line. Zone 3 operating zone is the longest zone
61 Ahmad Farid Abidin, Azah Mohamed and Afida Ayob

available for the distance relays mechanism and theoretically can extend to the remaining part of the
power system in the forward reach with plus 2-7% of reverse reach. The time delay for zone 3
operating scheme is made greater than zone 2 operating time by additional time delay.
Zone 3 is used as a back up protection when faults are not cleared by the primary protection of
each transmission line within the reach of the relay. Figure 1 shows the reach setting of distance relay
zones with different time settings.

Figure 1: Distance Relay time settings at Zone1, Zone 2 and Zone 3

Tripping time
at each Zone Zone 3

t3
Zone 2
t2
Zone 1
t1
0 Distance

ZL1 ZL2 ZL3

breaker
X
Zone 3
reach

The relay operating characteristics are commonly drawn in polar coordinates which form a
circular shape in the R-X complex plane. The R axis corresponds to the real part of impedance Z, while
X axis corresponds to the imaginary part of impedance Z. The apparent impedance as seen by a
distance relay, Za is calculated from the following equation (Jin and Sidhu, 2008):
⎛ P Q ⎞ 2
Z a = ⎜ 2 ij 2 + j 2 ij 2 ⎟ V i
⎜P +Q Pij + Qij ⎟⎠
⎝ ij ij

P Q
= 2 ij 2 V i + j 2 ij 2 V i
2 2

Pij + Qij Pij + Qij

= Ra + jX a (1)
in which,
Pij
Ra = 2
2
Vi (2)
Pij + Qij2
Qij
Xa =
2
Vi (3)
P +Q
2
ij
2
ij

where,
Za : apparent impedance
Ra : apparent resistance
Xa : apparent reactance
Pij : active power of line flowing from bus i to j
Qi : reactive power of line flowing from bus i to j
|Vi|: the amplitude of voltage at bus i
A New Method to Prevent Undesirable Distance Relay Tripping During Voltage Collapse 62

During normal conditions, the measured apparent impedance is outside the relay operating
zone. Once fault occurs at one of the points covered by the relay operating zone (point X in Figure 1),
the apparent impedance enters the relay operating zone. In this situation, the relay will send the trip
signal to the breaker to clear the fault. Figure 2 illustrates the polar characteristics of the three-zone
Mho type distance relay and apparent impedance trajectory before and during fault.

Figure 2: Polar characteristics of the three-zone distance relay and apparent impedance trajectory before and
during fault

R L in e
Im p e d a n c e

Za
b e fo re
fa u lt

Zone 3
re g io n
Za
d u rin g
fa u lt Zone 2
re g io n

Zone 1
re g io n

3. Formulation of Voltage Stability Indicator (VSI) Application

The developed VSI is based on the apparent loss at the measured line. It is derived by considering the
fact that during a voltage collapse, any increment of apparent power at the sending end can no longer
produce any increment of apparent power at the receiving end (Verbic and Gubina, 2006; Haque, 2007;
Smon, Pantos and Gubina,2007). The VSI is first derived by considering,
S =V I (4)
where,
S : apparent power magnitude
V : voltage magnitude
I : current magnitude
When the load apparent power is changed, both V and I also changes as denoted by,
S + ΔS = ( V + Δ V )( I + Δ I )
= V I + ΔV I + Δ I V + ΔV Δ I (5)
where,
ΔS : change in apparent power
ΔV : change in voltage magnitude
Δ I : change in current magnitude
Assuming the higher order term is negligible in which Δ V Δ I ≈ 0 , equation (5) becomes,
63 Ahmad Farid Abidin, Azah Mohamed and Afida Ayob

S + ΔS = V I + Δ V I + Δ I V (6)
Subtracting equation (6) from equation (4), we get,
ΔS = Δ V I + Δ I V (7)
Rearranging the above equation,
ΔS ΔV I
= +1 (8)
ΔI V ΔI V
Assuming that in the vicinity of voltage collapse, ΔS = 0 , the VSI becomes,
ΔV I
VSI = 1 + (9)
ΔI V

