20 I 0 Interational Conference on Advances in Energy Engineering

Optimal Overcurrent Relay Coordination using Genetic Algorithms

Dusit Uthitsunthom and Thanatchai Kulworawanichpong
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Abstract
This paper presents an intelligent approach for
overcurrent relaying coordination design. Due to a
powerul search scheme of the selected intelligent
method genetic algorithms (GA), digital relas are
well coordinated to satisf a large number of
constraints, which are complicated over the abilit of
the conventional relay setting. The proposed scheme
was demonstrated through a 6-bus power system, in
which fourteen digital overcurrent relays were situated
to be coordinated smartly. Also, the results obtained
from GA were compared with those obtained by
applying an efcient non-linear quasi-Newton method.
It strongly conrms the efectiveness of the proposed
method
1. Introduction
Short-circuit conditions can occur unexpectedly in
any part of a power system at any time due to various
physical problems. Such situations cause a large
amount of fault current fowing through some power
system apparatus. The occurrence of the fault is
harmfl and must be isolated promptly by a set of
protective devices. Over several decades, protective
relaying has become the brain of power system
protection [1]. Its basic fnction is to monitor
abnormal operations as a "fault sensor" and the relay
will open a contractor to separate a faulty part fom the
other parts of the network if there exists a fault event.
To date, power transmission and distribution systems
are bulky and complicated. These lead to the need for a
large number of protective relays cooperating with one
another to assure the secure and reliable operation of a
whole. There-fore, each protective device is designed
to perform its action dependent upon a so-called "zone
of protection" [2]. From this principle, no protective
relay is operated by any fault outside the zone if the
system is well designed. As widely known that old
978-1-4244-7830-9/1 0/$26.00 20 I 0 IEEE
162
fashion analog relays are inaccurate ad difcult to
establish the coordination among protective relays, the
relay setting is tpically conducted based on the
experience of an expert or only a simple heuristic
algorithm. However, with the advancement of digital
technologies, a modem digital protective relay is more
effcient and fexible to enable the fne adjustment of
the time-dial setting (TDS) diferent to that of the old
fashion electromagnetic one.
This paper proposes an intelligent relay
coordination method based on one of the most widely
used intelligent search algorithms, called the genetic
algorithms (GA) [3,4], for digital relaying, in which
the time-dial setting is appropriately adjusted in order
to minimize operating time while coordinated relays
are also reliable. In this paper, the coordination of
digital relaying systems is explained in Section 2 in
such a way that the GA method is employed to achieve
the system objective. A case study of a 6-bus power
system protection, where setting of fourteen digital
over-current relays was challenged, was discussed in
Section 3. The last section provides the conclusions
ad fture work.
2. Relay coordination problem
Overcurrent relays are devices which have abilit to
interrupt electricit supply service due to some severe
fault. In a modem electrical power system, network
interconnection is very complicated. This affects the
difculty of key parameter setting of protective
relaying devices. When a total number of overcurrent
relays to be coordinated is increased according to a
complex transmission network, relay coordination
setting is more difcult and cannot be performed by a
simple hand calculation. The following is to propose a
scheme of digital overcurrent relay coordination based
on genetic algorithms.
The relay coordination task described in this paper
is in form of constrained optimization problems.
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Before solving such a problem, its objective fnction
and constraints must be defned, accordingly.
2.1 Overcurrent relay characteristics
A overcurrent relay is a typical protective relay
that allows a protected load operating within a preset
value of the load current. The overcurrent relay is
placed at the secondary side of the current transformer.
The operating time of the overcurrent relay can var
due to relay type, time-dial setting (TDS) and
magnitude of fault currents. For the inverse time
overcurrent relay which corresponds to the ANSI
device number of 51, the operating time of the
overcurrent relay can be expressed as shown in (1)
according to the IEC standard 255-4 [5].
Where
jxTDS
=

PSMa -1
PSM =
I
aet
CTS
L and j are arbitrary constant
PSM is plug setting multiplier
CTS is the current tap setting of the relay
Iaet is the actual current seen by the relay
(1)
(2)
L and j are constant. In this paper, a type of ver
inverse time overcurrent relay is used. Therefore, L
and j can be specifed according to the IEC standard
as follows.
