A New Algorithm to Improve the Operation of Distance Relays Zone 3 by Using Synchronized Phasor Measurements

Amr El-Hadidy and Christian Rehtanz

Institute of Power Systems and Power Economics TU-Dortmund Dortmund, Germany amr.elhadidy@daad-alumni.de
Abstract Cascaded tripping of power lines due to maloperation of zone 3 distance relays was one of the main causes of many previous blackouts worldwide. Encroachment of load into zone 3 characteristics during stressed system operation conditions was a basic factor for such mal-operation of the relays. By improving the operation of zone 3 it is possible to prevent mal-operations so that cascaded line tripping can be avoided. This paper proposes a new algorithm that utilizes Synchronized Phasor Measurements (SPM) to enhance the operation of distance protection zone 3 in many aspects. For instance, the relay can differentiate between actual system faults and load encroachment and be blocked. In addition to this, the tripping decision is not affected by the value of fault resistances from zero to High Impedance Faults (HIF) values. The paper discusses the basic idea of the new algorithm and explains with the aid of a simple application how to apply it. Keywords- Cascade Tripping; Distance Relay Zone3; MalOperation of Zone 3; Load Encroachment; Fault Resistance; Zone3 setting; N-x Criterion

dv/dt, which caused unsatisfactory operation of relays in some test cases.

Reactance

Resistance

I.

INTRODUCTION
Figure 1. Encroachment of Load into Zone 3 [1]

The mal-operation of zone 3 impedance relays with mhocharacteristics is a factor for causing cascading failures as seen in several previous large scale blackouts. This mal-operation could be due to the increase of the load level to the limit that the relay interprets the system voltage and current relation as if it is a fault although it is not, e.g. load encroachment, Fig.1 [1]. Although the line characteristics are far from the load characteristics, it is not possible to set zone 3 to take into account only the line characteristics because it has to accommodate for the existence of fault resistance. There are also other causes for the mal-operation of zone 3 like power swings and voltage instability. They have also the same effect on the impedance measured by the relay as load encroachment. Reference [2] suggests using the rate of change of voltage dv/dt to discriminate between voltage instability (as a symptom of load encroachment) and fault conditions. However, in [2] there are some difficulties to choose the proper thresholds of

Reference [3] overcomes the occurrence of mal-operations mentioned in [2] by using a measure called Voltage Stability Indicator (VSI) in addition to dv/dt which improved the overall operation. The technique in [3] has not however been tested under the existence of fault resistances. In [3] it is not stated if the threshold for VSI could be used for all system configurations. Reference [4] proposes to block the zone 3 operation by comparing the actual measured value of the power flow with a predetermined value then the decision to block zone 3 holds when the estimated and the measured value of power are identical. The estimation of the value of power flow of the line is not always guaranteed to be right due to the loop-flows described in [5]. In this case the method described in [4] could possibly cause problems.

Modern Electric Power Systems 2010, Wroclaw, Poland

MEPS'10 - paper 06.5

For the time being, the use of Synchronized Phasor Measurements (SPM) has a great attention and the applications of SPM in the area of Power System Protection is increasing and getting improved. Many applications could be found in [6] Reference [7] uses SPM technique to block zone 3 operation under power swings. Two measures are used for this purpose. One measure is used to discover power swing and block the relay and the second to calculate fault location and allow the relay to trip. The use of two measures could be a reason for the relay operation to be unsatisfactory especially when a combination between a power swing and HIF occurs. The methods in [4, 7] are not stated to which limit they are capable to withstand the existence of fault resistances. The method proposed here is capable of blocking the relay operation during load encroachment without need to check for voltage stability and in addition to this it makes the relay decision independent of fault resistances (low or HIF). This offers a much simpler and reliable solution and alleviates any use of heuristic settings which could be a source of error. The paper is intended to show only the basic concept of the technique. The simulation will also set focus on the case of load encroachment. First the idea of the technique and its flow chart are presented; section II. Simulation and verification of the proposed method under load encroachment is given in III. Then section IV presents a brief discussion on how to apply this technique in more complex power systems. II. THE PROPOSED TECHNIQUE

used as an indication of the occurrence (or no occurrence) of a fault on the line. This is depicted in Fig. 3. The use of the change of Rf as a criterion in protection applications enhances the performance of the protection system in two main aspects. The first one is the discrimination between real faults and load encroachment (or no-fault conditions) using a single measure (Rf). Hence, the operation of distance relays could be enhanced under these conditions as will be shown in the next section. The second one is the recognition of the value of the fault resistance regardless of being low or high and so HIF and normal values of Rf can not influence the protection operation even when a combination between a real fault (with Rf between 0 to HIF) and load encroachment occurs.

