Journal of International Council on Electrical Engineering

ISSN: (Print) 2234-8972 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/tjee20

Study on High Resistance Distance Relay in

Directly Earth System

Liu Huan-Zhang & Li Ying-Hong

To cite this article: Liu Huan-Zhang & Li Ying-Hong (2011) Study on High Resistance Distance
Relay in Directly Earth System, Journal of International Council on Electrical Engineering, 1:4,
410-417, DOI: 10.5370/JICEE.2011.1.4.410

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.5370/JICEE.2011.1.4.410

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410 Journal of International Council on Electrical Engineering Vol. 1, No. 4, pp. 410~417, 2011

Study on High Resistance Distance Relay in Directly Earth System

LIU Huan-zhang† and LI Ying-hong*

Abstract – The coverage of transition resistance and the avoidance of load impedance is in essence a
contradiction for distance protection. It’s evident from the impedance plane that the requirement to avoid
the load impedance results in that the action space of the distance relay is greatly limited, which
accordingly reduces the ability of the relays to cover the transition resistance. In fact, there are some
limitations to analyze the distance relays in the impedance plane. It would be better in the voltage plane.
The three elements of distance relay in the voltage plane are the polarization voltage, operation voltage
and operation characteristic, of which the polarization voltage is most important. The relay could ideally
select pre-fault voltage as polarization voltage, while it practically employs the positive voltage. The
difference between the two kinds of polarization voltage is negligible in the state of low impedance
ground fault, while significant in the state of high impedance ground fault. Thus, this paper uses the
memory and the non-fault phase parameters to gain the pre-fault voltage, that is, the new polarization
voltage, and puts forward a new self-adaptive high impedance ground distance relay.

Keywords: High resistance ground fault, Voltage plane, Impedance plane, Selecting phase with current

