Transmission Line Protection

PHILOSOPHY OF PROTECTION

A. To maintain proper operation in electrical power system we

must hold together the various areas of the power system.

B. Due to geographic location of generating stations practically all

produced electric energy is transmitted over transmission & sub
transmission lines & this is the reason why operational reliability
of the transmission networks is of vital importance.

C. The transmission lines are the most widely spread part of the
power system and overhead lines are the least protected from
environmental influences.

D. The number of line faults is consequently very high compared to

the number of faults on the other elements of the power system.

E. The reliability of & security of power transmission line largely

depends on protection system.
FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES OF PROTECTIVE RELAYING

1.Two groups of relaying is necessary

a. Primary relaying – First line of defense
b. Back up relaying – Second line of defense.

2. Primary relaying may fail because of failure in any of the

following
a. Current or voltage supply to the relays
b. DC Supply
c. Protective relaying
d. Tripping circuit or circuit breaker mechanism
e. Circuit breaker
 FUNCTIONAL CHARACTERISTICS OF PROTECTIVE RELAYING

1. SENSITIVITY
2. SELECTIVITY
3. SPEED
4. REPEATABILITY
5. ECONOMY

Any relaying equipment must be sufficiently sensitive so

that it will operate reliably when required under actual
condition that produce the least operating tendency.
 REQUIREMENTS OF PROTECTIVE RELAYS

SENSITIVITY : The relay shall be sensitive to operate for

minimum quantity of operating parameter.

SELECTIVITY: The relay/scheme should be able to select

the faulty section and isolate.

SPEED : The relay should operate faster so that fault is

isolated as fast as possible.

RELIABILITY: The relay/scheme should operate for all

types of faults with repeatability and reliability.

COST: The relay/scheme should be economical .

 ELEMENTS OF PROTECTION
Bus-2
Bus-1

Relay
CB

DC
CT

CV
T Ckt-1 Ckt-2
 ELEMENTS OF PROTECTION….(CONTD)

•Fault Clearance: CBs

•Fault Sensing: Relays

•Inputs to Relays

CT: For sensing Currents

VT: For sensing voltages
DC supply: For functioning of relays & CB

Diagnostic Equipment:

DRs
EL
FL
 REQUIREMENT OF DISTANCE PROTECTION
E
ZS ZL

X X X X X

If
Fault current If = E/(ZS+ZL)
Conventional over-current protection may not be always
adequate for line protection as the reach of over current relay
is function of Source Impedance which varies considerably,
making it difficult to get fast and selective tripping.

Measurement based on impedance is immune from this

problem and permits fast and selective tripping.
 DISTANCE PROTECTION
Distance Protection schemes shall have …
• Three independent zones
• Separate measurements for all Phase to Phase & Phase
to ground faults.
• Single and three pole tripping capability.
• Directional characteristics for Zone-1, Zone-2 and Zone-3.
• Capability of operation for close up three phase and switch
on to faults.
• Adjustable characteristic angle to match line angle.
• Accuracy of better than or equal to 5% of set value for
reach measurement in Zone-1 & Better than equal to 10%
of set value for Zone-2 & Zone-3.
 DISTANCE PROTECTION….(Contd)
• Accuracy of better than or equal to 5% of set value
for time measurement of Zone-2 & Zone-3.

• Variable residual compensation.

• Power Swing detection feature for selective blocking,

as required.

• Suitable fuse failure protection to monitor all types of

fuse failure and block the protection.
 DISTANCE RELAY ZONES
Z3
Z2
Z1

X X X X X X

BASIC SETTING PHILOSOPHY

ZONE –1 : 80 % OF PROTECTED LINE
ZONE –2 : 100 % OF PROTECTED LINE + 20 % OF SHORTEST
ADJ LINE SECTION OR 100% or 50% OF TR IMP WHICHEVER IS HIGHER
ZONE –3 : 120% OF PROTECTED LINE + 100 % OF LONGEST ADJ LINE SECTION or
100% OF PROTECTED LINE WHICHEVER IS LOWER
ZONE – 4 : 25% OF ZONE-1 REACH.