The technique suggests one simple and reliable measure to distinguish between a real fault and load encroachment
Line condition

A. The Idea Fig. 2 shows a transmission line section between two busses A and B. The transmission line could have two states, one of which presents a real fault case as shown in Fig. 2(a). The value of fault resistance in this case will range between zero (bolted faults) to HIF values. For practical values of Rf during HIF refer to [8].

Calculated Rf

Figure 3. Different cases of Rf values

B. Flow Chart and Enhancement of Zone3 Operation Fig. 4 depicts a simple transmission system to illustrate how the suggested protection criteria can be applied to overcome both the mal-operation of zone 3 under load encroachment and the miss-operation of zone3 especially when HIF exists.

Figure 2. Transmission line with and without fault

Fig. 2(b) depicts the second state which presents a healthy power line during both normal system operation or during system load encroachment. In such case we can imagine that the line is having a fault resistance with a very high value (theoretically infinity) which is extremely higher than the expected range of Rf from 0 to HIF values. This change of Rf from very high value (theoretically infinity) to a relatively low value (0 to HIF values) could be

Figure 4. Protection scheme for two transmission lines

The flow chart is given in Fig.5. First the values of voltage and currents at the terminals of all transmission lines are

measured using devices capable of making synchronized phasor measurements like Phasor Measurement Units (PMU). After the measurement process, the PMUs send their data to a central computer using a flexible communication structure. At the central computer the values of Rf for both transmission lines TL1 and TL2 will be calculated (the calculation method is given in the next section). To illustrate the operation of the algorithm, TL2 of Fig.4 will be used. The fault resistance Rf2 of TL2 will be calculated. If Rf2 doesnt indicate the occurrence of a fault (e.g. Rf2 outside its practical range from 0 to HIF values) then blocking of zone 3 (of Relay R1) should take place otherwise zone 3 is unblocked. Because there is a possibility for zone 3 not to trip due to the existence of HIF, the new algorithm will still monitor the operation of zone 3 and if the circuit breaker CB1 is not opened after the allotted time delay of zone 3 (1 to 1.5 seconds) has passed then the algorithm will open CB1. The same algorithm will be applied for TL1.

practical, then it is more reasonable to use it in the judgment of occurrence of a fault or not. The results will be more accurate than using the differential current If (i.e. in case of conventional differential protection) which is not accurate enough in case of HIF and requires the setting of biasing current which is dependent on the system configuration and other estimations. Using Rf doesnt depend on any biasing or restraining current configuration and does not depend on the system topology. The given formula of Rf as in (4) in the next section uses the value of the fault current If but in a way that translates this value to an equivalent impedance (Rf). Hence, the tripping criterion is based on impedance (Rf) instead of using current (If). D. Calculation of Rf From Fig. 6, the voltages and currents at terminal A and B during a fault with fault resistance Rf can be described by the following equations:

Figure 6. System for calculation of Rf

V A = IA ZA + If R f
V B = IB ZB + I f Rf

I VA = ZA + f R f IA IA
If VB = ZB + Rf IB IB

(1)
( 2)

By adding (1) and (2) we get:

Figure 5. The new algorithm applied on zone 3

For systems with more transmission lines, the values of Rf will be checked and as long as it is very high then this is indication that all zone 3 in the substation dont need to operate and will be blocked. Once the measured Rfs drop to be within the practical range, no blocking signal will be issued leaving the system to operate as regular distance protection schemes. This is however more dependable because it will be still monitored by the algorithm to ensure disconnection under HIF conditions as said above. C. Application with Differential Protection The value of Rf as a tripping criteria could also be used as substitute for differential protection. Conventional differential protection has the advantage of being the most selective type of protection. However, it can be affected by the existence of fault resistances [9]. Because the value of Rf is deterministic and

I 2 VA VB f + = ZA + ZB + Rf I I A B IA IB Z T.L.
Where

(3)

Z A + Z B is equivalent to the total impedance of

the protected transmission line ( Z T .L . ). From (3), the fault resistance is equivalent to:

V A V B I I Rf = + Z T . L. * A 2B I IB A If
Where I f

(4)

= I A + IB

Fig. 7 depicts the change of the calculated Rf (using (4)) during a simulation study period of 1.5 seconds in which a fault with Rf took place after 0.3 seconds and cleared after 1.3 seconds.

