1

Introduction and General Philosophies

Revised by: W. A. ELMORE

INTRODUCTION

Relays are compact analog, digital, and numerical

devices that are connected throughout the power
system to detect intolerable or unwanted conditions
within an assigned area. They are, in effect, a form of
active insurance designed to maintain a high degree of
service continuity and limit equipment damage. They
are silent sentinels. Although protective relays will
be the main emphasis of this book, other types of
relays applied on a more limited basis or used as part
of a total protective relay system will also be covered.

CLASSIFICATION OF RELAYS

Relays can be divided into six functional categories:

Protective relays. Detect defective lines, defective
apparatus, or other dangerous or intolerable
conditions. These relays generally trip one or
more circuit breaker, but may also be used to
sound an alarm.
Monitoring relays. Verify conditions on the power
system or in the protection system. These relays
include fault detectors, alarm units, channelmonitoring relays, synchronism verication, and
network phasing. Power system conditions that
do not involve opening circuit breakers during
faults can be monitored by verication relays.
Reclosing relays. Establish a closing sequence for a
circuit breaker following tripping by protective
relays.

Copyright 2004 by Marcel Dekker, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Regulating relays. Are activated when an operating parameter deviates from predetermined
limits. Regulating relays function through supplementary equipment to restore the quantity to
the prescribed limits.
Auxiliary relays. Operate in response to the opening or closing of the operating circuit to
supplement another relay or device. These
include timers, contact-multiplier relays, sealing
units, isolating relays, lockout relays, closing
relays, and trip relays.
Synchronizing (or synchronism check) relays. Assure that proper conditions exist for interconnecting two sections of a power system.
Many modern relays contain several varieties of these
functions. In addition to these functional categories,
relays may be classied by input, operating principle or
structure, and performance characteristic. The following are some of the classications and denitions
described in ANSI/IEEE Standard C37.90 (see also
ANSI/IEEE C37.100 Denitions for Power Switchgear):
Inputs
Current
Voltage
Power
Pressure
Frequency
Temperature
Flow
Vibration

Operating Principle or Structures

Current balance
Percentage
Multirestraint
Product
Solid state
Static
Microprocessor
Electromechanical
Thermal

2.1.3

Numerical relays are those in which the measured ac

quantities are sequentially sampled and converted into
numeric data form. A microprocessor performs
mathematical and/or logical operations on the data
to make trip decisions (e.g., MDAR, MSOC, DPU,
TPU, REL-356, REL-350, REL-512).

3
Performance Characteristics
Differential
Distance
Directional overcurrent
Inverse time
Denite time
Undervoltage
Overvoltage
Ground or phase
High or low speed
Pilot
Phase comparison
Directional comparison
Current differential
A separate volume, Pilot Protective Relaying, covers
pilot systems (those relaying functions that involve a
communications channel between stations.
2.1 Analog/Digital/Numerical
Solid-state (and static) relays are further categorized
under one of the following designations.
2.1.1

Analog

Analog relays are those in which the measured

quantities are converted into lower voltage but similar
signals, which are then combined or compared directly
to reference values in level detectors to produce the
desired output (e.g., SA-1 SOQ, SI-T, LCB, circuit
shield relays).
2.1.2

Digital

Digital relays are those in which the measured ac

quantities are manipulated in analog form and
subsequently converted into square-wave (binary)
voltages. Logic circuits or microprocessors compare
the phase relationships of the square waves to make a
trip decision (e.g., SKD-T, REZ-1).

