ETAP Workshop Notes

Multiple Parallel Sources Coordination

Purpose and Description:
The purpose of this exercise is to coordinate incomer relays with the outgoing relay when there
are multiple parallel incoming sources. In such a scenario for an outgoing fault, the incomer
relays will see lower fault current when compared to the total fault current seen by the outgoing
relay.
Coordination of Inverse time OC/EF relays using 0.25 - 0.35 coordination intervals are required
to be observed and evaluated by working out operation of incomer and outgoing relays at
different fault currents. The exercise shows an easier method that can check coordination on a
common fault in per unit terms.

Procedure:
1) Open the ETAP File – Normalized TCC Example.OTI
Library Location – C: -> ETAP 1610 -> lib -> etaplib1610.lib

Figure: Before Coordination

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 ETAP Workshop Notes

Multiple Parallel Sources Coordination

2) The above figure is the system under consideration for the relay coordination exercise. Three
methods can be adopted to coordinate the incomer relays (RL-IC-A & RL-IC-B) with the
outgoing relay (RL-OG).

Method 1: Manual Method – Maintaining coordination at two separate fault current

levels by finding the difference between the operating times at the two fault levels

i) Select the entire system for relay coordination study and click on “Create Star View” .

ii) Zoom in on the selected system by clicking on the “Zoom in – Star One-Line” icon in
the Star View and place the network to the right hand side of the TCC.

iii) Display the settings of the relays in the TCC by right clicking on the relay curves.

iv) Display the fault level of the outgoing relay by right clicking the fault arrow named “RL-
OG-3P”.

v) Rename the TCC as “Method 1 TCC”

vi) Prior to the coordination, the TCC will look as shown below,

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Multiple Parallel Sources Coordination

Figure: Method 1 TCC – Before Coordination

vii) It should be noted that the incomer relays have been updated with the total bus fault current
(i.e. 4kA). However, for an outgoing fault when the outgoing relay sees 4kA the incomer relays
will only see 2kA.

viii) In order to monitor the incomer relays at 2kA, create a new “User Curve” as shown
below,

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 ETAP Workshop Notes

Multiple Parallel Sources Coordination

Figure: User defined fault arrow (2kA at 6.6kV)

ix) Extend the newly created “Incomer Fault Arrow” and the outgoing relay fault arrow “RL-
OG-3P” such that they intersect their corresponding relay curves respectively.

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 ETAP Workshop Notes

Multiple Parallel Sources Coordination

x) Click on the outgoing relay curve and click on the “Crosshair” icon and place it at 4000
A. Note the operating time at 4000A of the relay to be 0.284 seconds.

xi) Click on the incomer relay curve “RL-IC-A-P-51” and click on the “Crosshair” icon
and place it at 2000A. Note the operating time at 2000A of the relay to be 0.145s initially.

xii) Now if the incomers have to be coordinated properly then at the least the coordination time
interval of 250ms have to be maintained between the outgoing relay at fault of 4kA and incomer
relay at a fault of 2kA.

The time dial setting of the incomer relays are increased to keep the difference between the
operating times of outgoing relay at 4kA and the operating time of incomer relay at 2kA is
equal to or greater than 250 ms.

Operating time of outgoing relay at 4kA = 0.284 sec

Coordination Time interval to be maintained = 0.25 sec

Required operating time of incomer relay at 2kA = 0.284 + 0.25

= 0.534 sec

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 ETAP Workshop Notes

Multiple Parallel Sources Coordination

Due to the step size available in the relay, the time dial setting is made to 0.1 so that the
operating time at 2kA for the incomer relay is 0.579 sec

To check operating time for incomers on common outgoing fault level for ease of coordination,
there is a need to bodily shift incomers to right by a factor determined by ratio of “Total fault
seen by outgoing relay / Fault seen by incomer relay”. See Method 2 on next page for further
description.

