WORKSHOP

ON
POWER SYSTEM PROTECTION
16th to 20th April 2018
Ho Chi Minh City
Vietnam

INTRODUCTION TO POWER SYSTEM

PROTECTION

By
Zulkarnain Ishak
TNB Grid Div.
Malaysia

Contents

1. Power System Protection

Requirements

1
 POWER SYSTEM PROTECTION
REQUIREMENTS

Introduction

POWER SYSTEM PROTECTION REQUIREMENTS

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 Important of Electrical Power System.
– Cover all sector of life,
• Residential
• Commercial
• Industrial

– Interruption will cause

disruption of modern normal life
routine.

– Thus require
• Reliable / Continuous Supply
• High Quality of Electrical Power
• Cheap / Economical

Electrical Power System Elements

• Electrical Power System comprises of various
equipment with its own functionality.
• E.g.
– Generator
– Transformer
– Tower and transmission line
– Cables
– Circuit Breaker etc.

• Combination of those equipment produce the

Power System Network with various complexity
that related to reliability of system.

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 FAULT IN POWER SYSTEM
• Faults will always occur on a power system, and these faults may
represent a risk to
– Life
– Property
– Overall power system.

• Fault on a power system maybe initiated by

– Natural causes (Lightning, strong wind, snow etc.),
– Human, Animals or live being intervention activities.

FAULT IN POWER SYSTEM - RISK

• Damage on the property / equipment due to
– Exceeding the thermal withstand limit
– High electromagnetic force
– Fire by arc
– Explosion

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 FAULT IN POWER SYSTEM - RISK
• Risk to human life from
– shock due to direct contact with live parts.
– potential rises of expose parts
– hazardous fume and gases from burning materials

FAULT IN POWER SYSTEM - RISK

• Affect the un-faulted adjacent power system, e.g
– delayed fault clearance.
– voltage dip affecting loads / stalling motors
– lost of synchronism of the synchronous generators
– power interruption / blackout

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POWER SYSTEM PROTECTION
• Power System Protection is needed to minimize the risk
by
– Detect
• Undesirable event in the power system
– Act
• Take appropriate actions at the RIGHT time
– Effect
• Ensuring SAFE , EFFICIENT & RELIABLE Power System Operation

– Protection system is an investment to the power system.

– It is often compared to the investment in an INSURANCE

POLICY

Fault Clearing System

POWER SYSTEM PROTECTION REQUIREMENTS

6
 Objectives of Power System Protection
• Minimize the effects of failure on personnel
and environmental
• Minimize damages to equipment
• Minimize outage area, costs and time
• Minimize the impact of disturbances to power
system stability and quality

13

Fault Clearing System

• FCS - Equipment Optical Fiber

CVT
CVT
CT
Circuit Breaker / Circuit Breaker
CT
Disconnector

Tele. PCM Tele. PCM DC /

DC / Battery Charger Battery Charger

Battery for DC V Protective Relay Protective Relay

Battery 14
for DC V

7
 Fault Clearing System
FCS - Equipment Analogy
Protective relays - to process the
information given (fault or not fault) Communication channels - to
and to issue command to CB (trip or provide information exchange
no trip) to the remote ends e.g. power
CT and VT - to provide information on system data, equipment status,
voltages and currents at the measureable permissive signal or command
level for relay or metering functions between relay or control
equipment between two or
DC System - to make “live” the more remote stations.
control and protection circuits
Circuit breakers (CB) - to carry out actions after
received command e.g. open/close circuit breaker

Performance of the protection system depends on those

components 15

Instrument Transformer (CT & VT)

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 Instrument Transformer (CT & VT)
• Instrument Transformer
– Current Transformer
• Transform the high primary current
to 1.0A / 5.0A, for measureable and
safe working level

– Voltage Transformer
• Transform the high primary voltage
to low voltage for measureable and
safe working level, e.g. 110VØ-Ø or
63.5VØ-E
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CT & VT Functions
• Current / Voltage Transformer (Instrument
Transformer) Functions

• To bring down the primary current (for CT) or voltage (for

VT) to a measureable secondary value that proportionate
to the primary value for relaying and metering applications.
• To provide galvanic isolation between the secondary
circuits and primary circuits

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9
 Protective Device / Relay
• Example of performance deficiency mode.
– Mechanical & electrical insulation damage, causing CT /
VT totally failed for provide output to relays.
– Hardware defect
• Manufacturing failure (systemic/batches)
• Site failure (individual/isolated)
– Inappropriate protection settings and configurations.
– External influence.

