Power system protection

Types of protection

 

Generator sets – In a power plant, the protective relays are intended to prevent damage to alternators or to the transformers in case of abnormal conditions of operation, due to internal failures, as well as insulating failures or regulation malfunctions. Such failures are unusual, so the protective relays have to operate very rarely. If a protective relay fails to detect a fault, the resulting damage to the alternator or to the transformer might require costly equipment repairs or replacement, as well as income loss from the inability to produce and sell energy.

 

High voltage transmission network

Protection on the transmission and distribution serves two functions: Protection of plant and protection of the public (including employees). At a basic level, protection looks to disconnect equipment which experience an overload or a short to earth. Some items in substations such as transformers might require additional protection based on temperature or gas pressure, among others.

 

Overload & Back-up for Distance (Overcurrent)

Overload protection requires a current transformer which simply measures the current in a circuit. There are two types of overload protection: instantaneous overcurrent and time overcurrent (TOC). Instantaneous overcurrent requires that the current exceeds a pre-determined level for the circuit breaker to operate. TOC protection operates based on a current vs time curve. Based on this curve if the measured current exceeds a given level for the preset amount of time, the circuit breaker or fuse will operate.

 

Earth fault

Earth fault protection again requires current transformers and senses an imbalance in a three-phase circuit. Normally the three phase currents are in balance, i.e. roughly equal in magnitude. If one or two phases become connected to earth via a low impedance path, their magnitudes will increase dramatically, as will current imbalance. If this imbalance exceeds a pre-determined value, a circuit breaker should operate.

 

Distance (Impedance Relay)

Distance protection detects both voltage and current. A fault on a circuit will generally create a sag in the voltage level. If the ratio of voltage to current measured at the relay terminals, which equates to an impedance, lands within a pre-determined level the circuit breaker will operate. This is useful for reasonable length lines, lines longer than 10 miles, because its operating characteristics are based on the line characteristics. This means that when a fault appears on the line the impedance setting in the relay is compared to the apparent impedance of the line from the relay terminals to the fault. If the relay setting is determined to be below the apparent impedance it is determined that the fault is within the zone of protection. When the transmission line length is too short, less than 10 miles, distance protection becomes more difficult to coordinate. In these instances the best choice of protection is current differential protection.

 

Back-up

The objective of protection is to remove only the affected portion of plant and nothing else. A circuit breaker or protection relay may fail to operate. In important systems, a failure of primary protection will usually result in the operation of back-up protection. Remote back-up protection will generally remove both the affected and unaffected items of plant to clear the fault. Local back-up protection will remove the affected items of the plant to clear the fault.

Low-voltage networks – The low voltage network generally relies upon fuses or low-voltage circuit breakers to remove both overload and earth faults.