Summary of

Relay Trip Circuit Design

Relay Trip Circuit Design

Special Publication of the IEEE PSRC
Written by a WG of the Substation
Equipment Protection Subcommittee
Summary Paper in the conference
Proceedings
Full document available for downloading
from the PSRC web site
URL is given in the Summary Paper

Purpose

Document and share information about

electric utility practice in the design of
relay trip circuits
associated control and protective functions

Provide training and reference information

for new relay engineers

Subject Areas

Substation Dc Systems

Relays Tripping a Single Breaker

Relays Tripping more than one Breaker

Breaker Failure Relaying Initiation

Transfer Tripping

Subject Areas, cont.

Pole Disagreement Tripping

Trip Circuit Monitoring and Supervision

Reclosing Initiation and Cancellation

Trip Circuit Apparatus

Bibliography and References

Appendix: Target Test Results

Substation DC Systems

DC systems overview
one feeder per breaker vs. tapped feeders
relay feeders
redundancy

Feeder per Breaker Dc System

+
A UX
+
A UX
+
AUX

A+:
C B:
A UX :
P R:
TC:
52a:

C B A UX ILIA RY P OW E R
C IRC U IT BRE A K ER
RE LA Y A U X ILIA R Y PW R.
P RO T EC T IV E RELA Y
T RIP C ON T A C T
C B T R IP C O IL
C B A UX ILIA RY S W IT C H

PR

PR

PR

A+

52a

L INE 1
C B1

TC

A+

52a
TC

L INE 2
CB 2

A+

52a
TC

LIN E 3
CB 3

Feeder-per-CB with Relay Feeder

Other PRs

+ AUX-

94
PR
94
PR
A+ :
CB:
A UX:

CB AUXILIA RY POWER
CIRCUIT BREA KER
RELAY AUX ILIARY POWER

PR:

PROTECTIVE RELA Y
TRIP CONTACT
CB TRIP COIL

TC:

52a:
CB AUXILIA RY SWITCH
94/PR: PROTECTIVE/A UXILIARY
TRIPPING RELAY

A+

52a
TC

LINE 1
CB1

A+

52a
TC

LINE 1
CB2

Substation DC Systems

Trip circuit routing

radial versus loop dc

DC fault currents and coordination

Radial Dc

PR

A+: CB AUXILIARY POWER

CB: CIRCUIT BREAKER.
PR: PROTECTIVE RELAY
TRIP CONTACT
TC: CB TRIP COIL
52a: CB AUXILIARY SWITCH

A+

52a
TC

LINE 1
CB1

PR

A+
LINE 2
CB 2

PR

52a

A+

TC

LINE 3
CB 3

NOTE: DC PROTECTIVE DEVICES (FUSE OR CBS) NOT SHOWN

52a
TC

Loop Dc

A+

PR

PR

PR

52a

52a

52a

TC

A+

TC

A+

TC

A+: CBAUXILIARY POWER

CB: CIRCUIT BREAKER.
PR: PROTECTIVERELAY
TRIP CONTACT
TC: CBTRIP COIL
52a: CBAUXILIARY SWITCH
LINE 1
CB1

LINE 2
CB 2

LINE 3
CB 3

NOTE: DC PROTECTIVE DEVICES (FUSE OR CBS) NOT SHOWN

Single Breaker Tripping

Direct Trip

Indirect Trip
Diodes
Auxiliary relays

Dual breaker trip coils

Direct Trip - Single Breaker

(+ )
TSI
01
T

SI

52b
52a

TC-1

(-)

PR-1

PR-2

Dual Trip Coils - Single CB

01
T

86
BF

62Y

86
BF R

PR-1

62X

SR-1

52b
52a

52a
TC-1

52a

62X

TC-2

62Y

Multiple Breaker Tripping

Diodes versus Auxiliary Relays

Application of Diodes in Control Circuits

Application of Auxiliary Relays

Targeting with Auxiliary Relays

Trip Testing and Trip Test Switches

Trip two CBs with Diodes

SWITCHBOARD (+ )
BREAKER 52-2 (+ )

01
T

BREAKER 52-1 (+ )

SI
PR

01
T

SI

RDS
TTS

TTS

52a
TC
BREAKER 52-2 (-)

52a
TC
BREAKER 52-1 (-)

Trip two CBs with Aux. Relay

SWITCHBOARD (+ )
BREAKER 52-2 (+ )

01
T
R

94
TTS

BREAKER 52-1 (+ )

SI
PR

94

SI

TTS

01
T
R

RDS
52-2
a

TC
BREAKER 52-2 (-)

52-1
a

94

52-2
a
SWITCHBOARD (-)

52-1
a

TC

BREAKER 52-1 (-)

Breaker Failure Relay Initiation

Separation of Relay Circuits and Breaker

Trip Circuits

Maintaining Breaker Failure Initiation

BFI Auxiliary Relays

Breaker Auxiliary Switches

Transfer Tripping

Transmitter Keying

Receiver Output Circuits

Direct Transfer Tripping

Permissive Overreach Transfer Tripping

52b Switch Keying

Pole Disagreement Tripping

Independent pole tripping

Disagreement detection

Redundant dc supplies

Pole Disagreement Tripping

Trip Circuit Monitoring

Trip circuit failure areas

Red light monitoring

Monitoring relays

Auxiliary relay circuit monitoring

Sneak circuits caused by monitoring

Red Light Trip Circuit Monitor

G

94

52b

52a

TRIP
COIL

Reclose Initiation and Cancellation

Function of RI and RC signals

Means of deriving RI and RC from trips

Pulse duration considerations

Reclose Initiation - Shunt

79X

Reclose Initiation - Series

Trip Circuit Apparatus

Characteristics of trip circuit devices

Auxiliary Relays
Target and Seal-in Devices
Breaker Trip Coils

Coil Current Interruption

(+ ) VDC

VOLTAGE
ACROSS COIL

0
TIME

CONTACTS
BREAK DOWN
CONTACT WITHSTANDS
Vs MAX

CONTACT
BREAKDOWN VOLTAGE

Trip Circuit Apparatus, cont.

Surge protection devices

avoiding false trips caused by dc grounds and
surge suppression capacitors
coil surge suppression devices

Inadvertant Dc Ground Tripping

(+ )

GROUND LIGHT
18 V
3.2 k

3.2 k
( )

F4
Cp
100 F
TYPICA L
Cn
100 F
TYPICAL

PROTECTIV E
RELAYS

65 v

TRIP BUS
65 v

GROUND LIGHT
18 V
F5

F1

F2

52
a

52
a

52
TC

52
CC

F3

AUX
RELA Y

Trip Circuit Apparatus, cont.

Switches in trip circuits

purposes
pros and cons
trip testing

Summary
Documents a large body of knowledge about
dc trip circuit design that is not available
elsewhere
Useful in explaining the reasons behind
practices to new engineers and in avoiding
problems discovered by others
Pertains primarily to the pre-microprocessor
era, but has useful lessons for the future