TABLE I. Parameter Volt Level ZG1 (Ohm)

SYSTEM PARAMETERS Value 345 kV 4+j25 4+j50 0.037+j0.3 3.76 160 km

Calculated Rf (Ohm)

ZG2 (Ohm) Z T.L.(Ohm/km) Y T.L.(s/km) Line Length

A. Test 1(No-Fault and Load Encroachment Conditions)

Time (Seconds) Figure 7. Calculated Rf using (4)

As has been shown in the last section, the detection of the fault is done for each line separately (differential-like form) but unlike the conventional differential protection, the detection is dependent on the value of an impedance (Rf) instead of the value of the differential current (If). This is similar to the use Impedance-operating protection instead of current-operating protection. So, we would like to call the algorithm explained here as Differential-like Impedance-Algorithm (DIA). The use of the word differential here doesnt refer to the impedance (i.e. not differential impedance). The algorithm combines both the advantages of distance and differential protection and overcomes the problems of both. III. SIMULATION

1) No-Fault: Table.II shows the calculated value of Rf in case the system is experiencing no-fault. The values of Rf in this case are calculated using (4) at different power angles. This case represents a normal system operating condition where the change of system loading is achieved via changing of the power angle (Delta). In this case the load has not yet encroached into the impedance relay characteristics.
TABLE II. Delta(Degree) Calculated Rf (Ohm) CALCULATED RF IN CASE OF NO- FAULT 10 3*10
6

30 2.2*10
6

60 1.8*10
6

90 1.9*106

The values of Rf in this case are very high because under no-fault no actual Rf exists. In this case there is no need for zone 3 distance relay to trip but there is a need to block. 2) Load Encroachment: The system shown in Fig. 9 was used to test the relay performance under load encroachment. The two transmission lines have the same parameters as in Table.I.

The formula of Rf as described in (4) was tested on the power system shown in Fig. 8 using a medium length transmission line represented by its pi model. Basically two tests have been conducted. The first test is performed under no-fault or under load encroachment conditions. The second test is a real fault case. The test has been conducted at different values of Rf and power angles. The model parameters are as given in Table.I.

Figure 9. Test system for load encroachment

Figure 8. Medium length transmission line pi model

Fig. 10 traces the change of the measured impedance by the relay at Bus1 when the load is increasing. Under this load increase, normal zone 3 distance relays at Bus1 are expected to mal-trip.

Calculated Rf

Rf Simulated

R Figure 10. Load encroachment

Figure 12. At fault location 10%

Calculated Rf in Mega Ohm

Calculated Rf

On the other hand, the value of the calculated Rf (of the line between A and B) keeps very high (in Mega Ohms) indicating that distance relay zone3 at Bus1 (which is supposed to protect TL2 by its zone 3) is required to be blocked due to the non existence of a fault at line TL2; see Fig. 11.

Rf Simulated

Figure 13. At fault location 30% Impedance measured by relay at Bus1 in Ohm

Figure 11. Change of Rf during load encroachment

Test 2( Real Fault Case) Once a fault occurs in the system, the value of Rf will have a change from very high values as given in Table.II to very low values representing the value of the fault resistance (Rf). In Test 2, the value of Rf has been changed in the simulation from 0 to 10 kOhms then formula (4) has been used to calculate the value of Rf from the measured currents and voltages. Fig. 12 to Fig. 14 show the calculated values of Rf when a fault occurs at different locations and different power angles. At high power angles (e.g. delta=60) the deviation between the actual and the calculated value of Rf increases for faults near the line ends (e.g. 10%). This deviation however doesnt affect the judgment of the algorithm.

B.