4. The Proposed Algorithm

The proposed Zone 3 distance relay adaptive setting‘s algorithm is shown in Figure 3 in terms of a
flowchart. The relay continuously monitors the apparent impedance at a measured bus. Once the
apparent impedance enters the zone 3 relay, the relay shall distinguish between a fault and voltage
instability by using dv/dt. The change of voltage during the fault is very substantial and it may produce
very large negative value of dv/vt compared to the other events. The threshold value for dv/dt is based
on these conditions (Jonsson and Daadler, 2003):
dv dv
≤ fault maximum A fault has occurred
dt dt
dv dv
> fault maximum No fault has occurred
dt dt
Since there is no study that explicitly identifies the threshold value of dv/dt fault maximum, the
threshold value in this study is identified based on the simulation of the corresponding case. For this
study, the threshold value of dv/dt fault maximum is set as -10 pu/s.

Figure 3: Flowchart of the proposed algorithm

M o n ito rin g th e a p p a re n t
im p e d a a n c e

No
E n te r Z o n e 3

Yes

C o n tro l a c ti o n

No
d v / d t= d v /d t
F a u lt
m a x im u m

Y es

No
V S I> th

Yes

E xceed No
tim e lim it

Yes

T rip s i g n a l
A New Method to Prevent Undesirable Distance Relay Tripping During Voltage Collapse 64

5. Simulation Results
The proposed approach to prevent undesirable distance relay tripping by using the rate of change of
voltage, dv/dt and VSI is tested on the IEEE 39 bus test system by using the commercial PSS/E version
31 software. The test system which consists of 10 generators and 18 load buses is shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4: One-line diagram of the IEEE 39 bust test system

In the simulation, the sequence of events is set as follows:

i. 0-5 second - base case power flow simulation
ii. 5 second – create a three phase fault at bus 7 (200 % of relay reach )
iii. 5.06 second – clear the fault
iv. 5.06-10 second - recovery period
v. 10 second – increase the load
Six 6 different simulation cases have been studied in order to validate the proposed technique.
The six cases are described as follows:

Case 1: Three phase fault at bus 5 from 5 to 5.06s, increase load 4 at 5.5 p.u and 10s, line
outage of line 9-39 at 15 s and proximity to voltage collapse at 58.6 second.
Case 2: Three phase fault at bus 3 from 5 to 5.06s, increase load 4 at 5.5 p.u and 10s, line
outage of line 2-3 at 10s and proximity to voltage collapse at 22.9 second.
Case 3: Three phase fault at bus 6 from 5 to 5.06s, increase load 4 at 5.5 p.u and 10s, line
outage of line 18-3 at 15 s and proximity to voltage collapse at 22.5 second.
Case 4: Three phase fault at bus 8 from 5 to 5.06s, increase load 8 at 4 p.u and 10s and
proximity to voltage collapse at 12 second.
Case 5: Three phase fault at bus 28 from 5 to 5.06s, increase load 27 at 7 p.u and 5s, line outage
of line 17-27 at 15 s and proximity to voltage collapse at 17.1 second.
Case 6: Three phase fault at bus 29 from 5 to 5.06s, increase load 28 at 4 p.u and 10s, line
outage of line 28-29 at 15 s and proximity to voltage collapse at 16.6 second.
65 Ahmad Farid Abidin, Azah Mohamed and Afida Ayob

Six different relays have been identified to operate falsely during proximity to voltage collapse.
Those relays are:
Case 1: Relay at bus 3
Case 2: Relay at bus 14
Case 3: Relay at bus 4
Case 4: Relay at bus 5
Case 5: Relay at bus 29
Case 6: Relay at bus 27

5.1. Result of dv/dt

Identical values of dv/dt appear during fault and voltage collapse as the decrement of voltage is also
very substantial for each situation. Hence, an additional approach needs to be considered before the
tripping signals can be activated. The results in Figure 5 show clearly dv/dt for the affected relay
during fault and voltage collapse for each case. It is noticed that dv/dt for cases 1, 3, 4 and 5 which
involve the relays at Bus 3, Bus 4, Bus 5 and Bus 29, respectively, have exceeded the dv/dt threshold
value. The distance relay of these buses may send false trip signals if the operation of the relay only
depends on the dv/dt.

