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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 21, NO. 4, OCTOBER 2006

Ground Distance Relay Compensation

Based on Fault Resistance Calculation
M. M. Eissa, Senior Member, IEEE

AbstractThe fault resistance introduces an error in the fault

distance estimate, and hence may create an unreliable operation
of a distance relay. A new compensation method based on fault
resistance calculation is presented. The fault resistance calculation
is based on monitoring the active power at the relay point. The
compensated fault impedance measures accurately the impedance
between the relay location and the fault point. The relay has
shown satisfactory performances under various fault conditions
especially for the ground faults with high fault resistance. This
new compensation method avoids the under-reach problem in
ground distance relays.
Index TermsActive power, distance protection, fault resistance,
impedance measurement.

I. INTRODUCTION
ROTECTION of an important transmission line is most
frequently performed using phase-and ground distance
relaying techniques. Distance relays effectively measures the
impedance between the relay location and the fault. If the
resistance of the fault is low, the impedance is proportional
to the distance from the relay to the fault. A distance relay is
designed to only operate for faults occurring between the relay
location and the selected reach point and remain stable for all
faults outside this region or zone [1].
In developing distance relay equations, the fault under consideration is assumed to be an ideal (i.e., zero resistance) [2][8].
In reality, the fault resistance will be between two high-voltage
conductors, whereas for ground faults, the fault path may consist of an electrical arc between the high-voltage conductor and
a grounded object. The fault resistance introduces an error in the
fault distance estimate and, hence, may create unreliable operation of a distance relay [9].
The impedance seen by the relay is not proportional to the
distance between the relay and the fault in general, because of
presence of resistance at the fault location.
Some techniques for arcing faults detection and fault distance
estimation are introduced in [10] and [11]. The techniques are
based on the voltage and current at one terminal in the time domain. The overhead line parameters and arc voltage amplitude
during the fault are given. The techniques have optimal application in the medium voltage networks and symmetrical faults.

Manuscript received May 25, 2005; revised October 30, 2005. Paper no.
TPWRD-00309-2005.
The author is with the Department of Electrical Engineering, Faculty
of Engineering, Helwan University, Helwan, Cairo 11421, Egypt (e-mail:
mmmeissa@yahoo.com).
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TPWRD.2006.874621

Fig. 1. Under reach of the distance relays.

A distance relay is set to operate up to a particular value of

impedance; for impedance greater than this set value the relay
should not operate. This impedance, or the corresponding distance is known as the reach of the relay.
A distance relay may under-reach because of the introduction
of fault resistance as illustrated in Fig. 1. Relay at O is set for
protection up to Z. If a fault at Z occurs such that fault resistance
R is high and by adding this resistance the impedance seen by
the relay OZ such that Z lies outside the operating region of
the relay, then the relay does not operate. Fig. 1 shows the tripping polygonally characteristic in case of high fault resistance.
Some techniques [12][17] are suggested for enhancing the high
fault resistance problem. These techniques accommodate this
problem by shaping the trip zone of the distance relay to ensure
the apparent impedance is included inside the trip zone.
In this paper, a new fault impedance compensation method
based on fault resistance calculation is given. The fault resistance is calculated using the active power at the sending end.
The relay uses a Fourier filter to derive the voltage and current
phasors. The problem of under reach in ground distance relays
is solved. The ground distance relay with this new compensated
method will be demonstrated. The results will show that the fault
impedance with high fault resistance is accurately zoned.
II. DOUBLE-END-FED EARTH FAULTS
Fig. 2 shows the phase current
lags the phase current
by the angle because of the transfer of power from
to
.
Since the fault resistance can normally be neglected in the case

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EISSA: GROUND DISTANCE RELAY COMPENSATIONBASED ON FAULT RESISTANCE CALCULATION

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(2)
where
has been substituted for the sum
has been substituted for the sum
The impedance to the fault is given as

and
.

Fig. 2. Relationship between the phase voltages and phase currents.

