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Disturbance Recording Systems within the Environment of IEC 61850:

Built-in or Stand alone?

Mohamed A. EL-HADIDY Dalal H. HELMI (*) Maha S. ABDELHADY

Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company (EETC)
Egypt

SUMMARY

The analysis of faults and wide system disturbances has always been a fundamental foundation for a
secure and reliable electrical power supply. Lessons learned from the analysis of blackout events
during last years, prove that the source and quality of data and information used in the analysis of such
events are of top importance. The resolution of the recorded data varies for different system events,
ranging from hundreds of samples in one cycle to few numbers of samples in a minute. As an
example, from recording of Power Quality event’s point of view, the requirements for recording
voltage impulsive transients, temporary, sags, swells, harmonics and trend profile have quite different
requirements of sampling frequency, data filtering, accuracy, time span,…etc. Also for system wider
vision, the requirements to record system large disturbances and dynamics, oscillations, reclosure,
voltage collapse and out of step conditions are quit different from fault recording requirements.

The new competitive business environment forces utilities to formulate their strategies regarding
productivity, quality and reliability of service, asset management, maintenance strategies, etc. One of
the critical considerations for selection of multifunctional Intelligent Electronic Devices (IED) may be
their role in supporting the above mentioned functions, which in turn means that the IED evaluation
criteria should include the capability for their use in defining existing and new applications.

In the world-wide trend implementing IEC 61850 within the substations automation systems, there
exist big debates about the necessity to use stand alone Disturbance Recorder. Most of utility
personnel think the multifunction IED can also do all recording tasks (as add-on function) that the
Disturbance Recorder can perform; i.e PQ monitoring, Fault Recording, fault location, Phasor
Measurement and System Dynamic …etc.

This paper presents a technical comparison between the above mentioned two points of view: built-in
recording within distributed IEDs and stand alone disturbance recording. It studies the effect of some
factors such as analog and digital filtering process, noisy analog signals and sampling frequency on the
recorded data. Triggering possibilities and recording capabilities are compared. The results obtained
from this research threw some light on this issue which is important to both utility engineers and
device manufacturers, through providing deep comparison between the gain and loss the utility will
accordingly reach as a result of their selection.

*E-mail: [email protected].
KEYWORDS: Power system Disturbances, Substation Automation, IEC 61850, Disturbance
Recorder, protection IED, Bay Controller (BCU).

1. DEFINITION OF THE PROBLEM

The standard IEC61850 “Communication Networks and Systems in Substations” supports all
communication for substation tasks like control, protection and monitoring. It covers communication
between all Intelligent Electronic Devices (IEDs) from the process level (data acquisition, sensors and
actuators) over the bay level (protection, monitoring and control tasks) up to the station level. Typical
devices on process level are intelligent switchgear interfaces or unconventional (non-magnetic)
instrument transformers. The goal of IEC61850 is providing interoperability between IEDs of different
suppliers. In addition, the standard should have a long lifetime in line with the long lifetime of
switchgear. Nevertheless, the standard should not stop technological innovations and advanced
operation philosophies of the utilities.

The migration to IEC 61850 compliant substations require more than just good IEDs and tools and a
general introduction into the new possibilities. The training is most important for utility engineers
(people ware) that are involved in system integration. Experts from vendors gain a lot of experiences
with the system integration of the many projects already underway. Many utilities require IEC 61850
but do not care about detail.

Specifying the requirements for Substation Automation (SA) needs a different approach than
substation engineers have used in the past to construct new substations. To certain extend, the
technical requirements for substation automation systems are independent of IEC 61850. For any
given substation, the basic functions are: protection, revenue metering, local control for circuit
breakers and switches, interface to SCADA for remote control and data gathering, alarming,
monitoring of power equipment, sequence of event recording (SER) and last but not the least
disturbance recording (DR) equipment. Before IEC 61850 was published there was no need to specify
a unique formal and detailed specification. With the introduction of IEC 61850 this and several other
new aspects will become part of the procurement specifications [1].

