EE483-Power System Protection

Dr. E. A. Feilat
Electrical Engineering Department
School of Engineering
The University of Jordan

Topic 7: Pilot Protection

1
 Introduction
 Alternating-current lines are commonly classified by function,
which is related to voltage level. Although there are no utility-
wide standards, typical classifications are as follows:
 Distribution (0.4 to 34.5 kV). Circuits transmitting power to the final
users.
 Sub transmission (13.8 to 138 kV). Circuits transmitting power to
distribution substations and to bulk loads.
 Transmission (69 to 765 kV). Circuits transmitting power between
major substations or interconnecting systems, and to wholesale outlets.
Transmission lines are further divided into:
• Low Voltage (LV):≤ 1 kV, 1kV < (MV) ≤ 69
• High-voltage (HV): 69 to 230 kV
• Extra-high-voltage (EHV): 345 to 765 kV
• Ultra-high-voltage (UHV): greater than 765 kV
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 Introduction
 Transmission lines Protection must be compatible with the
Protection of all the equipment they connect.
 Requires co-ordination of settings, operation times, etc.
 Directionality associated with the design of the power system
 A radial system can have fault current flowing only one direction
 A network can have fault current flowing in either direction
 Length of the line has direct effect on the setting of the relays
 Relays are applied to protect a given line segment and back up adjacent line
segments
 Difficult to distinguish between a fault at the end of a line and the beginning
of the next
 Voltage class must be also considered when applying a relay
system
 The higher voltage levels would have more complex relay systems
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 Protection Type Selection
 Most faults experienced in a power system occur on the lines
connecting generating sources with usage points. Just as these
circuits vary widely in their characteristics, configurations,
length, and relative importance, so do their Protection and
techniques.
 There are several protective techniques commonly used for line
Protection:
 Instantaneous over current
 Time over current
 Step time over current
 Inverse time distance
 Directional instantaneous and / or time over current
 Zone distance
 Pilot relaying
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 Line Classification
 Radial Lines or Feeders
 Only one positive-sequence source.
 Possible zero-sequence contribution to ground faults from both ends.
 Distribution lines without synchronous motor load.

 Looped Lines
 Positive-sequence sources at both ends.
 Trip both ends.
 Transmission and some distribution lines

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 Transmission Line Protection 6

How Do We Protect Transmission Lines?

 Overcurrent (50, 51, 50N, 51N)
 Directional Overcurrent (67, 67N)
 Distance (Impedance) (21, 21N)
 Pilot Wire Protection
 Line Current Differential (87)
 Transmission Line Protection
 Overcurrent Protection
 Non-Directional
 Relay responds to overcurrent condition
 Instantaneous (IOC) device #50

 No intentional time delay

 Time Overcurrent (TOC) device #51

 Various curve types, including
 inverse,
 very inverse,
 extremely inverse

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Protection Types of Distribution and Transmission lines
 Over current Protection:
 the simplest, most economical protection type
 has found widespread use in distribution utility and industrial systems
 limited to radial lines
 the addition of directionality extends the application of over current
Protection to looped lines.
 Distance Protection:
 used in many transmission lines.
 to increase operating speed, a communications channel can be used to
exchange information between directional or distance elements.
 this type of arrangement is directional comparison pilot Protection.

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 Protection Types
 Differential Protection:
 can be applied to transmission lines over a communications channel.
This arrangement offers the best Protection.

 Historically, the current-balance principle served to protect

parallel transmission lines. This principle involved comparing
the magnitudes of the currents of both lines. A fault at one of
the lines created a difference between these currents.

 A variant of the differential principle is the phase comparison

principle, in which we compare the phase angles of the currents
at both line ends.

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 10
Pilot wire differential Protection
 Protection of Cables and Short Lines
 Pilot protection schemes use communication
channels to send information from the local relay
terminal to the remote relay terminal, thereby allowing
high-speed tripping for faults occurring within 100%
of the protected line.

 Pilot wire protection: Pilot protection in which a

metallic circuit is used for the communications
channel between relays at the circuit terminals.
BUS
BUS

Local Remote
Relay Relay

Communication
Channel
 Distance Protection
• For the radial system, disregarding the influence of load, the
fault current in each phase is balanced and is equal to the
phase current measured by the relays at the substation.
This current depends on the following parameters:
• System voltage
• Line impedance
• Distance to the fault
• Thevenin impedance equivalent to the system “behind” the
substation bus

The Thevenin impedance depends on the conditions of the

system, such as the topology and system loading.

