Differential Protection

 Introduction
 Differential protection is a method of protection in which an internal fault
is identified by comparing the electrical conditions at the terminal of the
electrical equipment to be protected.

 "A differential relay responds to vector difference between two or more

similar electrical quantities". From this definition the following 'aspects
are known:

1. The differential relay has at least two actuating quantities say I1, I2,
[Link] two or more actuating quantities should be similar i.e.
current/current.
3. The relay responds to the vector difference between the two i.e. to
I1 – I2, which includes magnitude and/or phase angle difference.
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 Differential…
 Differential protection is generally unit protection. The protected zone is
exactly determined by location of CT's or VTs. The vector difference is
achieved by suitable connections of current transformer or voltage
transformer secondary's.

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 Differential…
 Applications of Differential Protection

I. Protection of Generator, Protection of Generator-Transformer Unit.

II. Protection of Transformer.

III. Protection of Feeder (Transmission Line) by Pilot wire differential

protection.

IV. Protection of transmission Line by Phase Comparison Carrier Current

Protection.

V. Protection of large motors.

VI. Bus-zone protection.

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 Differential…
 Types of Differential Relays

 A differential relay is a suitably connected over current relay which

operates when the phasor difference of currents at the two ends of a
protected element exceeds a predetermined value.

I. Simple (basic) differential relay

II. Percentage (biased) differential relay

III. Balanced (opposed) voltage differential relay

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 Differential…
 Types of Differential Protection

I. Simple (basic) differential Protection

II. Percentage (biased) differential Protection

III. Balanced (opposed) voltage differential Protection

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 Differential…
 Simple ( basic) Differential Relay or Merz‐Price Protection Scheme

 A simple differential relay is also called basic differential relay.

 A simple differential relay is an over current relay having operating coil

only which carries the phasor difference of currents at the two ends of a
protected element.

 It operates when the phasor of secondary currents of the CTs at the two
ends of the protected element are connected together by a pilot wire
circuit.

 The operating coil of the over current relay is connected at the middle of
the pilot wires.

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 Differential…
 Simple ( basic) Differential Relay or Merz‐Price Protection Scheme

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 Merz‐Price …
 Behavior of Simple Differential Protection during Normal Condition

 Figure illustrates the principle of simple differential protection employing

a simple differential relay..

 The CTs are of such a ratio that their secondary currents are equal under
normal conditions or for external (through) faults.

 Under normal conditions the secondary currents I1s and I2s of CT1 and CT2
respectively are equal to the secondary load current I’L.

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 Merz‐Price…
 The secondary currents, under normal conditions simply circulate
through the secondary windings of the two CTs and the pilot leads
connecting them, and there is no current through the spill or difference
circuit , where the instantaneous over current (OC) relay is connected.

 Hence, the OC relay does not operate to trip the circuit breakers (CBs).
Since the currents circulate in the CT secondary's this differential
protection scheme is called “ circulating current differential protection
scheme or “ Merz-Price protection scheme.

 The boundaries of the protected zone is determined by the locations of the

CTs.

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 Merz‐Price…
 Behavior of Simple Differential Protection during External Fault

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 Percentage …

 I1 = current entering the protected zone = IF

I2 = current leaving the protected zone = IF

hence, I1 = I2 = IF

and through fault current = (I1+I2)/2 = IF

I1s= I2s = IF/n

where n = CT ratio

secondary value of through fault current = (I1s+I2s)/2 = I‘F

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 Merz‐Price…
 Behavior of Simple Differential Protection during Internal Fault

 If the differential currents (I1s-I2s) is higher than the pick-up value of the
over current relay, the relay will operate and both the circuit breakers will
be tripped out isolating the protected equipment from the system.

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 Merz‐Price…
 Disadvantages of Simple Differential Protection Scheme

 Difference in length of Pilot wires.

 CT ratio errors during short circuits.

 Saturation of magnetic circuits of CT’s under short circuit condition.

 Magnetizing current inrush at the switching instant.

 Tap cahinging.

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 Percentage or Biased Differential Relay

 The disadvantage of moloperation of the simple differential relay due to

CT errors during heavy external (through) faults is overcome by using
percentage differential relay which is also called biased differential relay.

 Percentage differential relay provides high sensitivity to light internal

faults with high security (high restraint) for external faults and makes
differential protection scheme more reliable.

 The schematic diagram of the percentage (biased) differential relay is

shown in figure.

 This relay has two coils. One coil is known as restraining coil or bias coil
which restrains (inhibits) the operation of the relay.

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15
 Percentage …

 The another coil is the operating coil which produces the operating torque
for the relay.

 When the operating torque exceeds the restraining torque, the relay
operates. The operating coil is connected to the mid-point of the
restraining coil as shown in figure.

 Nr and No are the total number of turns of the restraining coil and the
operating coil respectively.

 Since the restraining coil is tapped at the centre, it forms two sections
with equal number of turns, Nr/2.

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 Percentage …

 The restraining coil is connected in the circulating current path in such a

way that current I1s flows through one section of Nr/2 turns and I2s flows
through the another section of Nr/2, so that the complete restraining coil
of Nr turns receives the through fault current of (I1s+I2s)/2.

 The operating coil, having No number of turns is connected in the

difference (spill) path, so that it receives the differential (spill) current,
(I1s-I2s).