There are several use cases how to build, design, engineer, configure, operate, maintain, extend, and
service substations when taking IEC 61850 compliant devices and tools into account [2]. These cases
extend from utility puts traditional specification of substation automation as in the past and requests
IEC 61850 in general terms and buys turnkey substation (vendor or third party may be the system
integrator), up to Utility builds all substations (utility or third party may be the system integrator) and
also Utility extends, replaces IEDs, maintains, services the system. In the first case there is little
knowledge about IEC 61850 required framework. In the last case, there is a comprehensive knowledge
and experience required from utility personnel. The crucial issue for utilities is to understand and to
define the role the utility people want to work in conjunction with IEC 61850. There is also another
aspect we need to briefly look at the skills needed to efficiently use tools. Tools could only help to
reduce costs and save time when the user of the tool knows what the tool provides and how to use
it. Training and experience is crucial to tap benefits from a tool.

One main point makes conflict to some of utility engineers is that the recording capabilities of
protection IEDs can replace the multifunction disturbance recording IED. Several utilities’ engineers
who have been using protection relays to do the Digital Fault Recorder (DFR) duties now see
IEC61850 as the means to re-introduce in a more cost effective manner, as the sampling rate and
recording done in the bay control unit may be sufficient for monitoring everything. Protection IEDs
are and will still circuit orientated devices. During real world-wide system disturbances, system
analysts were struggling without proper disturbance data. In addition, Relays can not monitor all
power quality problems today. These issues and more will be illustrated in the next sections.

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2. CATEGORIES OF POWER SYSTEM DISTURBANCES

A wide range of abnormalities can affect the operation of the power system such as: weather, fault conditions,
equipment failure, incorrect operation of the protection and control systems, load and demand mismatch, human
errors,… to name a few. These problems can occur at any time and in various combinations, and it is the task of
the utility's engineering, protection and operation staff to explain what has happened. And of course, management
also wants to know what had happened and the corrective actions to ensure that it will not happen again. This type
of diagnostic work requires a lot of information. The latest approved NERC PRC-002 [3] and PRC-018 [4]
standards ensure that Disturbance monitoring equipment is installed in a uniform manner to facilitate development
of models and the analyses of events. The disturbance data is reported in accordance with regional requirements.
Also, these captured events are used to play-back the incident to test the protection IED and validate system
models.

2.1 Time Frames of Power System Operation

In power systems, various events happen at various time frames. Some of these events can be
categorized as follows [5]:
Time Period Events Example

Microseconds Switching surges Breaker strikes/ Lightning

Milliseconds harmonics Variable speed drives / arc furnace

Cycles Fault clearing Relay and breaker operations

Seconds Load flow changes Governor and exciter response

Minutes System stability Reaction to dispatcher action

Hours / days Load variations New generation schedules

The requirement for proper disturbance analysis needs different types of recording. The categories
mentioned in the above table need different recording resolutions vary from high scan rate (the first
four rows) up to slow scan recordings (the last two rows). Power system abnormalities can be
classified in three main categories: Power System Transients, Power System Dynamics and Power
Quality (PQ) Problems.
2.2 Power System Transients
Short term abnormal conditions that can affect the transmission level of a power delivery system
include, but not limited to, transmission line faults, switching over-voltages, transformer winding
faults, station bus fault, breaker fault / abnormalities, improper operation…etc. These transient
conditions are very short in time and their analysis needs a lot of data and information occurring in
few seconds or even milliseconds. It is vital for the sound operation and maintenance of the power
system to capture data as they occur and use it in finding the exact reasons behind the abnormalities
and/or malfunctioning. The number of samples required to capture these phenomena may reach
hundreds /cycle. Figure 1 shows an example of current impulsive transient.

Fig.1: Impulsive Transient Records with high scan rate

2.3 Power System Dynamics
Power systems can be subjected to dynamic problems due to certain physical phenomena, which have
to be counteracted by appropriate protection and control schemes. Such phenomena are: power

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oscillations, angle instability, frequency instability, voltage instability and cascade outages. When
sudden unbalance between generation and load occurs in power systems, or when sudden diverts in
power flow takes place, electric utilities need to:
• capture slow oscillatory swings that are poorly damped,
• capture frequency transients resulting from sudden losses of generation or load,
• capture power system disturbance data to support analyses of the events, and
• obtain experience in recognizing disturbances as a precursor to the development of emergency
state and unconventional transient state control.

Fig.2: frequency record with slow scan rate

Figure 2 shows an example of the slow scan recording of system frequency during a disturbance for
1800 second.

