Power System Protection & Control

By Fitsum.Z.
June,2021
Continents
 Introduction of Protective Relays
 Faults in the power system
 Causes of faults
 The basic requirements of power system protection
 Consequence of faults
 Components of protection system
 Protective zones
 Instrument Transformers
 Function of protective relaying
 Category of Protection
 Protective System Design Considerations
 Protective relaying is one of the several features of the power
system design. Every part of the power system must be
protected.

 The various component which are provided with the protective

zone are .
- Generator
- Transformer
- Transmission line
- Bus-bars
- Distribution line
- Capacitor
1.Transient fault :-it occurs due to
- Power arc between two phases (due to
energization of line or energization of some
other equipment)
- Flashover across line insulator due to
overvoltage (due to lightening surge occurs the
voltage across the string of the insulator
increase)
- It die out after few cycle, so some times no
need of isolate the section.
2. Permanent fault:-
Remain for longer time of duration and
damage the equipment, so necessary it needs
protective mechanism
1.Symmetrica fault:- short ckt b/n LLL or
LLLG (due to insulation failure or swinging of
conductors)
2. Asymmetrical fault:-LG fault :it occurs
mainly due to flashover/failure of insulator
- LL and LLG : It occurs mainly due to
swinging of two conductors/shorting of wires
due to birds/tree branches.
 Why do we need to protect our power system?

Ø To keep power system stable

Ø To clear faults as fast as possible to.
Ø To Minimum disruption of power system
Ø To Minimize the damage of power system
Ø To Improve power system stability
Ø To Isolate the faulty part from healthy power system.
Ø To maintain safety of the public and employees.
Ø To increase Reliability of power supply to the customers.
 What does fault mean?

q high current will produced due to short ckt b/n line to

ground.
q The flow of current is diverted from the intended path
q This high current, if it stay long time causes damage of bus-
bar.
q Since the fault is in b/n B&D the breakers disconnect the
transmission line to reduce this damage by tripping CB (B&D)

Single line diagram

Ø When a fault (short circuit ) occurs in power system,
the potential drops to zero at the location of the fault
and the current fed to the fault could be several
thousands of amperes.
Ø These excessively high currents will have a large
heating effect and could result the
melting of conductors ; and hence the possibility of
fire is quite high.
ü Relay:- is the brain of the system
ü Circuit breaker:- is the muscle of the system in the no
load and full load condition and clear the fault
ü Load break switch:- is used to open and close the
system under no load and full load condition but it can
not trip under short ckt condition.
ü Isolating switch:- Open the ckt during no load condition
ü Fuse
ü Lighting arrestor
ü Current transformer
ü Potential transformer
 A power system is segmented into a number of protective
zones.

 A protective zone covers one or at the most two elements of

a power system.

 The protective zones are planned in such a way that the

entire power system is collectively covered by them and thus
no part of the system is left unprotected.
 The significance of such protective zone is that fault
occurring within the given zone will cause the tripping
of the relay and cause opening of the circuit breaker in
the zone.

 When a system is experiencing an abnormal condition

the relay first identify this condition and then send trip
signals to appropriate circuit breakers that open to
isolate the affected zone

 All the component of the power system are provided

protection and no part of the power system is left
unprotected

 The boundaries of the protective zones are decided by

the location of the CT.
 Adjacent protective zones of the power system
must overlap each other

 If they are not overlapped, then the fault on the

boundary of the zones may not lie in any one of
the zones and hence no circuit breaker will trip

 Thus overlapping between the adjacent zones is

mandatory.

 In practice various protective zones are

overlapped

 The overlapping of the protective zones is done

to ensure the complete safety of each and every
element of the power system
 As the zones are overlapped hence there is no chance of
existence of the ‘dead spot’

 For failures within the region where two or more zones are
overlapped, more circuit breaker get tripped than
minimum necessary to disconnect the faulty element.

 If there are no overlaps then dead spot may exist, which

means circuit breaker lying within the zone may not trip
even through the fault occurs

 This may cause damage to the healthy system

 The extent of overlapping of the protective zones is

relatively small

 The zone which is unprotected is called ‘dead spot’

 The measurement of high (a.c.) voltage and current
by low range meter can not be done

 Specially constructed accurate ratio transformers

called instrument transformers is useful

 These transformers not only extend the range low

range instruments but also isolate them from high
current and high voltage a.c. circuit.

 These are generally classified us

i) current transformers (C.T) and
ii) potential transformers(V.T).
 The larger a.c currents which can not be sensed or
passed through normal ammeter and current coils of
watt meters, energy meter.
 Can easily be measured by use of current transformers
along with normal low range instruments
 Current transformer converts high currents suitable for
measurements control and relays.
 A current transformer basically has primary coil
of one or more turns of heavy cross-sectional
area.

 In some, the bar carrying high current may act as

primary.

 This is connected series with the the line carrying

high current.

 The secondary of transformer is made of larger

number of turns of fine wire having small
cross-sectional area.

 this is usually rated for 5A. This is connected to

the the coil of normal range ammeter.
Fig, Potential transformer
Ø Protective relay detects the abnormal condition
of power system the abnormal condition might
cause damage of equipment and radio frequency
interference (RFI).

 The relays detect the abnormal conditions in the electrical

circuits by constantly measuring the electrical quantities
which are different under normal and fault conditions.

Ø The protective relay give an alarm signal and

send a signal to the CB initiate corrective action
as quickly as possible in order to return the
power system to its normal state
-
 The fault can not be completely avoided but can be
minimized.
Ø Whenever an abnormal condition exists, the relay contacts get
closed.
Ø This causes closes the trip circuit of a circuit breaker.

Ø The circuit breaker are capable of disconnecting a faulty element,

when they are called upon to do so by the relays.

