Power System Protection

and Control (ENG451)

Lecturer: Dr. Farhad SHAHNIA

Lecturer 05
 Differential Protection

• Differential protection functions when the vector difference of two

current magnitudes exceeds a predetermined value.
• In the below system, although I1 and I2 may be different, but if
CTs have appropriate ratios and connections then, under normal
load conditions there is no flow through the overcurrent relay.
 Differential Relay Arrangement

• In All Cases- if (Idifferential = Id = I1-I2) > (Iset-value) then the relay

will operate
• Under load condition and in occurrence of an external fault, the
current entering the protection zone equals the current leaving it.
Therefore, the relay will not operate
• If the fault occurs inside the protected zone (inside the two CTs),
the CT secondary currents will be different and the differential
current Id will flow into the relay and therefore, the relay will
operate if Id exceeds the pick up current
• If an external fault occurs, the relay will remain stable and does
not operate. This means that the relay current goes through both
CTs and CT secondary currents are equal
 Classification of Differential Protection

Differential protection can be classified according to the type of

element to be protected, as follows:
• Transformer Differential Protection
• Generator Differential Protection
• Line Differential Protection
• Cable Differential Protection
• Busbar Differential Protection
 Protection Options for Transformer

 Main differences between faults associated with transformers

and other apparatuses (such as transmission lines, generators,
motors, etc.):
• Mainly internal faults- Most transformer faults are result of
internal electrical faults (short circuit, phase-to-ground, turn-to-
turn, etc.)
• Limited within substation- Unlike a transmission line, the physical
extent of a transformer is limited to within a substation
• In general, transformer may be protected by fuses, overcurrent
relays, differential relays and pressure relays
 Protection Options for Transformer
The protection choice depends upon several factors including:

 Transformer Size
• For sizes less than 2.5 MVA (by fuses), between 2.5 and 5 MVA (by
fuses, but instantaneous and time-delay overcurrent relays may be
more desirable from the standpoint of sensitivity and coordination with
protective relays on the high and low sides of the transformer),
between 5 and 10 MVA (by an overcurrent relay connected in a
differential configuration), above 10 MVA (a harmonic restraint,
differential relay or pressure and temperature relays)
 Protection Options for Transformer

 Transformer Location and Function

• The decision on the specific protection system also depends on the
importance of the transformer within the power network:
o If it is an integral part of the bulk power system therefore,
sophisticated relays in terms of design and redundancy are needed
o If it is a distribution station stepdown transformer, a single
differential relay and an overcurrent backup relay are needed
o If it is located near a generation source, the high X/R ratio of the
fault path will require harmonic restraint relays to accommodate
the higher magnetic inrush currents
 Protection Options for Transformer

 Voltage Level
• Higher voltages demand need more sophisticated and costly protective
devices due to deleterious effects of a delayed fault clearing and high
cost of HV transformer repairs

 Transformer Connection and Design

• The protection schemes vary considerably with transformer type
(autotransformer, two-winding, three-winding, Y-Y, Y-∆, ∆ - ∆) and
transformer design (with/without tertiary windings, type of grounding,
tap changers, phase-shifting windings)
 Differential Protection of Transformers

• Consider the single-phase, two-winding power transformer of below

Figure. During normal operation of the transformer:
o The algebraic sum of (primary and secondary) ampere-turns must be
equal to the MMF required to set up the core flux; however, due to
small air gap this MMF is negligible (often less than 0.5% of the
MMF produced by the load current).
 Differential Protection of Transformers

Therefore, for normal operation:

• If we use primary and secondary CTs with turns ratios of 1:n1 and 1:n2,
under normal conditions the currents in the secondary windings of the
CTs are related by
• If we appropriately select CTs, we may make N1n1 = N2n2, and then,
for normal operation, i1s = i2s. But, if an internal fault develops, this
condition is no longer satisfied, and difference of i1s and i2s becomes
much larger; in fact, it is proportional to the fault current.
• The differential current Id provides a highly sensitive measure of the
fault current:
 Differential Protection of Transformers
Practical issues for implementation of workable differential relay:

 CT Ratios
• It may not be possible to obtain CT ratios on primary and secondary
side which will satisfy condition N1n1 = N2n2, as we must select CTs
with standard ratios
• The problem is somewhat alleviated by the fact that most relays
themselves provide different tap positions for each of the CT inputs to
the relay, thus, in effect, providing auxiliary CTs which can correct any
deviation from the desired ratios
• In any case, even with these adjustments, there remains some residual
ratio mismatch, which leads to a small differential current id during
normal conditions
 Differential Protection of Transformers

