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Enhancing Distance Relay Security during

Power System Stresses: An Apparent Power


Approach
Prashant Gawande, Trupti Hinge and Sanjay Dambhare
Department of Electrical Engineering, College of Engineering, Pune-411005, India

Abstract—The economic and environmental factors have proposed in [7] for detecting all types of faults during
forced the modern day power system to operate very close power swing. Time frequency domain approaches can
to the security margins. The undesired operation of dis- be seen used in [8], [9] for detecting symmetrical faults
tance relays during these system stresses have contributed
to the catastrophic failure of the power system in the past. during power swings. Using the sign and time criteria
An algorithm for the secured operation of distance relays of the moving window average, the symmetrical faults
during system stressed conditions is proposed in this paper. are distinguished from power swing in [10]. The use of
The per-phase instantaneous values of active power and rate of change of current magnitude is seen in [11] to
reactive power are calculated from the local current and securely unblock distance relay during three phase faults.
voltage measurements, and the apparent power trajectory
is plotted in the P-Q plane. A restrain region is developed Steady-state security analysis and adaptive anti-
based on the loadability of the distance relay. During the encroachment zone are used in [12] to develop a new
system stressed conditions the apparent power trajectory adaptive load encroachment prevention scheme. A com-
stays within the restrain region; whereas after the three munication aided scheme using the linear sensitivity fac-
phase fault inception, it shifts into the operating region. tors based power flow estimation method is proposed in
The proposed scheme is tested on the IEEE 39-bus New
England system and the results obtained demonstrate the [13] to distinguish between line overloads and faults. An
reliability of the scheme. approach of comparison of bus voltage values calculated
Index Terms—Apparent power, distance relay, load en- through dissimilar paths is made in [14] to identify load
croachment, power system security, power swing, voltage encroachment. A combination of the steady-state compo-
stress, Zone 3. nents and the transient components using a state diagram
is made in [15] to distinguish load encroachment from
I. I NTRODUCTION
fault conditions.
The ability of distance relay to provide remote backup In [16] an additional relay criteria based on the rate of
protection is one among its several advantages over the change of voltage is used to increase the relay security
other types of transmission line protection philosophies. with respect to voltage instability. The synchronized volt-
Zone 3 of the distance relay usually has a large reach age and current phasors are used to compute the apparent
which makes it vulnerable to mal-operation under system impedance in [17] for secured third zone operation.
stresses [1]. The balanced nature of system stresses This paper proposes a novel scheme based on the
like power swing, load encroachment, and voltage stress apparent power seen by the relay. The per-phase in-
make it difficult for the distance relay to distinguish them stantaneous real and reactive power are computed and
from the symmetrical faults, provoking its undesired used for the apparent power calculation. A restraining
operation. This incorrect distance relay operation during region is designed in the P-Q plane based on the distance
system stresses further challenges the integrity of power relay loadability. The various test cases simulated induce
system, leading to cascaded outages [2], [3]. The gravity confidence of the reliable operation of distance relay
of the issue is well understood by researchers and sincere during system stressed conditions.
efforts have been invested in the development of secure
distance protection schemes [4]–[17]. II. P ROPOSED M ETHODOLOGY
The circular locus of the admittance trajectory and its The present day transmission line protection algo-
center behavior are investigated to detect power swing rithms are largely based on phasors and thus, the accu-
in [6]. A method based on negative-sequence current is racy of these algorithms depend on the effective phasor

