NORTHERN TECHNICAL COLLEGE

SUPERVISORY
CONTROL AND
CARRIER
SYSTEMS
ELECTRICAL DIPLOMA

P. MELELE
MAY 2012 JULY 2012
Table of Contents i

Pilot wire Overview ................................................................................................................. 2

Pilot Circuit Characteristics ...................................................................................................... 2

Primary Injection test ............................................................................................................. 4

Secondary Injection Test .................................................................................................................. 5

Signaling Channels. 7

2
1. PILOT WIRE OVERVIEW
The term Pilot means that between the ends of the transmission line there is an
Interconnecting channel of some sort over which information can be conveyed. Three Different
types of such a channel are presently in use, and they are called Wire pilot Carrier-current pilot
and Microwave pilot. A wire pilot consists generally of a two-wire Circuit of the telephone-line
type, either open wire or cable; frequently, such circuits are rented from the local telephone
company.
Pilot circuit is that portion of a control circuit or system which carries the control signal from
the generating device to the control device. The pilot wire is a vital part of the differential
protection because it is this line which carries the information from one end of the cable to be
protected to the other. This pilot wire is a fairly vulnerable part of the protection, especially in
urban supply networks where numerous roadwork may damage it. For this type of Differential
protection to be reliable, it is important to fit it with a monitoring device that is able to detect
all kinds of pilot wire faults (cut, short-circuit, etc.)
In a three phase system, the pilot wires are usually in the form of a three-core cable buried
underground in the case of insulated cable system. In order to prevent the possibility of
operation of relays under through fault conditions, compensated pilot cable is used, in which
provision is made to shunt the currents from the relays by surrounding each conductor of pilot
cable with a metallic screen or sheath which is divided at the centre of its length to form equal
lengths of conductors.

PILOT CIRCUITS
The pilot circuit is treated as a simple interconnection. The circuit is a transmission line,
operating in conjunction with the power transmission line. The performance of the pilot circuit
may be complex and the operation is made even more involved by inductive interference
effects.

2. PILOT CIRCUIT CHARACTERISTICS

A circuit comprising a pair of light gauge conductors will have resistance and shunt capacitance
distributed over the pilot length. The inductance of a circuit is usually negligible. Although
sometimes inductance is added in the form of loading coil connected in series at regular
intervals. Such inductance is only necessary when the line is required to transmit
communication signals as well as to perform a protection function.
When the line is of moderate length, that is up to about 24km, it may be represented by a tee
circuit with the capacitance treated as well as a single unit connected to the mid-point of the
series resistance. For longer circuits this representation is not sufficiently accurate and it
becomes necessary to represent the circuit by a number of such tee elements connected in
series, forming a ladder circuit as shown below.

3
 Sending end
Receiving end

Figure 1; multi-tee circuit representation of pilot

The behavior of a long line can be determined by calculation of the apparent impedance of such
a ladder or by applying the analytical solution for such a line.

Zeq

Sending end Receiving end

Yeq Yeq

Figure2; Equivalent circuit of pilot line

The line can be represented by an equivalent circuit figure 2 above, in which the constants are
given by;

() ()
Z eq = Z (1+ + + +)

()
Y eq =Y ( + - )

Where, Z is the total series impedance of the line.

Y is the total shunt admittance of the line.

For lines of up to 24Km of 9Kg conductor, with a resistance of approximately 1300 ohms, only
the first term of the expansions needed be used. The significance of the long line
performance can be seen from the figure 3 shown below , which shows the curves of input
impedance for the alternative causes of the line being open-circuited or short-circuited at the
receiving end.

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 For really long lines the open-circuit and short-circuit impedances merge, so that it is not
possible to determine the measurement. This is a real problem in the application of a
differential scheme, because it is the apparent impedance of the pilot circuit that conveys to
the relay that information as to the direction of the current at the remote station.

80

70
INPUT IMPEDANCE (kilo-ohms)

OPEN CIRCUIT AT RECEIVING END

3 60
INPUT IMPEDANCE

50

ANGLE (degrees)
2 ANGLE 40

30

1 20

SHORT CIRCUIT AT RECEIVING END 10

0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 8 9 10
RESISTANCE (kilo-ohm)

Figure 3; Input Impedance of 9 kg pilot circuit

Open-circuit and short-circuit condition are arbitrary criteria and do not represent the total
range of terminal conditions. Pilot response can be imposed by reactive compensation; shunt
reactors are connected across the pilot circuit to compensate for the capacitance current.
Ideal these reactors should be placed at intervals along the pilot, but for practical reasons, are
applied at the ends, as part of the relay equipment. The turning of the current is not sharp
because of the pilot resistance 2 being the maximum Q factor obtainable in typical cases, but
this nevertheless gives a usefully increase in open-circuit impedance, allowing the voltage
balance scheme to be used with a longer pilot circuit than would otherwise be practicable.

