PRINCIPLES OF PROTECTION AND RELAYING

OBJECTIVE:After discussion of the topic the participant shall be able to :

1. Correctly identify the type of relay required to be installed (electromechanical one) in
our installation;
2. Explain the working principles of Inverse Definite Minimum time lag relay overcurrent
and Earth fault) and directional relay;
3. Calculate the setting of relay as required in the installation; and
4. Set the relay.
INTRODUCTION:Telecom. installations need electrical power. In fact, most of the Telephone Exchanges
house a Sub-station to provide it. This electrical power under fault conditions becomes
devastating. It becomes, therefore, the duty of power engineers to take measures so that the
damaging effects are minimised. This requires proper protective relaying, the advantages of
which are listed below:
(i) The relay are used to cut-off the supply promptly to any element of power system which
undergoes short circuit or it starts operating abnormally. It may be noted that the relay only
gives a signal to the circuit breaker for tripping or isolating the system. The circuit breakers
used must be of sufficient capacity to carry the fault current momentarily and then interrupt it.
(ii) The location of fault or the area in which the fault has occurred is also provided.
(iii)The protective equipment (relays) provide a very good indication of the type of fault which
has occurred. Thus it will be observed that the protective relays help in localisation of the fault
and thus help in expediting repair work. The function of protective equipment is not the
preventive one its name would apply, in that it takes action only after a fault has occurred:
It is the ambulance at the foot of the cliff rather than the fence at the top .
RELAY SYSTEM:The complete system of the power system can be divided into following three groups:
(a) Primary relaying:- Which may also be called as first line of defence against fault condition.
(b) Secondary or back up relaying:- Which functions only if the primary relays fail to operate,
the causes of failure may be due to any of the following reasons:
(i) the primary protective relay fails,
(ii) the circuit breaker fails to operate,
(iii) the tripping mechanism of circuit breaker fails,
(iv) the D.C. supply to the tripping circuit fails, and
(v) the current or voltage supply to relay fails.

R. Sharma (BSNL Electrical Zone Patna)

(c) Relays for other abnormal conditions:- Which includes relays for other than fault currents
which vary from situation to situation.
FUNCTIONS OF PROTECTIVE RELAYING:(i) To sound or alarm or to close the trip circuit of circuit breaker so as to disconnect a
component during an abnormal condition in the component.
(ii) To disconnect the abnormally operating part so as to prevent the subsequent faults.
(iii) To disconnect the faulty part quickly so as to minimise the damage to the faulty part.
(iv) To localise the effect of fault by disconnecting the faulty part from the healthy part causing
least disturbance to the healthy system.
(v) To disconnect the faulty part quickly so as to improve the system stability, service
continuity and system performance.
DESIRABLE QUALITIES OF PROTECTIVE RELAYING:The desirable qualities of a protective relaying are as follows:
Selectively, discrimination.
Speed, time.
Sensitivity, power consumption.
Stability
Reliability.
Adequateness.
Selectivity means that the protective relaying should select the faulty part of the system and
should isolate, as far as possible, only faulty part from the remaining healthy system.
Discriminating quality of protective relaying enables it to distinguish between NORMAL &
ABNORMAL condition other qualities are clear.
RELAY TIME AND FAULT CLEARING TIME:Fault clearing time = [Relay time]
[ Fault instant to closing
of relay contacts]

[Breaker time]
[ Closing of relay contacts
to final arc extinction of C.B.]

In practice, it is essential that the difference in definite minimum times between

adjacent series relays shall be such as to cover the following to have descriminative margin:
(a) C.B. opening time to arc extinction.
(b) Relay overshoot: Modern overshoot time 0.05
(c) Relay and C.T. errors.
(d) Final contact gap: Almost 0.2 s
As such, an interval of 0.4 sec. is necessary to give the circuit breaker and its protective
relays time to operate fully before the next breaker with the longer time can receive an impulse
to trip. However, for a safety, a difference between series relays of 0.5 sec. is often employed.