1. Introduction protection [2]. Most investigations show that the load

Distance protection is prone to incorrect operation due to
three major reasons: PT disconnection, system oscillation
and transition resistance. The first two problems have been
well solved, but the coverage of transition resistance of the
ground distance relay is far from been solved satisfactorily.
In general, the voltage of short circuit point in phase-to-
phase fault is less than 0.05pu, thus the transition resistance
could be neglected in phase-to-phase distance protection. If
there is a ground fault and the short circuit current is higher
than 1kA, the ground distance relay should be able to
tolerant 100Ω or 300Ω transition resistance to clear the
fault timely and correctly when the voltage level is 220kV
or 500kV respectively. Since it is impossible to design a
ground distance relay to tolerate such high transition
resistance, many researchers have to adopt zero sequence
current protection to make up the disadvantage of ground
distance relay [1]. However, the over current protection is
too easy to reconcile its sensitivity and selectivity. In order
to avoid incorrect operation, it is an acceptable solution to
ensure the selectivity and sacrifice the sensitivity in setting
calculation of traditional ground distance relay.
In fact, coverage of transition resistance and the
avoidance of load impedance is a contradiction for distance
† Corresponding Author: Central China Grid Company Limited,
Wuhan 430077, China (liuhz@cc.sgcc.com.cn)
* Dept. of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Huazhong
University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China
Received: September 28, 2011; Accepted: September 28, 2011
resistance is less than short circuit resistance due to heavy
load, which would make the ground distance relay unable
to distinguish the two kinds of resistance and possible to
operate incorrectly [3]. However, if the ground distance
relay is able to cover transition resistance, the selectivity is
certainly further enhanced. For example, a high resistance
ground distance protection could be considered as an
complement to the traditional ground distance protection,
whose setting values of zone-I, II, III are the same to
traditional ground distance relay zone-I, II, III, respectively
and the operation time are: 2.5s, 3.0s, 3.5s, respectively.
The setting value and operation time of directional zero
sequence current for zone-II are 500A and 4s respectively,
while those of non-directional zero sequence current for
zone-III are 300A and 4.5s respectively. The high
resistance ground distance protection mentioned above
shows an ideal inverse time characteristic, simple setting
calculations and reasonable time coordination, which is of
great significance to the safe operation of the large complex
power grid [4].
The operation characteristic can be analyzed in the
impedance plane or the voltage plane [5], [6]. Traditionally,
the former is mostly used, but the requirement to avoid the
load impedance results in that the action space of the
distance relay is greatly limited, which reduces the ability
of the relays to cover the transition resistance. So the later
would be better because of the disadvantages and
limitations of the former. The three elements of distance
relay in the voltage plane are the polarization voltage,
 LIU Huan-zhang and LI Ying-hong
operation voltage and operation characteristic. The essence
of studying the distance relay in the voltage plane is as
follows: supposing the short circuit fault on the setting
point, the trip boundary of operation voltage is determined
through the trajectory of the setting point voltage changing
with the transition resistance. It is obvious that such relay’s
operation characteristic depends on the fault boundary, so it
is self-adaptive and its performance would be better than
those studied in any other impendence plane. A high
resistance distance relay in the voltage plane is proposed in
this paper to improve the sensitivity of ground distance
protection on the premise of ensuring its selectivity.
2. Principle of distance relays in voltage plane
It is known that the research on distance protection is
rooted in the research on polarization components, which is
the essence of the distance protection. Operation voltage
and polarization voltage are two elements of distance relays.
Invariably, the compensation voltage is selected as
operation voltage (This is why distance protection is called
impedance protection; the compensation impedance
determines protection range, and the protection range is
proportional to the compensation impedance). Failure
analysis results point out the variation area of operation
voltage in voltage plane under different situations (internal
faults and external faults, forward and backward faults).
Fig. 1 is one-line diagram of two generator system, in
which the relay is installed on M, F0 (fault at setting-point);
F1 (internal fault); F2 (forward external fault); F3
(backward fault). Fig. 2 is trajectory of compensation
voltage when internal or external fault happens in the
sending and receiving end.
Fig. 1. One-line diagram of two generator system.
(a) Sending side F0~F2 (b) Sending side F3
(c) Receiving side F0~F2 (d) Receiving side F3
Fig. 2. Trajectory of compensation voltage.
411
In the voltage plane, once the reference voltage is
selected, the operation area of the operation voltage is
divided. The reference voltage must be determined by “the
conditions before faults”, which is not exactly the
conditions before the moment of short-circuit, but the
conditions before faults in the failure analysis. What is the
difference? For example, when a single-phase ground fault
happens in the process of power system all-phase
oscillation, the short-circuit current would vary with
oscillation, which is due to the voltage at fault point “before
faults” varied with oscillation. However, the voltage at fault
point before the moment of short-circuit should be
unchanged. Obviously, to gain “the conditions before
faults” after faults is the key to distance relay.
The polarization voltage which is also called reference
voltage plays an important role. As is known to all, the
emergence of microcomputer protection contributes much
to the success of break variable protection, because of the
memory function of microcomputer. The polarization
component with memory can easily gain “the conditions
before faults”. But, after faults, as time goes by, many
changes (the excitation of generator, the changes of power-
angle, etc) would make the memory not able to reflect “the
conditions before faults” correctly, so it’s conditional to use
the memory. When the memory disappears, for the single-
phase ground fault, supposing the positive power grid the
same to the negative one (the following analysis is based on
this), the fault sequence component of non-fault-phase is
only zero-sequence component, so the difference of electric
quantum of non-fault-phase could reflect “the conditions
before faults”. It shows that phase selection is the key!
There is a paradox during the determination of polarization
voltage: to the single-phase ground fault, right phase
selection can reckon “the conditions before faults”; and if
“the conditions before faults” can be known firstly, the
relay will select phase rightly. Therefore, it’s a key point to
untie the contradiction of chicken and egg [7].
To instantaneous protection, it’s certain to make full use
of memory. To the delayed protection, it’s necessary to
make sense of its position firstly: high impedance ground
distance relay protection is the complement when the
traditional distance relay protection can not cut the high
impedance ground faults, which provides a very
comfortable environment for the phase selection of high
impedance ground distance relay. Since it need not consider
the problem of transient stability, a long time-delay is
permitted in high impedance single-phase ground fault.
Meanwhile, complex faults will hardly happen, traditional
distance relay can not operate to trip, and still, it shows the
characteristics of the ground fault, so it can be almost
412 Study on High Resistance Distance Relay in Directly Earth System

believed as single-phase ground fault. On this condition, If the fault is ) , then

it’s easy to select fault phase, and the following research
begins with the phase selection. If the fault is ) , and is in zone A,
then is in zone A ;
If the fault is ) , and is in zone A, then
3. Phase selection and pre-fault operation voltage
lag behind by , nearing zone A.
The first work is to select phase, so as to calculate pre-
fault operation voltage of single-phase high impedance 3.1 Phase selection for instantaneous protection
ground fault. There are only two results: the fault phase is
Phase selection is discussed when the high impendence
selected or phase selection failed. Since the high impedance
distance relay is used as instantaneous trip protection. Take
distance relay protection is a complement protection, it is
zone A for example, in order to prevent incorrect phase
better to phase selection failure rather than incorrect phase
selection. selection, the area of should be narrowed according to
A necessary condition for phase selection is given in (1) above-mentioned zoning and analysis. is in the area
without the condition phase selection would fail.
ahead of by and behind by , so the fault
must be , or phase selection fails. The Logical
(1)
diagram is shown in Fig.4.

