Power System Protection 15EE72

MODULE 1

PROTECTIVE RELAYING

Requirement of Protective Relaying


Zones of protection, primary and backup protection

Essential qualities of Protective Relaying

Classification of Protective Relays

Introduction Protective Relaying is one of the several features of the power system design.
Every part of the power system is protected. The factors affecting the choice of protection are
type and rating of equipment, location of the equipment, types of funks, abnormal conditions and
cost. The protective relaying is used to give an alarm or to cause prompt removal of any element
of power system from service when that element behaves abnormally. The abnormal behavior of
an element might cause damage or interference within effective operation of rest of the system.
The protective relaying minimizes the damage to the equipment and interruptions to the service
when electrical failure occurs. Along with some other equipment’s the relays help to minimize
damage and improve the service.

The relays are compact and self-contained devices which can sense the abnormal conditions.
Whenever an abnormal condition exists the relay contacts get closed. This in tum closes the hip
circuit of a circuit breaker. The circuit breakers are capable of disconnecting a fatty element,
when they are called upon to do so by the relays. Thus entire process includes the operations like
fault, operation of relay, opening of a circuit breaker and removal of faulty element. This entire
process is automatic and fast, which is possible due to effective protector relaying scheme. The
protective relaying scheme includes protective current transformers, voltage transformers,
protective relays, time delay relays, auxiliary relays, secondary circuits, top circuits etc. Each
component plays its own role, which is very important in the overall operation of the scheme the
protective relaying is the team work of all these components. The protective relaying also
provides the indication of location and type of the fault.

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Protective Zones in a protective relaying scheme, the circuit breakers are placed at the
appropriate points such that any element of the entire power system can be disconnected for
repairing work, usual operation and maintenance requirements and also under abnormal
conditions like short circuits. Thus a protective covering is provided around rich element of the
system. A protective zone is the separate zone which Es established around each system element.
The significance of such a protective zone I B that any fault occurring within cause the tripping
of relays which causes opening of all the circuit breakers within that zone. The various
components which are provided with the protective zone are generators, transformers,
transmission lines, bus bars, cables, capacitors etc. No part of the system is left unprotected The
Fig. shows the various protective zones used in a system

The boundaries of protective zones are decided by the locations of the current transformer. In
practice, various protective zones are overlapped. The overlapping of protective zones is done to
ensure complete safety of each and every element of the system. The zone which is unprotected
is called dead spot. The zones are overlapped and hence there is no chance of existence of a dead
spot in a system. For the failures within the region where two adjacent protective zones are

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overlapped, more circuit breakers get tripped than minimum necessary to disconnect the faulty
element If there are no overlaps, then dead spot may exist, means the circuit breakers lying
within the zone may not trip even though the fault occurs. This may cause damage to the healthy
system. The extent of overlapping of protective zones is relatively small. The probability of the
failures in the overlapped regions is very low; consequently the tripping of the too many circuit
breakers will be frequent. The figure shows the overlapping of protective zones in primary
relaying.

Fig. shows Overlapping zones in primary relaying It can be seen from the Fig. that the circuit
breakers are located in the connections to each power system element. This provision makes it
possible to disconnect only the faulty element from the system. Occasionally for economy in the
number of circuit breakers, a breaker between the two adjacent sections may be omitted but in
that Case both the power system are required to be disconnected for the failure in either of the
two. Each protective zone has certain protective scheme and each scheme has number of
protective systems.

Primary and Backup Protection: The protection provided by the protective relaying equipment
can be categorized with two types as 1. Primary protection 2. Backup protection

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The primary protection is the first line of defense and is responsible to protect all the power
system elements from all the types of faults. The backup protection comes into play only when
the primary protection fails.

