Electrical Protection System

What is a power protection system?

The main objective of any power protection system is to isolate a part of the
system, or the equipment, that generates fault currents, from the remaining
electrical system, to protect other equipment from getting damaged or from failing
permanently.
This is the fundamental objective of electrical protection system. This allows the
rest of the electrical system to function normally while the faulty parts are being
repaired or replaced.

A system which is responsible for protecting electrical systems from faults by

isolating the faulty part from the rest of the system, so power is not disconnected
from healthy parts and this increases system reliability and efficiency.

Devices used to implement the protection scheme are called protection devices.
 Components of protection system
1. Instrument transformers:
Instrument Transformers are used in AC systems for metering and protection.
• They are sued for measurement of electrical quantities i.e. voltage, current, power,
energy, power factor, frequency.
• They are also used with protective relays for protection of power system.

Types of instrument transformers

a. Current transformers
b. Voltage Transformers
NB: To get measurements of current and voltage for the protective devices to be able
to operate in proper way. The selection of CT & VT should consider step down ratio
and maximum current to prevent core saturation not to get false readings.
 Components of protection system
2. Circuit Breakers:
They are responsible for closing/ opening the system based on relays
command.
3. Protective Relays:
They act as the the brain of a protection system, they use the measurements
from CT and VT to check whether the system is working properly or there is
some kind of fault.
In case of faults it sends a trip signal to one or many circuit breakers to
disconnect the faulty part from the rest of the system.
 Types of relays
a. Mechanical relays
b. Solid state relays (electronic switching)
c. Hybrid relays
d. Digital protection relays (microprocessor unit type)
Mechanical relays
Solid state relays
Hybrid relays
Digital protection relays
 Components of protection system

4. Batteries/ UPS:
They are very important in any protection system as they are the backup
supply for protective devices so as to be able to operate even in case of
power loss.

5. Communication channels:
Connectivity between power system and protective devices is so
important to make the whole system visible to each other. And to make
the proper decision based on the status of systems’ devices.
**Others**
*6. Circuit breakers:
A switching device that interrupts the abnormal or fault current. It is a
mechanical device that disturbs the flow of high magnitude (fault)
current and in additions performs the function of a switch.

*7. Fuses:
An electrical safety device built around a conductive strip that is
designed to melt and separate in the event when the circuit current is
equal to or greater than the fusing current.
They are always connected in series with the component(s) to be
protected from overcurrent, so that when the fuse blows (opens) it will
open the entire circuit and stop current through the component(s).
Circuit breakers
fuses
*8. Motor overload relay:
Motors must be protected from all possible faults to ensure prolonged
and safe operation as well as time loss caused due to breakdown. Almost
all the industries rely on the electric motor to control its processes and
production. Hence it is necessary to make the motor fail-safe.
Overload relay is one such device that protects a motor from damages
caused due to overloads and over-currents. 
It is used with contactors and can be found in motor control centers and
motor starters.
 Types of electrical protection
• Overcurrent protection
• Over and under voltage protection (under voltage is specially for motors)
• Earth fault protection against leakage current.
• Over and under frequency protection.
• Distance protection (for transmission lines).
• Differential protection
• Reverse power protection
 Over voltage
Over voltage protection is used to protect the synchronous
Generator/transformer/alternator form high voltage.
Generally, overvoltage occurs due to sudden load through off, elevated
grid synchronized voltage, AVR malfunctioning, power transformer taps
changer failure, lightning strike on the transmission line, turbine over
speed etc.
The equipment must be isolated when there is system overvoltage
since overvoltage causes the winding or electrical insulation failure,
over fluxing (v/f), transformer’s core saturation etc. The over voltage
protection can be considered as a backup to the Volts-per-Hertz
protection (Over fluxing).
 Differential protection
The differential relay actually compares between primary current and secondary current
of power transformer, if any unbalance found in between primary and secondary
currents the relay will actuate and inter trip both the primary and secondary circuit
breaker of the transformer.

Suppose you have one transformer which has primary rated current Ip and secondary
current Is. If you install CT of ratio Ip/1A at the primary side and similarly, CT of ratio Is/1A
at the secondary side of the transformer.
The secondaries of both CTs are connected to the same current coil of a differential relay
in such an opposite manner that there will be no resultant current in that coil in a
normal working condition of the transformer.
But if any major fault occurs inside the transformer due to which the normal ratio of the
transformer is disturbed, then the secondary current of both CTs will not remain the
same and one resultant current will flow through the current coil of the differential relay,
which will actuate the relay and inter trip both the primary and secondary circuit
breakers.
 Reverse power protection
For protecting the generator from motoring action when the turbine fails to give mechanical
power.
It is a backup protection to the low forward protection.
The generator will operate as motor and drive the turbine when the turbine output is
reduced and the generator is not able to produce an output power which is more than the
generator’s no-load losses while the generator is still on-line.

Reason for Reverse Power:

• Turbine output is lesser than the generator no load losses.
• CT connection reversal.