The following analysis is based on this condition.

Following traditional practices, divide the plane to three
zones (A, B, C) by coordinate, leading it by and
lagging it by , as shown in Fig. 3.
Take zone A for example, when is in zone A, there
Fig. 4. Logical diagram of selecting phase.
are three possible fault types:
) : single phase ground short circuit, the fault
Where is the break variable of positive-sequence
phase is A
current of phase A by memory parameters.
) : two-phase ground short circuit, the fault Because the security of instantaneous segment is highly
phases are B and C required, the pre-fault operation voltage of fault phase
) : two-phase ground short circuit, the fault A( ) should be confirmed more times. is pre-
phases are A and B fault compensation voltage using the memory parameters,

while , the formula is used to

calculate pre-fault compensation voltage by non-fault phase

parameters after a fault.
To further ensure the correctness of phase selection, if
the following formula holds, phase selection fails.

(2)

To prevent steady-state exceeding caused by : Set

Fig. 3. Phasor diagram of selecting phase with current.
, when ; Set
If the break variable of positive-sequence current ( )
is known, the problem of phase selection can be easily , when ; Otherwise,
solved. Failure analysis shows:
 LIU Huan-zhang and LI Ying-hong 413

phase selection fails. When the fault is ：

3.2 Phase selection for time delay protection No-load,

Phase selection is discussed when the high impendence
distance relay is used as time delay protection. Taking zone
A for example. If merely take current parameters to select
phase, there are only three current( , , ) can be
used, because will disappear with time after the fault.
At first, could be excluded, because if the fault is
, phase A is non-fault phase and if the fault is
), phase A is fault phase, the current direction of
in these two kind of faults is reverse. Thus in these
Considering load: load current of sending end leads
, almost positively overlapping; load current of
receiving end and sending end are reverse, almost
negatively overlapping.
According to the analysis above, can not simultaneously
satisfy those two conditions. If the fault is ) with
high impendence, the following formula does not hold
When the fault is ) with high impendence and

two cases, is impossible in the same zone, even though is in zone A, then this kind of fault is almost the same
considering load. The next step is to determine whether the with ), and must be far less than . Therefore
fault is or ). In these two faults phase C the non-fault current is nearly unchanged.
is non-fault phase, to the fault , the current of
phase C are nearly unchanged, so can be calculated (4)
from post-fault current of phase C. The Logical diagram of
selecting phase with current is shown in Fig.5. Then does not satisfy the following formula:

When is in four different quadrants of positive

sequence power, phase selection criteria is summarized in

Fig.6, where and is the

impendence angle.

Fig. 5. Logical diagram of selecting phase with current.

(3)

When the fault is )：

No-load:
Considering load: load current of sending end leads
, almost positively overlapping, and satisfies

the formula: ; load

current of receiving end and sending end are reverse,

almost negatively overlapping, and satisfies the (a) (b)
(c) (d)
formula: Fig. 6. Specific programs of selecting phase with current.
414 Study on High Resistance Distance Relay in Directly Earth System
Miss tripping of conventional distance relay is the
premise of using the high impedance distance relay
protection. Current phase selection improves the security.
In addition, a voltage involved phase selection approach
is discussed here, as shown in Fig. 7. Taking zone A for
example, where , phase selection success, calculate fault phase and block
Fig. 7. selecting phase with current and voltage.
4. High-impedance distance relay
Fig. 8 shows the high-impedance distance relay ∆ ZGI
and ∆ ZG . is used as polarization voltage and the
circle with diameter of is used as operating
characteristic. is on the circle, namely the load is on
the boundary of operating zone, so load limitation line
should be adopted. To the sending end and receiving end,
load limited line is the straight line and ,
respectively. Load limited line reduces the coverage of
transition resistance, and the situation of receiving end is
worse. However, receiving end will become sending end
after the operation of sending end. The high-impedance
distance relay of former receiving end can clear the fault
with high impedance correctly and quickly.
(a) sending end (b) receiving end
Fig. 8. high-impedance distance relay in the voltage plane.
For ∆ ZGI & ∆ ZG are designed as a component of high
impedance ground fault, they are only put in operation
when normal distance relay can not trip correctly and
timely. The first work of ∆ ZGI & ∆ ZG is to select phase, if
phase selection fails, ∆ ZGI & ∆ ZG would be blocked; if
non-fault phase. ∆ ZGI and ∆ ZG are triggered by the
mutation protection. ∆ ZGI needs use memory, so it works
temporarily. Besides, it must avoid transient process, so
only 30~40ms can it be in operation.
For example, phase A is the fault phase, then:
； (5)
； (6)
(7)
(8)
(9)
By the way, calculate the voltage of abrupt change
direction relay:
(10)
Where L represents line length (km), and ZL1 represents
positive sequence impedance of the line.
To illustrate the physical meaning of formulas above,
rewrite their forms:
(11)
Physical meaning: It equals that PT is put forward to the
25% of the line; so that the dead-zone resulted from back
strong source is gone. Then compare them after positive
and negative compensation 250km of the line.
The operation equations and the settings of high-
impedance distance relay are given in Fig. 9 and Table 1,
respectively.
Sending end: cosØBC > 0 or IBC < 0.2In where In repre-
sents rated secondary current of CT.
 LIU Huan-zhang and LI Ying-hong 415