CHECK SHOULD BE MADE FOR REACH TO TRANSFORMER ADJ TO PROTECTED LINE.

 FIRST ZONE CHARACTERISTICS
• Should cover protected circuit & add fault resistance

• No tripping in unaffected phases in case of single phase to

ground fault followed by re-closure.

• Fast operation with secured directional discrimination.

• Characteristic should cover the fault impedance with some

margin to take care of variations in impedance and errors in
measurements.

• The characteristic should ensure satisfactory operation in the

presence of:
•Additional resistance in arcs & tower footing
•Power swings
•Small load impedances
•Remote end Infeed
 FIRST ZONE CHARACTERISTICS (Contd..)

• Characteristic should be such that elements in non faulted

phases do not pick up

• The relay should operate as far as possible satisfactorily in the

presence of:
a. Errors in impedance measurement of parallel circuits
b. Transient errors in ct in the presence of dc component.
c. Ct saturation.
d. Transient errors in CVT
 SECOND ZONE CHARACTERISTICS

• This is the zone covering protected circuit and some part of

adjacent circuit.

• Stress is to ensure that no part of line remains unprotected.

• Instantaneous tripping is achieved in conjunction with

Carrier Receipt, alternatively delayed tripping

• If additional resistances are expected due to uncertainties of

arc resistance behavior,

• Separate setting is advantageous.

 THIRD ZONE CHARACTERISTICS

This is the widest of zones in which tripping can occur after

longest time delay.

Functionally is required to give remote backup is difficult

owing to the presence of Intermediate sources.

The characteristic should be wide enough both in R and X

direction.

However as value of short circuit impedance is not always

smaller than load impedance, its value is restricted in R
direction.
EFFECT OF LONG HEAVILY LOADED LINES
ON DISTANCE RELAYS

X
ZL1

F Load R

Short line

X
ZL1

F Load R
Long line
 PRINCIPLES OF DISTANCE PROTECTION

VARIOUS CARRIER SCHEMES DEPENDING ON THE

REQUIREMENT

1 . P . U . R -- Permissive under reach scheme

2. P . O . R -- Permissive Over Reach scheme

3. ZONE-1 EXTENSION SCHEME

4. WEAK END FEED

 CARRIER SCHEMES - P U R

Z2A

Z1A Fault

A Z1B
Z2B
B

CARRIER
RELAY RELAY
CHANNEL
 CARRIER SCHEMES - P U R

1 . Zone –1 element is used to send a signal to the remote end

2. Operation of zone 2 element + receipt of Carrier signal gives

aided trip for the faults in the end zone

3. A delay on reset of the carrier signal is needed to ensure that the

relays at both ends trips.

4. Direct trip is used to trip remote end CBs on operation of O/V,

LBB, B/B, H/T, etc.
 CARRIER SCHEMES - P O R

Z2A
Z1A Fault

A Z1B
Z2B
B
RELAY CARRIER RELAY
Fault in Z1B= Trip CB B
Fault in Z2A+Signal Receipt
Fault in Z2B=Sends signal
= Trip breaker A + Send signal
 CARRIER SCHEMES - P O R

1 . Zone –2 element is used to send a signal to the remote

end.

2. Zone 2 units also permit tripping on receipt of carrier

signal for internal faults.

3. No instantaneous tripping will occur for external faults.

 CARRIER SCHEMES - BLOCKING SCHEME---- INTERNAL

Z2A
Z3A
Z1A Fault

Z1B Z3B

A Z2B
B
RELAY CARRIER RELAY

Fault in Z2A+ No block signal recd = Trip CB A Fault in Z1B= Trip CB B

Fault not in Z3A = No signal Sent to block Fault in Z2B & not in Z3B = No blocking Signal Sent
 CARRIER SCHEMES - BLOCKING SCHEME---- EXTERNAL

Z2A
Z3A
Z1A Fault

Z1B Z3B

A Z2B
B
RELAY CARRIER RELAY
Fault in Z2A+ Block signal recpt. = No Tripping Fault neither in Z1B nor in Z2B = No tripping
Fault in Z2A & not in Z3A = No block signal sent Fault in Z3B & not in Z2B= Send Block Signal
 WEAK END FEED

• It is a condition which occurs on a line either when CB is open or no

current is fed from that line terminal or when the current in-feed is
low due to weak generation behind protection.