INTERFERING SIGNALS
The field of any adjacent conductor may induce a voltage in the pilot circuit; when this is laid
parallel to a power circuit the induced voltage may be considerable particularly when a severe
earth fault occurs on the power circuit. In these circumstances, particularly when the power

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circuit is part of a solidly earthed EHV system, the voltage may amount to several thousand
volts. The current that will flow if the pilot line is earthed at each end is limited only by the line
resistance, reactance being small, and may be of the order of 100A. The effect is therefore
associated with substantial power and can cause considerable damage.
It should be realized that an auxiliary line run between stations for whatever duty and whether
associated with power equipment or not, is inherently dangerous and should be treated at all
times as a high voltage circuit.

3. PRIMARY INJECTION TEST

This is the test which involves the entire circuit; current transformer primary and secondary
windings, relay coils, trip and alarm circuits, and all intervening wiring are checked.
Primary injection (sometimes referred to as a trip test) is generally carried out as a test to
determine the integrity of the whole secondary protection circuit including CTs, CT leads and
control cubicle wiring. In other words it proves that the CB trips in response to an over current.
The test is performed after secondary injection tests and CT ratio tests and when all the
secondary test links are closed and ready for service. Hence it is often the last test performed in
the commissioning process.

The PI test is usually performed by injecting a current at low voltages (say 5 -10 V) from a
purpose built transformer with high current capable secondary winding. The current is passed
through the breaker or busbar section as appropriate. The magnitude of current injected is
generally not considered important so long as it is above the minimum operating current
determined by the protection relay settings. Sometimes the current and time to trip is
measured but owing to the inability to provide currents as large as the prospective HV fault
currents no attempt is made to perform full Time-Current Characteristic tests of the protection
scheme.

Instances where Primary Test is done

After installation as the only way to prove correct installation and operation of the whole of a
protection scheme.
When the CT ratio is not known and you want to know it
When you want to confirm the CT polarity

3. Secondary Injection Test

This is the test whose purpose of secondary injection testing is to check that the protection
scheme from the relay input terminals onwards is functioning correctly with the settings
specified. This is achieved by applying suitable inputs from a test set to the inputs of the relays
and checking if the appropriate alarm/trip signals occur at the relay/control room/CB locations.
Secondary injection testing is normally different to primary injection testing because it is
normally conducted when the circuit breaker is closed but is not carrying any current through
its main poles.

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Secondary injection testing normally involves disconnection of the protective device from its
normal VT/CT and connection to a specialist test set that can inject and measure/record the
required operating signal directly into the protective device relay to cause it to operate the
circuit breaker.

The advantage of secondary injection testing is that the circuit breaker does not have interrupt
large current and only low voltage signals are injected to operate the device.

A perceived disadvantage of secondary injection testing is that the actual operation of the
'whole' system is not tested but this may be compensated by the fact that the circuit breaker
has operated without having to interrupt a large current and the circuit breaker type has tested
and rated by its manufacturer.

However, specialist equipment and knowledge is still required, including significant knowledge
of the actual protection scheme and philosophy. Furthermore, disconnecting of VT/CT can also
lead to potential danger. For this reason, secondary injection testing is also often conducted by
specialists.

In other words, it is not something that is jumped into without significant experience and
knowledge.

CT Ratio Check
The circuit for checking the CT Ratio with a single-phase test set is shown in Figure A below.

7
 Figure A: Current transformer ratio check
Current is passed through the primary conductors and measured on the test set ammeter, A1.
The secondary current is measured on the ammeter A2 or relay display, and the ratio of the
value on A1 to that on A2 should closely approximate to the ratio marked on the current
transformer nameplate.

