Unit - 5

Protective relaying
• Protective relay does not anticipate or prevent
the occurrence of fault
• It takes action only after a fault has occurred
 Nature & causes of faults
Due to Insulation failures or conducting path
failures
 Over-voltages due to Lightning and switching
surges cause flashover on the surface of the
insulators.
 Pollution on the Insulators reduces the
dielectric strength and cause flash over
 Broken conductors and conductors falling
onto the ground results in SC
 Birds body or wing touching the phase and
earth or another phase results in fault
 Joint failures in cables resulting in conducting
path failure
 opening of one or two phases results in
unbalanced system which produces harmonics
and thereby heating of rotating machines in
short period
 CB may trip due to wrong connections, defects
in protective devices or poor quality of system
components
 Types of faults
1) Symmetrical
All three phases involving ground or without ground
2) Unsymmetrical
 LG
 LL
 LL-G
 Open conductor faults
 Winding faults in Machines
Simultaneous faults :
Two or more faults occurring simultaneously in the
system at the same or different points of the system
Fault statistics :
Element % Total faults
Overhead Lines 50
Underground cables 9
Transformers 10
Generators 7
Switchgears 12
CT, PT, Relay control equipment 12
OH Lines
LG 85
LL 8
LLG 5
3-Ph 2
 Effects of Faults
• Heavy shot circuit current damage the
equipment
• Arcs associated with SC cause fire hazards
• Reduction in supply voltage of healthy feeders
• Cause unbalance supply results in heating of
rotating machines
• Loss of system stability
• Interruption in power supply
Therefore, high grade, high speed reliable
protective devices are essential for PS to minimize
the above effects
 Zones of Protection
• Power system contains generators,
Transformers, bus bars, Transmission lines ,
distribution lines etc.
• For each element Protection has to be
provided
• PS is divided into number of zones of
protection and planned in such a way entire
PS is protected
• Overlapping of zones to be avoided to avoid
tripping of too many breakers
Zones of Protection
Probability of failures
 Primary and Backup Protection
• When Fault occurs in a particular zone,
Primary relay has to operate and isolate the
faulty element
• If primary relay fails then back up protection
clears the fault
• Back up relay operates after a time delay and
gives sufficient time to primary relay to
operate.
• Reliability of the protective scheme should be
atleast 95%
 Types of Backup relays
1) Remote back-up
 Separate CB’s for primary & backup protection.
 Backup relays are located in neighbouring station
and operate if primary protection scheme fails
 Cheapest and widely used scheme in
Transmission lines
2) Relay Back-up
 It is an additional relay provided for the same CB
 It trips the same CB if primary relay fails
• Costly
• Recommended if remote back up is not possible
• This should be supplied from separate CT & PT
3) Breaker back-up
 Separate CB’s for primary & backup protection
and are at same station.
 Used in bus bar system where no of breakers are
connected to it
 If a CB in a faulty feeder doesn’t trip then it will
treat as a bus bar fault and the all the breakers
will trip on that bus bar
C, D, G & H – Primary Relays
A,B,I, J - Backup relays
A& B provide backup protection for station-K
I & J provide backup protection for station at
other end
 Qualities of protection
• Selectivity or Discrimination
• Reliability
• Sensitivity
• Stability
• Fast Operation
Selectivity
 It is the quality of relay to discriminate
between a normal & abnormal condition
 Able to distinguish whether fault lies within its
zone of protection or outside the zone
 When fault occurs (F2) only the faulty part to
be isolated, CB 2 & 3 should operate and not
the healthy part (adjacent line)
 Able to discriminate between fault and
transient surges (when two gen lose
synchronism b’coz of disturbance, there will
be heavy flow of current like SC called as
power surge or heavy inrush of magnetising
current of large power T/F )
Reliability:
When fault occurs in its zone, relay must
operate reliably.
To Achieve high degree of reliability (95%)
 Greater attention given to design, installation,
maintenance & testing of various elements of
protective system( CT, PT, wiring, battery)
 Robustness and simplicity of relaying
 Contact pressure, contact material and
prevention of contact contamination
Simplicity & Economy
 Should be simple and easy to maintain
 Cost of the protective system should be within
the limits ( 5% of total cost)
 If the equipment's to be provided are very
important this factor can be relaxed
( compromised)
Sensitivity:
 A relay should be sufficiently sensitive to
operate when current just exceeds the pick up
value ( pre-set value)
 It should not operate below the pick up value
Stability
 A Protective system should remain stable even
when large fault current is flowing thru it
 The CB in the faulty zone has to clear the fault,
if it fails to operate , after a pre-set delay, Back
up relay operates the CB
Fast Operation
 Fast enough to isolate the faulty system
 The operating time of the protective system
should be less than the critical clearing time to
avoid loss of synchronism (stability)
 Fast operation protects the equipment from
burning due to heavy fault currents
 Operating time is generally 1 cycle ( half cycle
are also available) , for distribution system it is
more than 1 cycle
 Terminologies
Protective Relay:
It is an electrical relay, which closes its contacts
when actuating quantity reaches certain pre-set
value
Relay time:
Time between the instant of fault occurrence and
the instant of closure of relay contacts
Breaker time:
Time taken from the Instant of CB opening contacts
to the extinguishing of the arc
Fault clearing time : Time taken from the
instant of fault to the final arc interruption
i.e. Relay time + CB time
Pickup:
Relay moves from OFF position to ON position
i.e. relay starts operating and is said to be
picked-up
Pickup Value:
Minimum value of actuating quantity ( current
or voltage) at which relay starts operating
Dropout or Reset:
When the relay comes back to original position
i.e. from closed to open position
Time delay:
Time taken by the relay to operate after sensing
the fault. Some are instantaneous and for some
intentional time delay is provided (back-up
relays)
Sealing relays or holding relays:
Protective relay closes it light weight contacts
and auxiliary relays( sealing) perform tripping,
time lag etc;
Current setting:
Pickup value of current is adjusted by current setting
Pick-up current = % current setting * rated secondary
current of CT
Plug setting Multiplier (PSM):