Copyright 2004 by Marcel Dekker, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Numerical

PROTECTIVE RELAYING SYSTEMS AND

THEIR DESIGN

Technically, most relays are small systems within

themselves. Throughout this book, however, the term
system will be used to indicate a combination of relays
of the same or different types. Properly speaking, the
protective relaying system includes circuit breakers and
current transformers (cts) as well as relays. Relays,
cts, and circuit breakers must function together. There
is little or no value in applying one without the other.
Protective relays or systems are not required to
function during normal power system operation, but
must be immediately available to handle intolerable
system conditions and avoid serious outages and
damage. Thus, the true operating life of these relays
can be on the order of a few seconds, even though they
are connected in a system for many years. In practice,
the relays operate far more during testing and maintenance than in response to adverse service conditions.
In theory, a relay system should be able to respond
to an innite number of abnormalities that can
possibly occur within the power system. In practice,
the relay engineer must arrive at a compromise based
on the four factors that inuence any relay application:
Economics. Initial, operating, and maintenance
Available measures of fault or troubles. Fault
magnitudes and location of current transformers
and voltage transformers
Operating practices. Conformity to standards and
accepted practices, ensuring efcient system
operation
Previous experience. History and anticipation of
the types of trouble likely to be encountered
within the system
The third and fourth considerations are perhaps better
expressed as the personality of the system and the
relay engineer.
Since it is simply not feasible to design a protective
relaying system capable of handling any potential
problem, compromises must be made. In general, only

those problems that, according to past experience, are

likely to occur receive primary consideration. Naturally, this makes relaying somewhat of an art. Different
relay engineers will, using sound logic, design signicantly different protective systems for essentially
the same power system. As a result, there is little
standardization in protective relaying. Not only may
the type of relaying system vary, but so will the extent
of the protective coverage. Too much protection is
almost as bad as too little.
Nonetheless, protective relaying is a highly specialized technology requiring an in-depth understanding
of the power system as a whole. The relay engineer
must know not only the technology of the abnormal,
but have a basic understanding of all the system
components and their operation in the system. Relaying, then, is a vertical speciality requiring a
horizontal viewpoint. This horizontal, or total
system, concept of relaying includes fault protection
and the performance of the protection system during
abnormal system operation such as severe overloads,
generation deciency, out-of-step conditions, and so
forth. Although these areas are vitally important to the
relay engineer, his or her concern has not always been
fully appreciated or shared by colleagues. For this
reason, close and continued communication between
the planning, relay design, and operation departments
is essential. Frequent reviews of protective systems
should be mandatory, since power systems grow and
operating conditions change.
A complex relaying system may result from poor
system design or the economic need to use fewer circuit
breakers. Considerable savings may be realized by
using fewer circuit breakers and a more complex relay
system. Such systems usually involve design compromises requiring careful evaluation if acceptable protection is to be maintained. It should be recognized that
the exercise of the very best relaying application
principles can never compensate for the absence of a
needed circuit breaker.

3.1

Design Criteria

The application logic of protective relays divides the

power system into several zones, each requiring its own
group of relays. In all cases, the four design criteria
listed below are common to any well-designed and
efcient protective system or system segment. Since it
is impractical to satisfy fully all these design criteria
simultaneously, the necessary compromises must be
evaluated on the basis of comparative risks.

Copyright 2004 by Marcel Dekker, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

3.1.1

Reliability

System reliability consists of two elements: dependability and security. Dependability is the degree of
certainty of correct operation in response to system
trouble, whereas security is the degree of certainty that
a relay will not operate incorrectly. Unfortunately,
these two aspects of reliability tend to counter one
another; increasing security tends to decrease dependability and vice versa. In general, however, modern
relaying systems are highly reliable and provide a
practical compromise between security and dependability. The continuous supervision made possible by
numerical techniques affords improvement in both
dependability and security. Protective relay systems
must perform correctly under adverse system and
environmental conditions.
Dependability can be checked relatively easily in the
laboratory or during installation by simulated tests or
a staged fault. Security, on the other hand, is much
more difcult to check. A true test of system security
would have to measure response to an almost innite
variety of potential transients and counterfeit trouble
indications in the power system and its environment. A
secure system is usually the result of a good background in design, combined with extensive model
power system or EMTP (electromagnetic transient
program) testing, and can only be conrmed in the
power system itself and its environment.
3.1.2

