This article has been accepted for publication in a future issue of this journal, but has not been

fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/TPWRD.2018.2840964, IEEE
Transactions on Power Delivery
1

Revisions on Alpha Plane for Enhanced Sensitivity

of Line Differential Protection
Monir Hossain, Student Member, IEEE, Ittiphong Leevongwat, Member, IEEE,
and Parviz Rastgoufard, Senior Member, IEEE

Abstract—Line current differential protection based on the In this article we propose a new form of current ratio (k)
traditional alpha plane may block internal faults with outfeed and derive phasor quantity of CT saturated current which
when providing higher security for external faults under current is employed to plot the trajectory of CT saturated external
transformer (CT) saturation. This article proves analytically that
the external faults under CT saturation plot away from the faults on alpha plane. The newly defined area of CT sat-
negative real-axis of the complex plane and accordingly proposes urated external faults changes the shape of blocking region
revisions of alpha plane characteristics. The modified alpha plane which has smaller conflicted area along negative real-axis and
enhances the sensitivity of line current differential protection by consequently, results in better sensitivity of line differential
unblocking more space along negative real-axis where internal protection.
faults with outfeed are plotted.
Index Terms—Alpha plane, differential protection, CT satura- II. A LPHA P LANE IN N EW F ORM
tion, transmission line.
Traditionally k is defined by the direct ratio of terminal
currents (k = IR /IL or k = IL /IR ). The proposed approach
I. I NTRODUCTION uses a new form of k as shown in Equation (1), resulting in
a simpler shape of blocking region as shown in Fig.2 without
LPHA plane used in line differential protection is defined
A from the trajectory of the terminal current ratio (k) on
the complex plane. In alpha plane, two regions are identified
altering functional characteristics.
(
IL
, |IL | ≥ |IR |
as shown in Fig. 1 including operating region for internal k = IIR (1)
R
IL , |IR | > |IL |
faults and blocking region for through-current conditions [1-
3]. The typical values of radius R and angle α of the blocking
region are 6 and 195◦ respectively, to ensure security for
external faults under CT saturation [4]. This higher value Im(k)
of R causes an area of overlap (conflicted region) with the Conflicted region
region of internal faults with outfeed, which results in reduced Blocking
sensitivity of line current differential protection. Ideally, the region Operating
21.6 ͦ
internal faults with outfeed plot along the negative real-axis; -1 region
however, they can be deflected ±21.6◦ from negative real- Re(k)
axis when 2 millisecond communication channel asymmetry 21.6 ͦ
Void region
is considered [2]. 
R
Region of internal
faults with outfeed
Im(k)
𝐼𝑅
Conflicted region 𝑘=
𝐼𝐿
Blocking Fig. 2. Traditional alpha plane in new form
region
Operating
21.6 ͦ region
The new form of alpha plane consists of a circular void
-1 region with radius 1 at the center of the complex plane. The
21.6 ͦ Re(k)
area is defined as void region because current ratio (k) never
R enters that area as k ≥ 1 for any operating condition.

Region of internal
faults with outfeed
III. P HASOR Q UANTITY OF CT S ATURATED C URRENT
Fig. 3 shows an equivalent CT model built around an ideal
transformer of ratio 1/N where N is the transformer turns
Fig. 1. Traditional alpha plane showing area of conflict
ratio. Rw , Rb , and Lb represent winding resistance, burden
resistance, and burden inductance, respectively. The excitation
M. Hossain, I. Leevongwat, & P. Rastgoufard are with the Department of
Electrical Engineering, University of New Orleans, New Orleans, LA, 70148 branch is modeled as non-linear inductance (Lm ). i1 , is , and
USA e-mail: mhossai2@uno.edu i2 represent primary current, ideal secondary current, and

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This article has been accepted for publication in a future issue of this journal, but has not been fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/TPWRD.2018.2840964, IEEE
Transactions on Power Delivery
2

1:N i saturated
i1 is ie Lb
Rt=Rw+Rb
i2   
Lm
t
  

Fig. 3. Equivalent CT model

actual secondary current, respectively and they are related by Fig. 5. Generalized waveform of saturated CT secondary current
Equations (2) and (3).

i2 = is − ie (2) Applying Fourier series, isat (t) is expressed as Equation

(7).
i1
is = (3) x
N X
isat (t) = I0 + ah cos(hωt) + bh sin(hωt) (7)
The excitation current (ie ) and instantaneous leakage flux (λ)
h=1
are inter-dependent as shown in Equations (4) and (5), where
A and S are CT excitation curve parameters [5]. In Equation (7), I0 is DC offset and h represents harmonic
number. The constants ah and bh are described in Equations
ie = A.λS (4) (8) and (9).
dλ dis
[1 + Lb .A.S.|λ|S−1 ] = −is .Rt + ie .Rt + Lb . (5) 1
Z 2π
dt dt ah = isat (t)cos(hωt)dωt (8)
π 0
Equations (4) and (5) are solved numerically for λ and ie .
The resulting waveforms of i2 for various CT burden (Rb ) are Z 2π
1
shown in Fig. 4. bh = isat (t)sin(hωt)dωt (9)
π 0

i2 The phasor quantity of CT saturated current (Isat ) can be

represented as Equation (10).
t Isat = |I1 | exp(jφ1 ) (10)