978-1-5386-2212-4/17/$31.00 ©2017 IEEE


computation. The transient signatures produced by the
faults on the transmission lines are seldom captured in
the phasors due to the computation time required by
the phasor algorithms. The phasor domain approach for
fault detection is seen to be less effective than the time Restraining Region

domain approach [18]. Also, the calculation of active


and reactive power using phasors tend to produce erro-
neous results when dealing with non-sinusoidal currents,
change in system frequency and transients in current Operating Region
or voltage signals [19]. Hence, the proposed scheme
operates on the instantaneous, local current and voltage
measurements which imposes negligible burden on the
processor. The per-phase active and reactive power is Fig. 1. Apparent power plane with restraining and operating region.
computed as [20]
1
P = [i(t).v(t) + i′ (t).v ′ (t)] (1)
2
1
Q = [i(t).v ′ (t) − i′ (t).v(t)]. (2)
2
Here i′ (t) and v ′ (t) can be realized by using orthog-
onal signal generators (OSG). The proposed algorithm
implements OSG using the Second Order Generalized
Integrator (SOGI).
The instantaneous values obtained from (1) and (2) are
plotted in the apparent power plane shown in Fig. 1. The
restraining region is set based on the relay loadability
[21] as follows:
1) Calculate relay loadability at an angle α, Sα [5 ≤
α ≤ 30]. Here, α = 15o
2) Calculate relay loadability at an angle β, Sβ [60 ≤
β ≤ 100]. Here, β = 60o
3) Calculate Pset as 120% of real(Sα )
4) Calculate Qset as 120% of imag(Sβ )
During the system stresses, the apparent power locus
resides in the restraining region; but as soon as sym-
metrical fault strikes the system, it enters the operating
region. The flowchart for the proposed scheme is shown
in Fig. 2. Fig. 2. Flowchart of the proposed method.

III. T EST C ASES


samples from relay are obtained at a rate of 100 samples
To reduce the computational burden on the processor, per fundamental cycle. The algorithm is put to test for
the proposed algorithm is initiated only if the apparent symmetrical faults in the zone 3 of relay during various
impedance seen by the relay is less than 120% of system stresses such as power swing, load encroachment,
the reach of third zone of relay, hereafter referred as and voltage stress.
Algorithm Trigger Boundary (ATB). The performance
of the proposed algorithm is tested on the IEEE 39-bus, A. Performance during Power Swing
10 generator New England system [22]. The model is The response of power system to sudden large distur-
simulated in the ATP-EMTP environment and the load bances such as line switching, generator outage, faults,
flow results are verified before simulating the test cases. and heavy loads switching in terms of oscillations in real
The distance relay is located on line 4-14 near bus 14 as and reactive power is known as power swing. The sudden
shown in Fig. 3. The instantaneous current and voltage heavy load switching on bus 4 drives the power system

978-1-5386-2212-4/17/$31.00 ©2017 IEEE


into power swing condition. The apparent impedance B. Performance during Load Encroachment
enters the zone 3 of the relay, which may have caused
the conventional distance protection to mal-operate. A Certain transmission lines are mandated to carry ex-
three phase fault strikes the system under power swing cessive power to meet the load demand in limited power
at 5.2s at 80% of line 3-4, close to bus 3. The voltage corridor scenario. This load encroachment phenomenon
and current waveforms for the simulated condition are is a major player causing large blackouts in the past. To
shown in Fig. 4. The algorithm is initiated when the simulate the load encroachment condition, the load on
apparent impedance crosses the ATB as seen from Fig. bus 4 is increased gradually from 2.05s to 4s. This causes
5. The performance of the proposed scheme can be seen the apparent impedance seen by the distance relay to en-
from Fig. 6. The apparent power lies in the restraining ter its zone 3. A three phase fault strikes the midpoint of
region during the power swing condition; but enters line 2-3 at 5s during this stressed system condition. The
the operating region after three phase fault strikes the current and voltage waveforms for this simulated case
system. are shown in Fig. 7. The positive sequence impedance
trajectory as seen in Fig. 8 slowly enters the zone 3 of
distance relay. The proposed algorithm which is initially
in hibernate is activated once the impedance trajectory
hits the ATB. As seen from Fig. 9, the apparent power
trajectory is contained in the restrain region till the
symmetrical fault strikes the system.

