See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/303100858

High Impedance Restricted Earth Fault Protection: Fundamental Concepts,

Design and Performance

Conference Paper · June 2016

DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.11652.32646

CITATIONS READS

0 9,175

3 authors:

Mohammad Gholami Ehsan Hajipour

Sharif University of Technology Sharif University of Technology
7 PUBLICATIONS   3 CITATIONS    17 PUBLICATIONS   204 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE

M. Vakilian
Sharif University of Technology
129 PUBLICATIONS   1,078 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE

Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:

Creative Particles of Higgs or CPH Theory View project

Calculation of electromagnetic transients in transmission cables considering frequency-dependent transformation matrices View project

All content following this page was uploaded by Mohammad Gholami on 31 May 2016.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

 High Impedance Restricted Earth Fault Protection: Fundamental
Concepts, Design and Performance
Mohammad Gholami, Ehsan Hajipour, Mehdi Vakilian
Electrical Engineering Department, Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran
Gholami_mohammad@ee.sharif.edu

ABSTRACT

Power transformers are a critical and expensive component of the power system. The comprehensive
transformer protection provided by combination of protection elements, with biased differential protection. Differential
protection has excellent operation in most fault cases, but in the situations that a single phase to ground fault occurs
near the neutral point in solidly grounded transformers, the faulted phase current increases slightly and causes
differential protection not to detect the fault. For this reason, restricted earth fault (REF) relay can be used as a
complementary of differential protection. REF protection uses the sufficient current that flows in this condition through
the neutral conductor, for relay operation under phase to ground fault. The REF protection scheme is composed of two
parts: a high impedance REF unit and a low impedance REF unit. The high impedance REF relay is defined as a relay
circuit whose voltage setting is not less than its calculated maximum terminal voltage which corresponds to the
maximum through fault current under transient condition. This REF protection scheme provides a high speed and
absolutely stable means of protection when ground fault occurs near the windings neutral point in a solidly grounded
transformer. This paper summarizes the operating principle of a high impedance protection unit, its relay sensitivity,
related CT requirements, importance of a reliable protection, and the necessary setting consideration to be
incorporated besides a transformer differential relay.

Keywords: Transformer Differential Protection, Restricted Earth Fault, REF, High Impedance Fault.

1. INTRODUCTION

Power transformers are one of the most important and most expensive components of transmission and
distribution networks. Therefore, it is essential to avoid any scenario in which a risk may threaten this important
network equipment, and put it out of service [1]. If such a failure event occurs, there will be a long period of power
outage and will generate unpleasant situations such as property loss and business disruption leading to loss of revenue,
and damage to perishable goods and inventories of businesses [2]. To address this concern a comprehensive transformer
protection scheme is developed by a combination of different protection elements, besides a biased differential
protection unit. Although a biased differential protection unit provides excellent protection for phase-to-phase and most
phase-to-earth internal winding faults, this element is less sensitive if an internal single-phase-to-earth fault occurs close
to the grounded terminal of windings in a transformer with solidly grounded neutral. Under occurrence of this type of
fault, the phase current increases slightly, while a large current flow in the windings neutral connection to ground [3].
Figure 1 is employed to analyze the occurrence of related fault currents. Solidly earthed star-connected windings have
undergone an earth fault, on one of the phases, at a distance of X per unit from the windings neutral connection. For this
winding, any fault on any point of star winding is similar to an autotransformer with a fault on secondary side.

Fig. 1. Solidly earthed star-connected windings with earth fault X per unit from the neutral [3].

www.EE2016.ir 1
 It can be seen from Figure 1 that:
I N NS 1
TR  n  c  (1)
Ip Nc x

and
Ip
I n  I p .T R  (2)
x
where
T R = turns ratio,
N C = the number of turns on the common winding (on the shorted part of the winding),
N S = the number of turns on the series winding (on the healthy part of the winding),
x = the distance from the neutral (p. u.),
I p = primary side current,
I n = fault current.

Therefore, under a very small value of x, the current flowing in the neutral conductor would be much greater
than the phase current. Clearly, the same situation experiences when any change occurs in neutral and phase current [3].
References [4] shows that the neutral current is always much higher than the phase current, by about 5 to 6 per unit [4].
Application of REF protection through measurement of the large current that flows in neutral conductor provides
a sensitive and fast protective scheme for transformer faults close to the grounding point. It is called “restricted”
because its zone of protection is limited only to the windings of the transformer. The restricted earth fault protection
scheme is designed to take care of internal earth fault on transformer windings, which if omitted could cause the
windings of such transformer to be damaged in the event of such a fault [3], [5].