Relays acted:
• 32R Flag operation at Protection panel.
• 86M Gen Master Trip Relay Opted
 Four main qualities of a protection system
1. Dependability
• A protection relay is said to be dependable if it trips only when there is a fault
current.
• It can be measured in terms of the ‘certainty’ of its tripping only when it has
to trip.
• Dependability of a relay can be improved by improving its sensitivity.

2. Security
• This is a property of the protection relay that characterizes fault trippings.
• If a relay trips when there is no fault current, then it is said to be insecure.
• It is the parameter that suggests how accurately a particular protection relay
is working.
Four main qualities of a protection system
3. Selectivity
• Selectivity is the ability of a protection relay to accurately locate the fault and as well as
classify it.
• A relay should also be able to suggest whether or not the fault is in its jurisdiction.
• This jurisdiction of a protection relay is known as its protection zone.
• Protection zones are primarily divided into two types: Primary and Secondary. It is
important that the primary zones of all the relays overlap in order to make sure that no
part of the electrical system remains exposed to the fault currents.

4. Reliability
• This is the quality of the relay that determines its ability of not failing ever.
• This quality can be achieved by redundancy.
• Redundancy in protection depends on the criticality of the equipment to which the
protection relay is connected.
 Phase1 generator nameplate details
Parameter
Item Unit
#1, #2 #3 #4, #5 #6
Model   T190—240 T190—240 T190—240 T190—240
Rated capacity MVA 45.362 43.68 45.362 43.25
Rated power MW 36.29 34.95 36.29 34.6
Rated stator voltage KV 11 11 11 11
Rated stator current A 2381 2293 2380.98 2270
Rated frequency Hz 50 50 50 50
Rated excitation voltage V 248 242 243 236
Rated excitation current A 507 494 507 490
Phases of stator winding   3 3 3 3
Rated power factor Cosφ 0.8 0.8 0.8 0.8
Rated speed rpm 3000 3000 3000 3000
Excitation mode

  Nonsalient pole brushless Nonsalient pole brushless Nonsalient pole brushless Nonsalient pole brushless
excitation excitation excitation excitation

Stator stages   2 2 2 2
Stator temperature limit ℃ 120 120 120 120
Rotor temperature limit ℃ 130 130 130 130
stator winding connection mode
  Y Y Y Y

Insulation class of winding

  F F F F

Cooling mode   Air cooling Air cooling Air cooling Air cooling
Manufacturer   ALSTHOM ALSTHOM ALSTHOM ALSTHOM
 GenSyst Setting GT GEN ST3 GEN 
Pn_Gen 36.3 MW 34.6 MW
PF_Gen 0.8 0.8
U1n_Gen 11.00 KV 11.00 KV
U1n_VT_Term_Gen 11.00 KV 11.00 KV
U2n_VT_Term_Gen 100.00 V 100.00 V
U2n_DeltVT_Term_Gen 33.33 V 33.33 V
U1n_VT_NP_Gen 0.01 KV 0.01 KV
U2n_VT_NP_Gen 0.01 KV 0.01 KV
I1n_CT_Term_Gen 3000A 3000A
I2n_CT_Term_Gen 1A 1A
I1n_CT_NP_Gen 3000A 3000A
I2n_CT_NP_Gen 1A 1A
I1n_CT_TrvDiff_Gen 600A 600A
I2n_CT_TrvDiff_Gen 1A 1A
I1n_CT_ET_Gen 5A 5A
I2n_CT_ET_Gen 1A 1A
 ST3

Equipment Protection Set point Delay time （ s ） Action results

0.5 Alarm
Reverse power protection 3.2% Pn
2.4 Trip

Program reverse power protection 1% Pn 1.5 Disable

Low power protection 1% Pn 1 Trip

Low frequency I 49.5 Hz 6 Disable

Low frequency II 49 Hz 6 Alarm

Generator Low frequency III 48 Hz 5 Trip

High frequency I 50.8 Hz 12 Alarm

High frequency II 52 Hz 3 Trip

Over voltage I 120 V 2 Trip

Over voltage II 110 V 3 Disable

Low voltage I 72 V 4 Trip

Low voltage II 90 V 0.5 Alarm

 GT1

Equipment Protection Set point Delay time （ s ） Action results

0.5 Alarm
Reverse power protection 4.5% Pn
2.4 Trip

Program reverse power protection 1% Pn 1.5 Disable

Low power protection 1% Pn 1 Trip

Low frequency I 49.5 Hz 6 Disable

Low frequency II 49 Hz 6 Alarm

Generator Low frequency III 48 Hz 5 Trip

High frequency I 50.8 Hz 12 Alarm

High frequency II 52.5 Hz 5 Ttrip

Over voltage I 120 V 2.4 Trip

Over voltage II 110 V 3 Alarm

Low voltage I 72 V 4 Trip

Low voltage II 90 V 0.5 Alarm

3

Motor control circuit