Chapter 1
Introduction
1.1 General
With the increasing dependence on electricity supplies, in both developing and
developed countries, the need to achieve an acceptable level of reliability, quality
and safety at an economic price becomes even more important to customers. A
further requirement is the safety of the electricity supply. A priority of any supply
system is that it has been well designed and properly maintained in order to limit
the number of faults that might occur.
Associated with the distribution networks themselves are a number of
ancillary systems to assist in meeting the requirements for safety, reliability and
quality of supply. The most important of these are the protection systems that
are installed to clear faults and limit any damage to distribution equipment.
Among the principal causes of faults are lightning discharges, the deterioration
of insulation, vandalism, and tree branches and animals contacting the elec-
tricity circuits. The majority of faults are of a transient nature and can often be
cleared with no loss of supply or with short interruption time, whereas perma-
nent faults result in longer outages. To avoid damage, suitable protection should
be installed on all circuits and electrical equipment. Protective relays initiate the
isolation of faulted sections of the network in order to maintain supplies else-
where on the system. This then leads to an improved electricity service with
better reliability and quality of supply.
A properly coordinated protection system is vital to ensure that an elec-
tricity distribution network can operate within preset requirements for safety for
individual items of equipment, staff and public, and the network overall.
Automatic operation is necessary to isolate faults on the networks as quickly as
possible in order to minimise damage. The economic costs and the benefits of a
protection system must be considered in order to arrive at a suitable balance
between the requirements of the scheme and the available financial resources. In
addition, minimising the costs of non-distributed energy is receiving increasing
attention.
When providing protective devices on any supply network, the following
basic principles must apply. On the occurrence of a fault or abnormal condition,
the protection system must be capable of detecting it immediately in order to
isolate the affected section, thus permitting the rest of the power system to
2 Protection of electricity distribution networks, 4th edition
remain in service and limiting the possibility of damage to other equipment.
Disconnection of equipment must be restricted to the minimum amount neces-
sary to isolate the fault from the system. The protection must be sensitive
enough to operate when a fault occurs under minimum fault conditions yet be
stable enough not to operate when its associated equipment is carrying the
maximum rated current, which may be a short-time value. It must also be fast
enough to operate in order to clear the fault from the system quickly to minimise
damage to system components and be reliable in operation. Backup protection
to cover the possible failure of the main protection is provided on most circuits
in order to improve the reliability of the protection system. While electro-
mechanical relays can still be found in some utilities, the tendency is to replace
these by microprocessor and numerical relays, particularly in the more complex
protection arrangements.
1.2 Basic principles of electrical systems
The primary aim of any electricity supply system is to meet all customers’
demands for energy. Power generation is carried out wherever it achieves the
most economic selling cost overall. The transmission system is used to transfer
large amounts of energy to major load centres, while distribution systems carry
the energy to the furthest customer, using the most appropriate voltage level.
Where the transport of very large amounts of power over large distances is
involved, an extra-high-voltage (EHV) system, sometimes termed major or
primary transmission, is required. Such systems operate in the 300 kV plus
range, typical values being 400, 500 and 765 kV.
High-voltage (HV) networks transport large amounts of power within a
particular region and are operated as either interconnected systems or discrete
groups. Below the transmission system, there can be two or three distribution
voltage levels to cater for the variety of customers and their demands. In gen-
eral, the medium-voltage (MV) networks and low-voltage (LV) networks are
operated as radial systems.
Figure 1.1 illustrates the interrelation of the various networks. The HV net-
works are supplied from EHV/HV substations that themselves are supplied by
interregional EHV lines. HV/MV transforming substations situated around each
HV network supply individual MV networks. The HV and MV networks provide
supplies direct to large customers, but the vast majority of customers are connected
at LV and supplied via MV/LV distribution substations and their associated net-
works, as shown in Figure 1.2.
The generation/transmission arrangement described above has been however
changed dramatically in the last two decades in particular with the high
development of generation sources connected directly to the distribution systems,
which is termed Distributed Generation. The majority of them involve some type of
renewable sources. When these sources are connected directly on the feeders, they
are termed DERs for its acronym of distributed energy resources which typically
Introduction 3
EHV
EHV/HV
Major HV
substation
HV/MV
HV network
HV/MV
MV
MV
overhead MV cable
network network
To adjacent
MV
network
Urban distribution
Rural MV/LV
distribution LV board
LV network
Generator Circuit breaker Feeder Customer
Transformer Disconnector Fuse
Figure 1.1 EHV/HV/MV/LV network arrangements
are lower to 10 MW. Larger facilities normally are connected to substations at the
transmission system. DERs represent a major change to the operation of the power
systems and certainly their protection has to be considered carefully.