19

Example of Performance Deficiency Mode

– Mechanical & electrical insulation damage, causing CT /
VT totally failed for provide output to relays.

20

10
 Example of Performance Deficiency Mode
– Inappropriate CT parameter used either due to design or
increase of fault level, causing CT saturation and error in
CT secondary output.

21

Protective Device / Relay

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 Protective Device / Relay

• What is a protective relay?

• The IEEE defines a protective relay as ‘‘a relay

whose function is to detect defective lines or
apparatus or other power system conditions of an
abnormal or dangerous nature and to initiate
appropriate control circuit action’’

Relay Technology / Construction

• In general there are 3 types of relay construction
/ technology
– Electromechanical Relay

– Static Relay

– Digital Relay

– Numerical Relay.

12
 Electromechanical Relay
• These relays were the earliest forms of
relay used for the protection of power
systems.

• They work on the principle of a

mechanical force causing operation of a
relay contact in response to a stimulus.

• The mechanical force is generated

through current flow in one or more
windings on a magnetic core or cores,
hence the term electromechanical relay.

• The electromechanical relays had been

dominating the electrical protection field
until the use of silicon semiconductor
devices, becoming more common. Still in
used.

Static Relay
• Static analog relays were first
introduced in the early 1960s.
• In a protection relay, the term ‘static’
refers to the absence of moving parts
to create the relay characteristic. The
output contacts are still generally
attracted armature relays.
• Earlier static relays are designed
based on the use of analogue
electronic devices such as transistors,
diodes, resistors, capacitors,
inductors, etc., instead of coils and
magnets.

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 Digital Relay
• The digital relay was introduced into
service around 1980 and still used at
certain application.

• Digital relays applies A/D conversion of

all measured analogue quantities.

• Better accuracy compare to an

electromechanical or static relay and
having wide range of settings.

• Microprocessors used in the digital

relay have limited processing capacity
and memory. Therefore, functionality
is limited mainly to protection function
itself.

Numerical Relay
• Improvement of microprocessor
capability makes relay with digital
technology completely superseded
with numerical technology.
• Numerical relays use one or more
digital signal processors (DSP) to
have faster real time signal
processing and concurrently running
the software programming of
mathematical algorithms for various
protection functions.
• Reduction in cost and size for
microprocessors, leads to multiple
functions in a single relay hardware.

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 Numerical Relay
• Table shows example of functions in the Numerical Distance Relay.

Distance Protection CT Supervision

Overcurrent Protection (directional/non-
directional) VT Supervision
Several Setting Groups for protection values Check Synchronisation
Switch-on-to-Fault Protection Autoreclose
Power Swing Blocking CB Condition Monitoring
Voltage Transformer Supervision CB State Monitoring
Negative Sequence Current Protection User-Definable Logic
Undervoltage Protection Broken Conductor Detection
Measurement of Power System
Overvoltage Protection Quantities
CB Fail Protection Fault/Event/Disturbance recorder
Fault Location

Numerical Relay

30/91

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 Example of Numerical Relay
Numerical computation

Numerical Relay
• Argument raise on the issues of reliability and availability
when putting many features into one piece of hardware.

• Failure of a numerical relay may cause many functions to be

lost, compared to applications where different functions are
implemented by separate hardware items.

• Modern numerical relays will have comprehensive self

monitoring / supervision to alert the user to various internal
relay problems. Thus, appropriate actions can be taken
immediately.

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 Numerical Relay – Advantages
1. More protection for less cost.
2. Wiring simplification – less / no wiring req. between h’ware for
protection functions
3. Greater flexibility – user programmable logic and configuration
4. Less maintenance requirements – self supervision
5. Reduction in panel space —less devices required.
6. Event recording capability – helps in fault and failure analysis
7. Ability to calculate and display distance to fault.
8. Data acquisition for metering.
9. Communication capability—ability to design enhanced protection
schemes.
[Link] for remote interrogation and setting application.
[Link] to change settings automatically based on system conditions.