Tests that can be done with Secondary Injection Test Set

Long Time (LT) Pick-Up Test

Short Time (ST) Pick-Up Test
Instantaneous (I) Pick-Up Test
Ground Fault (GF) Pick-Up Test
Quick-Trip Pick-Up Test

4. SIGNALLING CHANNELS

Introduction

One of the main disadvantages of conventional time-stepped distance protection is the fact
that the instantaneous zone 1 of the protection at each end of the gases to clear. Protected line
cannot be set to cover the whole of the feeder length and usually set to about 80%. This leaves

8
two end zones, each being about 20% of protected feeder length, in which faults are cleared
instantaneously (zone 1 time) by the protection at one end of the feeder but in zone 2 times
(0.3 to 0.4 seconds) by the protection at the other end of the feeder.
In some applications this situation cannot be tolerated, for two main reasons:
a. Faults remaining on the feeder for zone 2 times may cause the system to become
unstable.
b. Where high speed auto-reclosing is used, the non-simultaneous opening of the circuit
breakers at both ends of the faulted section results in no dead time during the auto-
reclose cycle for the fault to be extinguished and for ionized gases to clear. This results
in the possibility that a transient fault also will cause permanent lockout of the circuit
breakers at each end of the line section.
Unit schemes of protection which compare the conditions at the two ends of the protected
feeder simultaneously can positively identify whether the fault is internal or external to the
protected section, and are cable of providing high speed protection for the whole feeder length.
This advantage is balanced by the fact that the unit scheme does not provide that back up
protection to adjacent feeders given by a distance scheme.
The most desirable scheme is obviously one which combines the features of both arrangements
that is, instantaneous tripping over the whole feeder length plus back up protection to adjacent
feeder. This can be achieved by interconnecting the distance protections at each end of the
protected feeder by signaling channel. The signaling channel may be high frequency (hf)
signaling over the overhead line conductors , or voice frequency (vf) using either pilots, a power
line carrier communications channel, a radio link or microwave channel.
The purpose of signaling channel is to transmit information about the system conditions at one
end of the protected line to the other end; it can also be arranged so as to initiate or prevent
tripping of the remote circuit breaker. The former arrangement is generally refer erred to as a
transfer trip scheme while the latter is known as a blocking scheme.

4.1 Transfer Trip Schemes

Only the under-reaching schemes as the type of carrier channel required for the over-reaching
scheme severely limits its possible applications. In the under-reaching scheme, the zone 1
relays at each terminal, set to approximately 80% of the shorter feeder length between any two
ends, are used to initiate the intertrippping signals. The operation of the zone 1 relay at any one
terminal is enough to give virtually simultaneous instantaneous clearance of all internal faults.

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 A C
B A C

A- A zone 1 reach of relays at A

B- B zone 1 reach of relays at B
C- C zone 1 reach of relays at C
A-B-C zone not covered by zone 1 relays at any terminals

Figure 4 Example of three terminal line illustrating non-overlap of zone 1 relays

There are two cases in which this is not possible, the first is shown in figure 4 above, in this
case, because of the relative feeder lengths, it is not possible to obtain overlap of the
reaches of zone1 relays at each end. This leaves a section of the circuit in which fault
clearance will be zone 2 times from each end with possibility of sequential zone 2 clearance
at one end, depending on the ration of infeeds. The second case is shown in figure 5 shown
below.

A C

fault

X
B

Figure5; three-terminal line illustrating condition of fault close to a terminal at which there is no infeeds

There, it is assumed either that the breaker at B is open or that there is no infeed at the bus
bars at B, should a fault occur at X , no intertrip signal can be sent by the zone 1 relay at B
because it cannot operate. The fault will again be cleared in second zone time by the relays
at A and C.
Where the more usual permissive under-reaching scheme is used, a further difficult arises if
current is out fed from the protected section at one of the terminals, B and fed back in at
another, C, as illustrated in figure 6 below.

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 A C
F

fault

Figure 6; example of fault current flowing out of one terminal for an internal fault.

When this happens the fault detector used to monitor the received tripping signal may not
operate if it is the usual mho or offset Mho type and may therefore prevent tripping of
breaker at terminal B until the breaker at C has operated. In addition, before simultaneous
instantaneous clearing of any internal faults can take place, not only must the zone 1
relaying at one end operate but the fault detects at all ends must operate as well, which,
again will restrict its application in a few instances.

4.2. BLOCKING SCHEMES

The normal type of blocking schemes, with characteristic as shown in figure 7 shown below,
overcomes to some extent the problems out lined previously of the transfer trip schemes.