Figure 5: dv/dt for each case during fault and close to voltage collapse

case
1 2 3 4 5 6
0
-10
-20
dv/dt (pu/s)

-30 fault

-40 Close to
Threshold collapse
-50
value for dv/dt
-60
-70

5.2. Comparison of SSI and VSI under Fault and Close to Voltage Collapse
The VSI is proposed as an additional technique so that the relay is capable to differentiate between a
fault and proximity of voltage collapse. Simulation results are displayed by plotting the voltage profile
at bus 4, the VSI and SSI against time as shown in Figure 6. The performance of both indicators during
fault and collapse are shown in Figure 6. The result shows that the VSI is better than SSI on detecting
the collapse as VSI is approaching zero while SSI just reaches 0.65. For fault condition, both indicators
produced the identical value of 13.40. The results for every case have been tabulated in Table 1. Shen
and Ajjarapu (2007) stated that the threshold value of 0.2 needs to be imposed as indicator for voltage
collapse in order to block the relay trip signals.
A New Method to Prevent Undesirable Distance Relay Tripping During Voltage Collapse 66
Figure 6: Plots of voltage, VSI and SSI at bus 4

2.5 1.2

1
2
Indicator value

Voltage (pu)
0.8
1.5 Voltage at bus 4
0.6
1 SSI
0.4
0.5 VSI 0.2

0 0
0.0 5.0 10.0 15.0 20.0 25.0
time(second)

Table 1: VSI and SSI values during fault and close to voltage collapse

Fault Close to voltage collapse

Case Relay
VSI SSI VSI SSI
1 Bus 3 6.22 3.91 0.13 0.14
2 Bus 14 1.65 1.62 0.01 0.36
3 Bus 4 13.40 13.40 0.01 0.65
4 Bus 5 1.88 1.88 0.01 0.09
5 Bus 29 1.48 1.98 0.04 0.07
6 Bus 27 0.96 0.96 0.08 0.08

Figure 7 shows VSI and SSI for each measured bus during close to voltage collapse. It is very
clear that the values of VSI do not exceed the threshold value of 0.2 during voltage collapse. However,
SSI for cases 2 and 3 exceeded the threshold value. This indicates that the SSI is less sensitive than
VSI on detecting the proximity of voltage collapse. This can affect the reliability of the distance relay
operation since the blocking scheme can only be activated if the indicator value is equal or below the
threshold value.
67 Ahmad Farid Abidin, Azah Mohamed and Afida Ayob
Figure 7: VSI and SSI for each case during close to voltage collapse

0.7

0.6
Threshold value to
0.5 discrminate fault with

Indicator Value
close to collapse
0.4
VSI
0.3 SSI

0.2

0.1

0
1 2 3 4 5 6
Case

5.3. Testing and Result Verification

The performance of the proposed technique needs to be verified for each tested relay. For illustration
purpose, the operation of the relay at bus 4 will be thoroughly explained. As seen in Figure 8, the
apparent impedance, Zr seen by distance relay at bus 4 is very low during the fault and close to voltage
collapse conditions.

Figure 8: Apparent impedance as seen by distance relay at bus 4

1.4
1.2
1
Z (ohm)

0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
0 5 10 15 20
time (second)

The apparent impedance enter the relay operating zone at both situations as Zr is very low as
shown in Figure 9. Once Zr enters the relay operating zone, distance relay sends a trip signal to the
breaker to clear the fault. However, during close to voltage collapse, the relay blocks the trip signals
where the different corrective measure such as load shedding should be taken, instead.
A New Method to Prevent Undesirable Distance Relay Tripping During Voltage Collapse 68
Figure 9: The Impedance trajectory enters the relay operating zone during fault and collapse.

5.3.1. Testing of Distance Relay Operation Using dv/dt with VSI

Additional criteria need to be imposed to the distance relay operation to avoid such undesirable trip
signals. The application of dv/dt has been utilized in order to discriminate the fault and other events.
Figure 10 shows the corresponding dv/dt of the measured voltage at bus 4.