In order to demonstrate the effectives of the proposed

(12) high impendence ground distance relay, simulation tests are
carried out based on PSCAD model as shown in Fig. 10.
Suppose the line length between breakers B1 to breaker B2
is 100km. The relay is on the breaker B1, and the line
(13) parameter is as follows: Z1 = 42.21∠78.86°, Z0 =
128.19∠73.00°; the ratio of CT is 1200A/1A, the ratio of
PT is 220kV/100V. FT1~FT5 are the fault on the side of B1
by 0%, 25%, 50%, 75%, 100% , respectively. FT7 is on the
Receiving end: cos ØBC ≤ 0 and IBC ≥ 0.2In
bus back of breaker B1, and FT9 is on the bus back of
breaker B2.
The simulation results are given in Table.2 and Table.3.
It is necessary to mention that the current of heavy load is
(14) static current (975A) in this simulation, and it is extremely
heavy current. Even in such case, the high-impedance
distance relay has the better characteristic on the coverage
of transition resistance than that of common distance relay.
The simulation results illustrate that: firstly, the high
impedance distance relay has a clear direction and it would
not overreach the steady-state; secondly, it can avoid load
impedance adaptively, which acts better with light load, as
well as on the sending end. Take stage I of a 220kV 100km
line for example: light load: Line near-end, 130Ω; 50% of
the line, 70Ω; 75% of the line, 30Ω. Sending end with
heavy load: line near-end, 120Ω; 50% of the line, 70Ω;
75% of the line, 30Ω. Receiving end with heavy load: line
Fig. 9. Logical diagram of high-impedance distance relay near-end, 120Ω; 50% of the line, 70Ω.

Table 1. Settings of high-impedance distance relay

Relay stage m α β t(s) 6. Conclusions
set
0 0
I 0.25 30 15 2.5
II 0.20 20
0
10
0
3.0 Although the characteristic analysis of ground distance
III 0.15
0 0
3.5
relay can be in the impedance plane or the voltage plane,
10 5
the later would be better than the former after some
comparisons. The three elements of distance relay in the
voltage plane are the polarization voltage, operation voltage
5. Simulation and operation characteristic. The polarization voltage is the
most important one, and it is best to select pre-fault
operation voltage as polarization voltage. This paper uses
memory and the non-fault phase parameters to obtain pre-
fault voltage, namely new polarization voltage, and puts
forward a new self-adaptive high impedance ground
distance relay. This high impedance ground distance relay
is self-adaptive, because its operating characteristic depends
on fault boundary. Finally, a plenty of simulation
calculation and dynamic testing demonstrate that the
performance of the proposed high impedance grounding
distance relay is better than those analyzed and designed in
Fig. 10. Simulation model of 220kV system. impendence plane.
416 Study on High Resistance Distance Relay in Directly Earth System

References [5] WANG Mei-yi. Analyze the Operation Characteristic of

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[3] SHEN Gou-rong. A New Directional Relay Based on
the Variation of Power Frequency Components.
Automation of Electric Power Systems, 1983, (01)：28-
38(in Chinese).
[4] ZHU Sheng-shi. Study on Grounding Distance Relays.
Automation of Electric Power Systems, 1977, (04): 28-
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[6] LIU Huan-zhang. A Novel Impedance Protection
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24(1): 40-43 (in Chinese).
[7] XU Qing-qiang, SUONAN Jia-le, LIU Huan-zhang, et
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Table 2. Action of high-impedance distance relay under heavy load condition (load 975A)
 LIU Huan-zhang and LI Ying-hong 417

Table 3. Action of high-impedance distance relay under light load condition