Protection of electrical power

systems

TECSUP
 Index

1. Generalities.
2. Philosophy of electrical protection.
3. Failures in electrical power systems.
4. Protection of distribution networks with digital
relay-Protection coordination.
5. Generator protection with digital relay.
6. Transformer protection with digital relay
7. Protection of transmission lines with digital
relay
8. Protection of electric motors with digital relay.

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1. Generalities
 Electrical power system (9)

• Its purpose is to guarantee the regular supply of

electrical energy within its area of application, for
which it must operate by guaranteeing the
supply at minimum cost and with the best use of
energy resources; but, at the same time, it must
comply with the quality levels established in the
corresponding technical standard.

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 Electrical power system (9)

• Consisting of various facilities that must be

interconnected.
• The following components are distinguished:
– Generation (Power Plants and connection facilities
to the Transmission System);
– Transmission (LT and SE (including reactive
compensation equipment); and
– Distribution (Lines, subtransmission SE and
Distribution Networks).

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 Electrical power system (9)

• It must meet the demand for electrical power,

which must be permanently balanced by
generation (supply).
• This equilibrium situation corresponds to steady
state operation; However, disturbances can
occur when the balance of active power or
reactive power in the system is altered, which
will determine changes that lead it to a new
steady state situation.

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 Electrical power system (9)

• It can also be subjected to certain stresses , which

occur as transient events that cause significant
disturbances (overvoltages and/or overcurrents),
which can produce oscillations of the machines,
which must be damped; Otherwise, they will be
dangerous for their operation, affecting their
stability and causing them to be disconnected.

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 Electrical power system (9)

• Transients have been classified into three types,

according to their speed:

– Class A: Ultrafast transients

– Class B: Fast or dynamic transients
– Class C: Moderate transients or quasi-steady state
– Class D: Slow transients or steady state.

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Electrical power system (6)
 Electrical power system (9)
• Operating states :
– Normal, Alert, Emergency and Restoration State.

NORMAL
STATE

STATE OF RESET STATUS

ALERT

STATE OF
EMERGENCY COLLAPSE

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 Electrical power system (9)
• Consequently, the SEP must be designed to meet
the power demand; But, it must also be equipped
with the necessary resources to prevent the
appearance of phenomena; and if they occur, to
control them so that the system can be restored
promptly and does not collapse.

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 Electrical power system (9)
• The resources required by the Power System to
operate with safety, quality and economy are:
– Supervision and Control System (SCADA).
– Protection System.
– Disturbance Registration Systems.
– Energy Measurement System.
– Telecommunications System.

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 Protection system
• It is the electrical system supervision system that
allows detecting:
– Failures in equipment and/or system installations,
– Abnormal system operating conditions and
– Inappropriate state of the equipment
in order to take corrective actions immediately.

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 Aim

1. Isolate faults as soon as possible to minimize

their effects.
2. Alert about abnormal system operating
conditions in order to take preventive actions to
avoid disconnections. According to the severity
of the situation, carry out automatic connection
and/or disconnection operations.
3. Alert about the inappropriate state of the
equipment.

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 Protection relay

• It is a device that receives one or more analog

information (current intensity, voltage,
temperature, pressure, etc.) and transmits a
binary order (closing or opening a command
circuit) , this when the information received
reaches values higher or lower than certain
limits established in advance.

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Multi-line diagram of a scheme
protection

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DC trigger circuit

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 Protection zone (1)

• Part of the power system that is

disconnected when a fault occurs.
• CB, TC's and TP's are installed at the
limits of these zones.
• The delimitation of the zones is
determined by the location of the CTs that
measure the currents entering or leaving
the protection zone.

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 Protection zone (1)

Each zone contains one or more elements of the system.

• Zone1–protection of the generatorand transformer.
• Zone2–protection of the barofAT.
• Zone3–protection of the LT.
• Zone4–protection bar.

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 Protection zone (1)
• Zone 5 – transformer protection.
• Zone 6 – busbar protection.

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 Protection zone (1)
• Each circuit breaker is included in two
neighboring protection zones.
– Circuit breakers help define the boundaries of
the protection zone.
• Important aspect: neighboring areas
overlap.
– This overlay ensures that no part of the system
is left unprotected.

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 Protection zone (1)
• Problem: If a fault occurs within the
overlap zone = larger portion will be
isolated .
. The overlapping region is made as small as
possible.

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 Definition of the zones

• Location of the TC's • Location of the TC's

on both sides of the on one side of the
switch. switch.

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2. Philosophy of
protection
 Protection Philosophy

• SEP protection is divided

into zones.
• Ideally no part of the
system should be
unprotected.

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 Selectivity

• Criterion that consists of

disconnecting the part of
the installation that is
failing.
• The smallest portion of
the electrical system must
be taken out of service
• That is, the protection
closest to the fault must
act first.

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 Protection coordination

• It consists of selecting
and/or adjusting
protection devices,
preventing damage to
the equipment and/or
its spread to other
elements ( selectivity
adjustment ).