CLASSIFICATION OF RELAYS:Relays can be classified according to their operating characteristics as detailed below:
Solenoid type;
Attracted armature type;
Electrodynamic type;
Moving coil type;
Induction type;
Directional or reverse current type;
Directional or reverse power type;
Over voltage, overcurrent or over power relay;
Under voltage, under current and under power relay;
Differential relay;
Distance relay;
Thermal relay; and
Gas actuated relay.
Again, since these relays can also control time of operation and as such, from the point of view
of operation time, the relays can further be classified as:

Instantaneous relays
Definite time lag relays
Inverse time lag relays
Inverse definite Minimum time lag relays.

Constructional details and operating features can be seen in any standard text book. In
this small discussion we shall restrict ourselves only to overcurrent relay and reverse power
relay in a very short way.
OVERCURRENT RELAY:It has two electromagnets. The upper one is provided with two windings: the primary
(fed through the C.T. with eight tappings) and the secondary. The tappings of the primary are
connected to a plug setting bridge by which the number of turns to be used can be adjusted in
order to have desired current setting. The secondary is energised by the induction effect and is
wound over the control limb of the upper magnet as well as it is spread over the two limbs of
the lower magnet. Thus a torque is generated because of the two fluxes 1 and 2 (in upper and
lower magnets) acting at an angle. The deflecting torque is produced on the disk the spindle of
which carries a moving contact which bridges two fixed contracts after the disk has rotated
through a certain angle which has been set before. The variation of this angle (through time
setting multiplier) imparts to the relay, various time settings.
Also the speed of the disc (rotational) depends upon the torque which is a function of
current setting. Higher the current setting, higher will be speed. Definite minimum time
characteristics of the relay are obtained by the use of a saturated upper magnet. B.S.142 has laid
down the following relay characteristics:

R. Sharma (BSNL Electrical Zone Patna)

Multiple of setting

Operating time

OPERATION TIME (IN SECS)

1.0
Must not operate
1.3
Must operate (no time defined)
2.0
10 sec.
5.0
4.3 sec.
10.0
3.0 sec.
20.0
2.2 sec.
A relay characteristic curve , as shown below, can be drawn using the above data .
1
1.3
2
5
1.00E+01
10
9.00E+00
20

CURRENT- TIME CHARACTERISTICS

10
4.3
3
2.2

8.00E+00
7.00E+00
6.00E+00
5.00E+00
4.00E+00
3.00E+00
2.00E+00
1.00E+00
0.00E+00
0

10

12

14

16

18

CURRENT SETTING MULTIPLIER

From the curve we see that the time-current graph becomes asymptotic and any value of
current above 20 times setting shall take a minimum of 2.2 sec. But this is a fallacy. Testing
shows that the operate time continues to decrease notwithstanding the extreme saturation of the
electromagnet. The time multiplier has a scale marked from 0.05 to 1.0 and thus gives a range
of 0.11 sec. to 2.2 sec. and with a number of relays in series, using a different time multiplier
for each, discrimination can be obtained between them regardless of the current magnitude.
Inverse definite Minimum Time Lag relay is available in three different characteristics:
Inverse type:
Very inverse type:
Extremely Inverse type:

Distribution networks
Feeders and long transmission lines.
Large generators and transformers.

REVERSE POWER RELAY:It senses the flow of power in a definite direction with reference to the location of CTs
and PTs. Therefore it comes under the category of Directional relay. When directional feature is
desired, the relay is provided with two actuating coils called current coil and voltage coil.
Maximum torque angle of directional relay is the angle between current in the current coil and
voltage applied to voltage coil to obtain maximum torque. Maximum torque angle has typical
values such as 00, 300 & 450 etc.

OVERCURRENT PROTECTION:Overcurrent may be the result either because of over load or due to faults and should not
be confused in distinguishing the two. Overload protection is related to the thermal capability
of plants and circuits, whereas overcurrent protection is primarily provided for the correct
clearance of faults. Very often however, setting are adopted which make some compromise in
order to cover both of these objectives. Discrimination between two adjacent series relays are
provided following either of the following:
By grading of current settings;
By grading of time settings; and
By grading by both time and current setting (inverse time characteristic)
We shall follow here the last one i.e. grading by both time and current settings. We have
already discussed the principle of working of I.D.M.T.L. relay the characteristic curve of
which is also attached here as annexure A. The current setting multiplier or also known as
plug setting multiplier (PSM) is the ratio of primary current to the primary setting current i.e.

