KIOT

School of Electrical & Computer Engineering

Power Engineering stream

ECEG 4232 Power System Protection & Control

Shegaw M.
Email: smelak8@gmail.com
shegawm@kiot.edu.et
Lectures 6 : Transmission Lines Protections
1 November- 2020
 Transmission line protection

 Introduction

 Protection With Overcurrent Relays

 Distance Protection Of Lines

 Unit Protection

 Ground Fault Protection

 Summary

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 INTRODUCTION
 Most high-voltage transmission systems are interconnected in a network

system of circuit elements. The interconnection of many lines presents a new

set of conditions on the coordination of protective devices, since the fault
currents may flow to the fault point from both ends of any meshed line
element.

 Overcurrent relays, which were quite adequate protective devices for radial

circuits.

3
 Cont’d…

 The first relay type to be considered for transmission line

protection is the directional overcurrent relay.

 The second relay type to be considered for line protection is the

distance relay. This relay is immune to some of the

inadequacies of the overcurrent relay, and variations of distance
measuring devices are widely used for transmission protection.

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 Cont’d…
 Directional overcurrent relays are the simplest and least expensive, but are the
most difficult to apply. Overcurrent relays also have the disadvantage in changing
their coordination characteristics as the network and generation sources
change.
 Overcurrent relays are widely used for ground protection.

 Distance relays are often a first choice for replacing overcurrent relays when the
overcurrent relays are found to be inadequate for an application. Distance relays are
very common in applications for phase and ground protection of transmission
lines.
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  PROTECTION WITH OVERCURRENT RELAYS

 Overcurrent relays can be applied successfully on transmission networks under

certain conditions. Consider the simple network shown in Figure.1, where two
parallel transmission lines interconnect two systems, each of which contains
sources of fault.

Fig.1. Parallel transmission lines interconnecting two systems with generating sources. 6
 Cont’d…

• In order to coordinate the relays at the four breaker locations, it is necessary to

maintain a coordinating time interval between adjacent relays. Thus, for a fault
on line A-B, we reason, by inspection, that

𝑡𝐴 < 𝑡𝐶
𝑡𝐵 < 𝑡𝐷 …………………….(1)

 Where t is the relay time for a given fault current magnitude and the subscript

identifies the relay location.

7
 Cont’d…
 Similarly, if the fault is on line CD,

𝑡𝐷 < 𝑡𝐵
𝑡𝐶 < 𝑡𝐴 …………………….(2)

 For proper coordination. Clearly, it is not possible to satisfy both (1) and (2)

simultaneously. The simple overcurrent relay does not have adequate

selectivity for this application.

 One way of improving the selectivity of the overcurrent relay is the addition

of a directional element.
8
 Cont’d…
 The criteria for deciding whether directional relays should be required are
sometimes determined by the ratio of currents flowing in relays at the two ends
of a line.
 Consider a portion of a large system in Figure 2, where we have numbered three
fault locations and have defined currents in breaker A corresponding to each
fault.

Figure 2, Criteria for requiring a directional overcurrent relay 9

 Cont’d…
 The criteria that have been developed through practice require that a directional

relay be applied at A if any of the following load or fault current conditions

exist.
1 I 1 max ≥ 0.25I 2 min
2 I 1 max ≥ 0.25I 3 min …………………(3)
3 ILd out > ILd In
 where 𝐈𝐋𝐝 𝐈𝐧 and 𝐈𝐋𝐝 𝐨𝐮𝐭 refer to the maximum load currents flowing in and out

of the protected line at A, respectively.

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 Cont’d…

 Both load and fault currents are sensed at the bus G side of breaker A. The need

for directional capability depends, then, on the ratio of currents seen at the
breaker, where the current might be caused to flow in different directions.
Fault current for fault (1) flows toward a fault "behind" the relay at A,
while the faults at (2) and (3) are "in front" of the relay.

 If the load current from H to G (𝐼𝐿𝑑 𝑜𝑢𝑡 ) is greater than that from G to H

(𝐼𝐿𝑑 𝐼𝑛 ) the use of directional relays will permit more sensitive settings.

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 Loops with One Current Source
 First, consider the case of a looped transmission system where there is only one
source of fault current, such as the system shown in figure 3.
 The source of fault current is to the left of bus R. Therefore, it is permissible to use
nondirectional overcurrent relays at 1 and 10, since a fault on bus R will not cause
currents to flow in the transmission loop in either direction.

Figure .3 A Transmission loop circuit with only one source of fault current. 12
 Loops with Multiple Current Sources
 For looped transmission systems with multiple sources, the coordination process

is much more complex. Now, all overcurrent relays must be directional and each
pair of relays must be coordinated, moving around the loop in both directions.

Figure 4. A loop system with two sources. 13

 Cont’d…
 Consider the impedance from R to Q through bus G is jO.2 and that from R to Q through
buses T and H is jO .3.
 Consider the currents only on the branch R-G-Q . The sources at S and at U are
assumed to be equal, each having an impedance of jO.1 per unit. For this system, the
fault currents seen at breakers 1 and 4 are shown in figure 5.