Speed

Relays that could anticipate a fault are utopian. But,

even if available, they would doubtlessly raise the
question of whether or not the fault or trouble really
required a trip-out. The development of faster relays
must always be measured against the increased
probability of more unwanted or unexplained operations. Time is an excellent criterion for distinguishing
between real and counterfeit trouble.
Applied to a relay, high speed indicates that the
operating time usually does not exceed 50 ms (three
cycles on a 60-Hz base). The term instantaneous
indicates that no delay is purposely introduced in the
operation. In practice, the terms high speed and
instantaneous are frequently used interchangeably.
3.1.3

Performance vs. Economics

Relays having a clearly dened zone of protection

provide better selectivity but generally cost more.
High-speed relays offer greater service continuity by
reducing fault damage and hazards to personnel, but

also have a higher initial cost. The higher performance

and cost cannot always be justied. Consequently,
both low- and high-speed relays are used to protect
power systems. Both types have high reliability
records. Records on protective relay operations consistently show 99.5% and better relay performance.
3.1.4

Simplicity

As in any other engineering discipline, simplicity in a

protective relay system is always the hallmark of
good design. The simplest relay system, however, is
not always the most economical. As previously
indicated, major economies may be possible with a
complex relay system that uses a minimum number
of circuit breakers. Other factors being equal,
simplicity of design improves system reliabilityif
only because there are fewer elements that can
malfunction.

Figure 1-1

4.
5.

3.2 Factors Inuencing Relay Performance

Relay performance is generally classed as (1) correct,
(2) no conclusion, or (3) incorrect. Incorrect operation
may be either failure to trip or false tripping. The cause
of incorrect operation may be (1) poor application, (2)
incorrect settings, (3) personnel error, or (4) equipment
malfunction. Equipment that can cause an incorrect
operation includes current transformers, voltage transformers, breakers, cable and wiring, relays, channels,
or station batteries.
Incorrect tripping of circuit breakers not associated
with the trouble area is often as disastrous as a failure
to trip. Hence, special care must be taken in both
application and installation to ensure against this.
No conclusion is the last resort when no evidence
is available for a correct or incorrect operation. Quite
often this is a personnel involvement.
3.3 Zones of Protection
The general philosophy of relay applications is to
divide the power system into zones that can be
protected adequately with fault recognition and
removal producing disconnection of a minimum
amount of the system.
The power system is divided into protective zones
for
1.
2.
3.

Generators
Transformers
Buses

Copyright 2004 by Marcel Dekker, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

A typical system and its zones of protection.

Transmission and distribution circuits

Motors

A typical power system and its zones of protection are

shown in Figure 1-1. The location of the current
transformers supplying the relay or relay system
denes the edge of the protective zone. The purpose
of the protective system is to provide the rst line of
protection within the guidelines outlined above. Since
failures do occur, however, some form of backup
protection is provided to trip out the adjacent breakers
or zones surrounding the trouble area.
Protection in each zone is overlapped to avoid the
possibility of unprotected areas. This overlap is
accomplished by connecting the relays to current
transformers, as shown in Figure 1-2a. It shows the
connection for dead tank breakers, and Figure 1-2b
the live tank breakers commonly used with EHV
circuits. Any trouble in the small area between the
current transformers will operate both zone A and B
relays and trip all breakers in the two zones. In
Figure 1-2a, this small area represents the breaker, and
in Figure 1-2b the current transformer, which is
generally not part of the breaker.

APPLYING PROTECTIVE RELAYS

The rst step in applying protective relays is to state

the protection problem accurately. Although developing a clear, accurate statement of the problem can
often be the most difcult part, the time spent will pay
dividendsparticularly when assistance from others is

Transformer connections are particularly important. For ground relaying, the location of all ground
sources must also be known.