2.4 Power Quality Problems

The most important PQ phenomena are:
• Short duration variations of supply voltage: dips (sags) & swells.
• Long duration variations: over-voltages, under-voltages & interruptions.
• Voltage distortion: Harmonics & Interharmonics.
• Voltage fluctuations and Flickers.
Figure 3 shows an example of transformer inrush (high decaying harmonic content)

Fig.3: Transformer Inrush current with high scan rate

Utilities have always striven to achieve high reliability. Now some major utility customers contract
with electric utilities to maintain high reliability and power quality or pay a substantial penalty.

Disturbance Recording is necessary to monitor compliance with the reliability and PQ contract
clauses. The communications flexibility and automatic polling features of most Power Quality or
Disturbance Recording IEDs make them ideal for a system-wide network. These devices should be
part of billing metering equipment for customers with these types of contracts.

3. FUNCTIONS OF DISTURBANCE RECORDERS

The impact of a single point failure is far, may be, too costly to be acceptable. The DRs provide
efficiently the data necessary for the following types of analysis [5]:
• Relay system operation: This is the traditional task of DRs, especially for complex protection
schemes using communication signals and during relay failure.
• System disturbance monitoring: Long time power system features could be captured for
additional system studies. Such features are power swings and phase measurements. Modern
DR’s record P, f, VAR's,….etc, continuously for days.
• Substation monitoring: Trend curves for usage, loading of equipment, calculated values of
power factor, frequency, harmonic,….etc could be recorded, monitored and analyzed.
• PQ compliance: DR’s also can be used for monitoring compliance with reliability and PQ
contracts saving substational penalties to power utilities.
• Information system reliability: Redundant data obtained from DRs can support the SCADA
systems.

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 • Fault location: This saves the maintenance time and effort, and increases TL availability and
system reliability.
• Maintenance management: Monitoring accumulated interrupted fault currents can predict the
need for CB maintenance. DR can also provide data for planning and operation.
• System stability/state estimation: Phase shifts between different busses could be measured
synchronously using GPS system. Maintaining the stability limits on power lines is possible
with increased power sales, thus, some investments can be saved.
• The applications of Phasor Measurement (with 1μsec accuracy or higher) aid in most of off-
line, on-line and closed loop control studies that support the enhancement of power system
performance.

After defining different power system disturbances and recording needs, we will consider if the
recording capabilities of the Protection and Disturbance Recording IEDs can meet them all.

4. PROTECTION IEDs VERSUS DISTURBANCE RECORDERS

4.1 The main functions

For Protection IED, the primary function is to detect Electrical Power System conditions
which can cause damage to equipment, danger to personnel and to the operation of the system. The
relay then isolates the problem and/or eliminates the conditions as quickly as possible. Secondarily,
the digital relay records the conditions which are monitored for a period of time, beginning with a
prefault period and continuing until after the fault is cleared. A relay may also obtain fault data and
equipment performance on devices such as circuit breakers. Relays are usually installed for a single
line or a piece of equipment such as transformer. The capacity or total number of faults stored is
limited by the available memory. Most relays do not record and store data if no fault is detected.
Usually, the settings for starting the relay are much higher than the level of DR’s triggering.

The primary function of Disturbance Recorder is to gather as much data as possible to

allow detection and analysis of normal and/or abnormal conditions, to verify system modelling,
and confirmation of system planning information. Secondarily, the recorder will obtain information
on performance of all monitored equipment such as circuit breakers, relays, generator systems, etc.
Recorders allow time and system correlated date. They receive data from all available sources
including external inputs from relays, other recorders and transducers. A recorder will obtain the
desired data by proper selection of quantities monitored for different equipment.

4.2 Sampling Rate

Although the emerging processor technology was suited to the development of numerical relays,
there still existed a problem of digital multiplication. Any numeric relay, other than the simplest
application, will execute a large number of multiplications whilst performing its protection
function. Since multiplication on a microprocessor was, at the time, achieved by a series of shifts
and additions which took a relatively large number of clock cycles to execute, this led to relay
algorithms being very conservative in the number of multiplications used since multiplications
used up processing time. Note that all the calculations performed by the relay must be completed in
the time between the A/D converter samples. Digital relaying algorithms are usually based on
50/60Hz signals. Disturbance Recorders do not need such time, hence they can have high sampling
rate which enables capturing fast transient phenomena which relays can’t capture

4.3 Data Conditioning [6]

Filtering of the applied signals may be both analog and digital, and together with the sampling rate
determine the frequency response of the recorded information. The use of measurement windows and
associated measurement algorithms can have an impact on the data contained within the record.
Triggering of the recording device may be dependent upon a calculated value for a specific parameter,
or a magnitude of an input, or the position of an input contact, or a combination of these.