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Figure 5 Relay currents at R and Q for faults between R and Q.
 Cont’d…

 Figure 5 shows the fault current seen at relay locations 1 and 4 as the fault is

moved from R to Q. The current magnitudes are perfectly symmetrical

since the sources are identical.

 There is no best starting point for coordinating multiple loop systems.

Usually, the process is cut and try, and it may require several attempts to
realize complete coordination.

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 DISTANCE PROTECTION OF LINES
 The distance relay operates on the principle of comparing the voltage and

current in some way to obtain a measure of the ratio between these quantities.

 Analyse the basic idea by considering the relay at station G in figure 6,

Figure 6: Distance protection of a line between G and H. 16

 Cont’d…
 The relay at A to trip for phase faults within a fractional distance 𝒉𝑺 of the total distance
between stations G and H . We call this fraction the "reach setting" of the distance relay. This
means that the relay will trip only with programmed time delay for faults beyond this reach, but
will trip without time delay for faults closer to bus G.
 The reach thus becomes a "balance point" for the relay at A, or a tripping threshold that is
expressed in distance units.
 Now consider a solid three-phase fault at the balance point. For this condition we compute

 𝑉𝑅 = ℎ𝑆 𝑍𝐿 𝐼𝑅𝑆 ……………………………………………………………………….(4)

 Where VR = voltage at the relay, IRS = current at the relay, ZL = total line impedance from G to H,
and hS = fraction of line impedance to balance point.
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 Cont’d…
 Since the relay measures the ratio of relay voltage to relay current, compute the

relay apparent impedance, ZRS , which is defined as

VR

IRS
=ZRS = hS ZL ………………………………… ………………………….….(5)

 if the fault is closer to G, the voltage at the relay will be slightly lower or the current

slightly higher. Then the measured impedance is

 ZR ≤ hS ZL …………………………………….……………………………..(6)

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 Zoned Distance Relays

 A distance relay will trip a faulted line in a very short time as long as the fault is

within the distance threshold.

 This is done by providing more than one distance relaying element within the

same relay package and setting the different elements to different thresholds and
with different relaying times.

 Figure 7 shows a typical application. In the system illustrated, the distance relays

have three zones.

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 Cont’d…
 Zone 1 is set to protect about 90% of the line length
and to operate with no intentional time delay.
 Zone 2 is set for 100% of the protected line plus
about 50% of the shortest adjacent line, and is set to
operate with time delay 𝐓𝟐 .
 Zone 3 is set to reach through 100% of the
impedance of two lines and 25% of the third line,
and to operate the zone 3 element with time delay 𝐓𝟑 .
 The application of the timer, such as T2 , provides a
coordination time interval (CTI) for the relay
operation in the end zone of each line. Similarly, T3 is
set to provide a CTI with zone 2 relays. Figure 7: Step time and impedance zones for distance relays
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 UNIT PROTECTION

 Distance protection for all types of faults makes this technique very difficult and the

protection calculations are tedious.

 The final method of transmission protection that will be addressed is the concept

of "unit protection" of the transmission line.

 With this concept, the protected line is defined by its protective zone, as shown in

figure 9. The zone of protection includes everything inside the current transformers
where current measurements are made for the protected component.

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 Cont’d…

 All faults that occur on the protected line are monitored at the current

transformers that surround the protected zone.

 In many cases, measurements of voltage at the terminals may also be used,

but it is the current transformers that define the protective zone boundaries.

 Each terminal of the protected line to have two circuit breakers. Indeed,

for high-voltage stations, this is probably the most common arrangement.

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 Cont’d…

 To clear a fault on the protected line

in figure 9, six circuit breakers, A
through F, must all clear
successfully. If even one breaker
fails to open, the fault is still
attached to the system and must be
Figure 9: A protected line and its protective zone.
cleared by backup relays.

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 GROUND FAULT PROTECTION
 An important aspect of transmission line protection is related to the fast
detection and clearing of ground faults on transmission systems that have
grounded neutrals. In the protection of transmission lines, ground faults are
given special treatment.
 Most high-voltage and extra-high voltage transmission lines are grounded
neutral transmission systems, either solidly grounded or grounded through a
resistance or a reactance. It has been estimated that, on these high-voltage
systems, Over 90% of all transmission line faults are ground faults.

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 Types of Ground Relays
 There are three basic types of relays that are used for ground relaying; overcurrent

relays, distance relays, and pilot relays.

 Ground relays are almost always completely independent of phase relays, even

though any fault current, including ground fault current, will flow through one or
more of the phase relays.

 The ground relays can be provided with much greater sensitivity to the zero-

sequence currents by using higher tap settings. This means that the ground relays
will pick up much faster than phase relays for a fault involving the ground.

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 Cont’d…

 Instantaneous overcurrent relays are usually applied to supplement the

ground fault protection when overcurrent relays are used.

 Instantaneous ground relays can reduce the fault clearing time to

about one cycle in many cases, for faults on a large fraction of the line
length.

 Directional ground distance relays are responsive to impedance or

reactance between the relay and the fault.

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