Line distance protection REL670

Exercise 8 - Distance protection and fault

locator

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 Exercise 8 - Distance protection and fault locator

Copyright
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The software or hardware described in this document is furnished under a

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ABB AB
Substation Automation Products
SE-721 59 Västerås
Sweden
Telephone: +46 (0) 21 34 20 00
Facsimile: +46 (0) 21 14 69 18
www.abb.com/substationautomation

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Exercise 8 - Distance protection and fault locator

Distance protection and fault locator

On completion of this exercise you should be able to

 Understand the fault locator settings and its interaction with distance protection
 Perform relay tests to verify the correct settings of fault locator and its functionality

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 Exercise 8 - Distance protection and fault locator

Distance protection and fault locator

Fault locator is an “off-line” function, which uses the data stored in the disturbance recorder to calculate the
distance to the fault. The algorithm used by fault locator is a “solver” for a two machine system, where the fault
current is assumed to be fed from the two line ends. The estimation of the voltages and currents at the remote
line-end is done by the fault locator based on the information of the system and also on the pre-fault quantities.
The system data (line and source impedances data) must be correctly entered in REL670.

While for acceptance/performance test it is requested the use of a network simulator of a two machine system to
fully verify the performances of the algorithm, it is still possible to test the fault locator for commissioning
purposes by using the shot tests in the impedance plane, where a two machine system is not simulated.
In this section we will set and test the fault locator, and will also learn its interaction with the distance
protection.

System data
The 2-machine system will be considered for this section. The data for the protected line is the same as for
Exercise 1. Additionally the data of the source impedances at both sides of the line is given (Figure 1).

A Z1L = R1L + j X1L B

ZA Z0L = R0L + j X0L ZB

3 3
I U

Figure 1: The line application example.

Table 1: Data for the line application example

Entity Value
Line length 100 km
Nominal Voltage Level 400 kV
Line Positive Sequence Impedance, Z1L = R1L + j X1L (0,032 + j 0,36) km  (3,2 + j 36) 
Line Zero Sequence Impedance Z0L = R0L + j X0L (0,13 + j 1,45) km  (13 + j 145) 
Positive sequence source impedance A side, ZA (0,7 + j 7,5) 
Positive sequence source impedance B side, ZB (0,7 + j 7,5) 

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Exercise 8 - Distance protection and fault locator

Relay settings

Distance protection settings, and communication schemes, are the same as for the previous exercise.

1. Fault locator settings

In REL670-A32 the basic settings of fault locator are already prepared and do not need to be changed. These
settings inform fault locator about the
correspondence between the analog channel of the
disturbance recorder and the measured analog
information (currents and voltages) of the protected
line. Figure 2 shows the default settings in REL670-
A32.

Figure 2: Default settings for fault locator, REL670-A32

.
The other settings of for the fault locator must be entered by the user, and they are related to the description of
the protected system. The settings only affect the fault
locator. They do not affect the line distance
protection.
Figure 3 shows the correct settings for the system
considered, with reference to Figure 1 and Table 1).

Download the settings in REL670.

Figure 3: Power system related settings for fault locator

Injection tests

2. Connect the test set to REL670

Keep the analog connection test set  REL670 as before.

Keep the connection Trip contact REL670  test set as before.

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 Exercise 8 - Distance protection and fault locator

You can keep the other connections between REL670 and the relay test, but they will not be used. Only the trip
contact is necessary to the relay test set in order to understand the relay operation and continue with the next
fault injection.

The relay test set will only be used to simulate faults at certain line positions. The verification will be done with
the disturbance recorder of REL670.

3. Open the Omicron test file for the LE faults and run the tests

The test file is called REL670 LE FaultLocator.adt and is available in the folder Files for SEP-602A REL670 /
OMICRON TESTS on the desktop of your training PC.

The file performs faults at different line positions (0%, 20%, 40%, 60% and 100%) with 15 ohms primary fault
resistance.

Remember to energize the carrier receive binary input in order to get instantaneous trip from REL670 for the
faults in the last 15% of the line (in zone 2). If you don’t do it, the fault locator will not calculate the fault
distance because zone 2
operation doesn’t start the
fault locator.

Delete the disturbance

recorder in REL670 from
the HMI in order to avoid
confusion when you will
upload the disturbances.

Run the tests.

The REL670
should have
recorded 6
disturbances.

Figure 4: Phase-earth faults at different line positions

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Exercise 8 - Distance protection and fault locator

4. Open the Omicron test file for the LL faults and run the tests

The test file is called REL670 LL FaultLocator.adt and is available in the folder Files for SEP-602A REL670 /
OMICRON TESTS on the desktop of your training PC.

The file performs faults at

different line positions (0%, 20%,
40%, 60% and 100%) with 10
ohms primary fault resistance.

Keep the “carrier receive” signal

activated and run the tests.

The REL670 should have

recorded 12 disturbances.

Figure 5: Phase-phase faults at different line positions

5. Open the Omicron test file for the LLL faults and run the tests

The test file is called REL670 LLL FaultLocator.adt and is available in the folder Files for SEP-602A REL670
/ OMICRON TESTS on the desktop of your training PC.

The file performs faults at

different line positions (0%,
20%, 40%, 60% and 100%)
with 5 ohms primary fault
resistance (star connected).

Keep the signal “carrier

receive” signal activated and
run the tests.

The REL670 should have

recorded 18 disturbances.

Figure 6: Three-phase faults at different line positions

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 Exercise 8 - Distance protection and fault locator

6. Upload the disturbance files and verify the fault location

From the tool Disturbance Handling you need

to show the Fault Location and Fault Type
columns by right-clicking on the list of
columns.

Figure 7: Show fault location information on the Disturbance Handling tool

Right click on the disturbance handling

windows and do Read Recordings Information.
You will get the list showing the 18
disturbances available in REL670.

Figure 8: List of disturbances recorded by REL670

Select all the disturbances and upload (read) them into your
PC.

Figure 9: Uploading the disturbances from REL670

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Exercise 8 - Distance protection and fault locator

7. Verify the correct fault location

Figure 10: Fault location associated to the recorded disturbances

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ABB AB
Substation Automation Products
SE-721 59 Västerås, Sweden
Phone +46 (0) 21 34 20 00
Fax +46 (0) 21 14 69 18
www.abb.com/substationautomation