2. Principle of REF Protection

Restricted Earth Fault (REF) protection is applied on transformers in order to detect ground faults on a given
winding more sensitively than overall transformer differential protection is able to do. Restricted earth fault protection –
as well as transformer differential protection – is based on the principle of comparison of measured variables by
comparing the residual current of the phase current transformers of the given winding with the current of the associated
grounded star point [4]. The basic design of REF function has shown in Figure 2.

Fig. 2. CT Connection in REF Function [3].

According to Figure 2, it is clear that if an internal ground fault occurs, the fault current will pass through the
neutral and the relay will be excited through the neutral CT current. Therefore, the relay operates under occurrence of
internal fault while, under occurrence of external faults CT connections provide a path for the zero-phase sequence
currents to flow and consequently the relay would not operate. On the other hand, since a residual current may develop
due to transient saturation process under a high through fault current, therefore a restraining means is required for
restricted earth fault protection. For this purpose, two different measuring principles are employed in the literature [1],
[3], [6] and [7]:

 Low impedance (Biased) restricted earth fault protection

 High impedance restricted earth fault protection

www.EE2016.ir 2
 2.1 Low Impedance (Biased) Restricted Earth Fault Protection

Low-impedance REF protection is provided with new numerical or microprocessor-based protection relays.
Generally, relay manufacturers employ different methods to provide REF protection. In most cases, operation of the low
impedance REF protection is based on the fundamental frequency current, after filtering removes all harmonic currents
[1].
The most important difference between classical high impedance REF protection and new low impedance REF
protection is the input impedance. As with all numerical relays, the input impedance of the low impedance REF is very
low compared to high-impedance relays [3]. Low impedance REF protection does not have the same inherent stability
against CT saturation for external faults as does high impedance REF protection [3]. A second significant difference is
that the operating current of the low-impedance REF protection is not realized by CT connection. With low-impedance
REF, the relay measures all four CTs necessary to realize the element [3]. A very important advantage of low
impedance REF protection is the fact that the CT ratios for the phase CTs and neutral CTs do not have to be the same
[6], [7].
Most low-impedance REF relays use an operating and a restraint current. The difference between different relays
from different manufacturers lies in the way these relays determine the restraint quantities and in the CT saturation
detection algorithm of each relay. Note that, in the case of low-impedance REF protection, there is no inherent
immunity to CT saturation, as is the case with high impedance REF protection [3].
The low impedance principle described above has two limitations [1], [3]:

 The first limitation is it cannot be used on a three-CT arrangement.

 The second limitation concerns its use with compensated earth systems.

2.2 High Impedance Restricted Earth Fault Protection

A high impedance relay is defined as a relay or relay circuit whose voltage setting is not less than the calculated
maximum voltage which can appear across its terminals under the assigned maximum through fault current condition.
Indeed the protective relay is connected in series with such a large impedance that the maximum through fault will be
prevent from initiating an unwanted relay operation [3], [6], [7], [8] and [9].
For explaining the phenomenon, according to Figure 3, during an external fault the through fault current should
circulate between the secondary of current transformers. The only current that can flow through the relay circuit is that
due to any difference in the current transformer outputs for the same primary current. On the other hand, if during an
external fault any CT experiences saturation, the output voltage of the corresponding CT will reduce. Consider that one
of the current transformers is completely saturated and the other unaffected. In this situation, if there isn’t any high
impedance in series with the relay element, the fault current passes from relay element and consequently the relay will
operate (such a low impedance REF). The relatively high ohmic resistance in the differential path results in the effect
that differential current caused by CT saturation does not flow completely through the differential path but flows
through the low magnetizing inductance of the other CT and the relay remain stable. Figure 3 depicts a typical operation
of the REF relay in the presence of CT saturation. The current flow path has been illustrated in this figure with red
arrows.