P.S.M.=

Primary Current
.
Primary Setting Current

SELECTION OF SETTINGS:Fault current (minimum and maximum) is calculated for each stage of grading. Timegrading calculations are made using the maximum value of fault current; the grading margin
will be increased with lower currents so that discrimination if correct at the highest current, is
ensured for all lower values.
Minimum fault currents (i.e. short circuit-current with minimum amount of feeding
plant or circuit connections) are determined in order to check that current settings are
satisfactory to ensure that correct operation will occur.
SYSTEM ANALYSIS:Some or all of the following data may be needed:
A single line diagram of the power systems, showing the type of all protective devices and
the ratio of all protective CTs.
The impedances in ohms, percent or per unit, of all power transformers, rotating machines &
feeder circuits. It is generally sufficient to use machine transient reactance X , and to use
symmetrical current value, subtransient effects and offset are usually of too short duration to
affect time-graded portion.
The starting current requirement of large motors and the starting and stalling times of
induction motors may be of importance.
The maximum peak load current which is expected to flow through protective devices.
Peak load in this context includes all short-time overloads due to motor starting or other
causes; it does not refer to the peak of the current wave form.
Decrement curve showing the rate of decay of the fault current supplied by generators.

R. Sharma (BSNL Electrical Zone Patna)

Excitation curves of the CTs and details of secondary winding resistances, lead burdens
and other connected burdens. The maximum and minimum values of short circuit currents that
are expected to flow through each protective device are calculated. Three phase short circuit
calculations are adequate for phase fault studies and are relatively simple.
GRADING FOR INVERSE-TIME RELAYS:(a) The improvement in time grading is most marked when the relay is operating under
conditions corresponding to the steeper portions of the characteristic curve, i.e. with a low
value of P.S.M.. There is , therefore, a conflict of requirements , in that to obtain a low P.S.M.
may involve the use of a high setting, which removes the possibility of obtaining even rough
overload protection. A decision may be necessary as to whether overload protection or the best
fault protection is required. In a particular case it may be necessary to provide relays having
long inverse time lags and low settings for overload protection, and separate overcurrent relays
graded to give the shortest fault clearance time.
(b) The standard inverse-time overcurrent relay does not operate with a current equal to its
setting value but requires slightly more. In principle, an operating characteristic in which the
time is inverse to the excess of current above setting current should asymptote to the setting
current value, the operating time for setting current being infinite. The relay, however, cannot
operate infinitely slowly since friction, ignored in the basic theory, would become dominant, in
this condition. It is therefore accepted that the relay will not operate with setting current .
B.S. specifies that the relay shall not operate at a current equal to or less than the setting; the
minimum operating current shall not exceed 130% of the setting. Type designs of modern
relays will operate with about 115% of the setting in a fairly long time.
(c) The restrictions of minimum current setting are alleviated, as compared with definite-time
relays, by the fact that induction relays have a fairly high returning ratio. In fact, if following
partial operation through fault, the load remained high and approaching relay setting so as to
inhibit resetting of the relay disc, discrimination would still not be lost since the induction relay
has to be driven forward by current above its setting value to complete operation.
Now keeping above points in mind let us work out as to how to do practically the relay setting
with an example.

EXAMPLE:In a radial feeder (shown below) in which power is supplied from a source point a to
substations B,C,D and E at each of which loads are fed through step-down transformers.

C.B.

B
0.6

C
1.1

2.3

0.8

95A

80A

33 KV

33 KV/11KV Transformers are

each 10 MVA: X=7%

165A

The range of fault current must first be established . Maximum fault current for a 3 short
circuit at each station in turn, with the system fully connected, is calculated. We shall express
the impedances of 33 kv system and 33/11 kv system as percent impedance on a base of 100
MVA for convenience. Minimum fault current may be calculated for the condition of one 10
MVA in 33 kv supply transformer being disconnected. A reduction of fault MVA in 33 kv feed
might also have been considered but this has not been done in this case. Prospective fault
currents are given in the tabular form:TABLE - 1
Location

33KV Bus
C.B. A
C.B. B
C.B. C
C.B. D
Med. Voltage
Bus (viewed
from
11Kv
side)

Total Impedance from the

Source % on
100 MVA base

Impedance
(in Ohms)

Min.

Max.

Min.