4 Protection of electricity distribution networks, 4th edition
Generation
EHV
Generation
EHV/HV
HV
HV/MV
MV
Consumption
MV/LV
LV
Consumption
Figure 1.2 Block schematic of transmission and distribution systems
1.3 Protection requirements
The protection arrangements for any power system must take into account the
following basic principles:
1. Reliability: the ability of the protection to operate correctly. It has two ele-
ments – dependability, which is the certainty of a correct operation on the
occurrence of a fault, and security, which is the ability to avoid incorrect
operation during faults.
Introduction 5
2. Speed: minimum operating time to clear a fault in order to avoid damage to
equipment.
3. Selectivity: maintaining continuity of supply by disconnecting the minimum
section of the network necessary to isolate the fault.
4. Cost: maximum protection at the lowest cost possible.
Since it is practically impossible to satisfy all the above-mentioned points
simultaneously, inevitably a compromise is required to obtain the optimum pro-
tection system.
1.4 Protection zones
The general philosophy for the use of relays is to divide the system into separate zones,
which can be individually protected and disconnected on the occurrence of a fault, in
order to permit the rest of the system to continue in service wherever possible.
In general, a power system can be divided into protection zones – generators,
transformers, groups of generator transformers, motors, busbars and lines.
Figure 1.3 shows a system with different protection zones. It should be noted that
the zones overlap at some points indicating that if a fault occurs in these overlap
areas, more than one set of protection relays should operate. The overlap is
obtained by connecting the protection relays to the appropriate current transformers
(CTs) as illustrated in Figure 1.4.
1.5 Primary and backup protection
All the elements of the power system must be correctly protected so that the
relays only operate on the occurrence of fault. Some relays, designated as unit
type protection, operate only for faults within their protection zone. Other relays
are able to detect faults both within a particular zone and also outside of it,
usually in adjacent zones, and can be used to back up the primary protection as a
second line of defence. It is essential that any fault is isolated, even if the
associated main protection does not operate. Therefore, wherever possible,
every element in the power system should be protected by both primary and
backup relays.
1.5.1 Primary protection
Primary protection should operate every time an element detects a fault on the
power system. The protection element covers one or more components of the power
system, such as electrical machines, lines and busbars. It is possible for a power
system component to have various primary protection devices. However, this does
not imply that they all have to operate for the same fault, and it should be noted that
the primary protection for one item of system equipment might not necessarily be
installed at the same location as the system equipment; in some cases, it can be
sited in an adjacent substation.
6 Protection of electricity distribution networks, 4th edition
M
~ M
~
Figure 1.3 Protection zones
Busbar protection
Line protection
Figure 1.4 Overlap of protection zones
Introduction 7
1.5.2 Backup protection
Backup protection is installed to operate when, for whatever reason, the primary
protection does not work. To achieve this, the backup protection relay has a sensing
element that may or may not be similar to the primary protection, but that also
includes a time-delay facility to slow down the operation of the relay so as to allow
time for the primary protection to operate first. One relay can provide backup
protection simultaneously to different pieces of system equipment. Equally, the
same equipment can have a number of different backup protection relays, and it is
quite common for a relay to act as primary protection for one piece of equipment
and as backup for another. It is convenient to introduce here the term ‘redundant’,
which is related to backup. Redundant is a duplicate of a protective system. Backup
oversees a protection scheme and its operation necessarily is delayed.
1.6 Directional protection
An important characteristic of some types of protection is their capacity to be able
to determine the direction of the flow of power and, by this means, their ability to
inhibit opening of the associated switch when the fault current flows in the opposite
direction to the setting of the relay. Relays provided with this characteristic are
important in protecting mesh networks, or where there are various generation
sources, when fault currents can circulate in both directions around the mesh. In
these cases, directional protection prevents the unnecessary opening of switchgear
and thus improves the security of the electricity supply. On protection schematic
diagrams, the directional protection is usually represented by an arrow underneath
the appropriate symbol, indicating the direction of current flow for relay operation.
Example 1.1: Using the power system shown in Figure 1.5, examples are given
where there has been incorrect operation of protection and the associated breakers,
leading to the operation of backup protection to isolate the fault from the system,
followed by an example of correct relay operation, with a final example of unne-
cessary relay operation. The directional protection is indicated by the arrows below
the corresponding breakers.
