Basic Concepts about

Relay
Tawsif H. Chowdhury
 Terminologies used in Protective Relaying

Pick Up:
A relay is said to be picked up when it moves from the OFF position to ON
position. Thus, when relay operates it is said that relay has picked up.

Pick up Value:
It is the minimum value of an actuating quantity at which relay starts
operating. In most of the relays actuating quantity is current in the relay coil
and pick up value of current is indicated along with the relay.
 Terminologies used in Protective Relaying

Drop out or Reset:

A relay is said to dropout or reset when it comes back to original
position i.e. when relay contacts open from its closed position.

Time Delay:
The time taken by relay to operate after it has sensed the fault is
called time delay of relay.
 Relay Timing
An important characteristic of a relay is its time of operation. By ‘the
time of operation’ is meant length of the time from the instant when the
actuating element is energised to the instant when the relay contacts are
closed. Sometimes it is desirable and necessary to control the operating
time of a relay. For this purpose, mechanical accessories are used with
relays.
(i) Instantaneous relay:
• An instantaneous relay is one in which no intentional time delay is
provided. In this case, the relay contacts are closed immediately after
current in the relay coil exceeds the minimum calibrated value. The
instantaneous relays have operating time less than 0·1 second.
 Relay timing

(ii) Inverse-time relay:

An inverse-time relay is one in which the operating time is
approximately inversely proportional to the magnitude of the
actuating quantity. At values of current less than pickup, the relay
never operates. At higher values, the time of operation of the relay
decreases steadily with the increase of current.
Fig. 1 shows the time current characteristics of an inverse current relay.
Operation of Inverse-time relay:
• The shunt path formed by time-limit fuse is of negligible impedance as
compared with the relatively high impedance of the trip coil. Therefore, so long
as the fuse remains intact, it will divert practically the whole secondary current
of CT from the trip oil. When the secondary current exceeds the current
carrying capacity of the fuse, the fuse will blow and the whole current will pass
through the trip coil, thus opening the circuit breaker.
The time lag between the incidence of
excess current and the tripping of the
breaker is governed by the characteristics
of the fuse. Careful selection of the fuse
can give the desired inverse-time
characteristics, although necessity for
replacement after operation is a
disadvantage.
Relay Timing
• (iii) Definite time lag relay:
In this type of relay, there is a definite time elapse between the instant
of pickup and the closing of relay contacts. This particular time setting
is independent of the amount of current through the relay coil; being
the same for all values of current in excess of the pickup value.
 Terminologies used in Protective Relaying

Current Setting:
Current setting is the setting of current(pick-up current) in a relay at which we want to
operate that relay.
The current setting of relay is expressed in percentage ratio of relay pick up current to
rated secondary current of CT.
• By the use of tapping on the relay coil the current setting values are obtained.
• The tap values are expressed in terms of percentage full load rating of CT with which relay is
associated.
• Tapping of a transformer means the connection point along the transformer winding to select the
suitable number of terms.
• By Tapping, you can get different turns ratio and be able to control output & voltage regulation.

.
For example,
suppose, we want that, an over current relay should operate when the system current
just crosses 150% of rated current.
 Plug Setting Multiplier of Relay
• Plug setting multiplier of relay is referred as ratio of fault current in the relay to its pick up
current.

• Suppose we have connected on protection CT of ratio 200/1 A and current setting is 150%.

• Hence, pick up current of the relay is, 1 × 150 % = 1.5 A

• Now, suppose fault current in the CT primary is 1000 A. Hence, fault current in the CT secondary
i.e. in the relay coil is, 1000 × 1/200 = 5A

• Therefore PSM of the relay is, 5 / 1.5 =3.33

 Time Setting Multiplier of Relay
• The operating time of an electrical relay
mainly depends upon two factors :
(a) for closing relay contacts, how long distance
has to be traveled by the moving parts of the
relay
(b) How fast the moving parts of the relay
cover this distance.
• So far adjusting relay operating time, both of
the factors to be adjusted.
• This adjustment is commonly known as time
setting multiplier of relay.
 Time Setting Multiplier of Relay
• In time setting multiplier, this total travelling distance is
divided and calibrated from 0 to 1.
• But by adjusting only time setting multiplier, we can not set
the actual time of operation of an electrical relay.
• As we already said, the time of operation also depends
upon the speed of operation.
• The speed of moving parts of relay depends upon the force
due to current in the relay coil.
• Hence, it is clear that, speed of operation of an electrical
relay depends upon the level of fault current.
• In other words, time of operation of relay depends upon
plug setting multiplier. 
• The relation between time of operation
and plug setting multiplier is plotted on a
graph paper and this is known as time /
PSM graph.
• From this graph one can determine, the
total time taken by the moving parts of
an electromechanical relay, to complete
its total travelling distance for different
PSM.
• let us have a practical example. Say a relay has time setting 0.1

and you have to calculate actual time of operation for PSM 10.

• From time / PSM graph of the relay as shown below, we can see

the total operating time of the relay is 4 seconds.

• That means, the moving parts of the relay take total 4 seconds

to travel 100 % travelling distance. As the time setting multiplier

is 0.1 here, actually the moving parts of the relay have to travel

only 0.1 × 100% or 10% of the total travel distance, to close the

relay contacts.

• Hence, actual operating time of the relay is 4 × 0.1 = 0.4 sec. i.e.

10% of 4 sec.
Advantages:
1. Each circuit has two dedicated breakers.
2. Has flexibility in permitting feeder circuits to be connected to either
bus.
3. Any breaker can be taken out of service for maintenance.
4. High reliability.
• Disadvantages
1. Most expensive.
2. Would lose half of the circuits for breaker failure if circuits are not
connected to both buses.
Math