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 Protection Philosophy

• The Protection System must be designed to

address the possibility of a double
contingency (failure in the SEP, + failure of the
Protection System).
• For this reason, the following instances are
established:
1. Preventive Protections
2. Protections Incorporated into the Equipment
3. Main Protections
4. Backup Protections

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 Preventive protection

• Use of devices capable of giving alarm signals

before a failure occurs.
• The digital technique uses equipment with the
capacity to monitor the parameters of the
machines in order to give the corresponding
alarms; and even more so, to monitor the
parameters.
• These devices are usually applied individually or
as part of a Control System (SCADA).

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Protections incorporated into the
equipment

They are devices incorporated into the

equipment itself, so that its operating conditions
can be monitored such as: temperatures,
pressures, levels, etc.
These protections are usually defined by the
equipment manufacturers, according to their
design and experience, in order to provide
guarantees for supplies.

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 Main protection

• It constitutes the first line of defense of the

Protection System and must act as quickly as
possible (instant).
• In some cases, the protection system has two
redundant protections called Primary and
Secondary Protection.
• The action of both (Primary and Secondary) is
simultaneous and no coordination is necessary.

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 Redundanc
y

• The redundancy of protection can be total

or partial.
• In the first case, it is required to have a
duplication of all the components.

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 Full
redundancy
• Two protection relays.
• Two switch control coils.
• Two sets of TP's.
• Two sets of TC's.
• Two communication links
between the relays of
different stations
• Two power supplies
protection circuits
• Two sets of control cables

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 Partial redundancy

• However, sometimes it is not very practical to

duplicate all the components, so it must be done
on the essential elements.
• For example: you can have a single set of TCs,
but two different secondary ones are used; and if
only one secondary of the TPs is used, in this
case a partial duplication can be done by
segregating the circuits at the output of the TPs.

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 Backup protections (3)

• They constitute the second instance of protection

action and must have a delay in time, in order to
allow the action of the primary and/or secondary
protection in the first instance.
• This behavior implies carrying out a Coordination
of Protections in order to obtain better
performance of the Protection System.

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 Backup protections (3)

• Secondary Protection should not be confused

with Backup Protection. Secondary Protection
must be designed to act in the first instance and
does not need to wait for Primary Protection.
• Secondary Protection does not replace Backup
Protection; However, in the case of power plants
it plays the role of backup due to the fact that it is
another independent device.

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Backup protections (3)

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Operation of systems
protection
 Operation of systems
protection

• As mentioned, the protection action consists of

opening the switches to isolate the area where the
fault occurred; However, to fulfill their mission,
Protection Systems sometimes operate in a
different way, which may have different instances
or procedures, which must be applied in
accordance with good engineering practice.

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 a) Protection relays as part of
regulation automation

A practice used in the design of Protection

Systems consists of using relays as part of
•

regulation automation.
For example , to start the fans of a power transformer
when detecting a temperature rise.
Another case: when the relay is used to control the voltage;
•

for example, to operate the on-load switch of a power

transformer.
•

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 b) Action levels of the relays
Protection

1. Alarm.
2. Shot.

• In the design of the Protection Systems,

action levels of the protection relays can be
applied. In this way, at least two basic levels
can be established, which are:

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 c) Automatic
Reclosing
• The most frequent thing in the SEP are failures
in the LTs, which are usually temporary in
nature, once the insulation of the faulted area
has been recovered, and after a reasonable
period of time, it is possible to re-energize the
installation because the fault has missing.
• For this reason, it is common practice, in the
protection of LTs, to perform an automatic
reclosing. These reclosings can be unipolar
and/or three-polar.

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 d) Opening and Locking

• In the event of a failure in a part of the installation

where the insulation is not regenerative, the
switches are opened to isolate the protected
area; In addition, the closure is blocked to allow
the status of the equipment to be reviewed and
the insulation to be re-energized.
– The tripping and blocking procedure is used in the cases of
transformers, reactors, capacitors, bars and switches.

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Systems Behavior
of protection
 Characteristics

• A Protection System (SP) must have several

behavioral characteristics so that it can ensure
full compliance with its functions. The main ones
are:
- Sensitivity
– Selectivity
- Speed
– Reliability (“ dependability ”)
- Security
– Registration Capacity

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 Sensitivity

• It is the ability to detect a failure, no matter how

small or incipient it may be.
• The greatest sensitivity is the ability to
differentiate a failure situation from a situation of
non-existence of failure.

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 Selectivity

• It is the ability to detect a fault within the

protection zone.
• The greatest selectivity comes from the
ability to rule out a fault close to the
protection zone.

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Speed

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 It is the ability to respond with minimal time.

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The need to have a rapid response is related to
minimizing damage due to failure.

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 Reliability (“ dependability ”)

• It is the ability to act correctly when necessary,

even when transient voltages and currents occur
under fault conditions that may impair the ability
to detect the fault.

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 Security

• It is the ability not to act when it is not

necessary, even when transient voltages
and currents occur under fault conditions,
which may cause errors in the
discrimination of the fault within the
protection zone.

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 Recording Capacity

• It is the ability to store information related

to the failure with the purpose of providing
failure data.

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