Calculated Rf

Rf Simulated

Figure 14. At fault location 50%

At faults near the middle of the line, the calculated values of Rf are enhanced. Regardless of how much exactly Rf is, the value of the calculated Rf has dropped from a very high value (e.g. during normal load increase or no fault condition as in Table.II) into the range that indicates occurrence of a fault between the monitored line terminals. IV. APPLICATION ON MORE COMPLEX POWER SYSTEMS

During normal faults with or without fault resistance the algorithm is capable of detecting the fault in a differential-like form but with the help of calculation of the value of the fault resistance instead of the differential current. The algorithm using only the value of Rf- has the following advantages: 1) Discrimination between load encroachment or nofault case and real system faults. 2) The algorithm is like the differential relaying in the sense that each equipment or transmission line has its protection that is using the fault resistance information instead of the differential current information. This leads to a tripping decision that is not affected by the complete range of Rf from 0 through normal fault resistances until HIF. 3) Easier protection system designs because there is no need for setting a biasing or restraining current. The sensitivity of the system is completely reserved. 4) The relay selectivity and tripping time delay will be always as required with no possibility for underreach. 5) Enables extending the reach of zone 3 without intersection with the load characteristics which will make it of ease to design the third zone reach in case of N-x contingency. REFERENCES
[1] A. Apostolov, D. Tholomier, S. Richards, Zone 3 Distance Protection Yes or No?, 60th Annual Georgia Tech Protective Relaying Conference, May 3-5, 2006, Atlanta, GA, USA. Jonsson, M.; Daalder, J.E., "An adaptive scheme to prevent undesirable distance protection operation during voltage instability," Power Delivery, IEEE Transactions on, vol.18, no.4, pp. 1174-1180, Oct. 2003. Ahmad Farid Abidin, Azah Mohamed, Afida Ayob, A New Method to Prevent Undesirable Distance Relay Tripping During Voltage Collapse, European Journal of Scientific Research, Vol.31 No.1 (2009), pp. 59-71. Seong-Il Lim; Chen-Ching Liu; Seung-Jae Lee; Myeon-Song Choi; Seong-Jeong Rim, "Blocking of Zone 3 Relays to Prevent Cascaded Events,", IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, vol.23, no.2, pp.747754, May 2008. Jan Machowski, Janusz W. Bialek, James R. Bumby, Power System Dynamics: Stability and Control, 2nd Edition, John Wiley & Sons Ltd., 2008, pp. 121. A. G. Phadke, J. S. Thorp, Synchronized Phasor Measurements and Their Applications, Springer, 2008, pp. 133. Nan Zhang; Kezunovic, M., "A study of synchronized sampling based fault location algorithm performance under power swing and out-of-step conditions," Power Tech, 2005 IEEE Russia, vol., no., pp.1-7, 27-30 June 2005. CIGRE Study Committee B5, High Impedance Faults, Report Nr. SC, B5/WG94 DFR-r2.0, 2008. Villamagna, N.; Crossley, P.A., "Design and evaluation of a current differential protection scheme with enhanced sensitivity for high resistance in-zone faults on a heavily loaded line", Eighth IEE International Conference on Developments in Power System Protection, Vol.2, 5-8, pp. 410-413, April 2004.

The Power system in Fig. 15 shows an application of the proposed algorithm. The relay at G is supposed to protect lines 1 and 2 by zone 3. The required measurements to calculate Rf at both lines using (4) (e.g. IA1, IB1, etc.) could be sent to a central computer using a flexible communication network [5] or it might be possible to send the data directly to the relay at G using fiber optic cables in between the substations themselves. Based on the value of Rf (in the practical range) activation of zone 3 timer at the central computer (or unblocking of the relay at G) will take place and result in tripping of the circuit breaker at G if non of the relays at line 1 or line 2 has not operated (while Rf is in its practical range). If the algorithm at the central computer (or the relay at G) finds that the calculated value of Rf is very high and outside the practical range (e.g. load encroachment) then the timer of zone 3 will not be activated (or zone 3 of relay at G will be blocked).

[2]

[3]

Figure 15. Application on a more complex system

[4]

The new algorithm presents a form of isolation between the location of the fault or the value of the load and the relay. The relay decision at G is only dependent on the value of Rf (i.e. load encroachment cant affect the relay decision). The system configuration will not affect the reach of zone 3 in this case because if line 1 or line 2 is disconnected (i.e. for maintenance) the tripping decision is still based on Rf calculated for each line and not on the measured impedance between G to the fault location. This could enhance and overcome some problems with the operation and reach of zone 3 under N-x criteria described in [1]. V. CONCLUSIONS

[5]

[6] [7]

[8] [9]

This paper presents a new protection algorithm Differential-like Impedance-Algorithm (DIA) that uses the value of the fault resistance to differentiate between load encroachment and real faults. The detection of load encroachment leads to the enhancement of the operation of zone3. Phasor measurements are used for this purpose.