6.67
41.67

6.67
76.67

Fault current
( in Amps)

Max.

Min.

Max.

0.5042 0.9277
1.104 1.528
2.204 2.268
4.504 4.928
10.943 11.367

6846
4156
2417
1289
559

12596
5753
2882
1410
580

Max.
Section
Load
(Amp)

C.T.
Ratio

Relay Setting

%
390
225
130
50
50

400/5
300/5
200/5
100/5

125
100
75
125

Primary
Amps
500
300
150
125

R. Sharma (BSNL Electrical Zone Patna)

TIME GRADING:Grading is begun at the most remote station by choosing a suitable relay operating time.
No data is given of the arrangements of the 1 MVA transformer except that fuse protection is
used. Assuming that a single low voltage main fuse is used having rating equivalent to about 60
Amps. [full load current 52.486 Amps.] in the 11 KV line, (e.g. if the transformer has a ratio of
11000/415 volt, a fuse rated at 1600 Amps.) a short circuit current immediately following will
melt this fuse in approximately 0.05 sec. Allowing an equal time for arcing, the fault will be
cleared in 0.1 sec. Since only relay overshoot has to be added, a relay operating time of 0.15
sec. is sufficient for discrimination. Note that a small margin is permissible, since with only a
single fuse, little loss occurs if the breaker actually fails to discriminate. If, however, the load is
divided into two circuits, each separately fused at half the above rating, a fault on either would
be cleared in 0.03 sec., so that more than sufficient margin is provided by the above relay time
to ensure full discrimination.
The maximum 11 kv fault current for the fault beyond the transformers is 580 A,
corresponding to P.S.M. equal to 4.64 (580/125) which when referred to the P.S.M. - t graph of
the relay gives 4.5 sec. The smallest time multiplier setting which it is wise to use in normal
circumstances is 0.05, which gives an actual time of 4.5 X 0.05 = 0.225 sec. This value is
greater than the value chosen above (0.15 sec.) and is therefore satisfactory to discriminate with
the fuse.
A fault on section DE close to D will result in a maximum current of 1410 Amps
corresponding to a P.S.M. of 11.28 and a full travel time (Tc) of 2.28 sec. The time multiplier
setting is 0.05 as before, so that the actual time Ta is 0.141 sec. The next relay nearer to the
source at C will carry the fault current and must discriminate. Allowing 0.5 sec. grading
margin, this relay should have a prospective operating time of 0.641 sec. Relay C has a P.S.M.
of 9.4 (1410/150) for which the curve time is 3.1 sec. Therefore relay C must be set with a time
multiplier of 0.207 (0.641/301). When a fault placed closed to station C the fault current
becomes 2282 Amps. and so a P.S.M. of 19.2 and thus a curve time of 2.23 sec. The time
multiplier has been chosen as 0.207 so the operating time is now 2.23 X 0.0207 = 0.462 sec.
Similarly other relay can be graded and we can arrive at Table-2.
TABLE - 2
Relay Setting
loca- Primary
tion.
D

F
PSM Tc TMS TA

FAULT

CLOSE
D

PSM Tc TMS

TA

TO
C
PSM

Tc

TMS

STATION
TA

PSM Tc TMS TA

A
PSM Tc TMS TA

Amps.
125

150

300

500

4.64 4.5 0.05 0.225 11.3 2.82 0.05 0.141

9.4 3.1 0.207 0.641 19.2 2.23 0.207 0.462
9.61 3.05 0.315 0.962 19.2 2.23 0.315 0.702
11.5 2.8 0.43 1.2.02 25.2 2.0 0.43 0.86