(3)
So the uncompensated fault impedance is
(4)
is a source of error in distance relays,
so the actual fault impedance is

Fig. 3. Diagram for illustrating the flow of sequence power quantities.

(5)
In the same manner and for a three-line-to-ground fault
and symmetrical component circuit, the uncompensated fault
impedance for the distance relays is

(6)
is a source of error in distance relays, so
the actual fault impedance is
(7)
This paper aims to introduce compensated fault impedance
for (5) and (7) based on fault resistance calculation from the
active power and current measurements.
Fig. 4. Symmetrical component circuit for a line-to-ground fault (A

0G fault).

of phase-to-phase faults, it is sufficient to consider it only in the

case of earth faults particularly since the tower-to-earth resistance, which under difficult ground conditions and the absence
of a continuous earth wire, can reach significant values.
Consider a single unbalanced fault from line-to-neutral on
a system supplied through a grounded generator with pos,
itive-, negative-, and zero-sequence impedances of
, respectively, and with a generated positive sequence
and
and
, respectively. Assume
line-to-neutral voltages of
that this system is supplying a fault resistance on phase
whose impedance is
as illustrated in Figs. 3 and 4.
For a fault between phase A and ground, the symmetrical
component connection diagram is shown in Fig. 4. The phase
voltage and current can be expressed in terms of the symmetrical components, and the voltage of phase at the fault point
can be set as
(1)

III. FAULT RESISTANCE CALCULATION

The voltages at the fault point can be expressed by
(8)
(9)
(10)
(11)
where
(12)
(13)
The total phase quantities at the point of fault are readily obtained from the above sequence quantities with the following
results:
(14)
(15)

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 21, NO. 4, OCTOBER 2006

The sequence power quantities per phase at the fault are

Also, the contribution current from the receiving end to the

fault is a factor from the contribution current to the fault from
the sending end
(16)
(17)
(18)

(24)
Hence, (21) can be described as
(25)

The total power quantities may be obtained by combining the

sequence quantities as
The total power in the fault is described as

(26)
Also, from the single-phase solution, the total power quantities equal

From (25) and (26), the real part of the fault resistance is given
as
(27)

(19)
From (19), it can be concluded that the total power in the fault
and
);
resistance equals the power in phase (
(Fig. 3).
So

is defined as the instantaneous power measured at the

where
sending end and is determined as [19] and [20].
According to the above explanation, the compensated fault
impedances for (5) and (7) are described, respectively, as

(28)

(20)
and
are the power in the fault resistance from the
where
two sources for phase . So (20) can be expressed as
(21)
With minimal load flow at the time of the fault [18] and the
electromotive-force (emf) constant at the sending and receiving
and
), the current contribution
at the receiving
ends (
at the sending end.
end is almost in phase with the current
Thus, the phase relationship between the fault currents (
and
) and the voltages (
and
) can be described by
(
) and (
).
From the above explanation, it can be concluded that the reis
lation between the total power at the receiving end
directly proportional with a factor of the total power at the
sending end
. So
(22)
where is defined as the distribution factor of the generated
power at the receiving end with respect to the generated power
at the sending end.
Consequently, the contribution power to the fault from the
receiving end is also a factor of the contribution power to the
fault from the receiving end. So
(23)

and
(29)
Equations (28) and (29) are the compensated fault impedance
calculation for the single and three earth faults, respectively.
IV. SIMULATION RESULTS
The power system used for testing the proposed new method
is a part of a 500-kV power system shown in Fig. 5. The system
includes two generating stations. A distance relay is located at
buses and as shown in Fig. 5. The voltage and current signals are the inputs to the relays, and 300 km is the line length.
The results described on the R-X diagram (transient impedance
trajectory). The relay is set to protect 90% of the line. It forms
the first zone of the relay, corresponding to a maximum reach
of about 0.486 p.u., and has an arcing reverse of about 150%
[21][23]. The arcing reverse is the resistive allowance of the
trip area as a ratio of the inductive reactance. The reach of the
second zone is set at 120% of line-1. The power system is modeled and different symmetrical and unsymmetrical faults with
solid and fault resistance are simulated using the Electromagnetic Transients Program (EMTP).
The voltage and current signals are measured at the relay locations using a sampling frequency of 5000 Hz. The results obtained from the tests are given here. The uncompensated and
compensated fault impedances given in (4) and (28) have been

EISSA: GROUND DISTANCE RELAY COMPENSATIONBASED ON FAULT RESISTANCE CALCULATION

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Fig. 5. Single-line diagram of the 500-kV power transmission system.

