POWER SYSTEM PROTECTION

Fourth year Electrical Power

Reference books:
*J. M. Gers and E. J. Holmes, 3rd edition, "Protection of Electricity Distribution Networks " , The
Institution of Engineering and Technology ,2011 .

*Walter A. Elmore ,"protective Relaying Theory and Applications" , Second edition , Marcel
Dekker ,New York ,2004.

*Power system protection , IEEE Electricity Training Association , 1997

*S. S. Rao,"Switchgear and Protection ", Khanna Publishers ,Delhi ,1986.

*‫ ﻣﺣﻣود ﺟﯾﻼﻧﻲ‬, ‫ﺣﻣﺎﯾﺔ اﻟﻧظم اﻟﻛﮭرﺑﯾﺔ‬

COURSE OUTLINE :
 Electrical layout for power station and substation

 Protective relays

 Functional relays types

 Protection systems for electrical power equipments

 Circuit breakers

 Switchgears

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 CHAPTER 1

Electrical Power system

• The purpose of an electrical power system is
to generate and supply electrical energy to
consumers.
• System should be designed and managed to
deliver this energy to the utilisation points
with both reliability and economy.
• It should be operated in a safe manner at all
times

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 Electrical Power system
• A power system comprises many diverse items of equipment.

• Many items of equipment are very expensive, and so the complete

power system represents a very large capital investment.

• The destructive power of a fault arc carrying a high current is very

great; it can burn through copper conductors or weld together core
laminations in a transformer or machine in a very short time – some
tens or hundreds of milliseconds.

• Even away from the fault arc itself, heavy fault currents can cause
damage to plant if they continue for more than a few seconds.

Why do we need protection?

• Electrical apparatus operates at various
voltage levels and may be enclosed or placed
in open.
• Under abnormal operating conditions
protection is necessary for
- Safety of electrical equipments.
- Safety of human personnel.

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 What protection system should do?
1) Prevent or limit damage during faults or
overloads.

2) Protection system should disconnect only

faulted parts but healthy parts of system should
be unaffected.

Blackouts
Characteristics
• Loss of service in a large area or population
region
• Hazard to human life
• May result in enormous economic losses
Main Causes
• Overreaction of the protection system
• Bad design of the protection system

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 Protection requirements
ART & SCIENCE OF PROTECTION
• Maximum and Reliable protection at minimum
equipment cost
• High Sensitivity to faults and insensitivity to
maximum load currents
• High-speed fault clearance with correct selectivity
• Selectivity in isolating small faulty area
• Ability to operate correctly under all predictable
power system conditions

Some definitions

a. Protection System: a complete arrangement of protection

equipment and other devices required to achieve a specified function
based on a protection principal (IEC 60255-20)

b. Protection Equipment: a collection of protection devices (relays,

fuses, etc.). Excluded are devices such as CT’s, CB’s, Contactors, etc.

c. Protection Scheme: a collection of protection equipment

providing a defined function and including all equipment required to
make the scheme work (i.e. relays, CT’s, CB’s, batteries, etc.)

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 Types of Protection
Apparatus Protection
• Transmission Line Protection
• Transformer Protection
• Generator Protection
• Motor Protection
• Busbar Protection

System Protection

One Line Diagram :

• Non-dimensioned diagram showing how
pieces of electrical equipment are connected
• Simplification of actual system
• Equipment is shown as boxes, circles and
other simple graphic symbols
• Symbols should follow ANSI “American “or IEC
“European “conventions

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 Line Symbols

Line Symbols

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 Line Symbols

How to protect
• Measure
• Think “detect a real problem”
• Action

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 Protection System Elements

• Protective relays
• Circuit breakers
• Current and voltage transducers
• Communications channels
• DC supply system
• Control cables

PROTECTION ZONES
• To limit the extent of the power system that is
disconnected when a fault occurs, protection is
arranged in zones.
• The point of connection of the protection with
the power system usually defines the zone and
corresponds to the location of the current
transformers
• Ideally, the zones of protection should overlap, so
that no part of the power system is left
unprotected

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 PROTECTION ZONES
• Generator or Generator-Transformer Units
• Transformers
• Buses
• Lines (transmission and distribution)
• Utilization equipment (motors, static loads,
etc.)
• Capacitor or reactor (when separately
protected)

PROTECTION ZONES

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 • BUT :
• For practical physical
and economic
reasons, this ideal is
not always achieved.
• ????????????????

• Example :
Accommodation for
current being in some
cases available only on
one side of the circuit
breakers,
• This leaves a section
between the current
transformers and the
circuit breaker A that is
not completely protected
against faults.
•

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 • A fault at F would cause the bus
bar protection to operate and
open the circuit breaker but the
fault may continue to be fed
through the feeder. The feeder
protection would not operate,
since the fault is outside its zone.

• This problem is dealt with by inter

tripping or some form of zone
extension, to ensure that the
remote end of the feeder is
tripped also.

Primary protection
• Primary protection should operate every time
an element detects a fault on the power
system.
• The protection element covers one or more
components of the power system.

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 Back-up protection
• Back-up protection is installed to operate when,
for whatever reason, the primary protection does
not work.
• Back-up protection relay has a sensing element
that may or may not be similar to the primary
protection, but that also includes a time-delay
facility to slow down the operation of the relay so
as to allow time for the primary protection to
operate first.

Example :

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