Numerical Relay – Disadvantages

Some disadvantages of using microprocessor-based relays
that have been cited include the following

1. Single failure may disable many protective functions.

2. Instruction manuals are complicated and some difficult
to understand.
3. Excessive input data required for settings and logic.
4. Frequent firmware upgrades—create tracking and
documentation problems.

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Example of Performance Deficiency Mode
• Example of performance deficiency mode
(Numerical Relay).
– “Bugs” in algorithm.
– Hardware defect
• Manufacturing failure (systemic/batches)
• Site failure (individual/isolated case)
– Inappropriate protection settings and configurations.
– External influence.

35

Example of Performance Deficiency Mode

– Hardware defect.
• Manufacturing failure (systemic/batches)

36

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 Example of Performance Deficiency Mode
– Hardware defect.
• Site failure (individual/isolated case)

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Circuit Breaker & Disconnector Switch

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Circuit Breaker & Disconnector Switch
– Generally there are two types
of switchgear used for the
primary equipment;
1. Air Insulated Switchgear (AIS).
2. Gas Insulated Switchgear (GIS)

Comprises of
1. Busbar,
2. Circuit Breaker
3. Busbar/Line/Grounding
Disconnector.
4. CT & VT

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Circuit Breaker & Disconnector Switch

• Important component
– Tripping Coil
– Breaking Mechanism
• Spring
• Hydraulic
• Pneumatic
– Insulation Medium
• Vacuum, SF6, Air Blast, Oil
– Auxiliary contacts for CB and
Disconnector

40

20
 CB Trip Coil

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Spring - Breaking Mechanism

42

21
 Example of Performance Deficiency Mode
• Example of performance deficiency mode for
Circuit Breaker & Disconnector.
– CB Trip Coil Failure - Damaged Generator
Rotor
- Overheat Stator
- Busbar DS Aux. Contact
Failure

CB Trip Coil

43

DC System

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 DC System
– AC/DC Rectifier / Charger
• Supplying the DC Standing Load
• Charging the Battery
– Battery
• Nickel-Cadmium
• Lead-Acid
– Distribution System
• MCB & Fuse
• It is common to design DC system with
redundancy due to it important to the
overall system for protection and control.
– 2 x Battery Charger
– 2 x Battery
45

DC Source 1

Charger 1

Battery
DC
Boost
Bank 1 Distribution
Interlock
Board
DC Source 2
Charger 2

Battery
Bank 2
46/54

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 DC System Failure Alarm
– DC Supply system involving
Battery Charger and Battery
are monitored with following
alarm. (Setting is based on 110DC system
with Nickel Cadmium battery)

1. DC Low voltage ( 1.14V x no of

cells)
2. Charger Fail (1.3V x no of cells)
3. DC High voltage (1.7v x no of cells)
4. Main (AC) Fail
5. DC Earth Fault
6. Low Electrolyte Level

Example of Performance Deficiency Mode

• Example of performance deficiency mode for DC System
– DC Earth Fault.
• Single pole to earth i.e +ve to Earth or –ve to earth will normally not cause
any harm to the protection system. But it existence provide high potential
problem to the system.
• Second pole to earth of different pole, may cause unwanted operation,
either control or protection mal-operation.
• DC Earth Fault must be located and isolated before unwanted operation
occurs.

Prot. Trip Prot. Trip

+ Relay Relay - + Relay Relay -

To trip CB To trip CB

Single Pole DC E/F (-ve to E) Second Pole DC E/F (+ve to E)

No mal-operation Mal-operation occur

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 Example of Performance Deficiency Mode
• Example of performance deficiency mode for DC
System
– All Battery Bank Failed (Charger may not able to produce DC
output during system fault).
• The impact may be catastrophic.

Tele-protection System

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 Tele-protection System
• Telecommunication
Equipment
– Multiplexing System
• PDH or SDH

PDH - Plesiochronous Digital Hierarchy

SDH - Synchronous Digital Hierarchy

– Power Line Carrier,

Microwave & Optical
Fiber,

51

Example of Performance Deficiency Mode

• Example of performance deficiency mode for Tele-
protection System
– Communication for Tele-protection Error / Failed
• Current Differential protection relay will be blocked, i.e. unable
to operate if there is a clear system fault.
• Slow fault clearance.