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 + -

Z1&Z2
TR

Z3T

Z3 STL RR

RECEIVE RELAY
Z3 CONTACT
Z2T

TIMERS

Z3T

STL

SHORT TIME LAG

RELAY
Z2T
Z2

RANGE CHANGE RELAY

Figure 7; practical blocking scheme trip circuit

As the tripping at each terminal is initiated by the zone 2 or 3 relays rather than by the zone 1
relays as is the case with the transfer trip scheme, high speed tripping at all three terminals can
be expected for a much wider variation of line lengths and magnitude of infeeds.
High speed tripping from all terminals can be achieved for a fault near one terminal where
there is no infeeds, as, in this situation, no blocking signal can be imitated from this terminal
and providing the fault is within the reach of the relays at the other two terminals,
instantaneous tripping will take place . If the infeed from one terminal predominate sequential
tripping at the other terminal may have to be accepted.
The major disadvantage of the scheme is evident when the condition depicted in figure 6 arises.
Here, the reverse looking fault detector at terminal B will imitate a blocking signal to the other
two terminals, preventing tripping until after normal zone 2 times has expired.

4.3. TRANSFER TRIPPING

The simplest way of speeding up fault clearance at the terminal which clears an end zone fault
in zone 2 time is to adopt a straight transfer trip or intetrtip technique, whereby a zone 1
contact is arranged to control a carrier transmitter and a receive relay contact is connected in
the tripping circuit as shown below in figure 8.

12
+ -
(a) TRIPPING
CIRCUIT
Z1&Z2
TR

Z3T TRIP RELAY

RECEIVE RELAY
Z3 CONTACT
Z2T

TIMERS

Z3T

SHORT TIME LAG

RELAY
Z2T Z2

RANGE CHANGE RELAY

(b) SIGNALING
CHANNEL SEND
ARRANGEMENT
+

Z1 TO RECEIVE TERMINAL
SEND
CIRCUIT

Figure 8; Transfer trip (under-reaching) scheme

13
 END
ZONE
Z3A

Z2A
Z1A
A B C

Z1B

Z2B F
Z3B
END
ZONE

(a) STEPPED TIME /

DISTANCE
CHARACTERISTICS

+ -
(a) TRIPPING
CIRCUIT
Z1&Z2
TR

Z3T TRIP RELAY

Z3
Z2T

TIMERS

Z3T

Z2T Z2

RANGE CHANGE RELAY

Considering now a fault F in the end zone at end B in figure 9 (a) above, operation of the zone 1
relay at end B initiates carrier transmission as well as tripping at that end. The receipt of the
signal at end A initiates tripping immediately, because the receive relay contact is connected
directly to the trip relay. The scheme in which the zone 1 relay is used to send a signal to the
remote end of the feeder in this manner is termed a transfer trip under- reaching scheme. The
receive relay is seldom used for direct tripping caused by accidental operation or by
maloperation of the signaling channel. The scheme is made more secure when the tripping

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caused by the receive relay is supervised by zone 3 distance relay contact, as shown in figure 10
below.

+ -

Z1&Z2
TR

Z3T TRIP RELAY

Z3 RR

RECEIVE RELAY
Z3 CONTACT
Z2T

Z3T

Z2T
Z2

RANGE CHANGE
RELAY

Figure 10; permissive intertrip ( under-reaching scheme.)

The scheme is then known as a permissive intertrip under-reaching scheme. In an over

reaching scheme, a relay set to reach beyond the far end of the feeder. In this case,
however, it is essential that the receive relay contact be monitored by a directional relay
contact to ensure that tripping does not take place unless the fault is within the protected
section; see figure 11 below . This scheme is then known as a permissive inter tripping over
reaching scheme or directional comparison scheme.

15
 Z3A

Z2A
A B C

Z2B

Z3B
(a) TIME /DISTANCE
CHARACTERISTICS

+ -
RECEIVE RELAY
CONTACT

Z2 RR
TR

Z2T TRIP RELAY

Z3
Z2T
TIMERS

(b) TRIP CIRCUIT

Z3T

TO RECEIVE
Z1 TERMINAL
SEND
CIRCUIT
(c) SIGNALLING CHANNEL SEND ARRANGEMENT

Figure 11; permissive intertrip (over-reaching) scheme.

The disadvantage of the scheme shown in figure 11 is that there is no independent zone 1
tripping; the fast tripping therefore relies entirely on the signaling channel. This can be
overcome by using separate zone 1,2 and 3 units, the zone 1 units being set to 80% of the
line length and to trip direct, while the zone 2 and 3 units are used as shown in figure 11
shown.
If signaling overhead conductors is used with these types of permissive intertripping
schemes, the signal is transmitted over the faulty line section. Fast tripping can be obtained
in this, but ability to pass a signal from one end to the other depends on the attenuation
introduced into the transmission path by the fault. During external fault conditions the
receiver may operate because of excessive noise generated within the protected section,
and false trips may occur.