• The secondary of two CTs may not be the same and therefore, some
voltage may appear across the relay coil which lead to a current
flowing through the relay called Spill Current. The spill current is due
to the CT mismatch. The spill current can cause unlike operation of
differential relay in some cases when the relay setting is sensitive or
spill current is large enough compare to the relay pick up current

 Transformation Errors
• The errors of transformation of the two CTs may differ from each other
and leading to significant differential current when there is normal load
 Differential Protection of Transformers

 Tap Changers
• If the power transformer is equipped with a tap changer, it will
introduce a main transformer ratio change when the taps are changed

 Magnetization inrush
• This phenomenon occurs when a transformer is energized, or when the
primary voltage returns to its normal value after the clearance of an
external fault
• The magnetizing inrush produces a current flow into the primary
winding that does not have any equivalent in the secondary winding.
The net effect is thus similar to the situation when there is an internal
fault on the transformer
 Differential Protection of Transformers

• These three effects cause a differential current to flow in the

overcurrent relay. Therefore, relay design must accommodate them
without causing a trip
• Since each of these causes leads to a differential current proportional to
actual transformer primary and secondary currents, a percentage
differential relay provides an excellent solution
• In a percentage differential relay, the differential current must exceed a
fixed percentage of the ‘through’ current (ir) in the transformer which
is defined as the average of primary and secondary currents:

where ir is known as the restraint current.

 Differential Protection of Transformers

• The relay operates when:

where K is the slope of the percentage differential characteristic

(typically 10, 20 or 40%)
• A relay with a slope of 10% is more sensitive than a relay with a slope
of 40%
 Differential Protection of Transformers

A practical percentage differential characteristic is shown in Figure below

• The relay slope determines the trip zone
• The three sources of differential current during normal operation are
shown
• The relay has a small pickup
current setting, i.e. the relay does
not operate unless the differential
current is above this pickup value
• The pickup setting is usually set
very low: typical values are 0.25
A secondary. This accounts for
any residual CT errors at low
values of transformer load
current
 Example

A single-phase 69kV/110kV, 20MVA transformer is to be protected by a

differential relay, with input taps of 3.0, 4.0, 4.5, 4.8, 4.9, 5.0, 5.1, 5.2,
5.5A secondary. The transformer has an under load tap changer (ULTC)
with a turns ratio of −5% to +5%.

Determine: The CTs, the pickup setting and the percentage differential
slope for the relay (available slopes are 10, 20 and 40%). What is the level
of fault current, for an unloaded transformer, for which the differential
relay will not operate?
 Example – cont.

The rated primary and secondary currents are 289.8A and 181.8A,
respectively. Therefore:
• We may select CT ratios of 300:5 and 200:5 for the two sides
• These will produce 289.8×5/300=4.83A, and 181.8×5/200=4.54A in
the two CT secondaries
In order to reduce a mismatch between these currents, we may use the
relay taps of 4.8 and 4.5 or the CT on the primary and secondary sides:
• This will give us a value of 4.83/4.8, or 1.0062×5A, and 4.54/4.5, or
1.009×5A in the relay coils
• Thus, the differential current in the relay due to CT ratio mismatch
would amount to 1.009-1.006=0.003pu, or about 0.3%
 Example – cont.

• The tap changer will change the main transformer ratio by 5%, when it
is in its extreme tap position. Thus, a total differential current of 5.3%
would result from these two causes
• If no information on unequal CT errors is available, we must make
appropriate assumptions (e.g., 10%) to select a proper percentage slope
for the relay characteristic. Therefore, its reasonable to assume that
errors in two CTs will not differ from each other by more than 10%
under all fault conditions.
• This gives a net differential current of 15.3% for the largest external
fault, while the tap changer is at its farthest position
• With about a 5% margin of safety, we may therefore select a 20%
differential slope for the relay
 Example – cont.