Table 1.1 shows the breakers, which failed to open, and those that were tripped
by the primary protection and by the backup protection.
For fault F1, the protection correctly tripped breaker 4 to open one end of the
faulted feeder. With breaker 3 failing to open, breakers 1 and 2 were tripped by backup
protection to stop fault current flowing into the fault from generators G1 and G2. With
fault F2, when breaker 6 failed to operate, the directional protection on breakers 3 and 8
operated to open the incoming feeders from the adjacent busbars, and the backup
protection on breaker 5 tripped to stop G3 feeding into the fault.
Fault F3 was correctly cleared by the tripping of feeder breaker 10. Fault F4
was correctly cleared by the operation of breaker 11, so that the tripping of breaker
8 Protection of electricity distribution networks, 4th edition
A B C
G2 G3 G4
2 5 9
G1
1 3 4 6 10
F1 F2 F3
7 8 11
F4
Figure 1.5 Power system for Example 1.1
Table 1.1 Relay/breaker operations for Example 1.1
Breakers that Breakers that Tripped by primary Tripped by backup
Case operated maloperated protection protection
F1 1, 2, 4 3 4 1, 2
F2 3, 5, 8 6 – 3, 5, 8
F3 10 – 10 –
F4 8, 11 8 11 –
8 was incorrect. Any fault current flowing along inter-busbar feeder 7–8 before
breaker 11 opened would have been from 7 to 8. Relay 8 is directional and
operation should not have been initiated for flows from 7 to 8. Thus, the first two
cases illustrate maloperation from a dependability point of view, with the last one
illustrating maloperation from a security standpoint.
Exercise 1.1
For the power system arrangement shown in Figure 1.6, complete Table 1.2, taking
into account the operation of the circuit breakers as shown for each fault case.
Please note that, as in Example 1.1, some of the circuit breakers that operated may
have done so unnecessarily.
1.7 Relay models
Modelling of relays is an essential task for the proper operation of any power system.
Relay models provide information about the performance of the protective devices
Introduction 9
G1
A 1
115 kv
G2 2 3 4
F1 29
5 6
10
B 115 kv 115 kv C D 115 kv
9 28
11 12 13 14 7 8
15
20 27
115 kv E F 34.5 kv G 34.5 kv
F3
16 21 22 26
17 18 23 24
115 kv H 34.5 kv F2
I
19 25
G3
Figure 1.6 Schematic diagram for Example 1.1
Table 1.2 Relay/breaker operations for Example 1.1
Breakers that Breakers that Tripped by primary Trip by backup
Case operated maloperated protection protection
F1 2, 3, 4, 5 – 2, 5 –
F2 21, 22, 23, 24, 27 – – –
F3 10, 11, 17, 19 – – –
during abnormal conditions and also provide a big amount of data if they are of
numerical type. The data can be used to recognise patterns under any fault condition
that might help the analysis of the power system. In Chapter 3, the relay operating
principle, main technologies and architectures for protection applications are described
in detail. Numerical relays have the ability to sample the current and voltages signals,
fed by CTs and voltage transformers (VTs) which are then processed by very efficient
algorithms which determine whether or not alarms or tripping conditions are required.
Figure 1.7 shows the blocks that are part of a typical relay model.
10 Protection of electricity distribution networks, 4th edition
Sampling and
Primary current and Protection
phasor conversion
voltages CT and VT models algorithm and Trip signal
(transient models
(sinewaves or phasors) operation threshold
only)
Figure 1.7 Block logic of typical relay model
1.8 Adaptive protection
Distribution systems are subject to different operating conditions or scenarios,
mainly due to the nature of the distributed generation that includes DERs, con-
tinuous loading changes and the permanent topology reconfigurations that dis-
tribution systems experience to keep the requirements of efficiency and reliability.
In these cases, the relays should adapt the settings to make sure that they always
operate properly which can be achieved thanks to what is called as adaptive pro-
tection. This concept considers the system variations and with this information, it
adapts the settings to every condition of the system so to guarantee a proper
operation of the relays.
The different operating scenarios that current distribution systems experience
might produce negative effects that impact the performance of the protection sys-
tems. The effects can include situations like loss of coordination, unsynchronised
reclosing, blinding of protection and reverse power flow, among several others.
These effects can be overcome by using adaptive protection techniques. For this, it
is necessary to guarantee the availability of different setting groups.