TABLE - 3
Relay Setting
F
loca- Primary PSM Tc TMS TA
tion. Amps.
D
C

125
150

300

500

Time Margin

FAULT
PSM Tc

CLOSE
D
TMS TA

TO
PSM

4.47 5.0 0.05 0.25 10.31 2.96 0.05 0.148

8.59 3.22 0.207 0.666 16.1
8.06

Tc

C
TMS TA

STATION

B
PSM Tc TMS TA

2.4

0.207 0.497

3.3

0.315 1.04 13.9

2.6

0.315 0.82

8.31 3.27 0.43

0.518

0.543

A
PSM Tc TMS TA

1.41 13.7 2.6 0.43 1.12

0.59

PSM = Plug Setting Multiplier, Tc = Time for full travel from characteristic curve, sec.
TMS = Time Multiplier setting, TA = Actual Time , sec.
This example shows that the operating time for relay A is not the sum of the grading
margins. Although three steps of grading, with 0.5 sec. margin are provided relay A operates
for a close-up fault in 0.86 sec.; if a definite time system with a similar margin had been used
the operating time for a fault close to the supply station A would have been 1.65 sec. (0.15+ 3x
0.5).
The gain is due to the reduction in operating time for each relay as the fault is moved
from the following station where its time multiplier setting for grading is calculated to the
close-up position.
The calculation is performed for the maximum fault current relevant to each grading
step; e.g. relay C is graded with D with a fault close to D, not further down the system at E or
F. If grading is performed at the highest possible current, even greater margins will exist under
lower current conditions. Table 3 shows the calculation for minimum fault current.
CURRENT TRANSFORMER REQUIREMENT:An induction relay energised from a CT of inadequate output operates too slowly, partly
because of ratio error in the C.T. and partly because of wave from distortion of the secondary
current. For ensuring proper time/current grading the total burden of the C.T. in V.A at rated
current of the secondary circuit, including relays, instruments if any and wiring should be
sufficiently below the output capability of the transformer. The maximum current is specified
in terms of an Accuracy limit current which is the product of the accuracy limit factor and the
rated current.
The burden VA and the accuracy limit factor are approximately inverse. Let the C.T.
rating be 10 VA/5P/15 with a secondary rating of 5A, then the voltage across the rated burden
at rated current will be 2 V, and will be 30V at the accuracy limit current (5X15X10/5 2). The
latter value must be within the saturation limit of the C.T. secondary winding. If the burden is
halved the accuracy limit current can increase nearly but not quite to the double figure on
account of the resistance of the secondary windings, which must be allowed for, if an accurate
assessment is required.

R. Sharma (BSNL Electrical Zone Patna)

10

The following example illustrates the procedure:

Impedances of the burden =10/52 = 0.4
Let resistance of secondary winding of the C.T. be 0.15
Total secondary impedances = 0.55
Secondary e.m.f. at accuracy limit current = 0.55 X 5 X 15 = 41.25 V which the C.T.
must be able to develop.
Now let the burden is halved (i.e. to 0.2 )
Secondary impedance = 0.2 + 0.15 = 0.35
New accuracy limit current = 41.25/0.35= 117.8 A
Accuracy limit factor = 23.5 (= 117.8/5)
For higher burdens the same procedure gives a reduced factor. Provided that the total
external burden is not greater than the rated value for the C.T. and the fault current upto which
discrimination is required, expressed as a multiple of rated current, is not greater than the rated
accuracy limit factor, then good performance cannot be expected.
If the above conditions are not satisfied, good result will still be obtained provided that
the actual accuracy limit current computed as above for the actual burden (total) is not less than
the relevant fault current. In the latter case there is no need to calculate a revised accuracy limit
factor. In the case of the above C.T. it was seen that this specification required the C.T. to be
able to develop a secondary e.m.f. of 41.25 V without excessive saturation.
Let the C.T. selected in the above example at B be 10 VA/5P/15, the required accuracy
limit factor is 19.18 ( = 5753/300) which is excess of the rating (= 15).
If on examination of the total burden (external) this can be reduced to 6 VA, then burden
impedance = 0.24 (= 6/52).
Total impedance = 0.24 + 0.15 = 0.39
Max. allowable secondary current = 41.25/0.39 = 105.8 Amps.
Max. allowable primary current
= 105.8 X 300/5 = 6346 Amps.
The allowable primary current exceeds the max. fault current (5753 Amps) and therefore the
application will be satisfactory.
BURDENS:Relays with same design but different setting will usually consume the same VA at their
respective setting. Therefore Z= VA/I2 where I is the setting current and Z is the impedance.
Thus with a 50% setting on a relay rated at 5 Amp, and with a declared burden of 3 VA:
Z50% = 3/ 2.52 =0.48
The burden at rated current is 52 x 0.48 = 12 VA.
Similarly, if the relay plug setting is 200% its burden at rated current is 0.75 VA [ = (3/100) x
52 ].