Lecture 2

PRINCIPLES OF POWER SYSTEM

PROTECTION

‫ سعدي عبد الحميد السيد‬: ‫األستاذ الدكتور‬

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 Primary Equipment & Components

• Transformers - to step up or step down voltage level

• Breakers - to energize equipment and interrupt fault
current to isolate faulted equipment
• Insulators - to insulate equipment from ground and other
phases
• Isolators (switches) - to create a visible and permanent
isolation of primary equipment for maintenance purposes
and route power flow over certain buses.
• Bus - to allow multiple connections (feeders) to the same
source of power (transformer). 3
Primary Equipment & Components

• Grounding - to operate and maintain equipment safely

• Arrester - to protect primary equipment of sudden
overvoltage (lightning strike).
• Switchgear – integrated components to switch, protect,
meter and control power flow
• Reactors - to limit fault current (series) or compensate for
charge current (shunt)
• VT and CT - to measure primary current and voltage and
supply scaled down values to P&C, metering, SCADA, etc.
• Regulators - voltage, current, VAR, phase angle, etc. 4
 Zones and types of Protection system

• An electric power system is divided into several

zones of protection. Each zone of protection, contains
one or more components of a power system in
addition to one or two circuit breakers.
• When a fault occurs within the boundary of a
particular zone, then the protection system responsible
for the protection of the zone acts to isolate (by tripping
the Circuit Breakers) every equipment within that
zone from the rest of the system.
• The circuit Breakers are inserted between the component
of the zone and the rest of the power system. Thus, the
location of the circuit breaker helps to define the boundaries
of the zones of protection
▪ Different neighboring zones of protection are made to
overlap each other, which ensure that no part of the
power system remains without protection. However,
occurrence of the fault with in the overlapped region will
initiate a tripping sequence of different circuit breakers
so that the minimum necessary to disconnect the faulty
element.
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zone 2 relays alone opening the circuit breaker would clear faults between the
two CTs from the left fault source. The relays at the remote right source must
also be opened for these faults. The operation of the zone 1 relays is not
required, but it cannot be prevented.
Ideally, the zones of
protection should overlap, so that no
part of the power system is left
unprotected. This is shown in Figure
(a), the circuit breaker being included
in both zones.
A fault at F would cause the busbar
protection to operate and open the
circuit breaker but the fault may
continue to be fed through the feeder.
If the feeder protection is of the type
that responds only to faults within its
own zone), it would not operate, since
the fault is outside its zone.
Types of Protection (Primary and Back-up Protection)

1- Primary Protection

The primary protection scheme ensures fast and selective

clearing of any fault within the boundaries the zone.
Primary Protection is provided for each section of an
electrical installation.
However, the primary protection may fail.

The failure of the Primary Protection system can caused

in any of the following :
1. Current or voltage supply to the relay.
2. D.C. tripping voltage supply
3. Protective relays
4. Tripping circuit
5. Circuit Breaker
2- Back-up Protection
Back-up protection is the protection which backs the
primary protection whenever the later fails in operation.
The back-up protection by definition is slower than the
primary protection system. The design of the back-up
protection needs to be coordinated with the design of the
primary protection The backup protection is normally
different from main protection and preferably of non-unit
type system.
The arrangement of back up protective scheme should be
such that the failure in main protection should not the
failure in bark up protection as well.
This is satisfied if back up relaying and primary relaying do
not have anything common with primary protection.
Hence generally backup protection is located at different
stations from the primary protection. The backup protection
is employed only for the protection against short circuit and
not for any other abnormal conditions.
Name the methods of backup protection.
• Relay Backup Protection
• Breaker Backup Protection
• Remote Backup Protection
• Centrally Co-Coordinated Backup Protectio

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Protection can be classified into unit and non unit protection:

Unit Protection System: able to detect and response to faults

within the Protection Zone (defined by location of CT) as in
differential protection

• Non-unit Protection System: depends on correlated and

coordinated responses to establish selectivity (i.e. Time-
Overcurrent)
Elements(components) of protection system

(1)Current and Voltage Transformers

(2)Relays
(3)Circuit breakers
(4)Batteries
(5)Fuses
(6)Lighting Arresters
Proactive frequency control for high renewables penetrated power systems 19
Components of Protection Schemes
1- Current Transformer (CT)
⮚ A device which transforms the current on the power system from
large primary values to safe secondary values. The secondary
current will be proportional to the primary current.
⮚ Current transformer consists at least of two secondary windings.
• The first winding is usually designed for measuring, the second
is used for protection.
• The secondary of current transformers are almost connected in
star
2-Voltage transformer
• Voltage transformer is often consists of two
windings.
• The first winding is connected in star, and the
stare point must be earthed.
• The second winding is connected as open delta.