4.2

Existing System Protection and Procedures

The existing protective equipment and reasons for the

desired change(s) should be outlined. Deciencies in
the present relaying system are a valuable guide to
improvements. New installations should be so specied. As new relay systems will often be required to
operate with or utilize parts of the existing relaying,
details on these existing systems are important.
Whenever possible, changes in system protection
should conform with existing operating procedures
and practices. Exceptions to standard procedures tend
to increase the risk of personnel error and may disrupt
the efcient operation of the system. Anticipated
system expansions can also greatly inuence the choice
of protection.
Figure 1-2 The principle of overlapping protection around
a circuit breaker.

4.3
desired. Information on the following associated or
supporting areas is necessary:
System conguration
Existing system protection and any known deciencies
Existing operating procedures and practices and
possible future expansions
Degree of protection required
Fault study
Maximum load and current transformer locations
and ratios
Voltage transformer locations, connections, and
ratios
Impedance of lines, transformers, and generators
4.1

System Conguration

System conguration is represented by a single-line

diagram showing the area of the system involved in the
protection application. This diagram should show in
detail the location of the breakers; bus arrangements;
taps on lines and their capacity; location and size of the
generation; location, size, and connections of the
power transformers and capacitors; location and ratio
of cts and vts; and system frequency.

Copyright 2004 by Marcel Dekker, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Degree of Protection Required

To determine the degree of protection required, the

general type of protection being considered should be
outlined, together with the system conditions or
operating procedures and practices that will inuence
the nal choice. These data will provide answers to the
following types of questions. Is pilot, high-, medium-,
or slow-speed relaying required? Is simultaneous
tripping of all breakers of a transmission line required?
Is instantaneous reclosing needed? Are generator
neutral-to-ground faults to be detected?

4.4

Fault Study

An adequate fault study is necessary in almost all relay

applications. Three-phase faults, line-to-ground faults,
and line-end faults should all be included in the study.
Line-end fault (fault on the line side of an open
breaker) data are important in cases where one breaker
may operate before another. For ground-relaying, the
fault study should include zero sequence currents and
voltages and negative sequence currents and voltages.
These quantities are easily obtained during the course
of a fault study and are often extremely useful in
solving a difcult relaying problem.

4.5 Maximum Loads, Transformer Data, and

Impedances
Maximum loads, current and voltage transformer
connections, ratios and locations, and dc voltage are
required for proper relay application. Maximum loads
should be consistent with the fault data and based on
the same system conditions. Line and transformer
impedances, transformer connections, and grounding
methods should also be known. Phase sequence should
be specied if three-line connection drawings are
involved.
Obviously, not all the above data are necessary in
every application. It is desirable, however, to review
the system with respect to the above points and,
wherever applicable, compile the necessary data.
In any event, no amount of data can ensure a
successful relay application unless the protection
problems are rst dened. In fact, the application
problem is essentially solved when the available
measures for distinguishing between tolerable and
intolerable conditions can be identied and specied.

Figure 1-3 A typical switchboard type relay. (The CR

directional time overcurrent relay in the Flexitest case.)

The important designations in the ac schematic for

the relay, such as that illustrated in Figure 1-5, are
5 RELAYS AND APPLICATION DATA
Connected to the power system through the current
and voltage transformers, protective relays are wired
into the control circuit to trip the proper circuit
breakers. In the following discussion, typical connections for relays mounted on conventional switchboards
and for rack-mounted solid-state relays will be used to
illustrate the standard application practices and
techniques.

Phase rotation
Tripping direction
Current and voltage transformer polarities

5.1 Switchboard Relays

Many relays are supplied in a rectangular case that is
permanently mounted on a switchboard located in the
substation control house. The relay chassis, in some
implementations, slides into the case and can be
conveniently removed for testing and maintenance.
The case is usually mounted ush and permanently
wired to the input and control circuits. In the Flexitest
case, the electrical connections are made through
small, front-accessible, knife-blade switches. A typical
switchboard relay is shown in Figure 1-3; its corresponding internal schematic is shown in Figure 1-4.
While the example shown is an electromechanical
relay, many solid-state relays are in the Flexitest case
for switchboard mounting.

