An Efficient Method of Automatic Distance Relay
Settings for Transmission Line Protection
Thanakorn Penthong
Power System Control Division
Provincial Electricity Authority
200 Ngamwongwan Road, Chatuchak, Bangkok 10900
Thailand
Email: t.penthong@gmail.com
Abstract— This paper presents a method for automatic distance
relay setting to overcome the overlapping problem of the
protection zones. The proposed method is developed as a
program aimed at enhancing the calculation of the setting values
of the digital distance relay for each protection zone more
effectively. The program is developed by using the DPL script
(DIgSILENT Programming Language) that is a tool for the
analysis of industrial, utility and commercial electrical power
systems. In order to validate the performance, the developed
program is used for the protection design of closed-loop and
radial power system of the Provincial Electricity Authority
(PEA), Thailand. From the validation results, it is found that the
developed program can ensure that the distance relay operates
correctly in its protection zone, leading to higher reliability of the
primary protection system of PEA and the shorter of the time
spent on the protection design.
Keywords— Distance Relay Setting, Transmission Line Protection;
DPL Script;.
I. INTRODUCTION
Distance relays are generally used in the transmission line
protection. These devices calculate the impedance of the
transmission line by using the ratio of voltage to current that
derived from voltage and current transformers at relay location.
The distance relay would operate when the measured
impedance is less than the value of the impedance setting. As a
result, the short circuit occurs in the protection zone of the
distance relay [1,2].
In 115-kV transmission system of Provincial Electricity
Authority (PEA), distance relays are generally used for the
transmission line protection. The setting of the distance relay is
basically divided into four zones of protection, including the
back-up protection used for the bus bar protection at the
substation. In setting of the distance relay functions, many
rules of settings for each protection zone are applied.
Presently, the PEA has different types of distance relays
installed in the power system. The calculations of setting
values are varied depending on the manufacturer of distance
relays. Therefore, it is very time consuming for protection
engineers to correctly make the coordination of the distance
978-1-4799-2827-9/13/$31.00 ©2013 IEEE
Komsan Hongesombut
Department of Electrical Engineering
Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Kasetsart University
50 Phaholyothin Road, Chatuchak, Bangkok 10900
Thailand
Email: fengksh@ku.ac.th
relays. More specially, after finishing the designation, the
protection engineers always confront with the overlapping
problem of the protection zone, especially the pair of distance
relays that perform the primary and back-up protection. The
problem of the overlapping is always found in the third zone
of protection. The overlapping problem causes incorrect
coordination between distances relays [3]. In order to solve
this problem, the time delay can be used to overcome the
overlapping problem [4]. In this paper, an efficient method of
automatic distance relay settings is presented. The proposed
method is applied in the developed program to assist the
protection engineers in setting of the distance relays easier and
more effectively.
II. THE STRUCTURE OF THE DEVELOPED PROGRAM
DIgSILENT is a computer aided engineering software for
the analysis of industrial, utility and commercial electrical
power systems. It provides the programming language called
DIgSILENT Programming Language (DPL) that is used for
developing automated scripts within DIgSILENT. The DPL
script is the language used for connecting to others objects or
elements in the DIgSILENT. The structures of this language
are similar to C++ language. Fig.1 shows the structure of the
DPL script used for developing the program for automatic
distance relay settings. Engineers can greatly benefit from
increased flexibility when writing the DPL script [5].
Fig.1 The structure of the DPL script used for developing
the program for automatic distance relay settings.
 Fig.2 The over-all flow chart of the developed program for automatic distance relay settings.
Fig. 2 shows the over-all flow chart of developed program
for automatic distance relay settings. The proposed program is
developed by using the DPL script with the structure shown in
Fig. 1. Fig. 3 shows the flow chart of the proposed method to
overcome the overlapping problem. The operation of this
method is as follows: The program read the input data of power
system made up in DIgSILENT. Initially, the settings of
distance relays in each protection zone are calculated based on
the PEA’s criteria. Then, the pair of distance relays that
perform the primary and back-up protection are searched and
checked the condition whether or not the third zone of the
back-up relay (Rb) is overlapping with the third zone of the
primary relay (Rm). If the overlapping occurs, the setting of the
third zone of the back-up relay is recalculated by reducing the
step size by 1% until the overlapping problem disappears
which the Zbm is the impedance between two relays. When the
number of overlapping zones is large, this process is carried out
automatically until there is no more overlapping.
 Fig. 7 to Fig. 8 show the reach of distance protection after the
setting values calculated by proposed program are applied.
Fig.9 to Fig. 10 show R-X diagram of the third protection
zones calculated by the conventional method against the new
setting values calculated by proposed program.