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4.3.1 Analog filtering for ac signals
Any digital device, including relays and DRs, must include an anti-aliasing feature, usually achieved
using an analog filter. DRs traditionally sample at 64 to 512 samples/cycle and have their cut-off
filters set well above 1kHz, yielding comparatively good spectral coverage. Relays traditionally
sample from 4-20 samples/cycle, but relays are now available that sample at 64 to 128 samples/cycle.
However, protective relays, which use only filtered quantities for main protection and control
functions, have their analog filters are set comparatively low. As a result, the signal spectrum
effectively recorded by these devises is limited to few hundred hertz. Another aspect of analog
filtering is the design of the filter itself. When high order filters are used, their response may not be
ideally flat over the pass-band frequencies. This should be considered when a detailed harmonic
analysis is performed using records produced by protective relays.

The analog filter of digital relays is typically a low-pass filter, allowing the sub-harmonics and dc
components to pass through. However, the frequency response of the input magnetic modules at low
frequencies may alter the low frequency components (at the level of a few Hz). This should be
considered when analyzing sub-harmonics and decaying dc components. Not all recorders use
magnetic input modules for isolation. Many have dc response capability.

4.3.2 Digital filtering for ac inputs

The primary purpose of the digital fault recorder is to record the applied signals within the spectral
limitations of the equipment. The recorded data must have a high level of accuracy in terms of
representation of the input signal. The accuracy of this data is impacted by the performance of any
digital filtering applied to the ac inputs. A DFR rarely applies digital filtering, as the DFR only
captures data for later display and analysis. Protective relays do apply digital filtering that have a
shorter group delay which leads to shorter relay operating times.

The recorded data from a digital relay can provide very good information, but the user will need to
understand how the data is captured and any limitation in presenting the data. Limitations include slow
sample rate, limited response to high frequency, dc filtering, and software filters, depending on the
method used by the relay. Figure 4 illustrates the same event captured two ways from the relay and
displayed by the vendor’s display program. The first capture uses 4 samples/cycle of digitally filtered
data and the second uses 16 samples/cycle of sampled data with no special filter. Note that the filtered
data lags behind the sampled data (this time delay is the result of the filter) and does not show the dc
offset. Another important observation is that the filtered value does not show the true waveform
(e. g. peak current and the moment of full current interruption). This may be acceptable for a relay
under certain conditions, but not acceptable for a recording and event analysis. Other methods used, on
a limited basis, include converting the sampled waveforms to RMS or other application specific
values. In all cases, specific information is lost and it is important that the user understand what
filtering or algorithms are used in order to properly analyze the values.

Fig. 4: Unfiltered vs. Filtered Data

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4.4 Triggering Capabilities.

Triggers are necessary to initiate recording for both Protection IED and Disturbance Recorder.
Protection IEDs have limited triggering capabilities compared with recording IEDs since DRs have in
addition to H/W binary contacts, another software triggering channels in which the user can formulate
a specific function to trigger the recorder. For continuous recording, DRs triggers provide markers
into the key pieces of data during an event. The ability to “share” triggers between multiple sites is
also available in order to capture a wide-area view of an event. The analog channels in a relay are
fixed as current or voltage channels. This limits the ability of the relay to record and trigger on the
measurements actually available in a substation. Relay triggers are based on specific protection
function events, and are generally high or low magnitude triggers [7]. There is little flexibility to apply
different types of triggers for a specific measurement. Relays may supply some pre-configured
calculated, particularly zero-sequence current, but have no capability to provide user-defined
calculated triggering signals, or triggers on user-defined channels. Figure 5 shows example how the
sensitivity of the triggering value may capture valuable information. This record is for intermittent
faults occur as a result of arcing at certain points in the electrical system where insulation is weakened
due to pollution.

