Protection Systems & Devices (Relays)

3rd Year

CHAPTER 4
Protection of Power System Elements

1. Feeder Protection

The various protection schemes as applied to feeder protection can be classified to:
a. Time graded protection b. Differential protection.
c. Distance protection. d. Carrier current protection.

a. Time graded protection

i) Radial feeder:
Protection on radial feeder is obtained by employing fuse shunted trip coils as shown in the
figure 1.

If an earth fault occurs on feeder F4, the

fault current will pass through the
primary windings of all the CTs and so as
this current will appear in each of
secondary windings of CTs. If the
magnitude of the fusing currents of the trip coil fuses are arranged in the decreasing order,
from the power station to the remote substation correct discrimination (taken into account
that the magnitude of the fault current is not so heavy as to operate all the fuses
simultaneously) will be obtained and fuse No. 4 will be the first to blow off. The current,
which would have so far been passing through the fuse due to its low impedance, will now
pass through the trip coil to open the circuit breaker on feeder F 4 and thus clear the fault.

This also can be done by inverse definite time relays as shown in fig. 2 are also is set so
that the minimum time of operation decreases from the power station to the remote sub-
station.

ii) Parallel feeder:

Figure 3 shows a system where three feeders are

connected in parallel between a power station and remote
supply point.

Let an earth fault develop on feeder 2 as shown in the figure. It will be seen that this fault is
fed via three routes.

a. directly along feeder 2 from the power source.

b. from feeder 1 via the receiving end busbars, and
c. from feeder 3 via the receiving end busbars.

Now to clear this fault, only circuit breakers 3 and 4

should open. This is achieved by employing non-
directional relays on the supply end and directional relays
operating only when fault power is feeding in the direction
of the arrow – on the receiving end.

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With such an arrangement, it is clear that with a fault at F, all the three relays at the supply
end will start to operate while, at the receiving end, only the relay on feeder 2 (relay no. 4)
will start and operate to isolate the fault from the receiving end.

But it is also desired that the circuit breakers on feeders 1

and 3 at the source do not open. This is ensured by the
fact that the time of operation of relays 1 and 5 will be
longer than that of 3. This is because the fault current in
feeders 1 and 3 will be much smaller than that in feeder 2
on account of their greater impedance and so the inverse
time characteristic of the relays will provide greater time of
operation for relays 1 and 5 and smaller time of operation
for relay 3, so that relay 3 will have isolated its feeder
before relays 1 and 5 have completed their travel.

he method of protection can also be applied to parallel feeders with a tee-off as shown in
figure 4.

iii) Ring mains and interconnected systems:

However the above method of protection finds its most

common use on ring mains. A single ring main protected by
non-directional and directional relays is shown in fig. 5.

Let a fault develop at F. This fault will be fed from source

via path x and y.

Considering first the fault flow in the direction “ x “, the

relays at the power source and on the outgoing side of substations A, B have definite
minimum time setting of 2.1, 1.6, 1.1 seconds respectively.

The 1.1 second relay on the outgoing side of sub section B will obviously be the first to
complete its operation i.e. trip out the associated circuit breaker and thus clear the fault, the
relays at the power source and the station A immediately resetting.

Considering now the fault flow in the direction “ y ”, the relays at power source and the
outgoing sides of substations C and D have definite minimum time setting of 2.1, 1.6, 1.1
seconds respectively, thus ensuring that the circuit breaker on the outgoing side of the
substation C with its 1.1 seconds setting will clear the fault, leaving the remaining relays to
reset.

The time grading between time settings of the relays should not be closer than 0.33 to 0.5
second and as the longest time that a fault can fed is usually 2.1 seconds, the maximum
number of sections that can be protected in this way is limited to 7 seconds. This is a
disadvantage.

The interlock method has been designed to overcome this disadvantage and it can be
used for any number of sections with a very short time delay. It can be used on radial or
main systems.

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If a section is healthy the same current passes at both ends and the overload relays
operate. The operation of this relay
at the beginning of the section
completes the circuit of the trip coil
( closes contact B ) , but the
operation of the relay at the end of
the section closes contact A, and
causes the locking relay to operate
and thus break the trip circuit ( so
nothing happens ).

If a fault occurs within the section, the current entering is high causes the contact B to close
but the current leaving is small and the locking relay does not operate. It is essential that the
locking relay operates before contact B is closed, so the relay B is set to operate in 0.3 to
0.5 second.

When this method is applied on a ring main it is necessary merely to have differential relays
to close the circuit for the locking relays.

b. Differential Protection

Among the more commonly used methods of feeder protection on complex networks is the
differential protection in which the operation can depend on either current balance or an
voltage balance, the difference between these two methods being illustrated in fig. 6.

It provides complete protection against both earth and

phase faults and can be applied to single or three
phase feeders, transformer feeders, with tee-off and
parallel feeders. It is based on the established principle
of the current entering at one end of a feeder being
equal at any instant to that leaving at the other.

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c. Distance or Impedance Protection

Distance protection provides

discriminative protection without
employing pilot wires. This type of
protection is widely used in transmission
lines. Fig. 8 shows a simple system
consisting of lines in series, such that power flow is only from left to right.

 If a short circuit occurs at P between substation 3 and 4, the fault loop impedances at
power stations and substations 2 and 3 are Z1 + Z2 + Z, Z2 + Z, and Z respectively.
 The relays at 1, 2, 3 etc. are set to operate with impedances less than Z 1, Z2 and Z3
respectively, so that under the condition shown only relay 3 will operate. Similarly, if the
fault occurs between substations 2 and 3, only relay 2 operates.