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Zone of Protection

POWER SYSTEM PROTECTION REQUIREMENTS

Zone of Protection
Fault Isolation Area
– Power system area that under the responsibility of a
protection system (mainly focus on main protection
function).
– The zone of isolation coverage defined by the position of
circuit breakers
Busbar
Feeder
CT
Circuit Breaker

54

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 Zone of Protection
Fault Detection Area
– However the protection fault detection zone is determined
by the position of the CT used.
CT
Circuit Breaker

55

Zone of Protection
Overlapping Zone of Protection
– The adjacent zone of protections are arranged to overlap
at the individual boundary as to avoid unprotected area.
unprotected area

overlapping area

56

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 Zone of Protection
Legend Zone of Protection
TNB Practices for AIS
a Generator
substations c b Transformer
c Busbar
d Overhead Line / Cable

Substation b
C

Substation
B
c c c
a d d b

a
G

a d d b
Substation
A

c Substation
D

d
57

Protection Relay Fundamental Criteria

POWER SYSTEM PROTECTION REQUIREMENTS

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Protection Relay Fundamental Criteria

Reliability

Sensitivity Speed
Protection
Criteria

Stability Selectivity

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RELIABILITY
RELIABILITY:
 Indicates the the ability of the relay or relay system to
perform correctly when needed (dependability) and to
avoid unnecessary operation (security).

• Loss of reliability of the protection system can be due to

– Failure of protection relays
– Problem on CT or VT
– Mechanism failure of Circuit Breaker
– Failure of circuit breaker Trip Coil
– Failure of Auxiliary Trip Relay (if available)
– Loss of DC supply for protection circuit
– Etc.

60

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 RELIABILITY
RELIABILITY / DEPENDABILITY:
• Loss of reliability of the protection system results in
extremely expensive loss and dangerous to the system.

61

RELIABILITY
RELIABILITY / DEPENDABILITY:
• Most of the time protection system remain stable
without operation. It should be healthy and operate
during fault incident.
• Ensuring healthy of the protection system
– Periodic testing (maintenance)
– Self supervision in numerical relays
– On-line monitoring of auxiliary DC supply, CT & VT output
and CB Trip Coil.

62

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 SPEED
The time taken by the protection system to
detect the fault and take action.

• Relays that could anticipate a fault is an idealistic idea.

• No matter how short operating time is, relay still require the
best method of distinguishing between fault and no fault
conditions.
• The term instantaneous operation indicates that no delay is
purposely introduced in the operation. In practice, the terms
high speed and instantaneous are frequently used
interchangeably.
• High speed or instantaneous operation indicates the
operating time typically does not exceed 50ms. TNB require
<30ms for main protection.
63

Example : Fault record for slow fault clearance

1.77sec
Very slow fault clearance

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Example : Fault record for fast fault clearance

Fast fault clearance

62ms

SPEED
Operating time of a protection relay contributes to

System Stability Analysis:

– Maximum Fault Clearing Time (MFCT)
Measured time after initiated by Main Protection Operation
and other fault clearing components for fault isolation
– Critical Fault Clearing Time (CFCT)
Time before system go into instability

Fault Energy Analysis – related to the equipment:

– Thermal Capability
– Mechanical Forces Characteristics
66

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 SELECTIVITY
• SELECTIVITY
 Ability to provide maximum service continuity with
minimum system interruption.
 Ability of the protection system to determine the
faulted phase/s

Requires:
– correct location of CB
– appropriate location of CTs & VTs
– correct application of relay types
– overlapping zone of protection
– appropriate settings & relay coordination

67

SENSITIVITY
 Ability to discriminate between load and fault
condition for any length of time

– Relays or protection schemes are said to be sensitive if their

primary operating parameters are low.

– Relays or protection schemes are required to provide

sensitive settings but not to offset the requirements of
selectivity

68

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 STABILITY
STABILITY / SECURITY
 Indicates the probability of relay not operating for faults outside the area of
power system it is suppose not to operate.

The setback of stability / security may arise from

– Saturation of CT output
– Mal-operation of protection relay
– Failure of VT output / circuit
– Power system disturbance that not considered with the given relay setting.
– etc.