Fig.4 The study closed-loop power system.

Overlapping area
Fig.3 The flow chart of the proposed method to overcome the BWI6YB-01
overlapping problem.

III. DISTANCE RELAY SETTINGS BASED ON THE PROVINCIAL

ELECTRICITY AUTHORITY’S CRITERIA
BWN2YB-01 PLV2YB-01
The PEA has the criteria for setting the distance relays
[6, 7]. The rules are selected for calculating the setting values
described as the followings:
Zone 1: Set to reach up to 80 % of the line impedance of
section I.
Fig.5 Time-distance diagram of relay BWI6YB-01, relay
Zone 2: 100 % of the line impedance of section I + 50 % of BWN2YB-01 and relay PLV2YB-01 calculated by the
the line impedance of the shortest adjoining line in the next conventional method.
section.
Zone 3: Chose the biggest setting value from these two
conditions: (1) 100 % of the line impedance of section I + Overlapping area
100 % of the line impedance of section II + 25 % of the line
impedance of section III, (2) 100 % of the line impedance of
section I + 120 % of the line impedance of the longest
adjoining line in section II. PLU1YB-01

Zone 3 (reverse): 15 % of Zone 1 reached.

PLV4YB-01 BWN3YB-01
IV. RESULTS
The proposed program is applied to this study power
system shown in Fig. 4. This power system is closed-loop and
a part of the 115-kV transmission network of PEA. Fig. 5 to
Fig. 6 show the reach of distance protection on time-distance
diagram. Form these figures, it is found that there are Fig.6 Time-distance diagram of relay PLU1YB-01, relay
overlapping problems of the zone between primary and back- PLV4YB-01 and relay BWN3YB-01 calculated by the
up relays in the third zone, causing the incorrect coordination. conventional method.
 BWI6YB-01

BWN2YB-01 PLV2YB-01

Fig.7 Time-distance diagram of relay BWI6YB-01, relay

BWN2YB-01 and relay PLV2YB-01 calculated by the Conventional Method; Proposed Method
proposed program. Fig.10 Third zone of distance relay PLU1YB-01.

It is obviously found that the proposed method can be

applied to solve the overlapping problem by automatically
adjusting the appropriate setting values of the distance relays.
Without solving the overlapping problem of the third zone by
adding the delay time, the proposed method improves the
sensitivity and reliability of the distance relay operation.
PLU1YB-01
V. CONCLUSIONS
PLV4YB-01 BWN3YB-01 This paper presents a method for automatic distance relay
settings that can overcome the overlapping problem of the
protection zones. The proposed method has been implemented
as the DPL script in DIgSILENT. Then, the proposed program
is used to design the protection settings of the closed-loop and
radial power systems of PEA. From the simulation results, it is
found that the proposed program is effectively used to solve the
Fig.8 Time-distance diagram of relay PLU1YB-01, relay overlapping problem of protection zones. Without adding the
PLV4YB-01 and relay BWN3YB-01 calculated by the delay time in the third zone, the proposed method improves the
proposed program. sensitivity and reliability of the distance relay operation.
Additionally, the proposed program can assist the protection
engineers to design the protection with shorter time.

REFERENCES
[1] Walter A. Elmore, Protective Relaying Theory and Applications, Marcel
Dekker INC, 1994.
[2] Li-Cheng Wu, Chih-Wen Liu, Ching-Shan Chen, “Modelling and
Testing of a Digital Distance Relay Using MATLAB/SIMULINK”,
Proceeding of the 37th Annual North America Power Symposium, 2005,
pp. 253-259.
[3] H. H. El-Tamaly, Abou-Hashema M.El-sayed, “A New Technique for
Distance Relay Setting Calculation of Digital Distance Relays”, 11st
Power System Conference (MEPCON 2006), pp. 135-139, 2006.
[4] Juan M. Gers and Edward J. Holmes, Protection of Electricity
Distribution Networks, the Institute of Engineering and Technology,
London, United Kingdom, 1998.
[5] Digsilent Power Factory 14.0, Digsilent Programming Language User’s
Manual, 2010.
Conventional Method; Proposed Method [6] Power System Protection Division, Criteria Setting of Distance Relays
for Provincial Electricity Authority, 2009.
Fig.9 Third zone of distance relay BWI6YB-01. [7] General Electric, Digital Transmission Line Relaying System with Three
Phase Tripping, DLP User’s Manual.