 Thus the protective relaying plays an important role in

1. Sensing the fault

2. Minimizing the effect of faults
3. Minimizing the damage to the fault and
4. Improve the service
Working principle of the relay and circuit breaker

The diagram shows one phase of 3-phase system for simplicity.

The relay circuit connections can be divided into three parts
(i) First part is the primary winding of a current transformer
(C.T.) which is connected in series with the line to be
protected.
(ii) Second part consists of secondary winding of C.T. and the
relay operating coil.
(iii) Third part is the tripping circuit which may be either a.c. or
d.c. It consists of a source of supply. the trip coil of the circuit
Breaker and the relay stationary contacts
 Since protective relays are considered as the brain who initiate the circuit
breaker which clear the fault
Ø
Relay operates when current exceeds pick-up value.
Pick-up value is the value above threshold level which the relay operates and
closes its contacts

Ø The CT step down the current in suitable value in normal operation

The produced force due to the current can’t push up the relay contact

Ø Due to short ckt or other fault the current will be increase in the primary of
the CT so the secondary of the CT step down above the normal value so this
current produce high force and push-up the relay coil.
Ø The contact of the trip ckt is closed and the stationary battery which is used
to operate the circuit breaker gets energize and the current will flow through
the trip circuit
Ø The trip coil produce the force to open the circuit breaker.
 The electrical quantities which may change
under fault conditions are
a. Voltage
b. Current
c. Frequency
d. Phase angle
The protective relaying is the team work of the following
components. The protective relaying scheme includes
protective
I. Current transformers
II. Voltage transformers
III. Protective relays
IV. Time delay relays
V. Auxiliary relays
VI. Secondary circuits
VII. Trip circuits
Each component plays its own role, which is very important
in the over all operation of the scheme.
 The protection provided by the protective
relaying equipment can be categorized
1. Primary Protection
2. Backup Protection
- The primary protection is the first line of defence
and is responsible to protect all the power system
elements from all the type of faults.
- The backup protection comes into play only the
primary protection fails.
- When the primary protection is made inoperative for the
maintenance purpose, the backup protection acts like a
main protection.
The relay C, D, G and H are primary relays while A, B, I and J are
the backup relay.
Essential Qualities of Protective Relaying

A protective relaying scheme should have certain

essential qualities.
1. Reliability
2. Selectivity and discrimination
3. Speed and time
4. Sensitivity
5. Stability
6. Adequateness
7. Simplicity and economy
 It indicates the ability of the relay system to operate
under the predetermined conditions.
 There are various components which go to the
operation before a relay operates.
 The reliability of a Protection system depends the
reliability of various components like circuit breaker,
relay, CT, PT, cables, trip circuits etc.
 The selectivity is the ability of the protective system to
identify the fau1ty part correctly and to disconnect
that part without affecting the rest of the healthy Part
of system.
 The discrimination quality of the protective system is
the ability to distinguish between normal condition and
abnormal condition and also b/n abnormal condition
within protective zone and away.
 A Protective system must disconnect the faulty
system as fast as Possible.

 The total time required between the instant of fault

and the interruption in the circuit breaker is called
fault clearing time, It is the sum of relay time and
circuit breaker time.
 The relay time is the time b/n the instant of fault
occurrence and the instant of closure of relay contacts.

 The CB time is the time of taken by the CB to operate

to open the contacts to extinguish arc completely.

 Fault clearing time should be as small as possible to

have high speed operation of the protective system.
 The sensitivity of the system is the ability of
the relay system to operate with low value of
actuating quantity.
 It indicates the smallest value of the actuating
qu a n t i t y a t wh i c h t h e p r o t e c t i o n s t a r t s
operating in relation with the minimum value
of the fault current in the protected zone.
a. Pick-up current
Ø It is the minimum current in the relay coil at
which the relay starts to operate.
Ø So long as the current in the relay is less than
the pick-up value, the relay does not operate
and the breaker controlled by it remains in
the closed position.
Ø However, when the relay coil current is equal
to or greater than the pickup value, the relay
operates to energize the trip coil which opens
the circuit breaker.
 (ii). It is often desirable to adjust the pick-up
current to a required value.
 It can be achieved by the use tapping the
relay operating coil.
Suppose that an over current relay having current setting
of 125% is connected to a supply circuit through a
current transformer of 400/5. The rated secondary
current of C.T. is 5 amperes. Therefore, the pick-up
value will be 25% more than 5 A i.e. 5 X 1 .25 = 6.25
the relay will actually operate for a relay coil current
equal to or greater than 6.25A.
 It is the ratio of fault current in relay coil to the pick-
up current i.e.

Example
suppose that a relay is connected to a 400/5 current transformer and
set at 150%, With a primary fault current of 2000A. the plug-setting
multiplier can be calculated as under:
Pick-up value = Rated secondary current of CT X Current setting
= 5 Ax1.5=7.5A
Fault current in relay coil = 2000A x (5/400) = 25 A
P.S.M. = 25/7.5=3.33
 The time of operation can be controlled by
the time-settling multiplier. Its dial is
calibrated from 0 to 1 in steps of 0.05 as
shown in the value of time-setting multiplier
along with obtained from time/P.S.M.
 curve decides the actual time of operation of
the relays
 Using this curve and time-setting
multiplier, the actual time of
operation of a relay can be
obtained.

For example, the time in seconds

corresponding to P.S.M of 10 is 4
seconds as shown in fig .multiplying
this by a time-setting multiplier, actual
time of operation can be obtained,

If the time multiplier is Selected as 0.2 while time corresponding to

P.S.M of 10 is 4 seconds then

Actual time of operation = time in seconds*time-setting multiplier

= 4*0.2=0.8 seconds
 QUESTIONS????????????