Table 1. Chaacteristic of overcurrent relay [5]
Type
a
L
Normal Inverse 0.02 0.14
Very Inverse 1.00 13.5
Extremely Inverse 2.00 80
Long-time Inverse 1.00 120
2.2 Primary and backup relaying constraints
A primary or main protective device is a relay that
is in the nearest position to the fault and must respond
to the fault as fast as possible. To achieve a reliable
protection system backup, relays are devices which
will be initiated within a certain amount of time afer
the main relay fails to break the fault. A amount of
delay time, called time grading margin, must be added
to the main relay operating time. This can be explained
by Fig. 1. Relay and b are the main and the backup
163
relays, respectively. FJ and F2 are two fault cases seen
by both relays. The operating time of the backup relay
must be at least the operating time of the main relay
plus the time grading margin for ever fault case.
'k"prel'Y i",:Y
3
1
m 1
Near-end-fault Far-end-fault
Figure 1. Simple feeder for overcurrent protection
To generalize the backup relaying constraint, (3) is
defned [6] as follows.
Where
tb(Fi) is the operating time of the backup relay
due to Fault Fi
tm(Fi) is the operating time of the main relay
due to Fault Fi
TGM is the time grading margin, 0.3 - 0.5 s
FC denotes a set of fault cases
2.3 Objective function
To coordinate the protective relaying devices, the
operating time of the main relay is minimized. As
mentioned in the previous sub-section, the operating
time of the backup relay is set as inequalit constraints.
The objective fnction [6] used in this paper is given
as follows.
Where
)=
, I

_^.-. '^.-'^.'
(4)
t= ]eC
,.,,,is the weighting factors
M is a total number of relays
3. Genetic algorithms
There exist many diferent approaches to adjust the
motor parameters. The GA is well-known [3,4,7],
there exist a hundred of works employing the GA
technique to identif system parameters in various
forms. The GA is a stochastic search technique that
leads a set of population in solution space evolved
using the principles of genetic evolution and natural
selection, called genetic operators e.g. crossover,
mutation, etc. With successive updating new
generation, a set of updated solutions gradually
converges to the real solution. Because the GA is very
popular and widely used in most research areas where
an intelligent search technique is applied, it can be
summarized briefy step-by-step as follows.
I. Initialization: Randomly initialize populations or
chromosomes and set them as a search space and
then evaluate their corresponding ftness value via
the objective fnction.
2. Evolution: Apply the genetic operators to create an
offspring population as the sequence below,
a. Selection: Form a set of mating pool with the
same number of the population size by using a
random procedure, e.g. the roulette-wheel or
tourament schemes, with the assumption that
each chromosome has a diferent chance
(probability to survive. The higher the ftness
value, the higher the chance or probabilit.
b. Crossover: This operation is applied to a
subset of the mating pool by taking a pair of
chromosomes called the parents. The parents
will yield a pair of ofspring chromosomes.
This operation involves exchanging sub-string
of the parent chromosomes. It is performed by
choosing a random position in the string and
then swapping either the lef or right sub
strings of this position (one-point crossover)
with its chromosome mate.
c. Mutation: For the chromosome to be mutated,
the values of a few positions in the string are
randomly modifed. To prevent complete loss
of the genetic information carried through the
selection and crossover processes, mutation
(if use at all) is limited to typically 2.5% of
the population.
3. Fitness Test: Evaluate the ftness value for the
generated offspring population.
4. Convergence Check: Check for violation of all
termination criteria. If not satisfed, repeat the
evolution process.
4. Simulation results
In this paper, a 6-bus test power system [6] as given
in Fig. 2 was chosen as a test system. This test case
consisted of fourteen overcurrent relays to be
coordinated. Information of load current, CT ratio at
all relay locations is presented in Table 2. Fault
currents used for coordination are also shown in Table
3.
