Assignment#1: Solid-State Relay

Name: Inam Elahi
Assignment#1 Uet Id: 01
Subject: Power System Protection
Solid-state relay
A solid-state relay (SSR) is an electronic switching device that switches on or off when a small
external voltage is applied across its control terminals. SSRs consist of a sensor which responds to
an appropriate input (control signal), a solid-state electronic switching device which switches power
to the load circuitry, and a coupling mechanism to enable the control signal to activate this switch
without mechanical parts. The relay may be designed to switch either AC or DC to the load. It serves
the same function as an electromechanical relay, but has no moving parts.
Packaged solid-state relays use power semiconductor devices such as thyristors and transistors, to
switch currents up to around a hundred amperes. Solid-state relays have fast switching speeds
compared with electromechanical relays, and have no physical contacts to wear out
Advantages over mechanical relays

Most of the relative advantages of solid state and electromechanical relays are common to all solid-
state as against electromechanical devices.
 Inherently smaller and slimmer profile than mechanical relay of similar specification, allowing
tighter packing. (If desired may have the same "casing" form factor for interchangeability.)
 Totally silent operation.
 SSRs switch faster than electromechanical relays; the switching time of a typical optically
coupled SSR is dependent on the time needed to power the LED on and off - of the order of
microseconds to milliseconds.
 Increased lifetime, even if it is activated many times, as there are no moving parts to wear and
no contacts to pit or build up carbon.
 Output resistance remains constant regardless of amount of use.
 Clean, bounceless operation.
 No sparking, allows it to be used in explosive environments, where it is critical that no spark is
generated during switching.
 Much less sensitive to storage and operating environment factors such as mechanical
shock, vibration, humidity, and external magnetic fields
Assignment#1
Disadvantages
 Voltage/current characteristic of semiconductor rather than mechanical contacts:
 When closed, higher resistance (generating heat), and increased electrical noise
 When open, lower resistance, and reverse leakage current (typically µA range)
 Voltage/current characteristic is not linear (not purely resistive), distorting switched
waveforms to some extent. An electromechanical relay has the low ohmic (linear) resistance
of the associated mechanical switch when activated, and the exceedingly high resistance of
the air gap and insulating materials when open.
 Some types have polarity-sensitive output circuits. Electromechanical relays are not affected
by polarity.
 Possibility of spurious switching due to voltage transients (due to much faster switching than
mechanical relay)
 Isolated bias supply required for gate charge circuit
 Higher transient reverse recovery time (Trr) due to the presence of the body diode
 Tendency to fail "shorted" on their outputs, while electromechanical relay contacts tend to fail
"open".
Solid-State Instantaneous Overcurrent Relays

The input current I is passed through the resistive shunt R, full-wave rectified by the bridge rectifier B,
filtered to remove the ripple by the R–C filter, and applied to a high-gain summing amplifier A. The other
input of the summing amplifier is supplied with an adjustable reference voltage er. When the input on the
positive input of the summing amplifier exceeds the reference setting, the amplifier output goes high,
and this step change is delayed by a time-delay circuit, in order to provide immunity against
spurious transient signals in the input circuit.
Assignment#1
Solid-State Distance (mho) Relays
mho characteristic is defined by the equation Z =(K3/K2) sin(θ + ϕ), where (K3/K2) is a constant
for a relay design . Using the symbol Zr for (K3/K2), the performance equation of the mho relay becomes
Z = Zr sin(θ + ϕ). Multiplying both sides by the relay input current I and replacing IZ by E the
voltage at the relay location, the performance equation is E − IZr sin(θ + ϕ) = 0 (2.16). The mho
characteristic may be visualized as the boundary of the circle, with all pointsinside the circle leading to a
trip and all points outside the circle producing a no-trip – or a block – signal. The points external to the
circle are such that the phase angle between the phasor E and the phasor (IZr− E) is greater than 90◦,
while for all the points inside the circle the angle between those two phasors is less than 90◦ .
Conversely, if the angle between (E − IZr) and E is greater than 90◦, the fault is inside the zone of the
relay; If the angle between (E − IZr) and E is greater than 90◦, the fault is inside the zone of the
relay; if this angle is smaller than 90◦, the fault is outside the zone.
Distance protection of a transmission line
Possible circuit configuration for a solid-state distance relay

Assignment#1
Computer Relays
The observation has often been made that a relay is an analog computer. It accepts inputs,
processes them electromechanically, or electronically, to develop a torque, or a logic output
representing a system quantity, and makes a decision resulting in a contact closure or output
signal. With the advent of rugged, high-performance microprocessors, it is obvious that a
digital computer can perform the same function. Since the usual relay inputs consist of
power system voltages and currents, it is necessary to obtain a digital representation of
these parameters. This is done by sampling the analog signals, and using an appropriate
computer algorithm to create suitable digital representations of the signals. This is done by
a digital filter algorithm.
Major subsystems of a computer relay
The current and voltage signals from the power system are processed by signal conditioners
consisting of analog circuits, such as transducers, surge suppression circuits, and
antialiasing filters, before being sampled and converted to digital form by the analogto-
digital converter. The sampling clock provides pulses at sampling frequency. Typical
sampling frequencies in use in modern digital relays vary between 8 and 32 times the
fundamental power system frequency. The analog input signals are generally frozen by a
sample-and-hold circuit, in order to achieve simultaneous sampling of all signals regardless of the data
conversion speed of the analog-to-digital converter. The relaying algorithm
processes the sampled data to produce a digital output.
In the early stages of their development, computer relays were designed to replace existing
protection functions, such as transmission line, transformer, or bus protection. Some relays
used microprocessors to make the relaying decision from digitized analog signals, others
continued to use analog concepts to make the relaying decision and digital techniques for
the necessary logic and auxiliary functions. In all cases, however, a major advantage of the
digital relay was its ability to diagnose itself, a capability that could only be obtained in
an analog relay – if at all – with great effort, cost and complexity. In addition, the digital
relay provides a communication capability that allows it to warn system operators when it is
not functioning properly, permits remote diagnostics, and possible correction, and provides
local and remote readout of its settings and operations.

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Name: Inam Elahi

Assignment#1 Uet Id: 01

Subject: Power System Protection

Advantages over mechanical relays

Solid-State Instantaneous Overcurrent Relays

Distance protection of a transmission line

Possible circuit configuration for a solid-state distance relay

Major subsystems of a computer relay

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