The backup protection is provided as the main protection can fail due to many reasons like,

1. Failure in circuit breaker

2. Failure in protective relay

3. Failure in tripping circuit

4. Failure in d.c tripping voltage

5. Leas of voltage or current supply to the relay. Thus it the backup protection is absent and the
main protection tails then there is a possibility of severe damage to the system. When the
primary protection is made inoperative for the maintenance purpose, the backup protection
acts like a main protection .The arrangement of back up protective scheme should be such that
the failure in main protection should not the failure in bark up protection as well This is
satisfied if back up relaying and primary relaying do not have anything common. Hence
generally backup protection is located at different stations from the primary protection. Front
the cast and economy point of sew. The backup protection is employed only for the protection
against short circuit and not for any other abnormal conditions.

Essential Qualities of Protective Relaying:

Essential Qualities of Protective Relaying A protective relaying scheme should has certain
important qualities Such an essential qualities of protective relaying are,

1. Reliability

2. Selectivity and Discrimination

3. Speed and Time

4. Sensitivity

5. Stability

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6. Adequateness

7. Simplicity and Economy

Reliability A protective relaying should be reliable is its basic quality. It indicates the ability of
the relay system to operate under the predetermined conditions. There are various components
which go into the operation before a relay operates. Therefore every component and circuit
which is involved in the operation of a relay plays an important role. The reliability of a
protection system depends on the reliability of various components like circuit breakers, relays,
current transformers potential transformers (P.T.si, cables, trip circuits etc. The proper
maintenance also plans an important role in improving the reliable operation of the system. The
reliability can not be expressed in the mathematical expressions but can be judged from the
statistical data. The statically survey and records give good idea about the of the protective
system.

Classification of Protective Relays

All the relays consist of one or more elements which gets energized and actuated by the electrical
quantities of the circuit. Most of the relays used now a days are On-no-mechanical type which
work on the principles of electromagnetic attraction and electromagnetic induction

Electromagnetic Attraction Type Relays The electromagnetic attraction type relays operate on
the principle of attraction of an armature by the magnetic force produced by undesirable current
or movement of plunger in a solenoid. These relays can be actuated ay a.c. or d.c. quantities. The
various types of these relays are,

1 Solenoid Type: In this relay, the plunger or iron core moves into a solenoid and the operation
of the relay depends on the movement of the plunger.

2. Attracted Armature Type: This relay operates on the current setting. When current in the
circuit exceeds beyond the limit, the armature gets attracted low the magnetic force produced by
the undesirable current the current rating of the circuit in which relay is connected plays an
important role in the operation of the relay.

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3. Balanced Beam Type: In this relay, the armature is fastened to a balanced beam for normal
current, the beam remains horizontal hut when current exceeds, the armature gets attracted and
beam gets tilted causing the required operation.

Induction Type Relays These relays work on the principle of an electromagnetic induction. The
use of these relays is limited to a.c quantities. The various types of these relays are,

1.Induction Disc Type: In this relay, a metal disc is allowed to rotate between the two
electromagnets. The electromagnets are energized by alternating currents. 11w two types of
constructions used for this type are shaded pole type and watt-hour meter type.

2 .Induction Cup Type: In this relay electromagnets act as a stator and energized by relay coils.

Directional Type Relays These relays work on the direction of current or power in the circuit The
various types of these relays are,

1. Reverse Current Type: The relay is actuated when the direction of the current is reversed or the
phase of the current becomes more than the predetermined value.

2. Reverse Power Type: The relay is actuated when the phase displacement between applied
voltage and current attains a specified value.

Relays Based on Timing In relays the time between instant of relay operation and instant at which
tripping takes place can be controlled. This time is called operation time. Based on this, the time
relays are classified as,

Instantaneous Type: In this type no time is lust between operation of Max-and tripping of
contacts. No intentional time delay is provided.
Definite Time tag Type: In this type intentionally a definite time lag is provided between
operation of relay and tripping of contact.

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Inverse Time Lag Type: In this type, the operating time is approximately inversely
proportional to the magnitude of the actuating quantity.

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