Fig. 3. Principle of high impedance protection.

www.EE2016.ir 3
2.2.1 Design Considerations:

A number of design considerations must be taken into consideration when designing a high-impedance REF
scheme. The most important considerations are described here [3], [8]:
 The ratio of the CTs should be of equal.
 In general, the CTs should have similar magnetizing characteristics and of low reactance construction. In
cases where low reactances CTs are not available and high reactance ones must be used. It is essential to
use the reactance of the CT and express the CT impedance as a complex number in the form
( RCT ,P  jX CT ,P ) in the calculations for the voltage setting.
 To ensure satisfactory operation of the relay under internal fault conditions the CT knee point voltage must
be higher than the stabilization voltage for external faults.
 The voltage across the relay and CTs (all in parallel) should be kept at safe levels while still being
sufficiently high to allow operation of the relay when required. The magnetizing current of the CTs
depends on the voltage across it, but too high a voltage results in higher magnetizing current that leads to a
less sensitive scheme.
 In most cases, a metal oxide varistor (MOV) or surge arrestor is connected across the parallel connection of
the CTs and relay to clamp the voltage to a safe limit, without affecting relay operation. In future part we
will talk more about this issue.

2.2.2 Setting Considerations:

To achieve stability for external faults, the stability voltage for the protection (Vf) must be determined in
accordance with formula 1. The setting will be dependent upon the maximum CT secondary current for an external fault
(If) and also on the highest loop resistance value between the CT common point and any of the CTs ( RCT ,P  jX CT ,P )
[7].
V s V SC ,ext ,max  I f (RCT ,P  2R L ,P ) (3)
where:
V SC ,ext ,max = voltage across the stabilizing resistor at maximum through fault current,
RCT ,P = current transformer secondary winding resistance,
R L ,P = maximum lead resistance from the current transformer to the common point.
Any mismatch in CT ratio will result in spill current, part of which will flow through the relay. Spill current
cannot be related to current that flows on the primary side and flows on the secondary side. It may, therefore, cause the
flow of “fictitious” current that results from CT inaccuracy [3]. Therefore, because of spill current the voltage
V SC ,ext ,max will be highly non-sinusoidal, whereas the quantity V S is based on pure sinusoidal current. The behavior of
the restricted earth fault protection element under those non-sinusoidal quantities is inherent to the relay design and
therefore has to be determined by investigations as part of type testing. The result of these investigations is expressed in
terms of a required dimensioning factor K. stability requirement is described by the following equation [7]:
Vs  K V . SC ,ext ,max (4)
This dimension factor for example in Schneider Electric MiCOM 30 series restricted earth fault protection has
been determined as:
K  1.1

Another important factor in the design of an REF scheme is the minimum allowable knee-point voltage of the
phase and neutral CTs. In the case of an internal fault, the differential current is going up to the knee point of the main
CTs being involved in restricted earth fault protection. The ratio of the knee point voltage to stability voltage determines
the tripping time of the restricted earth fault protection. This ratio must be chosen higher than 2 in order to ensure
tripping times of less than 2 cycle at nominal frequency of 50 Hertz [3], [7].
V knee  2.V s (5)
Of course as mentioned above the transformation ratio of all main CTs being involved in restricted earth fault
protection must be identical.

www.EE2016.ir 4
2.2.3 Sensitivity:

The sensitivity in terms of primary fault current is obtained from the set pickup value (the relay operating current)
I R . In this case the sum of the magnetizing currents at stabilizing voltage has to be taken into consideration [3], [6], [7],
[8]:

I Operation  CTRatio .(I R  n .I m  IV ) (6)

where:
I Operation = primary operating current,
I R = the relay operating current,
n = the number of CTs,
I m = the magnetizing currents at stabilizing voltage,
IV = the varistor current at stabilizing voltage.
It is clear that the magnetizing current and the varistor current decrease sensitivity.
Once the pickup value for restricted earth fault protection has been determined, the setting of the stabilizing
resistor ( R ST ) must be calculated in the following manner, where the setting is a function of the relay ohmic impedance
at setting ( R R ), the required stabilizing voltage setting (V S ) and the relay current setting ( I R ) [3], [6], [7], [8].
Vs
R ST   RR (7)
IR

For example in MCAG14/34 relay, the standard ratings of the stabilizing resistors normally supplied with the
relay are 470Ω, 220Ω and 47Ω for 0.5A, 1A and 5A CT secondary respectively [8].
To confirm that the relay will operate at calculated operating current, and the calculation has been corrected, it is
possible to computing the voltage across the relay for a specific internal fault current. If the voltage is above the
stabilizing voltage, consider this as confirmation that the relay will operate. You can calculate the operating voltage as
follows:

Ir
V Operation  .  RST  R R  (8)
CT Ratio

I r  I Operation  CT Ratio .  m .I m  Iv 

2.2.4 Voltage Limiting Non-Linear Resistors (Metrosils):

When the maximum through fault current is limited by the protected circuit impedance, it is generally found
unnecessary to use non-linear voltage limiting resistors (Metrosils). Non-linear resisters are connected in parallel with
the relay circuit to limit the peak voltage developed across the high impedance components during internal faults to a
safe level below the insulation level of the current transformers, relay and interconnecting leads, which are normally
able to withstand 3kV peak [6], [7], [8], [10]. If a Metrosil is not used to protect the relay, the approximate voltage
developed by a current transformer under internal fault conditions may be given by Mathews’ formula in equation 9
[11].
V Peak  2. 2V knee V f V knee  (9)


V f  I f RCT ,P  2R L ,P  RST  R R 
where:
V f = maximum voltage that would be produced if CT saturation did not occur,
I f = maximum internal secondary fault current.
It is clear that, if the calculated peak voltage is above the 3kV, Metrosil should be used.
Metrosils are externally mounted and take the form of annular discs. Their operating characteristics follow the
expressions [6], [7], [8], [10], [12]:

For DC or instantaneous values:

www.EE2016.ir 5
 V  C .I  (10)
For applied sinusoidal voltages:
1
 2V rms   (11)
I rms  0.52  
 C
 
For applied sinusoidal currents:

V peak  1.09CI rms (12)

where, C and β are Metrosil constants. For satisfactory application of a non-linear resistor (Metrosil), its
characteristic should be such that it complies with the following requirements [6], [7], [8]:

 Ensure negligible current flows through the Metrosil at relay stabilizing voltage.
 Limit over-voltages for operational and safety reasons (V peak < 3kV).

3. Conclusions

Differential element of a transformer protective relay is less sensitive on single-phase-to-earth faults close to the
grounded point of its star connected windings when it is a solidly grounded transformer. For these type of internal
faults, phase angle of current phasor changes very little. REF protective element takes advantage of the large current
passing the neutral conductor under this type of fault to provide a sensitive and fast means of protection of a power
transformer under faults to ground which occurred internally on a winding at a place close to the grounded point.
The high-impedance REF relay is normally a current operated relay with a resistor in series with it to provide the
stabilization. The stabilizing resistor forces the false differential current to flow outside the differential circuit.
The CTs should have similar saturation characteristics. Because if, different saturation characteristics exist then
it will cause small difference in the secondary currents for a same primary current.
The ratio of the knee point voltage to stability voltage determines the tripping time of the restricted earth fault
protection. This ratio must be chosen higher than 2.
The voltage across the relay and CTs (all in parallel) should be kept at safe levels while still being sufficiently
high to allow operation of the relay when required.
Non-linear resisters are connected in parallel with the relay circuit to limit the peak voltage developed across the
high impedance components during internal faults to a safe level.

REFERENCES

[1] P. Bertrand, B. Gotzig, and C. Vollet, “Low Impedance Restricted Earth Fault Protection,” in Developments in
Power System Protection, Conference Publication No.479,IEE,2001.
[2] Campbell, Richard J., Weather related power outages and electric system resiliency, Congressional research
service report for United States congress, August 2012.
[3] Casper Labuschagne, Izak van der Merwe, “A Comparison Between High Impedance and low impedance
restricted earth fault,” skom Enterprises and Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories, Julay 2007.
[4] Y.G. Paithankar, S.R. Bhide, “Fundamentals of power system protection,” 2003.
[5] Udoh, Benjamin E., “The Restricted Earth Fault Relay Operation_Impact of Current Transfprmer Knee Voltages,”
The International Journal Of Engineering And Science (IJES), Volume 2, Issue 12, 2013.
[6] High Impedance Restricted Earth Fault Protection, Technical Guidance Notes,SIEMENS Protection Devices
Limited, 2012.
[7] MiCOM 30 series Restricted Earth Fault Protection, Application Guide, Issue B1, March 2003.
[8] MCAG 14/34, MFAC 14/34 High Stability Circulating Current Relay,Application Guide, ALSTOM 2012.
[9] High Impedance REF Protection type RYDHD, ASEA, Aug. 1968.
[10] J. Robertson, "Use of Silicon Carbide Varistors in the Prevention of Overvoltages in Electrical T&D Protection
Systems", 10th IET International Conference onManchester, 2010.
[11] P. Mathews ‘Protective Current Transformers and Circuits’, 1955.
[12] F Ashworth, W Needham, R.W. Sillars. ‘Silicon Carbide Non-Ohmic Resistors’, IEE Proc Vol. 93 pt.1 No. 72,
1946.

www.EE2016.ir 6

View publication stats