Fundamental (h = 1) phasor magnitude and phase angle in

Equation (10) can be expressed by Equations (11) and (12).
r
a21 + b21
|I1 | = (11)
Fig. 4. Waveform of i2 for various CT burden (dashed lines indicate CT 2
saturation)
b1
tan(φ1 ) = − (12)
A generalized CT saturated current waveform (Fig. 5) a1
can be deduced from the waveforms shown in Fig. 4 by
considering the following three assumptions. From Equations (8) and (9), a1 and b1 can be expressed in
terms of θ in Equations (13) and (14) by considering γ = 0.
1) CT secondary current becomes instantaneously zero
when CT starts saturation, Ip
2) It remains zero until the beginning of 2nd half cycle, a1 = (2π − 2θ + sin2θ) (13)
2π
and
3) CT saturation is periodic. Ip
b1 = (cos2θ − 1) (14)
In Fig. 5, θ represents distorted portion of the wave shape 2π
in each half cycle. The value of θ can also be used as the
Substituting the above values of a1 and b1 in Equations (10-
degree of saturation severity.
12), the phasor of CT saturated current can be derived as in
The generalized saturated CT secondary current can be de- Equation (15).
scribed mathematically by Equation (6), where q=(2l+1)π+γ,
γ = phase shift and integer l =[-∞, ∞]. Ip p
Isat = 1 − cos2θ + 2(π − θ)2 + 2(π − θ)sin2θ
 2π (15)
Ip cos(ωt + γ), (q − π) < ωt < (q − θ)

−1 1 − cos2θ
× exp (jtan [ ])
isat (t) = Ip cos(ωt + γ), q < ωt < (q + π − θ) (6) 2π − 2θ + sin2θ

0, otherwise


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This article has been accepted for publication in a future issue of this journal, but has not been fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/TPWRD.2018.2840964, IEEE
m
m
60 ͦ 21.6 ͦ
21.6 ͦ
Conflicted region
Region of internal
faults with outfeed
Fig. 6. Trajectory of k for the events of external faults under CT saturation at one terminal and proposed blocking regions
IV. T RAJECTORY AND R EVISED A LPHA P LANE
The current ratio (k) of Equation (1) can be re-written
as Equation (16) for the events of external fault under CT
saturation at one terminal of the transmission line. According
to [6], the waveform is not saturated at least for about 1/6
cycle before the first saturated waveform portion and about
1/4 cycle between any two successive saturated waveform
portions, which results in the maximum possible value of θ
equals 2π/3. This article uses more pessimistic range of θ (0 to
3π/4) to plot the trajectory of k on complex plane as shown
in Fig. 6. The trajectory shows that the maximum possible
value of |k| is 5.2 and maximum angle deflection is 60◦ from
negative real-axis for CT saturated external fault events.
1 configuration of the proposed alpha plane are simple because
k= p there are only two parameters, r1 and θm , to tune.
π 2[1 − cos2θ + 2(π − θ)2 + 2(π − θ)sin2θ]
1 − cos2θ
× exp (j{±π − tan−1 [ ]})
2π − 2θ + sin2θ
Using the above findings, two blocking regions are defined
as shown in Fig. 6 by bolded lines. The blocking region 1
(BR1) bounded by arc 1, line 1, line 2, and left-boundary of
the void region, is defined to block through-current conditions.
The blocking region 2 (BR2) bounded by arc 1, arc 2,
line 1, and line 3, is defined to block external faults under
CT saturation at one terminal. Line 3 passes through the
intersection point of arc 1 and negative real-axis. The angle
of arc 2, α2 =2 × (21.6◦ + θm ) where ± 21.6◦ is deflection for
channel asymmetry [2] and ± θm is chosen to represent margin
for possible deflection from DC offset during CT saturation.
The angle of arc 1, α1 =2×(α2 +21.6◦ ) to address the possible
angle deflection from load impedance and channel asymmetry.
The unrestraint area on right-half plane under α3 represents
internal faults without outfeed. The typical value of α3 is 164◦
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Transactions on Power Delivery
3
21.6 ͦ
r2=6
BR2
3
Operating
region
BR1
r1
Void
region
[4] which results in θm =16.6◦ and the corresponding values
of α1 & α2 are 196◦ & 76.4◦ , respectively. The value of r2
(radius of arc 2) is chosen to be 6 (slightly greater than 5.2).
The value of r1 (radius of arc 1) depends on the rated errors
of the CTs.
V. C ONCLUSION
The proposed alpha plane has smaller conflicted area as
depicted by Fig. 6 (dotted space) when compared to traditional
alpha plane (dotted space in Fig. 2). The proposed alpha plane
certainly increases sensitivity of the line differential protection
by unblocking the internal faults with outfeed plotted along
the negative real-axis without sacrificing security for external
fault events under CT saturation. The setting calculation and
(16)
R EFERENCES
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multiprinciple line protection on dependability and security”, 55th Annual
Georgia Tech Protective Relaying Conference, May 2001.
[3] K. M. Silva, R. G. Bainy, ”Generalized alpha plane for numerical
differential protection applications”, IEEE Trans. Power Deliv., vol. 31,
no. 6, pp. 2565-2566, 2016.
[4] SEL-311L-1, -7 Relay, Instruction Manual, SEL Inc., Pullman, Washing-
ton, 2016.
[5] D. A. Tziouvaras et al, ”Mathematical models for current, voltage, and
coupling capacitor voltage transformers”, Working Group C5 of PSRC,
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