A system with instantaneous impedance relays, set to act on impedances less than or
equal to the impedance of a section would be difficult to adjust, a fault near the junction of
two sections is likely to cause the operation of two relays. Furthermore, if a fault of finite
resistance occurs near the end of a section, it is possible that the total impedance is greater
than the relay setting.

That’s why we use impedance time relays. An example

configuration is shown in Fig. 9. Assume that the
impedance of each section of line has the same value.

Consider that impedance time relays are installed at the

power station and also at the substation A, B and C.

The usual time-delay for faults at the far end of section,

so as to give adequate discrimination, is 0.8 second
while at the input end of the section is 0.2 second.

 If a fault occurs at X on the system, the relays at substation A will operate with a time lag
of 0.5 second.
 Suppose now that the circuit breakers require 0.2 second to open, then the characteristic
representing the time required for the relay to close and circuit breaker to open is given
by the dotted line NP. Thus, for the fault shown, the circuit breaker installed at A will open
in 0.7 second.
 It may be noticed that if time impedance relay at A fails to operate, the relay at the power
station will close its contacts at 1.1 seconds, and its circuit breaker will open in 1.3
seconds.
 It is important for correct operation that the circuit breaker at A shall open before the
relay at the power station closes its contacts. It’s seen from the figure that there is a time
margin of 0.4 second.

Thus, unlike the scheme using definite impedance relays, impedance time relays provide
backup protection.

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In the above discussion we assumed sections of equal impedances. If this were not the
case, such as in the power system shown in fig. 10, then special considerations would have
to be given in selecting the relay settings so that correct discriminating times were obtained
between each relaying point.

 For a fault at F, by the time circuit breaker at substation A clears the fault, the relay at the
power station will also have operated. This means that the power station circuit breaker
will also trip out.
 It will be necessary to increase the time lag of the power station relay in order that
discrimination times are obtained between the two sections of the line and also to ensure
backup for faults on the section between substation B and C.

Figure 11 shows the time distance curves to afford proper discrimination as desired above.
It can be seen that the modification to the time of operation of the time distance relays at
power station has increased the time during which a fault at the far end of its own section is
cleared.

To avoid this, a combination of definite distance and

time distance relays are used on each transmission
line section. With such combination it is possible to
obtain very quick operation for faults occurring over a
large proportion of each section and still maintain
sufficient time clearance at the far end of the section
to achieve discrimination with the protection and
circuit breakers on the station, beyond it.

At each relaying point, definite distance relay

and time distance relay are arranged so that
definite distance relay operates and closes its
trip contacts in its minimum time of 0.2 second
for fault occurring up to 75% of the section
length and the time distance relay operates for
faults occurring in the remaining 25% of the
section length and also sets as a backup to the
protection on the following section.

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High Speed Impedance Protection

In order to obtain very rapid disconnection of faults near the point of supply, special high-
speed distance relays operating in about 0.2 second are employed.

 The protection consists of a combination of definite impedance type relay elements

arranged to deal instantaneously with fault occurring within the nearest 75% or more of
the section controlled, while a short definite time lag is introduced to cover the
remaining part of the section and for backup protection on the following section.
 The protection is usually based on 3 steps method using 3 definite impedance elements
one each phase.
 The first element is set to operate instantaneously for fault within the first 75% of the
line section.
 The second element to operate for the remaining 25% plus 50% of next line section
through a definite time delay of 0.4 second.
 The third element to operate for fault beyond 50% of the next line section through a
definite time delay of 0.8 second.

With this arrangement very rapid fault clearance can be obtained for faults on the major
portion of transmission line while suitable backup protection is given to neighboring
sections. This is shown in fig. 12.

This high-speed distance relays can be arranged for measuring reactance or impedance,
and normally provided with a built in directional feature.

Figure 13 shows the characteristics for a three-stage impedance relay with directional unit 
while figure 14 shows the contact circuit of the principal units.


The directional unit permits tripping only in its positive torque region.

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The three impedance units are labeled Z 1, Z2 & Z3 .

Any value of impedance that is within the Z 1 circle will cause all three impedance units to
operate. The operation of Z 1 and the directional unit will trip a breaker directly in a very short
time, which definite delay which we call T 1. Whenever Z3 and the directional unit operate, the
timing unit is energized. After a definite time delay, the timing unit will first close its T 2
contacts and later its T3 contact, both time delays are independently adjustable. Therefore it
can be seen that a value of impedance within the Z 2 circle, but outside Z 1 circle, will result in
tripping in T2 time. Finally a value of Z outside the Z 1 and Z2 circles, but within Z3 circle will
result in tripping in T3 time.

Reactance relays and mho relays are also commonly used with the same previous method
as shown in figures 15 & 16.

Setting of Distance Relays

Distance relays are adjusted on the basis of the positive phase sequence impedance
between the relay location and the fault location beyond which operation of a given relay
unit should stop. The impedance or the corresponding distance is called “ reach “ of the
relay. Approximately 0.8 /mile (0.5 /km) is the positive sequence impedance generally
taken.

Usually used in transmission line protection & it is connected similarly to that shown in figure 14 except
that no separate directional unit is required, since it’s inherently directional.

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As the relays are energized through C.T’s abd P.T’s, the primary value of impedance must
be converted to secondary values.

Zsec. = V2= V1 x C.T. Ratio= Zprim. x C.T. Ratio

I2 P.T. Ratio I1 P.T. Ratio

P.T. Ratio = H.V. phase to phase voltage

Relay phase to phase voltage

C.T. Ratio = H.V. phase current

Relay phase current

Hint : Rarc = 8750 l for l in feet or Rarc = 2.9x104 l

I1.4 I1.4

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