Fig. 8. Fault impedance trajectory for C

from relay-S (F 2).

Fig. 6. Fault impedance trajectory for

200
at 50 km from relay-S (F 1).

0 G fault with a solid fault at 150 km

C 0 G fault with fault resistance =

Fig. 9. Fault impedance trajectory for B 0 G fault with fault resistance =

200
at 320 km from relay-S (external fault at F 3).

Fig. 7. Fault impedance trajectory for

100
at 150 km from relay-S (F 2).

C 0 G fault with fault resistance =

described as the single-phase earth faults while the uncompensated and compensated fault impedances given in (6) and (29),
respectively, have been described as the three-phase earth faults.
The performance of the proposed technique was evaluated for
different types of internal and external faults, source impedance,

and fault resistance. Results showed faults are taken with a fault
resistance ranging from 0 to 300 .
The value of compensated and uncompensated fault impedances seen by the phase to ground relay element is depicted
in Figs. 69. It is observed that if the compensated fault
impedance is used, the relay of fault is located exactly in its
proper zone. Whereas, if the uncompensated impedance is used
the fault impedance is misoperated and located out of its zone
or inaccurately located in its zone.
Figs. 10 and 11 show the fault trajectory for the 3L-G fault
(internal and external) protected zone. As seen in the figures, the
compensated fault impedance is properly identified as the zone
of fault and, thus, avoids misoperation in case of 3L-G faults
through high fault resistances.

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 21, NO. 4, OCTOBER 2006

fault impedance compensation based on fault resistance calculation. The problem of under reach in ground distance relays is
solved. The investigation showed that the fault resistance detection could reach 300 . The results showed that the relay operates correctly for faults simulated within the first, second, and
third zones. The suggested technique gives the solutions for the
symmetrical and unsymmetrical faults. Fault impedance is accurately calculated; this will improve the relay selectivity. The
techniques can be used for medium and long lines.

Fig. 10. Fault impedance trajectory for 3L

200
at 150 km from relay-S (F 2).

0 G fault with fault resistance =

Fig. 11. Fault impedance trajectory for 3L-G fault with fault resistance
200
at 370 km from relay-S (external fault at F 4).

The suggested technique gives the solutions for the symmetrical and unsymmetrical faults with solid and fault resistances.
The presented technique does not depend on the line lengths,
so it can be applied on the long lines. The fault conditions such
as a dc component, sampling frequency, and point on wave do
not have an effect only on the relay performance. Moreover,
the compensated fault impedance accurately measures the
impedance between the relay location and the fault point. So,
the protective system will be very selective. These improve the
technique convergence properties.
V. CONCLUSION
The main objective of the paper is to find out the limitation of
the ground distance relay and the effect on the operating zone
of high fault resistance. This paper introduces a new method of

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M. M. Eissa (M96SM01) was born in Helwan, Cairo, Egypt, on May 17,

1963. He received the B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in electrical engineering from
Helwan University, Cairo, in 1986 and 1992, respectively, and the Ph.D. degree from the Research Institute for Measurements and Computing Techniques.
Hungarian Academy of Science, Budapest, Hungary, in 1997.
Currently, he is an Associate Professor with Helwan University. In 1999, he
was invited to be a Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada. His research interests include digital relaying, application of
wide-area networking to power systems, and wavelet applications in power systems.
Dr. Eissa received the Egyptian State Encouragement Prize in Advanced Science in 2002 and the best research in the advanced engineering science from
Helwan University in 2005.

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