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Multiple Parallel Sources Coordination

Method 2: Coordination after curve shifting using shift factor entered manually

Ensuring coordination time interval at two different fault current levels (Method 1) manually
is a cumbersome. Hence, ETAP allows the user to shift the curves by some factors after which
the coordination can be done in the traditional way.

i) Select the entire system for relay coordination study and click on “Create Star View” .

ii) Zoom in on the selected system by clicking on the “Zoom in – Star One-Line” icon in
the Star View and place the network to the right hand side of the TCC.

iii) Display the settings of the relays in the TCC by right clicking on the relay curves.

iv) Display the fault level of the outgoing relay by right clicking the fault arrow named “RL-
OG-3P”.

v) Rename the TCC as “Method 2 TCC”

vi) Revert the incomer relay settings back to the initial values as given in the table below,

Curve Type IEC Inverse

Pickup 1
Time Dial 0.025

vi) The TCC will look as shown below,

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 ETAP Workshop Notes

Multiple Parallel Sources Coordination

vii) The factor to be used on the incomer relays for shifting is derived as follows,

Shift Factor = Total Outgoing Fault Current / Fault Current Seen by the Incomer Relay

Shift Factor = 4 kA / 2 kA

=2

Note: It is not compulsory that the curve shifting has to be done on the incomer relay. The
curve shifting can be done for outgoing relay as well. If outgoing relay curve is to be shifted,

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Multiple Parallel Sources Coordination

then the shift factor will be the inverse of the above factor (1/2 = 0.5). In this exercise, we shall
be shifting the incomer relay curve only.

viii) Right click on the incomer relay curve (RL-IC-A-P-51 and RL-IC-B-P-51) and select “Plot
Options”

ix) In the “Preferences” tab enter the shift factor as 2 and click Ok

x) Now the curves will shift to the right as shown below,

xi) Now, coordinate the incomer relay using the “Time Difference” tool at the outgoing
fault of 4kA.
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Multiple Parallel Sources Coordination

Note: The arrived Time Dial setting (0.1) using Method 2 is the same as the time dial arrived
using Method 1

Method 3: Coordination using Normalized TCC where Etap automatically applies the
shift factor

Unlike the above 2 methods, Etap can automatically shift the curves based on the fault current
seen by each relays. Following are the procedure to do the same,

i) Revert the incomer relay settings back to the initial values as given in the table below,

Curve Type IEC Inverse

Pickup 1
Time Dial 0.025

ii) In the OLV view, insert a 3-Phase Fault at the bus named “Outgoing Faulted Bus” after
ensuring that the report name in place is “Prompt”

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Multiple Parallel Sources Coordination

iii) Name the report as “Outgoing Fault – SOP”

iv) Select the entire system for relay coordination study and click on “Create Star View” .

v) Zoom in on the selected system by clicking on the “Zoom in – Star One-Line” icon in
the Star View and place the network to the right hand side of the TCC.

vi) Display the settings of the relays in the TCC by right clicking on the relay curves.

v) Rename the TCC as “Method 3 TCC”

vi) The TCC will be as shown below,

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 ETAP Workshop Notes

Multiple Parallel Sources Coordination

vii) In the star view, select the report “Outgoing Fault – SOP” from the drop down menu

viii) Click on the “Normalized TCC” button present in the right hand side of the window.

ix) Now the normalized TCC will look as shown below,

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Multiple Parallel Sources Coordination

xii) Coordinate using the Time difference tool to maintain the necessary CTI

Note: The arrived Time Dial setting (0.1) using Method 3 is the same as the time dial arrived
using Method 1 and Method 2.

xii) Normalized TCC can also be created by,

Step 1: In the OLV view, insert a 3-Phase Fault at the bus named “Outgoing Faulted Bus”
Step 2: Select the OLV which needs to be displayed in the TCC

Step 3: Click on “Create Star View”

This will generate the TCC curve in an normalized star view.

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