164
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Figure 2. 6-bus test power system
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Figure 3. GA solution convergence
Table 2. Load current ad CT ratio at relay locations
Line portion
Relay No. Load Current
CT
From To Ratio
bus bus
1 2 1 24.942 100/5
2 1 3 112.584 300/5
3 3 4 52.232 150/5
4 4 5 45.069 150/5
5 5 6 87.626 250/5
6 6 2 24.942 100/5
7 1 6 47.352 150/5
Table 3. Load current and CT ratio at relay locations
Main Backup Primary fault Secondary
Relay Relay current fault current
8 9 4961.7704 4 1 0.8226
8 7 4961.7704 1520.8911
2 7 5362.2983 1528.0660
2 5362.2983 804.8782
3 2 3334.51 91 3334.51 91
4 3 2234.3308 2234.3308
5 4 1352.8751 1352.8751
6 5 4965.0442 41 1.3675
6 14 4965.0442 1522.9084
14 I 4232.7243 794.0920
14 9 4232.7243 407.2292
I 6 2682.4959 2682.4959
9 10 1443.6699 1443.6699
10 11 2334.651 5 2334.6515
II 12 3480.751 1 3480.7511
12 14 5365.0609 1529.3638
12 13 5365.0609 805.5618
13 8 2490.7454 2490.7454
7 5 4232.6340 407.2472
To fnd a set of optimal relay coordination, genetic
algorithms or GA was employed as the proposed
method. However, the quasi-Newton based on BFGS
formula was also apllied for comparison. Refer to (4),
weighting factors used in the objective function were
assigned below. The set of optimal parameter setting of
all the relays was presented in Table 4. Fig. 3 also
showed the solution convergence of the GA method.
Y] = 1, Y_ = 2 and Y_ = 100
Table 4. Optimal overcurrent relay setting
Relay Pickup
Optimal TDS
No. current
Quabi-NewtoH GA
1.55 1.0010 2.3962
2 2.34 0.9990 0.8861
3 2.17 0.9973 0.7343
4 1.87 1.0008 1.161 1
5 2.19 1.0051 1 .51 96
6 1.55 0.9969 0.6242
165
7 1.97 0.5036 0.5000
8 1 .55 0.9968 0.6259
9 2.34 1.0070 1.6106
10 2.17 1.001 5 1 .4973
11 1.87 0.9997 0.9367
1 2 2.19 0.9984 0.81 72
1 3 1.55 1.001 0 2.2558
1 4 1.97 0.9976 0.7214
Objective value 49.8838 38.9896
5. Conclusion
This paper described the use of the GA search
method to coordinate the overcurrent relaying system.
In this paper, a 6-bus test power system with fourteen
relays are tested. The results show that the solution by
the GA method gave the lowest objective value when
compared with the Quasi-Newton method.
6. References
[1] J.L. Blackbu, Protective Relaying, Marcel Dekker,
1987.
[2] S.H. Horowitz and A.G. Phadke, Power System Relaying,
Research Study Press, 1995.
[3] T. Chauwat ad T. Kulworawaichpong, "Genetic based
distribution service restoration with minimum average
energy not supplied", The 8h Int. Can! Adaptive and Natural
Computing Algorithms, 11-14 April 2007, pp. 230-239.
[4] K. Somsai, A. Oonsivilai, A. Srikaew, ad T.
Kulworawaichpong, "Optimal PI controller design and
simulation of a static va compensator using MATLAB's
SIMULINK", The 7h WSEAS Int. Can! on POWER
SYSTEMS, Beijing, China, pp. 30 - 35.
[5] IEC Stadad 255-4.
[6] F. Raavi, H.A. Abyaeh, M. Al-Dabbagh, R.
Mohammadi, H. Torkaa, "A new comprehensive genetic
algorithm method for optimal overcurrent relays
coordination", Electric Power System Research, Vol. 78,
2008, pp. 713-720.
[7] C.W. So, K.K. Li, K.T. Lai, K.Y. Fung, "Application of
Genetic Algorithm to Overcurrent Relay Grading
Coordination", The 4th Int. Can! On Advances in Power
System Control, Operation and Management (APSCMP-97),
Hong Kong, November 1997, pp. 283-287.