𝐹𝑎𝑢𝑙𝑡 𝑐𝑢𝑟𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑖𝑛 𝑟𝑒𝑙𝑎𝑦 𝑐𝑜𝑖𝑙

𝑃𝑆𝑀 =
𝑃𝑖𝑐𝑘 𝑢𝑝 𝑣𝑎𝑙𝑢𝑒

𝐹𝑎𝑢𝑙𝑡 𝑐𝑢𝑟𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑖𝑛 𝑟𝑒𝑙𝑎𝑦 𝑐𝑜𝑖𝑙

=
% current setting ∗ rated secondary current of CT
PSM versus time
PSM increases (fault
current), operating time
decreases (inverse
characteristics) upto PSM
=20. Beyond this PSM
value time becomes
almost constant
Time setting Multiplier:
For controlling time of operation time setting
multiplier is used.
Actual time of operation = Time in seconds
(obtained from PSM curve) * Time setting
multiplier
Example :
PSM= 10 and time corresponding this is 4 sec
Time setting multiplier =0.2
Actual time of operation = 4 *0.2 =0.8 seconds
Trip circuit:
CB operation is controlled by trip circuit ( trip
coil, relay contacts, auxiliary switch, battery etc;)
Earth fault:
Fault that involves earth (LG,LLG etc;)
Phase fault :
Fault that does-not involve earth (LL)
Unit protection:
Protective system in which protective zone is
clearly defined by CT boundaries
Reach:
The limiting distance in which protective system
responds to the fault
Operating force:
The force or torque which tends to close the relay
contacts
Restraining force:
The torque which opposes the operating force
Flag or target: Device which indicates the operation
of relay
Burden: Power absorbed by relay elements ,
expressed in VA
 Relays based on Technology
1) Electromechanical Relays
2) Static Relays
3) Numerical Relays
Electromechanical relays
i) Electromagnetic relays –operate on the
principle of electromagnetic attraction or
induction
ii) Thermal relays : utilise electro- thermal effect
of actuating current for operation
Static Relays:
 Contain IC’s diodes, transistors etc;
 Compares two or more actuating quantities
using comparator circuit and output is given to
slave relay (electromagnetic) or Thyristor
circuit
 Low burden on CT & PT
 Fast operation
 Less maintenance & Long life
Numerical Relays:
 Based on numerical devices –
Microprocessors, Microcontrollers, digital
signal processors etc.
 Get data thru data acquisition system
 Process the data numerically using algorithm
(load flows) to calculate fault discriminants
 Take trip decision
 features like economy, compactness,
flexibility, reliability, self –monitoring , low
burden etc.
 Based on Speed of operation
• Instantaneous relays :
No intentional time delay
• Time delay relays:
intentional time delay introduced
• High speed relays:
operate in 60 milli seconds
• Ultra High speed relays:
operate in 5 milli seconds
 Based on generation
 First generation relays:
Electromechanical
 Second- generation relays
Static relays
 Third-generation relays
Numerical relays
 Based on Function

• Overcurrent relays

• Under-voltage relays

• Impedance relays

• Under frequency relays

• Directional relays
 Protective relays as Comparators
 Single input comparator
Monitor the electrical quantity and compares
with preset value
 Dual input comparator
Distance relay- measures the quantity &
compares it in magnitude or phase angle
Differential relay- compares entering & outgoing
 Multi input comparator:
uses more than two signals