Fig. 5: High scan record for intermittent fault

5. INTEGRATION OF RECORDING CAPABILITIES

The electric utility SA system uses a variety of devices integrated into a functional package by a
communications technology for the purpose of monitoring and controlling the substation. SA systems
incorporate microprocessor-based intelligent electronic devices (IEDs), which provide inputs and
outputs to the system (as shown in Fig. 6).

Fig. 6: SA system functional diagram

In addition to the recording capabilities in both protection and disturbance recorder IEDs, there is also
the recording capability in the Bay Control Unit (BCU) which, from the recording point of view, has,
to certain extend, some recording capabilities as found in protective IED, taking into consideration the
lower sampling rate (20 sample/cycle) and the time tagging resolution for events and sampled
measurement (1ms). Full integration from the capabilities of all IEDs should be achieved. Modern
multifunctional IEDs with monitoring, control and protection functions are typically being
integrated in hierarchical substation protection and control systems [8]. The installation of
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advanced multifunctional protection, control, power quality monitoring and recording devices
result in a very efficient solution that meets all requirements for primary and backup monitoring
and recording in substation automation system. Because of the high sampling rate and the
availability of multiple recording modes, it is obvious that power quality monitoring and
specialized disturbance recording IEDs can be used as the primary recording devices.
Multifunctional protection devices and the BCU can be used as the backup recording devices.

Within the environment of IEC61850, DRs are becoming more important. Being Cross triggered by
GOOSE messages from protection IED, will ensure records are captured regardless of system
configuration. This is because the settings for starting the relay are much higher than the level of
DRs triggering (DRs triggering is more sensitive than the Relay starting).

CONCLUSION

This paper tries to demystify the recording capabilities of Protection and Disturbance Recorder IEDs.
From recording point of view, stand alone disturbance recording system is advantageous compared to
relays and BCU’s. DRs have more processing power, higher sampling rate, advanced filtering, and
data logging capacity. Triggering capabilities sensitivity and S/W user defined analog and digital
triggering functions existed in DRs IEDs, allow them to capture information that relay couldn’t record.

The state-of-the-art of the DRs IEDs enables the analysis of the performance of wide electrical
network during different system disturbance events (Transients, Dynamics, PQ….). They render a
useful tool for predictive maintenance of system equipment such as CB, CT, VT,…., and also of the
protective and control devices themselves. They play a vital role in improving the performance and
increasing the capabilities of power systems. They can help the operators and planners to take sound
decisions.

Recording capabilities in Protection IEDs and BCU’s can’t replace stand alone DRs IEDs. However,
the selection of proper IED to do specific function is highly relied on the voltage level and desired
application. At substation level, within the environment of IEC61850, full integration to the
capabilities of all IEDs should be achieved. Disturbance Recorders can be used for primary recording
functions, while Protection IEDs and BCUs can be used as backup (up to certain extend). During the
analysis of wide system disturbances, it is critical to understand what happened and why it happened,
so steps can be taken to ensure that the disturbance does not reoccur. This can’t be done without the
valuable data recorded by Disturbance Recorders IEDs which may be difficult or even impossible to
relays to record such information about the disturbance.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

[1] International Standard IEC 61850-4, Communication networks and systems in substations –
Part 4: System and project management, First edition 2002-01.
[2] Karlheinz Schwarz “Impact of IEC 61850 on System Engineering, Tools, People-Ware, and the
Role of the System Integrator” ( DistribuTECH 2007-02, San Diego, USA).
[3] NERC PRC-002 standard
[4] NERC PRC-018 standard
[5] Mohamed A. EL-Hadidy, Dalal H. Mostafa, Samir A. Ezz El-Arab "Role of The Monitoring
Systems in Improving the Performance and Capabilities of Interconnected Electrical Networks”,
(Arab League Seminar, April 2005, Cairo, Egypt).
[6] IEEE final report on “Considerations for Use of Disturbance Recorders”.
[7] Dennis Denison, Rich Hunt “Using a Multiple Analog Input Distance Relay as a DFR”
(2005 Fault and Disturbance Analysis Conference Georgia Tech Atlanta, Georgia April
25th – 26th, 2005)
[8] Alexander APOSTOLOV, Damien THOLOMIER “Analysis of Recording Elements in Wide Area
Monitoring Systems” (www.ariva-td.com/solutions).