Power System 1 EPO520

Chapter 4 – Power System Protection (Overcurrent)

Introduction
 When faults occur, excessive currents will flow in the power system.
 These fault currents can be several orders of magnitude larger than normal operating currents
 If not removed quickly, they may cause:
o Insulation damage
o Conductor melting
o Mechanical damage to windings and busbars
o Fire and explosion
 It is therefore important to have power system protection in order to:
o Remove the faulted equipment from the system
o Maintain the unfaulted system in order to continue service

System Protection Components

 Protection systems have three basic components:
1. Instrument transformer
2. Relays
3. Circuit-breakers
 Figure 10.1 shows a simple overcurrent protection schematic with:
1. One type of instrument transformer, i.e. the current transformer (CT)
2. An overcurrent relay (OC)
3. A circuit breaker (CB) for a single phase line

Figure 10.1: Overcurrent protection schematic

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 The function of the current transformer (CT):

o To reproduce secondary current which will activate the relays
o It converts primary currents I (kA range) to secondary currents I’ (~ 0-5A range) for
convenience of measurement, with the following advantages:
Safety: Provide electrical isolation from the power system so that personnel working
with relays will work in a safer environment.
Economy: Lower level inputs enable relays to be smaller, simpler & less expensive.
Accuracy: Accurately reproduce power system currents & voltages over wide operating
ranges
 The function of the overcurrent (OC) relay:
o To discriminate between normal operation and fault condition
o Receive signal (or current) from the secondary winding of the current transformer.
o Has an operating coil, which is connected to the CT secondary winding & a set of contacts.
o When I’ exceeds a specified “pick up” value, the operating coil causes the contacts to close.
o When the relay contacts close, the trip coil of the circuit breaker is energized, which then
causes the circuit breaker to open
 The function of the circuit breaker (CB):
o To separate between the faulty and non-faulty parts in power systems

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Instrument Transformer
 There are two basic types of instrument transformers:
o Voltage transformers (VT) formerly called potential transformer (PT)
o Current transformers (CT)
 Figure 10.2 shows a schematic representation for the VT and CT
o The VT reduces the primary voltage and the CT reduces the primary current to much lower,
standardized levels suitable for operation of relays.

Figure10. 2: VT and CT schematic

 For system protection purposes, VTs are generally considered to be sufficiently accurate.
o Therefore, the VT is usually modelled as an ideal transformer, where

1
V '   V
n
V’ is a scaled-down representation of V and is in phase with V
o Standard VT ratios are given in Table 10.1.
Table 10.1: Standard VT ratios

Voltage Ratios
1:1 2:1 2.5:1 4:1 5:1 20:1 40:1
60:1 100:1 200:1 300:1 400:1 600:1 800:1
1000:1 2000:1 3000:1 4500:1

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 For current transformer,

o Standard CT ratios are given in Table 10.2.
Table 10.2: Standard CT ratios

Current Ratios
50:5 100:5 150:5 200:5 250:5 300:5 400:5
450:5 500:5 600:5 800:5 900:5 1000:5 1200:5
1500:5 1600:5 2000:5 2400:5 2500:5 3000:5 3200:5
4000:5 5000:5 6000:5

o An approximate equivalent circuit of a CT is shown in Figure 10.7

Figure 10.7: CT equivalent circuit

Where Z’ = CT secondary leakage impedance

Xe = (Saturable) CT excitation reactance
ZB = Impedance of terminating device (such as relay, including leads)

o The total impedance ZB of the terminating device is called the burden

o Associated with the CT equivalent circuit is an excitation curve that determines the
relationship between the CT secondary voltages E’ and excitation current Ie.
o Excitation curves for a multiratio bushing CT with ANSI classification C100 are shown in
Figure 10.8.

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Figure 10.8: Excitation curves for a multi ratio bushing CT with a C100 ANSI accuracy classification

o Using the CT equivalent circuit and excitation curves, the following procedure can be used
to determine CT performance.
STEP 1 Assume a CT secondary output current I’
STEP 2 Compute E’ = (Z’ + ZB) I’
STEP 3 Using E’, find Ie from the excitation curve
STEP 4 Compute I = n (I’ + Ie)
STEP 5 Repeat steps 1 to 4 for different values of I’, then plot I’ versus I
o The CT error is given by:

Ie
CT error   100 0 0
I ' I e

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Example 1 (Glover 10.1)

Evaluate the performance of the multiratio CT in Figure in 10.8 with a 100:5 CT ratio, for the
following secondary output currents and burdens:
a) I’ = 5 A, ZB = 0.5 
b) I’ = 8 A, ZB = 0.8 
c) I’ = 15 A, ZB = 1.5 
Also, compute the CT error for each output current.