• If the fault current in-feed is too low to operate the protection at the
week end, the following might occur, depending on the selected
communication scheme:
- In permissive overreach scheme, both CBs may fail to trip
instantaneously, due to no Carrier Send signal and no relay
operation in the weak end.
-In permissive under reach schemes fast fault clearance of
the whole line section will be lost , because no signal will be
sent from weak end.
-In blocking schemes or permissive under-reach schemes the
circuit breaker at the low in-feed end will fail to trip instantaneously.
 WEAK END FEED LOGIC IN P.O.R

Z2A
Z1A Fault
Weak
End

A Z1B
Z2B
B
RELAY CARRIER RELAY
Fault in Z2A / UV relay + Receipt Fault in Z1B= Trip CB B
Of echo signal etc = Trip breaker A + Send echo signal Fault in Z2B=Sends Echo signal
 FUSE FAILURE BLOCKING

• In case of a PT fuse failure, the impedance seen by the

distance relay can suddenly become zero, which the
distance relay may see as fault and trip.

• In order to avoid such situation distance relays are

equipped with a provision to block.

• Fuse failure is detected by one of the following ways:

– By having a separate fuse failure relay and
extending block signal from the same to distance
relay
– By detection of NPS voltage without presence of
any corresponding NPS current
 POWER SWING

X
Z3
Recoverable
Z2 Swing

Z1

Load
R Area
 POWER SWING ---(Contd)
• Power Swings are disturbances in system due to various reasons
such as sudden load throw, bad synchronization etc

• Power swings are characterized by slow power flow oscillations,

resulting in swinging of voltages and current flows, resulting in
operating point movement into distance relay characteristics, in turn
can cause tripping of distance relays.

• Tripping during power swings may be undesirable since no actual fault

is present and moreover a line outage during power swing may cause
further deterioration to system stability.
POWER SWING BLOCKING

X
Z3

Z2 Power swing
detection zones

Z1

R
 POWER SWING BLOCKING

• In order to prevent the tripping during power swings,

distance relays are equipped with power swing detection
mechanism and blocking of relays.

• Power swings are detected by the fact that they are slow
in nature when compared to actual fault.

• Most popular technique to detect power swing is to have

two zones outside the starter zone and measure the time
taken by operating point to move from outer zone to inner
zone. If the time taken is longer than a set time, it is
inferred to be power swing.
 SUMMARY ON SELECTION OF PROTECTION

The protection system for transmission lines depends on several factors

such as:
• Network earthing
• System requirements on
-- speed of fault clearing
-- Selectivity
-- Dependability
-- Security
• Existing protection system in the network
• Requirement of additional functions as
-- fault location
-- event recording
-- Fault recording
-- remote communication with the protection
• Type of communication scheme
TYPES OF TRANSMISSION LINE PROTECTIVE RELAYS

IMPEDENCE BASED RELAYS (Distance protection)

Electromagnetic : MM3T Scheme-(YTG 31 based)

Static : Michromho, Quadromho,RAZFE,LZ96,THR
Numerical :REL100, REL 316, REL521, EPAC, MiCOM,
SIPROTEC,SEL

PHASE COMPARISION RELAY

P-10, P-40

VOLTAGE BASED RELAYS

RXEG21,VTU21
 AUTORECLOSING

• We know most of the faults are transient in

nature and single phase to earth.
• In this situation, outage of transmission can be
saved.
• If fault is cleared after CB operation, line can
be restored and system becomes healthy.
• Important parameters are: Dead Time, Reclaim
Time.
• Single or Multiple shots.