Copyright 2004 by Marcel Dekker, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Figure 1-4 Typical internal schematic for a switchboardmounted relay. (The circuit shown is for the CR directional
time overcurrent relay of Figure 1-3.)

Figure 1-6 Typical dc schematic for a switchboardmounted relay. (The connections are for three phase type
CR and one CRC ground directional time overcurrent relays
of Figure 1-3 applied to trip a circuit breaker.)
Figure 1-5 Typical ac schematic for a switchboardmounted relay. (The connections are for the CR phase and
CRC ground directional time overcurrent relay of Figure 1-3.)

Relay polarity and terminal numbers

Phasor diagram
All these designations are required for a directional
relay. In other applications, some may not apply. In
accordance with convention, all relay contacts are
shown in the position they assume when the relay is
deenergized.
A typical control circuit is shown in Figure 1-6.
Three phase relays and one ground relay are shown
protecting this circuit. Any one could trip the
associated circuit breaker to isolate the trouble or
fault area. A station battery, either 125 Vdc or 250 Vdc,
is commonly used for tripping. Lower-voltage batteries
are not recommended for tripping service when long
trip leads are involved.
In small stations where a battery cannot be justied,
tripping energy is obtained from a capacitor trip
device. This device is simply a capacitor charged,
through a rectier, by the ac line voltage. An example
of this arrangement is presented in Figure 1-7. When
the relay contacts close, the discharge of the energy in
the capacitor through the trip coil is sufcient to trip

Copyright 2004 by Marcel Dekker, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

the breaker. Line voltage cannot be used directly since,

of course, it may be quite low during fault conditions.

5.2

Rack-Mounted Relays

Solid-state and microprocessor relays are usually rackmounted (Fig. 1-8). Since these relays involve more
complex and sophisticated circuitry, different levels of
information are required to understand their operation. A block diagram provides understanding of the
basic process. Figure 1-9 is a block diagram for the
MDAR microprocessor relay. Detailed logic diagrams
plus ac and dc schematics are also required for a
complete view of the action to be expected from these
relays.

Figure 1-7 Typical capacitor trip device schematic.

Figure 1-8 A typical rack type relay. (The SBFU static

circuit breaker failure relay.)

Figure 1-9

Copyright 2004 by Marcel Dekker, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

CIRCUIT-BREAKER CONTROL

Complete tripping and closing circuits for circuit

breakers are complex. A typical circuit diagram is
shown in Figure 1-10. In this diagram, the protective
relay circuits, such as that shown in Figure 1-6, are
abbreviated to a single contact marked prot relays.
While the trip circuits must be energized from a source
available during a fault (usually the station battery),
the closing circuits may be operated on ac. Such
breakers have control circuits similar to those shown in
Figure 1-10, except that the 52X, 52Y, and 52CC
circuits are arranged for ac operation.
The scheme shown includes red light supervision of
the trip coil, 52X/52Y antipump control, and lowpressure and latch checks that most breakers contain in
some form.

Block diagram of MDAR relay.

Table 1-1 Comparison of Symbols

Element

U.S.
practice

European
practice

A,B,C
(preferred)
1, 2, 3
1, 2, 0

RST

1, 2, 0

I
V

I
U

Normally open contact

Normally closed contact
Form C
Breaker
Fault
Current transformer
Transformer
Figure 1-10 A typical control circuit schematic for a circuit
breaker showing the tripping and closing circuits.

COMPARISON OF SYMBOLS

Various symbols are used throughout the world to

represent elements of the power system. Table 1-1
compiles a few of the differences.

Copyright 2004 by Marcel Dekker, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Phase designations (typical)

Component designations
(positive, negative, zero)
Current
Voltage