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Example 2 (Glover 10.2)

An overcurrent relay set to operate at 8A is connected to the multiratio CT in Figure 10.8 with a
100:5 CT ratio. Will the relay detect a 200A primary fault current if the burden ZB is
a) 0.8 
b) 3.0 

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Overcurrent Relays
 There are two types of overcurrent relays:
o Instantaneous overcurrent relays
o Time-delay overcurrent relays
 Input to the overcurrent relay operating coil is the CT secondary current I’.
 Instantaneous overcurrent relays respond to the magnitude of their input current, as shown by
the trip and block regions in Figure 10.9.
o If the magnitude of I’ exceeds a specified adjustable current magnitude IP, called the pickup
current, the relay contacts close instantaneously to energize the circuit breaker trip coil.
o If I’ is less than IP, then the relay contacts remain open, blocking the trip coil.

Figure 10.9: Instantaneous overcurrent relay block and trip regions

 Time-delay overcurrent relays also respond to the magnitude of their input current but with an
intentional time delay.
o As shown, the time delay depends on the magnitude of the relay input current.
o If I’ is a large multiple of IP, then the relay operate (or trips) after a small time delay
o For smaller multiples of IP, the relay trips after a longer time delay
o If I’ < IP, the relay remains in the blocking position.

Figure 10.10: Time-delay overcurrent relay block and trip regions

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 For a typical time-delay overcurrent relay, the characteristic curves are shown in Figure 10.12.
o These relays have two settings:
1. Current tap setting: The pickup current, IP in amperes
2. Time dial setting: The adjustable amount of time delay

Figure 10.12: Typical time curves type CO-8 time-delay overcurrent relay

 The characteristic curves are usually shown with operating time in seconds versus relay input
current as a multiple of the pickup current.
o This inverse time characteristic can be shifted up or down by adjustment of the time dial
setting.
o Although discrete time dial settings are shown in Figure 10.12, intermediate values can be
obtained by interpolating between the discrete curves.

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Example 3 (Glover 10.3)

The CO-8 relay with a pick-up current of 6 A and a time-dial setting of 1 is used with the 100:5 CT
in Example 1. Determine the relay operating time for each case.

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Radial System Protection

 Many radial systems are protected by time-delay overcurrent relays.
 These relays are coordinated to operate in sequence so that they interrupt minimum load
during faults.
o The breaker closest to the fault opens, while other upstream breakers with larger time
delays remain closed

Figure 10.16: Single line diagram of a 34.5kV radial system

 Consider a fault at P1 to the right of breaker B3 for the radial system of Figure 10.16.
o For this fault we want breaker B3 to open while B2 (and B1) remains closed.
o Under these conditions, only load L3 is interrupted.
o We could select a longer time delay for the relay at B2, so that B3 operates first.
o Thus, for any fault to the right of B3, B3 provides primary protection.
o Only if B3 fails to open will B2 open, after time delay, thus providing backup protection.
 Similarly, consider a fault at P2 between B2 and B3.
o We want B2 to open while B1 remains closed.
o Under these conditions, loads L2 and L3 are interrupted.
o Since the fault is closer to the source, the fault current will be larger than the previous fault
considered.
o B2, set to open for the previous, smaller fault current after time delay, will open more
rapidly for this fault.
o We also select the B1 relay with a longer time delay than B2, so that B2 opens first.
o Thus, B2 provides primary protection for faults between B2 and B3, as well as backup
protection for faults to the right of B3.
o Similarly, B1 provides primary protection for faults between B1 and B2, as well as backup
protection for further downstream faults.
 The coordination time interval is the time interval between the primary and remote backup
protective devices.
o It is the difference between the time that the backup relaying operates and the time that
circuit breakers clear the fault under primary relaying.
o Typically, coordination time intervals are from 0.2 to 0.5 seconds to account for factors such
as CT error.

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