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 Distance Protection
 This relay is called impedance or “under-impedance” relay because the
relay design is such that the relay operates for an impedance condition.
The relay measures or “sees” a given impedance, equal to the ratio of the
applied sinusoidal voltage and the applied sinusoidal current.
 The advantages of the application of a distance relay in comparison to
that of an overcurrent relay are:
 Greater instantaneous trip coverage
 Greater sensitivity (overcurrent relays have to be set above twice
load current)
 Easier setting calculation and coordination
 Fixed zone of Protection, relatively independent of system changes,
requiring less setting maintenance
 Higher independence of load

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 Distance Protection

Impedance Representation:

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 Distance Protection

Impedance Representation:

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 Distance Protection

Need for Directionality

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 Distance Protection

Need for Directionality

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 Distance Protection

MHO Relay (Directional Impedance relay)

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 Distance Protection

• This example shows the calculations involved in the

determination of a simple impedance relay setting.

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 Distance Protection
• This example shows the calculations involved in the
determination of a simple impedance relay setting referred to
the secondary circuit.

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Distance Relay Timing and Coordination

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Three Zone Distance Protection

21
Distance Protection

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 Distance Protection
 This form of polygonal impedance characteristic is provided with forward
reach and resistive reach settings that are independently adjustable. It
therefore provides better resistive coverage than any mho-type
characteristic for short lines.
 This is especially true for earth fault impedance measurement, where the
arc resistances and fault resistance to earth contribute to the highest values
of fault resistance. To avoid excessive errors in the zone reach accuracy, it
is common to impose a maximum resistive reach in terms of the zone
impedance reach.

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 Distance Protection
Under-Reach - Effect of Remote Infeed
• A distance relay is said to under-reach when the impedance presented to it
is apparently greater than the impedance to the fault.

Percentage under-reach is defined as:

ZR = intended relay reach (relay reach setting)

ZF = effective reach

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 Distance Protection
Under-Reach - Effect of Remote Infeed
The main cause of underreaching is the effect of fault current infeed at remote
busbars. This is best illustrated by an example.

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 Distance Protection
Under-Reach - Effect of Remote Infeed
The main cause of underreaching is the effect of fault current infeed at remote busbars.
This is best illustrated by an example.

The relay at A will not measure the

Correct impedance for a fault on line section
ZC due to current infeed IB.

Consider a relay setting of ZA+ZC.

For a fault at point f, the relay is presented
with an Impedance:

So for relay balance:

Therefore the effective reach is:

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 Distance Protection
Under-Reach - Effect of Remote Infeed

• It is clear from the Equations that the relay will underreach.

• It is relatively easy to compensate for this by increasing the

reach setting of the relay, but care has to be taken. Should
there be a possibility of the remote infeed being reduced or
zero, the relay will then reach further than intended.

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 Distance Protection

Over-Reach
• A distance relay is said to over-reach when the apparent
impedance presented to it is less than the impedance to the
fault.
Percentage over-reach is defined by the equation:

ZR = intended relay reach (relay reach setting)

ZF = effective reach

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 Distance Protection

Over-Reach (Effect of Out Feed Problem)

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Three-Step Distance Protection

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 Pilot Protection
 Pilot Protection (or teleProtection) is a generic name for the design
of different transmission line Protection alternatives that use a
communications channel.
• The most important advantage of pilot Protection is the provision of
high speed tripping (permission) or to prevent high speed tripping
(blocking) at all terminals for faults anywhere on the line.
• Without pilot Protection, high-speed tripping for all terminals will
only occur for faults that are within the area where the zone 1
elements overlap.
• Pilot protection allows over-reaching zones of protection to ensure
full protection of the line as well as high speed tripping.
 Pilot Protection is typically applied to transmission lines with
nominal voltage levels of 115 kV and greater.

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 Pilot Protection

Directional Comparison ( V, I )
Phase Comparison (I)
Differential (I)

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 Pilot Protection
 It is an adaptation of the principles of differential relaying that
prevents the use of control cable between terminals.
 Pilot refers to a communication channel between the ends of a line to
provide instantaneous clearing over 100% of the line.
 The communication channels generally used are:
 Power line carrier,
 Microwave
 Communication cable
 Fiber optics.

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 Applications of Unit Protection
Balanced Voltage Systems are used on feeder systems where CT’s
are away from one another with independent relays at both ends

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 Fault fed from Both ends

A B

• An internal fault fed from A and B increases the current in primary winding
(11) and (11a) with a corresponding current reversal in (11a)
• This results in the induced voltage in (12a) adding to that in (12) - producing an
operating torque in both discs - tripping both ends

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 Differential Protection of Transmission Lines
 The ideal way of protecting any piece of power system equipment is to
compare the current entering that piece of equipment, with the current leaving
it.
 Under normal healthy conditions the two are equal. If the two currents are not
equal, then a fault must exist. This is the principle of “Differential
Protection”, which is commonly used in TX Protection.

