DISTANCE PROTECTION

Presented by:-
J ANANDA KRISHNA
LINCON KUMAR PATEL
 INTRODUCTION

• The purpose of an electrical power system is to generate and supply

electrical energy to consumers with both reliability and economy.
• No matter how well designed, faults will always occur on a power system,
and these faults may represent a risk to life and/or property.
• The provision of adequate protection to detect and disconnect elements of
the power system in the event of fault.
• is therefore an integral part of power system design.
 TRANSMISSION LINES

A Vital Part of the Power System

• Provide path to transfer BULK POWER between generation and load.

• Operate at voltage levels from 66kV to 765kV.

• Outage of one 230kV or 400kV or 765kV line can cause huge revenue loss
to both utility and consumers and outage of power to a larger geographical
area.
 TYPES OF FAULTS

ØSYMMETRICAL FAULTS
§ Three phase fault
§ Three phase to ground fault
ØUNSYMMETRICAL FAULTS
§ Phase to phase fault
§ Phase to phase to ground fault
§ Phase to ground fault
§ Open circuit in phases
Protection for transmission
and sub-transmission lines
 Why distance protection?

Distance protection provides the following features:

• More accurate as more information is used for taking decision.
• Directional, i.e. it responds to the phase angle of current with respect
to voltage phasor.
• Fast and accurate.
• selectivity and sensitivity
• Back-up protection.
• Primarily used in transmission line protection. Also it can be applied
to generator backup, loss of field and transformer backup protection.
Distance relay of various measuring characteristics
ØImpedance characteristics
ØMho characteristics
ØReactance characteristics
ØLenticular characteristics
ØQuadrilateral characteristics

Practical distance relays have normally 3 zones of protection

operation
Ø First zone – instantaneous
Ø Time delayed backup zone 2 &
Ø Zone 3
ZONES OF PROTECTION
 Zone 1

Z1

START
TRIP

Ø Zone 1 - 80-85% of protected

section
Ø Instantaneous
 Zone 2

Ra Rb

Z1 Z2
R1
R2 R3
START START
TRIP Fails to trip

Ø 100% of the protected line + 50% of the shortest line

connected to that station Or 120% of protected section
Ø Operating time-400 millisecond
 Zone 3

Ra Rb

Z1 Z2 Z3
R1
R2 R3
START START
TRIP Fails to trip

Ø 100% of the protected line +100% of the longest

line connected to that station
Ø Operating time-800 millisecond
 Impedance relay
• A distance relay measures the impedance of a line using the voltage and the
current applied to the relay.
• When a fault occurs on a line, the current rises significantly and the voltage
collapses significantly.
• The distance relay (also known as impedance relay) determines the impedance by
Z = V/I. If the impedance is within the reach setting of the relay, it will operate.
• Line impedance is directly proportional to the distance to fault hence called
distance protection
ØElectromechanical distance relays use torque to restrain or operate
ØKD, GCY, etc. Device #21
ØMicroprocessor distance relays use equations to restrain or operate
ØSEL, ABB, GE, Areva, etc. Device #11

Impedance Relay used for medium length

transmission line
 impedance relay with directional element
Circle diagram for
balanced beam relay or impedance relay
X
X
Z line 100 ohms zone 3
operating set point
80 ohms zone 2

zone 1
R
R
80 150 200

Upstream faults in 3rd

quadrant
 DISADVANTAGE OF IMPEDANCE RELAY

• Most of the fault involve an arc which is resistive in nature and the
fault characteristics of transmission line gets modified and relay may
under reach and it is not suitable for very short line.

• A load swing or surge would cause impedance to fall within third zone
and if the condition remained for longer than the time delay setting of
zone3 the relay would trip on zone 3.
 Mho relay

• Mho type distance relays most suited for long lines.

• Mho characteristics is a circle whose circumference passes through the

origin and diameter represents the setting impedance.

• Mho characteristics has an angle dependent reach and is directional

• Less prone to power swings /load encroachment compared to

impedance relay
The operating characteristic of relay is
shown by the R/X diagram

X Intended X
REACH point
zone 2

zone 1

60 °
60 °
R
R
Trip for faults
upstream Off set circle diagram
MHO RELAY ZONES OF PROTECTION Busbar zone backup using offset mho relay

X X

zone 3 zone 3

zone 2 zone 2

zone 1 zone 1

60 ° 60 °

R R
Busbar zone
 Reactance relay
• The reactance characteristics is represented by a line parallel to the
resistive axis, ZL represents the line impedance, Xr represents the
setting reactance.
• The reactance characteristic is ideally suitable for short lines because
of high resistive coverage.
• The characteristic is non directional and requires to be monitored by
some directional characteristic like mho circle when used for distance
protection
 Reactance relay
Reactance and MHO unit operating
characteristics

X Reactance relay operating X

characteristics
Set point

zone 3

zone 2 Reactance element 2

zone 1
Reactance element 1
60 °
R R
Lenticular
• It provides the required coverage along the line impedance angle ,the
resistive coverage is restricted.
• The characteristic is suitable for long over loaded lines.
• Has a small reverse coverage

Quadrilateral
• Directional
• Both resistive and reactive reaches are independently adjustable
• The characteristic is ideally suitable for very short lines, requiring
high fault resistance coverage.
 QUADRILATERAL CHARACTERISTICS
LENTICULAR CHARACTERISTICS

X X

R
R
 Distance Line Protection
Direct Transfer Tripping (DTT)

B C
LBC

BC1

CB1
RBC
RCB

L
NSD NSD

B, C Substations F Line fault

LBC Protected line section
RBC,RCB Protection relay L Communication channel
BC1, CB1 Zone 1 reach, 85% of line section (PLC, Microwave, Cable)
C o n c l u s i o n

The protection of transmission line by measuring the distance is a

fascinating subject and people all over the world are trying to develop
distance protection schemes which are fast acting, reliable and free
from transient disturbances.