350
Zone 1
Zone 2
300 Zone 3
ATB
Positive Sequence
250 Impedance
Trajectory
Reactance, X (ohms)

Line Impedance
200
Three phase fault at 5.2 s
150

100

50
Algorithm triggered
0

-50
-200 -100 0 100 200 300 400
Resistance, R (ohms)

Fig. 5. Positive sequence impedance trajectory for a bolted three phase


Fig. 3. One line diagram of the simulated IEEE 39-bus New England fault during power swing at 80% of line 3-4 at 5.2s.
system.
Phase Current (A)

250
2000

0 200
Reactive Power, Q (MVAR)

-2000
150
1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5 5.5
Time (s)
×105
100
Phase Voltage (V)

0 50

Pre-fault Trajectory
-2 Post-fault Trajectory
0
1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5 5.5 -100 0 100 200 300 400 500 600
Time (s) Active Power, P (MW)

Fig. 4. Phase voltage and current waveforms for a bolted three phase Fig. 6. Apparent power trajectory for a bolted three phase fault during
fault during power swing at 80% of line 3-4 at 5.2s. power swing at 80% of line 3-4 at 5.2s.

978-1-5386-2212-4/17/$31.00 ©2017 IEEE


Phase Current (A)
This leads to the apparent impedance seen by the dis-
2000
tance relay to enter its operating zones causing its mal-
0
operation. For the simulated power system, the sudden
-2000 increase in the reactive power demand at bus 4 and bus
2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5 3 leads to voltage drop at various buses. For this voltage
Time (s)
×105
stress situation, the phase voltage waveform of bus 14 is
shown in Fig. 10. The rapid reduction in the bus voltage
Phase Voltage (V)

2
causes the apparent impedance to enter zone 3 of the
0
relay as seen from Fig. 11. If the apparent impedance
-2 stays in the zone 3 of distance relay for time greater
2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5 than its intentional trip time, the conventional relay
Time (s)
might issue an insecure trip decision further worsening
Fig. 7. Phase voltage and current waveforms for a bolted three phase the situation. During this stressed condition, a three
fault during load encroachment at the midpoint of line 2-3 at 5s. phase fault strikes the midpoint of line 2-25 at 6.5s.
The proposed algorithm initiates the apparent power
calculation after being triggered as seen from Fig. 12.
350
Zone 1
The apparent power trajectory is found to be in the
Zone 2
300 Zone 3
ATB
restraining region during voltage stress condition and it
250
Positive Sequence
Impedance Trajectory instantly shifts to operating region after the three phase
Line Impedance
fault inception.
Reactance, X (ohms)

200
Algorithm triggered
150 ×105
3
100
2
50

1
Phase Voltage (V)

0
Three phase fault at 5 s
-50 0
-200 -100 0 100 200 300 400 500
Resistance, R (ohms)
-1
Fig. 8. Positive sequence impedance trajectory for a bolted three phase
fault during load encroachment at the midpoint of line 2-3 at 5s. -2

-3
2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5 5.5 6 6.5
Time (s)
250

Fig. 10. Phase voltage waveform for a bolted three phase fault during
200 voltage stress at the midpoint of line 2-25 at 6.5s.
Reactive Power, Q (MVAR)

150
350
Zone 1
Zone 2
Zone 3
100 300 ATB
Positive Sequence
Impedance Trajectory
250 Line Impedance
50
Reactance, X (ohms)

Algorithm triggered
200
Pre-fault Trajectory
Post-fault Trajectory
0 150
-100 0 100 200 300 400 500 600
Active Power, P (MW) 100

50
Fig. 9. Apparent power trajectory for a bolted three phase fault during
Three phase fault at 6.5 s
load encroachment at the midpoint of line 2-3 at 5s. 0

-50
-200 -100 0 100 200 300 400 500
C. Performance during Voltage Stress Resistance, R (ohms)

A sudden increase in the reactive power demand in Fig. 11. Positive sequence impedance trajectory for a bolted three
power system causes voltage drops at various buses. phase fault during voltage stress at the midpoint of line 2-25 at 6.5s.

978-1-5386-2212-4/17/$31.00 ©2017 IEEE


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