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1 Introduction

Power system protection systems monitor power equipment for abnormalities, quickly isolate faulty equipment to minimize damage and disruption, and restore service. They ensure safety, maintain system integrity, and provide continuous electric service. Protection systems must operate selectively to isolate only faulty parts, stably leave healthy parts intact, and sensitively detect even small faults or abnormalities, all while operating very quickly to prevent damage, safety issues, and power quality problems.

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11 views

1 Introduction

Power system protection systems monitor power equipment for abnormalities, quickly isolate faulty equipment to minimize damage and disruption, and restore service. They ensure safety, maintain system integrity, and provide continuous electric service. Protection systems must operate selectively to isolate only faulty parts, stably leave healthy parts intact, and sensitively detect even small faults or abnormalities, all while operating very quickly to prevent damage, safety issues, and power quality problems.

Uploaded by

Imjusttryingtohelp
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Power Systems

Protection
Introduction
What Is Power System Protection?
-The electric power system is dependent on protections. By electric power system, we are
referring to power generation and a network of wires that connect generation to the load locations
where it is utilized to power the functions above.

-Protection systems continuously monitor the equipment that the power system itself is comprised
of for abnormal operating conditions. Protections are automatic systems that once an abnormal
condition is detected, quickly as possible isolates the abnormal condition by the tripping of circuit
breakers or the operation of fuses.

-Power system protection systems are referred to as secondary equipment, as the primary
equipment are transformers, lines, buses, generators, capacitors, breakers, disconnectors, etc.
Primary equipment is directly involved with electric energy supply and delivery. Protection
systems are designed and installed to oversee and “protect” primary equipment and the integrity
of the power system.
Introduction
A protection system itself is comprised of Individual devices, sub-systems, and numerous pieces
of equipment as follows:
- Protection relays that monitor the power system for abnormal conditions.
-Communication systems that are used as part of the overall protection system functionality.
-Voltage and current sensing equipment that steps down high-power system values to much lower
values capable of being input into the protection relays.
-Direct current (DC) auxiliary supply including batteries and their chargers used to power
protection relays, auxiliary devices, communication systems and trip circuit breakers.
-Control circuitry working with protections to trip circuit breakers or other interrupting devices
such as circuit switchers.
Introduction
Introduction
Definitions used in System Protection
1. Protective relaying- is the term used to signify the science as well as the operation of
protective devices, within a controlled strategy, to maximize service continuity and minimize
damage to property and personnel due to system abnormal behavior. The strategy is not so much
that of protecting the equipment from faults, as this is a design function, but rather to protect the
normal system and environment from the effect of a system component which has become
faulted.

2. Reliability-defined as the probability that the system will function correctly when required to
act.

3. Security-in protective systems is a term sometimes used to indicate the ability of a system or
device to refrain from unnecessary operations. Often we use security as a generic term to indicate
that the system is operating correctly, whereas reliability is usually taken to be a quantifiable
variable.
Introduction
4. Sensitivity- in protective systems is the ability of the system to identify an abnormal condition
that exceeds a nominal "pickup" or detection threshold value and which initiates protective action
when the sensed quantities exceed that threshold.

5. Selectivity-in a protective system refers to the overall design of protective strategy wherein
only those protective devices closest to a fault will operate to remove the faulted component. This
implies a grading of protective device threshold, timing, or operating characteristics to obtain the
desired selective operation. This restricts interruptions to only those components that are faulted.

6. Protection zones-(primary protection zones) are regions of primary sensitivity.

7. Coordination - of protective devices is the determination of graded settings to achieve


selectivity
Introduction
8. Primary relays - are relays within a given protection zone that should operate for prescribed
abnormalities within that zone.

9. Local backup relays- are an alternate set of relays in a primary protection zone that operate
under prescribed conditions in that protection zone. Often such local backup relays are a duplicate
set of primary relays set to operate independently for the same conditions as the primary set.

10. Undesired tripping (false tripping) - results when a relay trips unnecessarily for a fault
outside its protection zone or when there is no fault at all. This can occur when the protective
system is set with too high a sensitivity.

11. Failure to trip- is a protective system malfunction in which the protective system fails to take
appropriate action when a condition exists for which action is required. This type of failure may
result in extensive damage to the faulted component if not rectified by backup protection.
Introduction
Why is Power Systems Required?
1. Minimize Primary Equipment Damage
Power system equipment is designed and constructed to limit failure modes. However, power
system’s primary equipment can and does fail for the following reasons:
(1) Soon after installation, due to either a design or manufacturing flaw.
(2) Equipment failures due to prolonged operation beyond the equipment’s rated design
parameters.
(3) Equipment failures due to adverse environmental conditions such as salt pollution, animal
contact, or high wind and lightning strikes during storms.
(4) Equipment operated beyond their normal expected life span.
Introduction
2. Provide Continuity of Service by Minimizing Outage Time and Service
a. Power systems are classified as critical infrastructure due to the 24/7 dependence on electric
power for modern-day life. Automatic protection systems are designed to detect faulted
equipment and remove the minimal primary equipment required to remove the abnormal
condition and maintain a continued supply of electric power to as many customers as possible.

b. Protection systems are automatically designed to restore power system elements to service
following the abnormal condition being removed. The automatic restoration of equipment back
into service generally takes no more than one second. Fast fault clearing will promote power
quality and prevent equipment with ride-through capability from powering down. However, the
resultant momentary loss of supply voltage still affects many loads without such capability.
Introduction
3. Promote Safety-Protection systems are fundamental to the monitoring, detection of
abnormalities, and quick removal of such abnormalities to promote safety.

4. Maintaining Power System Integrity-Protection systems mitigate damage and maintain


system integrity. An integrated power system can only tolerate fault conditions for a very short
time. Faults must be removed very quickly by isolating the faulted power system equipment. This
is usually done by tripping circuit breakers or by the opening of other dedicated isolating devices
such as circuit switchers. Typical clearing times for high voltage system faults are in the order of
less than 200 ms. When faults are not isolated and eliminated quickly enough, power system
instability usually results, affecting the integrity of the entire interconnected power system.
Introduction
Summary:
Power System Protection – Main Functions
1.To safeguard the entire system to maintain continuity of supply.
2.To minimize damage and repair costs.
3.To ensure safety of personnel.

Power System Protection – Basic Requirements


1.Selectivity: To detect and isolate the faulty item only.
2. Stability: To leave all healthy circuits intact to ensure continuity of supply.
3. Speed: To operate as fast as possible when called upon, to minimize damage, production
downtime and ensure safety to personnel.
4. Sensitivity: To detect even the smallest fault, current or system abnormalities and operate
correctly at its setting.
Introduction
Power System Protection – Speed is Vital!!
The protective system should act fast to isolate faulty sections to prevent:
• Increased damage at fault location. Fault energy = I 2 × Rf × t, where t is time in seconds.
• Danger to the operating personnel (flashes due to high fault energy sustaining for a long time).
• Danger of igniting combustible gas in hazardous areas, such as methane in coal mines which
could cause horrendous disaster.
• Increased probability of earth faults spreading to healthy phases.
• Higher mechanical and thermal stressing of all items of plant carrying the fault current,
particularly transformers whose windings suffer progressive and cumulative deterioration because
of the enormous electromechanical forces caused by multi-phase faults proportional to the square
of the fault current. Sustained voltage dips resulting in motor (and generator) instability leading to
extensive shutdown at the plant concerned and possibly other nearby plants connected to the
system.

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