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 Percentage …

 The operating condition of the percentage differential relay can be derived

as follows:

 The relay operates if the operating torque produced by the operating coil
is more than the restraining torque produced by the restraining coil.

 As the torque is proportional to the ampere-turns (AT), the relay will

operate when the ampere-turns of the operating coil (AT)o, will be greater
than ampere-turns of the restraining coil, (AT)r.

Ampere-turns of the left-hand section of the restraining coil = (Nr/2) I1s.

Ampere-turns of the right-hand section of the restraining coil = (Nr/2) I2s

Total ampere-turns of the restraining coil, (AT)r = (Nr/2) (I1s+I2s)

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 Percentage …

 Thus it can be assumed that the entire Nr turns of the restraining coil
carries a current (I1s+I2s)/2.

 The current (I1s+I2s)/2 which is the average of the secondary currents of

the two CTs (CT1 and CT2) is known as the ‘through current’ or restraining
current, Ir. Hence

Ir = (I1s+I2s)/2

the ampere turns of the operating coil, (AT)o = No (I1s-I2s)

Neglecting spring restraint, the relay will operate when,

(AT)o > (AT)r

or No (I1s-I2s) > Nr (I1s+I2s)/2

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or (I1s-I2s) > (Nr /No) (I1s+I2s)/2

I d = K Ir

where, Id = (I1s-I2s) is the differential current through the operating coil.

Hence it is also called the differential operating current.

Ir = (I1s+I2s)/2 is the restraining current or through current,

and K = Nr/No = slope or bias

K ( slope or bias) is generally expressed as a percentage value.

The relay will be on the verge of operation when:

(I1s-I2s) = (Nr/No) (I1s+I2s)/2

or Id = K Ir (K or slope = 10%, 20%, 30% and 40% )

the slope (K) of the relay determines the trip zone.

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 Percentage …

 Thus, at the threshold of operation of the relay, the ratio of the differential
operating current (Id) to the restraining current (Ir) is a fixed percentage;
and for operation of the relay the differential operating current must be
greater than this fixed percentage of the restraining (through fault)
current. Hence this relay is called ‘percentage differential’ relay. The
percentage differential relay is also known as ‘biased differential relay’ .

 Under normal and external fault conditions, the restraining torque

produced by the restraining coil is greater than the operating torque
produced by the operating coil, hence the relay is inoperative. When the
internal fault occurs, the operating torque becomes more than the
restraining torque and the relay operates.

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 Percentage …

 The percentage differential relay does not have a fixed pick-up value. The
relay automatically adapts its pick-up value to the restraining (through)
current.

 As the restraining current goes on increasing, the restraining torque also

increases and the relay is prevented from maloperation.

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 Percentage …
 Characteristics

 It can be seen that except at low currents the characteristics is a straight

line. Thus the ratio of the differential operating current to the average
restraining current is a fixed percentage. Hence the relay name is
percentage differential relay.
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 Percentage …
 Stability Characteristics

 It can be seen that except at low currents the characteristics is a straight

line. Thus the ratio of the differential operating current to the average
restraining current is a fixed percentage. Hence the relay name is
percentage differential relay. 24
 Stability Characteristics

 The point of intersection of the relay and internal fault characteristics

gives the minimum internal fault current required for the correct
operation of the relay (IF min).

 The point of intersection of the relay and external fault characteristics

gives the maximum external fault current ( IF max) is known as “through
fault stability limit”.

 Stability ratio (s) = IF max /IF min

 The immunity of the percentage differential relay to moloperation on

external (through) fault can be increased by increasing the slope of the
characteristics. Hence it is universally used to protect generators and
transformers. 25
 Settings of Percentage Differential Relay
i. Basic setting or sensitivity setting

 % basic setting is the ratio of Minimum current in operating coil only to

cause operation (bias is zero) to the rated current of the operating coil .

 10% - 20 % for generators and 20% for transformers

ii. Bias setting (k)

 It is the ratio of the number of turns in the restraining coil (Nr) to the
turns in the operating coil (No). Or

N ( I 1s  I 2 s )
% Bias (k) = r  100 =  100
No ( I 1s  I 2 s ) / 2

 10% for generators and 20%-40% for transformers.

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 Balanced (Opposed) Voltage Differential Protection

 The differential relays with CT’s currents are suitable only when the
protected elements are closed together like generators and transformers.

 Incase of feeder due to long distance the secondary emf’s of the CT’s
would be circulate about 1 or 5 A at full load or several times the current
during external fault condition, round a pilot loop of fairly high impedance.

 In this case, the secondary's of the CTs (CT1 and CT2) are connected in
such a way that under normal operating conditions and during external
faults, the secondary currents of CTs on two sides oppose each other and
their voltages are balanced. Hence no current flows in pilot wires and
relays.

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 During internal fault , however, a differential current proportional to (I1-I2)
in case of single end fed system and proportional to (I1+I2) in case of
double-end-fed system flows through the relay coils.

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 If the differential current flowing through the relay coils is higher than the
pick-up value, the relays operate to isolate the protected equipment from
the system.

 Since no current flows through the secondary's of CTs under normal

operating conditions, the whole of the primary ampere-turns are used in
exciting the CTs. This creates large flux causing saturation of CTs and
inducing high over voltages which can damage the insulation of CT
secondary's.

 For this reason, the CTs used in such protective scheme are air-core type
so that the core does not get saturated and overvoltage's are not induced
during zero secondary current under normal operating mode.
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