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3- CIRCUIT BREAKER
• Low voltage circuit breaker
• Magnetic circuit breaker
• Medium voltage circuit breaker
• High voltage circuit breaker

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4- Protective relays

Protective Relays monitor the current and/or

voltage of the power system to detect problems
with the power system. Currents and voltages to
relays are supplied via CT’s and PT’s.
When the protective relays have detected a fault, they
send trip signals to the circuit breaker or breakers,
which in turn clear the fault from the system.
Advantages for Using Protective Relays
• Detect system failures when they occur and isolate
the faulted section from the remaining of the system.
• Mitigating the effects of failures after they occur.
• Minimize risk of fire, danger to personal and other
high voltage systems.
Enhanced Performance Provided by Digital
Relays
1- Better accuracy of protection function
measurements i.e. less margin required for
measuring errors (time, current, voltage,
impedance, phase angle)
2- True RMS sensing and unaffected by transient
components of fault voltage and current signals
3- Tuning or rejection of non-power frequency
currents in sensitive earth fault protection
Enhanced Performance Provided by
Digital Relays Continue

4- Complete catalogue of timing functions

5- Result better protection coverage, shorter
operating times, better load carrying
capability and enhanced security
What are the Important Aspects of Protection Systems?
(Essential Qualities of protection or Requirement of
Protective System )
1- Reliability: The level of assurance that the
relay will function as intended.
Reliability denotes:
▫ Dependability: certainly of correct device/relay
operation: (must operate when required)
▫ Security: assurance against incorrect
device/relay operation (should not operate
unnecessarily) 34
Over a period of 1 year, it is observed that a
relaying system tripped 12 times correctly,
twice incorrectly and third failed to trip when
desired. Then, it’s
dependability = 12/15 %,
security = 2/17 % and
reliability = (12/15)(2/17) %

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2- Selectivity and Discrimination
The selectivity is the ability of the protective system to
identify the faulty part correctly and disconnect that
part without affecting the rest of healthy part of system.
Selectivity (also known as relay coordination) is the process
of applying and setting the protective relays that operate as fast
as possible within their primary zone, but have delayed
operation in their backup zone.
Operation of the backup protection is incorrect and
undesirable unless the primary protection of that
area fails to clear the fault. Consequently,
selectivity or relay coordination is important to
assure maximum service continuity with minimum
system disconnection
The discrimination is the ability to distinguish
between normal condition and abnormal condition
and also between abnormal condition within
protective zone and elsewhere. The protective
system should operate only at the time of abnormal
condition and not at the time of normal condition..
3- Speed and Time

Protective system must disconnect the faulty system as fast

as possible.

Relay speed is especially important when the protected

facility exists in a stability sensitive area of the power
system network.
Faster fault clearing reduces the amount that
generators can accelerate during the fault and,
therefore, improves stability margins.
The total time required between the instant of fault and the
instant of final arc interruption in the circuit breaker is
called fault clearing time.
It should be as small as possible to have high speed
operation. It consists of:-
a) The Relay Time : This is the time between the instant of
occurrence of the fault to the
instant at which the relay contacts open.
b) The Breaker Time: This is the time between the instant
of closing of relay contacts to the instant of final arc
extinction inside the medium and removal of the fault.
4- Sensitivity
The sensitivity of the system is the ability of the relay to
operate with low value of actuating quantity.
It indicates the smallest value of the actuating quantity at
which the protection starts operating in relation with the
minimum value of the fault current in the protected zone.
In case of an overcurrent , mathematically this can be
defined as the ratio between the short circuit fault
current (Is) and the relay operating current (Io). The
value of Io , should not be too small or large so that the relay
is either too sensitive or slow in responding
A distribution system feeder has typical
unbalance of 10 % and maximum load
current of 1000A, then the setting of earth
fault should be large than ………….A
sensitivity of earth fault = /
over current protection will be limited to … …A

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The relay sensitivity is the function of the volt-amperes input to
the relay coil necessary to cause its operation (Burden). Smaller
the value of volt-ampere input, more sensitive is the relay. Thus 1
VA input relay is more sensitive than the 5VA input relay.

5- Stability: It is the quality of any protection system to remain

stable within a set of defined operating procedures. i.e. stable
towards switching transients

6- Simplicity “Avoid unnecessary complications to the system”.

Each added unit or component, which may offer enhancement of
the protection, but is not necessarily basic to the protection
requirements, should be considered very carefully.
7- Adequateness
It is economically unviable to have a 100% protection
of the entire system in concern. Therefore, the cost of
the designed protection system varies with the
criticality and importance of the protected zone. The
protection system for more critical portions is generally
costly, as all the features of a good protection system is
maximized here. But a small motor can be protected by
a simple thermally operated relay, which is simple and
cheap. Therefore, the cost of the protection system
should be adequate in its cost
The adequateness of the system can be assessed by
considering following factors,

1. Ratings of various equipment's

2. Cost of the equipment's
3. Locations of the equipment's
4. Probability of abnormal condition due to internal and
external causes.
5. Discontinuity of supply due to the failure of the
equipment
8- Economics:

It is fundamental to obtain the maximum protection for the

minimum cost. The lowest-priced, initial-cost-protective system
may not be the most reliable one. Protection costs are considered
high when considered alone, but they should be evaluated in the
light of the higher cost of the equipment they are protecting, and
the cost of an outage or loss of the protected equipment through
improper protection. Saving to reduce the first costs can result in
spending many more times of this saving to repair or replace
equipment damaged or lost because of inadequate or improper
protection.
The factors which affect qualities of any protection
system depends on some of the following few
factors.
 Quality of Component used
 Maintenance schedule
 The supply and availability of spare parts and
stocks
 The design principle
 Electrical and mechanical stress to which the
protected part of the system is subjected to.
Factors Affecting The Protection Relaying

There are four major factors that influence protective

relaying:
1- Economics
2- The ‘‘Personality’’ of the relay engineer and the
characteristics of the power system.
3- Location and availability of disconnecting and isolating
devices [circuit breakers, switches, and input devices (CTs
and VTs)]
4- Available fault indicators (fault studies).