 The current differential relay is a unit protection intended for overhead lines
and underground cables

L IL IR R

T Communications R
Relays Relays
R Channel T

Exchange of logic information 36

on relay status
 Channel of Communication
 The data is digitised before being sent over an optical fibre.
 The comparison is on a per phase basis.

Direct optical fibre link – up to about 2 – 20 km, depending

on the type of optical fibre. Used mainly for cables

For cables only

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Power Line Carrier

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 Pilot Protection
 For comparison purposes, Pilot Protection can be divided
into two groups,
• Directional comparison systems
• Current-only systems.
1. Directional comparison Protection uses the channel to exchange
information on the status of directional or distance elements at both
terminals. If both elements operate, there is an internal fault.
2. If one of the elements operates and the other restrains, the fault is
outside the protected line.

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 Pilot Protection (Directional comparison)
 Directional comparison Pilot Protection schemes are designed
around sending one bit of data across the teleProtection channel at
very high speed.
 In some schemes, this one bit tells the other end that it has permission
to trip (permissive).
 In other schemes, the bit represents a signal to tell the other end not to
trip (block).
There are many variations but the most prevalent Intertripping Schemes
are the following:
 Direct Underreaching Transfer Trip (DUTT)
 Permissive Overreaching Transfer Trip (POTT)
 Permissive Underreaching Transfer Trip (PUTT)
 Directional Comparison Blocking (DCB)
 Directional Comparison Unblocking (DCUB)

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 Pilot Protection (Directional comparison)
1. Direct Underreaching Transfer Trip (DUTT)
• When the zone 1 unit of the relays operate, they initiate a signal that is sent
along the communications link to trigger an immediate tripping at the other end
of the line.
• The scheme is simple and has the advantage of being extremely fast; however,
it has the disadvantage that it may set off undesirable circuit breaker tripping if
there is any maloperation of the communication equipment.

Zone 1

Bus Bus
Line

Zone 1

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 Pilot Protection (Directional comparison)
2. Permissive Underreaching Transfer Trip (PUTT)
• This scheme is similar to the DUTT scheme, but differs in that
the zone 2 unit at the receiving end has to detect the fault as well
before the trip signal is initiated.
Zone 2

Zone 1
To protect end of
line
Bus Bus
Line

Zone 1

Zone 2

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 Pilot Protection (Directional comparison)

3. Permissive Overreaching Transfer Trip (POTT)

 At the minimum, a POTT scheme requires a forward overreaching
element at each end of the line. This is typically provided by a Zone 2
element set to reach about 120%-150% of the line length. If each relay sees
the fault in the forward direction, then the fault can be determined to be
internal to the protected line.
Zone 2

Zone 1

Bus Bus
Line

Zone 1

Zone 2

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 POTT Scheme

Local Relay
FWD IGND Remote
Relay FWD
Local Relay – Z2 IGND

Remote Relay – Z2

Communicatio
TRIP n Channel

POTT RX POTT TX

Local Relay ZONE 2 Remote Relay

ZONE 2
 Pilot Protection (Directional comparison)
4. Directional Comparison Blocking (DCB)
 In a directional comparison blocking scheme, each line terminal has reverse
looking elements (Zone 3) and forward overreaching elements (Zone 2). The
relay will send a block signal to the remote end if it sees the fault in the reverse
direction.
 Relay detection of a fault in the reverse direction indicates that the fault is
outside of the protected zone. The logic allows the relay to trip if it sees the
fault in the forward direction and does not receive a blocking signal from the
remote end.

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 Pilot Protection (Directional comparison)
5. Directional Comparison Un Blocking (DCUB)
• Same Basic Logic as POTT Scheme
 Allows tripping for short time when channel fails
 May Overtrip for External Fault

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 Pilot Protection (Current based comparison)

 Phase-comparison and current-differential systems only use

current information. The figure depicts a schematic diagram of
current-only systems.
 Phase-comparison systems compare the phase of the currents at
the line terminals. For internal faults, these currents are in phase.
For external faults, the currents are approximately 180o out of
phase

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 Pilot Protection (Differential)

Load current
O: Operating units
Fault current

SUBSTATION 1 SUBSTATION 2

O
O
Pilot wires

Load current = No current through the operating units = No trip

Internal fault = Current flow through the operating units= Trip

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 Pilot Protection (Differential)

 The differential current is not exactly zero for external faults.

 The most common causes of false differential current in
transmission line differential relays are the following:
 Line charging current
 Tapped load
 Channel time-delay compensation errors
 Current transformer saturation

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