Figure 10: The corresponding dv/dt of the measured voltage at bus 4

30

20

10
dv/dt(pu/s)

0
0 5 10 15 20
-10
dv/dt close to collapse
-20

-30 dv/dt during fault

-40
time (second)

However, this approach fails to perform in the proximity of voltage collapse since the proposed
feature is almost identical for both situations (fault and collapse). By adding this criterion, the distance
relay is still not able to differentiate between the fault and collapse and it sends false trip signals as
shown in Figure 11. The trip signals in this case are represented by 1.
69 Ahmad Farid Abidin, Azah Mohamed and Afida Ayob
Figure 11: The relay signals sent to the circuit breaker during fault and close to voltage collapse

Relay signals with dv/dt application during power systems operations

1.4

1.2

1
Relay trip signals

Relay Signals
0.8

0.6

0.4

0.2

-0.2
0 5 10 15 20
time(seconds)

In this technique, the VSI has been utilized as a complementary technique to overcome such
problems. This indicator provides a significant feature to the relay as VSI approaches zero prior to
voltage collapse and becomes very high during a fault condition. By imposing this indicator, the
threshold values need to be assigned so that the relay can block the trip signals in the vicinity of
voltage collapse. In this case, the chosen threshold value is 0.2. The relay tripping signals after utilizing
the VSI is shown in Figure 12. Note that the relay trip signal only appears during the fault and no trip
signals appear in the vicinity of the voltage collapse.

Figure 12: The relay signals during a fault after utilizing VSI

Relay signals with dv/dt and VSI during the power systems operations

1.4

1.2

1
relay signal

0.8

0.6

0.4

0.2

-0.2
0 5 10 15 20
time(second)

5.3.2. The Comparison of dv/dt, dv/dt with SSI and dv/dt with VSI
The operation of the corresponding relay is tabulated in Table 2. The comparison has been made with
three different techniques which are dv/dt, dv/dt with SSI and dv/dt with VSI. The relay shall block the
trip signals during close to voltage collapse. Four of the effected relays send false trip signals during
close to voltage collapse when utilizing dv/dt approach. The dv/dt of close to voltage collapse for these
cases are -10.21 pu/s, -10.22 pu/s, -11.46 pu/s and -13.36 pu/s for bus 3, bus 4, bus 5 and bus 29,
respectively. Since all the dv/dt is lower than the threshold value, the relays falsely identify that the
fault occur at the operating zone and as a consequence, the false trip signals are sent to the breakers.
Further enhancement has been introduced to avoid such false tripping by combining dv/dt and
SSI approach. However, the relay at bus 5 still sends false trip signals while implementing this
technique. This false operation is mainly due to the SSI failure to identify the proximity of voltage
collapse at the corresponding relay. In this case, SSI is higher than the threshold value which has been
A New Method to Prevent Undesirable Distance Relay Tripping During Voltage Collapse 70

set as 0.2. Hence, the blocking scheme has not been activated. The blocking scheme is only triggered if
SSI value is equal or lower than 0.2. As a consequence, the relay falsely assumes the fault occurs at the
associated line and the trip signal is sent to the breaker for fault clearance operation.
In order to improve the reliability of the previous techniques, the relatively new indicator has
been introduced to avoid such adverse relay operation. The application of VSI as a complimentary
technique for dv/dt has been proven to be reliable as it is able to detect the proximity of voltage
collapse accurately. The testing results in Table 3 prove that the combination of dv/dt and VSI is
successful in blocking the false trip signals during close to voltage collapse.

Table 2: The operation of the corresponding relay of dv/dt, dv/dt with SSI and dv/dt with VSI

Relay Operation during close to voltage collapse

Case Relay
dv/dt dv/dt with SSI dv/dt with VSI
1 Bus 3 Trip Block Block
2 Bus 14 Block Block Block
3 Bus 4 Trip Block Block
4 Bus 5 Trip Trip Block
5 Bus 29 Trip Block Block
6 Bus 27 Block Block Block

6. Conclusion
The combined use of dv/dt and VSI has been proposed as a technique to block the distance relay trip
signals during voltage collapse. Time domain simulations were first carried out under the conditions of
fault and voltage instability until the system collapses. Then, further observation was carried out to
identify the affected relay. The combination of dv/dt and VSI has been applied and tested to evaluate
its effectiveness in blocking the trip signals. The results show that the combined use of dv/dt and VSI
is proven to effectively block the trip signals during voltage collapse compared to the use of only the
dv/dt or dv/dt with SSI.
71 Ahmad Farid Abidin, Azah Mohamed and Afida Ayob

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