Impedance Relay

April 14, 2016 by admin

Distance Relays are of three types:
·         Impedance Relay
·         Reactance Relay
·         MHO Relay.
Impedance Relay:
As from Universal Relay Torque Equation,
T = K1I2+K2V2+K3VICos(Ɵ-Ƭ)+K4
Where K1 = Constant
            K2 = Constant
            K3 = Constant
            K4 = Spring Torque
            V = Voltage fed to the Relay
            I = Current fed to the Relay
Putting K4 = 0 and introducing negative sign to the Voltage term, the Torque equation
for Impedance Relay is obtained.
T = K 1I 2– K 2V2
Therefore from Torque Equation of Impedance Relay, it is clear that operating
torque in Impedance Relay is produced by the current whereas restraining
torque by voltage. Therefore, Impedance Relay is Voltage Restrained over-
current Relay.
For Relay to operate the Operating Torque must be greater than the Restraining
Torque, which means
K1I2>K2V2
V2/I2<K1/K2

But V/I = Z so   = Constant

This means that for Impedance Relay to Operate the Impedance seen by it must
be less than a particular value which can be set to a desired value by the user.
Operating Characteristics on V-I Diagram:
Initial bend in the characteristics is because of the presence of spring torque. For the
characteristics it is obvious that 1/slope i.e. 1/tanƟ shall be less than a specified
value therefore the Relay will operate in the operating zone and won’t operate in non
operating zone as shown in diagram. It shall also be noted that even though voltage
fed to Relay is zero but relay is not operating while having current in its operating
coil, this is because of presence of Restraining Spring Torque.
Operating Characteristics on R-X Diagram:
The operating characteristic of Impedance Relay is shown below. It is clear from the
characteristics that if the impedance seen by the Relay lies within the circle then the
Relay shall operate else it won’t operate. For the impedance Z as shown in figure,
the current is lagging behind the Voltage by angle Ɵ. If current and voltage were in
phase then Z vector would have coincided with the +R axis. If the current leads the
voltage then Z vector will be either in third or fourth quadrant. Again in case current
lags the voltage by 180 degree then Z vector coincides with –R axis. Here it should
be noted that Resistance is not negative rather it implies that current is lagging by
180 degree.

As the operating characteristics of Impedance Relay is a circle in nature, this Relay

is non direction i.e. it doesn’t matter whether the current is leading or lagging it will
operate if impedance seen by the Relay is within the circle.
But the directional element can be added in cascade with the Impedance Relay to
make it directional. This means Impedance Relay will only operate if the directional
unit picks up and impedance seen by relay is within the circle. For providing
directional feature we need to draw a Zero Torque Line to separate the R-X plane in
Operate and Do not Operate region as shown in figure.

Therefore,if the impedance seen by the Relay lies in between the region of
intersection of Zero Torque Line and circle then the Relay will operate otherwise it
will not operate. Hence we provided directional feature by cascading directional
element in the Impedance Relay.