69

Protection System Criteria

RELIABILITY / DEPENDABILITY vs STABILITY / SECURITY
Can be achieved through:
– Optimum design of protection schemes
– Redundant & Duplicate system
– Application of appropriate settings

RELAY 1 RELAY 1

OR TRIP AND TRIP

RELAY 2 RELAY 2

1/2 for Trip 2 /2 for Trip

RELIABILITY / DEPENDABILITY STABILITY / SECURITY
RELAY 1

RELAY 2 ≥2 TRIP

RELAY 3
2/3 for Trip 70

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Protection System Design Criteria

POWER SYSTEM PROTECTION REQUIREMENTS

Power System Protection Design

• Protection Design Consideration

Reliability

Sensitivity
Simplicity Speed
Protection
Criteria

Stability
Economic Selectivity

72

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 ECONOMIC
 Economics – maximum protection at minimum
cost

Influence factors
– Cost of asset
– Size and Quantity of load interruption
– Area / Load sensitivity / national interest etc.

73

SIMPLICITY
 Simplicity – minimum equipment and circuitry.

• Simplicity of design improves system reliability

– if only because there are fewer elements
that can malfunction.

74

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 Main and Backup Protection

POWER SYSTEM PROTECTION DESIGN

REQUIREMENTS

Main and Backup Protection

Lines of Protective Level
• Hierarchical levels of line of defense against abnormal power
system condition

 Main Protection
 Backup Protection
 System Protection

76

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 Main and Backup Protection

Main Protection
• Primary protective function to detect and isolate
fault within the protected zone
MAIN PROTECTION
Name Detail Examples
Definite Zone This is the protection function that Unit Protection –
(Local Zone covers only the protected equipment Current Differential
of or a part of it.
Protection- Distance (21Z) –
LZOP) Zone 1 Under-reach
Permissive Zone This is the protection function that Distance (21Z) –
overreached the protected equipment Carrier Aided
but requires a permissive signal to trip Protection
instantaneously. (Tele-Protection) 77

Main and Backup Protection

Backup Protection
• Secondary protective function to detect and isolate fault
within the adjacent protected zone or to backup the
primary protective function
BACKUP PROTECTION
Name Detail Examples
Local Backup This is the protection function that act Breaker Failure
as the backup for relay, scheme or
circuit breaker failure condition.
Remote Backup This is the protection function that Distance Protection
overreached up to the adjacent LZOP or - Zone 2
more, to act as the backup for the - Zone 3
adjacent LZOP main protection.
Over-current
78

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 Main and Backup Protection
System Backup Protection
• Final protective function to detect uncontrollable
power system condition
SYSTEM PROTECTION
Name Detail Examples
Local System This is the protection function that Load shedding
isolate abnormal power system Scheme
condition based on local measurement.
Generator Shedding
Wide Area This is the protection function that Islanding Scheme
System isolate abnormal power system
condition based on wide-area Special Protection
measurements. Scheme
79

Main and Backup Protection

PROTECTION: Lines of defense against abnormal power system conditions

S
Line of defence

1 MAIN PROTECTION

2  Maybe duplicated for

dependability
3

80

40
 Main and Backup Protection
PROTECTION: Lines of defense against abnormal power system conditions

S
X
Line of defence
Relay/CB Failed
1
2 LOCAL BACKUP PROTECTION
Relay Backup
3 Different principle of measurement
from Main relay
Delayed tripping
4 Breaker Backup
Failure of CB
BF Trips surrounding CBs
81

Main and Backup Protection

PROTECTION: Lines of defense against abnormal power system conditions

S S
Line of defence X
DC P

1 Failure of Local FCS

2 REMOTE BACKUP PROTECTION

Remote Backup
3  Trip from adjacent substations
 Failure of local relay, CT, VT, DC &
AC wiring
4  Failure of local breakers & trip
supply (dc system)

82

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 Main and Backup Protection
PROTECTION: Lines of defense against abnormal power system conditions

System Stability
Line of defence
UF Load Shedding
1 UV Load Shedding
Pole-slip & Islanding
Force Generator Tripping
2 Special Protection Scheme

3 SYSTEM PROTECTION

83

Main and Backup Protection

PROTECTION: Failure of all lines of defense against

abnormal power system conditions
Line of defence

1 MAIN PROTECTION

2 BACKUP PROTECTION
3 SYSTEM PROTECTION

44 BLACKOUT

84

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THANK YOU

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