For the pickup setting, we may select the lightest available setting.
• A typical available value is 0.25A

With a 0.25A pickup setting:

• The primary current on the 69kV side will be (300/5)×(4.8/5)×0.25, or
14.4A
• A fault on the 69kV side producing currents smaller than this will not
be seen by this relay
 Differential Protection of Transformers

• The percentage differential relay described, takes care of the relatively

small values of differential currents which flow in the relay during
normal load flow conditions, or during an external fault
• However, certain other phenomena cause a substantial differential
current to flow, when there is no fault, and these false differential
currents are generally sufficient to cause a percentage differential relay
to trip, unless some special precautions are taken
• All such phenomena can be traced to the nonlinearities in the
transformer core, or in the CT core or in both
 Differential Protection of Transformers

 Magnetizing Inrush Current During Energization

• Magnetizing inrush current refers to the transient current flowing
through the transformer when a transformer is energized for the first
time
• This current is several times bigger than the transformer rated current
• It will last only for a few cycles. Protection system should not operate
during transient condition
• Modern transformer protection relays have mostly inrush current
setting
• Since inrush current flows only in primary (and not secondary)
winding, it produces a differential current which could be ~200% of the
restraining current, and would cause a false operation
 Differential Protection of Transformers
• Using a differential relay with a suitable sensitivity to cope with the
magnetizing current, usually obtained by a unit that introduces a time
delay to cover the period of the initial inrush peak

 Harmonic content of the inrush current

• Using a harmonic-restraint unit, or a supervisory unit, in conjunction
with a differential unit
 Differential Protection of Transformers
 Three-Phase Transformer Protection
• Protection of three-phase transformers requires that primary and
secondary currents of the three phases be compared individually to
achieve differential protection of the three-phase transformer.
• The major difference between three-phase transformer protection and
that of three single-phase transformers is the necessity to deal with the
effect of a wye–delta transformation. Under normal load conditions, the
line currents on the wye and delta sides of the three-phase transformer
are out of phase by 30◦.
• Since CTs are connected in the line, this phase shift causes a standing
differential current, even when the turns ratio of the main transformer
is correctly taken into account.
 Differential Protection of Transformers
 The Solution
• The CTs on the wye side of a star/delta transformer should be
connected in delta, and the CTs on the delta side should be connected in
wye. This arrangement compensates for the phase shift across the
transformer and blocks the zero-sequence current in the event of
external faults to earth.
• In addition, it is also necessary to adjust the turns ratios of the CTs so
that the delta connection on the wye side of the power transformer
produces relay currents that are numerically matched with the relay
currents produced by the wye-connected CTs. Thus, the delta CT
winding currents must be (1/√3) times the wye CT currents
• Under these conditions, when CT connections are correct, there will be
no (or little) current in the differential circuit
 Example
• Consider the below three-phase 500MVA, 34.5kV/500kV delta/wye
transformer. Assume rated normal load and the current in phase-a on
the wye side as the reference phasor.
Example – cont.

• CTs on delta side of transformer need to be connected in wye

• We may therefore select CT ratio on delta side to be such that the CT
secondary current will be less than 5 A when primary current is
8367.39 A. Select the CT ratio of 9000 : 5. This produces CT secondary
currents on this side of (8367.39 × 5/9000) = 4.65 A.
 Example – cont.

• The CTs on wye side of the power transformer are going to be

connected in delta. Thus, the CT ratios must be such that the CT
secondary winding currents will be close to (577√3)=1000A. This
calls for a CT ratio of 1000 : 5. Selecting CT ratio of 1000 : 5 produces
CT secondary winding currents of magnitude 577.35 × 5/1000 = 2.886
A. This will produce a CT delta line current of magnitude 2.886 × √3 =
5 A.
• Although this is not exactly equal to the line currents produced by CTs
on the 34.5 kV side of transformer (4.65 A), this is the best that can be
done with standard CT ratios. As in the case of single-phase
transformers, the relay taps can be used to reduce this magnitude
mismatch further.
 Interposing (Compensating) CT

• The compensating CT, corrects the ratio and cancel the spill current
• In the first configuration the zero sequence is eliminated by the main
CTs
• In the second configuration, the compensating CT, eliminates the zero
sequence
 Filtering Zero Sequence Currents

• There is no earth connection in delta winding and therefore, the zero

sequence currents (earth fault currents) circulate in the delta winding
and the earth fault relays will not see this fault
• It is important to provide zero sequence filtering where a transformer
winding can pass zero sequence current to an external earth fault in
order to ensure that the transformer protection only see in-zone faults
• This is achieved by use of delta-connected line CT’s or interposing
CT’s for older relays
• This is in addition to any phase or ratio correction. The winding
connection of the line and/or interposing CT’s shall take this into
account. (one solution is to connect the delta side to a star connected
CT and connect the star side to a delta connected CT)
• For digital/numerical relays, the required filtering is applied in the
relay software
Other Differential Protections