INTRODUCTION TO PROTECTIVE RELAYING 1965 Power Failure Faults on power systems manifest themselves by high currents.

The consequences o f not removing a fault from a system would be: - damage to the faulted part of the system - damage to a healthy part of the system - loss of synchronism and consequently splitting of the system The function of protection on power systems is to detect and remove the faulted parts as fast and as selectively as possible. A well designed protective system should be: - reliable (capable detecting all types of faults) - selective (isolating only the faulted parts of the system) - fast - economical - simple (minimum amount of equipment and circuitry. A complex protection system results from one of two basic reasons: (1) desire to save on circuit breakers (this is justifiable) or (2) bad design) The ASA Standards define four classes of relays: 1. auxiliary relays - used to assist other relays or devices to perform their fu nction Examples: timing relays, interposing relays, etc. 2. protective relays - used to detect faults and to initiate switching (i.e. sen d a signal to the breakers to open) Examples: overcurrent relays, impedance relays, etc. 3. regulating relays - used to detect a departure from a predetermined quantity and to initiate corrective action to get the quantity back to its limits. Examples: frequency relays, voltage relays used for voltage regulation, etc. 4. verification relays - used to verify conditions of the power system Examples: alarm relays, etc. Another classification of the relays is according to their speed. 1. high speed relays - operation time 3 cycles or less 2. low speed relays - operation time over 3 cycles Advantage of using high speed relays is minimizing the amount of damage to the s ystem during a fault. Disadvantages are higher cost, and an increased probabilit y of incorrect operation during transient conditions. Any relay operation falls into one of the following classes: 1. correct and desired 2. correct and undesired - arises from unforeseen conditions of the system 3. failure to trip - this can be guarded against by using back-up protection 4. incorrect - can be more disastrous to the system than a failure to trip. The design of protection should minimize the consequences of an incorrect relay oper ation. Each relay used for a power system protection performs a certain function and re sponds to a change in a certain quantity. The quantities to which the relays res pond are - increased current in one or more phases - direction of the current flow

reduced voltage direction of power flow temperature rise of the equipment frequency ratio of voltage and current According to their function, relays are classified as - current relays (directional and nondirectional) - voltage relays - impedance relays (also called distance relays) - power relays - differential relays - frequency relays Connection of Relays to the Breakers Large circuit breakers are operated electrically. Their operating mechanism inc ludes a tripping coil for opening of the breakers, and a closing coil for closin g them. The tripping coil is connected to contacts of protection relays. When th e relays operate, the relay contacts close and connect the breaker tripping coil to a d.c. source (129 V battery). After the breaker is opened, there is an inte rlocking contact arrangement that prevents breakers to be closed back into the f ault. Zones of Protection Figure below shows a typical protective system and its zones of protection. The power system is divided into zones. Each section is either a transmission line, or a piece of major equipment such as a transformer or a generator. The zones o verlap to avoid leaving any area without protection. The overlap of zones is usu ally achieved by overlapping connection to current transformers.