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4.5. BLOCKING
The three alternative arrangements so for described have used the signaling channel to
transmit a tripping instruction; low speed clearance of end zone faults if the signaling channel
fails to function is inherent in them all.
An inverse arrangement known as a blocking scheme is shown in figure 12 below.

Z3A
ZRA Z2A
A
B

Z1B
ZRB
Z2B S
R T

Z3B
(a) TIME /DISTANCE CHARACTERISTICS

+ -

Z1&Z2
TR

Z3T

Z3 RR

RECEIVE RELAY
Z3 CONTACT
Z2T
TIMERS

Z3T

Z2T

RANGE CHANGE RELAY

(b) TRIP CIRCUIT

TO REMOTE
ZR TERMINAL
SEND
CIRCUIT

(c) SIGNALLING CHANNEL SEND ARRANGEMENT

Figure 12; Ideal Blocking Scheme

A normally closed receive relay contact is used in the tripping circuit, allowing instantaneous
tripping via the forward looking directional zone 3 starting units Z3. A blocking instruction has

17
to be sent by the reverse-looking directional units ZR to prevent instantaneous tripping for zone
2 and zone 3 faults external to the protected section. To achieve this, this reverse-looking unit
ZR must operate faster than the forward-looking Z3 units and the signaling channel must also
be extremely fast in operation. In practice this is seldom the case and to ensure discrimition as
short time delay is generally introduced into the blocking mode trip circuit by a timer STL as
illustrated in figure 7.

The faults shown at R,S and T in figure 12 (a) are now considered
A fault at R is seen by the zone 1 relay at both ends A and end B; a result, the fault is cleared
instantaneously at both ends of the protected line. Signaling is controlled by the relays ZR
looking away from the protected section, so no transmission takes place and the receive relay
contacts remain closed, giving a back-up trip signal via the forward looking Z3 units.
A fault at S is seen by forward-looking Z3 units at ends A and end B and by the zone1 units at
end B. No transmission takes place, since the fault is internal, and the fault is consequently
cleared in zone 1 time at end B and a speeded up zone 3 times at end A.
A fault at T is seen by the reverse-looking relays ZR at end B and the forward-looking z3 units at
end A. T fault at T would normally be cleared by the zone 1 relays associated with line section
BC. To prevent the zone 3 relays at end A from tripping, the reverse looking relays ZR at end B
send A blocking signal to end A which opens the receive relay contact in the trip circuit.
If the fault is not cleared instantaneously by the protections on line section BC, the trip signal
will given at end A after the normal zone 2 time lapse.
The setting of the reverse-looking units ZR must be greater than that of the zone 3 units at the
remote end of the feeder; otherwise, there is the possibility of the Z3 units initiating tripping
and the reverse units ZR failing to see an external fault. This would result in instantaneous
tripping for an external fault.
When the signaling channel should therefore be more reliable when used in the blocking mode,
especially if the channel is a power line carrier. It is essential that the operating times of the
various relays be skillfully co0ordinated for all system conditions, so that sufficient time is
always allowed for the receipt of a blocking signal from the end of end of the feeder. If this is
not done accurately, the scheme may trip for an external fault, or alternatively, the end zone
tripping times may be delayed further than is necessary.
The idea blocking scheme illustrated in figure 12 shows reverse directional units ZR that initiate
the blocking signal. These units will be inherently slow in operation for a closed- up three-phase
external fault because this type of fault is at the boundary of their characteristic.
To accommodate this delay, the short time lag unit STL shown in figure 7 may need a setting
which proves to be unacceptably high on other grounds. It is more satisfactory to use a reverse
looking relay with an offset in figure 13( a). this ensure fast operation of the revere units ZR for
closed- up three-phase faults, but makes it necessary to stop the blocking signal being sent for
internal faults. This is done by connecting a forward-looking Z3 contact in the signaling channel
start current, as shown in figure 13(b)

18
 Z3A
ZRA Z2A
A
B C

Z1B
ZRB
Z2B

Z3B
(a) TIME /DISTANCE CHARACTERISTICS

TO REMOTE
ZR Z3 TERMINAL
SEND
CIRCUIT

(c) SIGNALLING CHANNEL SEND ARRANGEMENT

Figure 13; blocking scheme using reverse looking relays with offset

19