4/10/2017 How Directional Feature Incorporated in a Relay?

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Critical Disruptive Voltage Incorporated in a Relay?
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Conductors WhyDirectionalRelay?
Why Power Transmitted at
High Voltage? ForunderstandingtheneedofDirectionalRelayweconsidera
powersystemasshowninfigurebelow.
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Application

Static Excitation System For fault at F1, Relay R2 is supposed to pickup and operate the
Working Principle circuit breaker. Similarly for fault at F2, Relay R1 shall operate to
Point on Wave Switch / isolate the faulty section from the healthy section. Now suppose
Controller faultoccursatF2,itmayhappensothatRelayR2operatebefore
the operation of Relay R1 as the set pickup value for both the
Non-uniform Scale of
Electrodynamometer Type Relay is same and both Relay see the same fault current. As
Instrument Relay R2 is operating here hence the power supply to the load
from Source B is interrupted even when there is no fault in that
section.Toavoidsuchscenariowhatcanbedone?

Canweprovidetimegradedprotectionhere?No,wecantprovide
timegradedprotectionhereasifthereisfaultatF1thenbecause
oftimegradingRelayR2willtakemoretimetooperatebecauseof
intentionaltimedelayprovided.

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So what could be the solution? We may arrange something such

thatRelayR1onlyoperateifthefaultisatF2ortowardSourceA
and likewise Relay R2 operates if the fault is at F1 or toward
source B. This provision is Directional Feature as we are
assigningadirectioninwhichtheRelayhastooperate.

But how can we provide this directional feature to a Relay?
Whichelectricalquantitiesneedtobeusedforthis?

Foransweringthis,supposeasystemasshownbelow.

SupposeafaultoccursatF1.Thefaultcurrentisflowinginthe
directionofI1.ThebusvoltageismeasuredusingaPTwhichisVp
here.TheCTsecondaryandPTsecondaryisconnectedtothe
RelayR2OperatingandPolarizingCoilrespectively.Willexplain
PolarizingCoillatterinthissection,bepatienttillthen.

AsthefaultisatF1,thefaultcurrentI1willlagbehindthereference
voltage Vp. Now if the fault is at F2, the direction of fault current
through the CT will change by 180 degree and therefore the CT
secondarycurrentwillalsochangeitsdirectionby180degreeand
hencethefaultcurrentinthiscasewillleadthereferencevoltage
Vp (saying reference voltage assuming that Vp remain
unchanged).

Tosummarize,ifthefaultisatF1thencurrentislaggingVpandif
fault is at F2, current is leading Vp. We can use this concept to
provide directional feature in the Relay. We can set in the Relay
thatifI1 laggs Vp then only it should operate for both Relays R2
andR3,therebyeliminatingtheproblemofactuationofR3forfault
atF1.


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Thus,ifwemeasurethebusvoltagephasorVpandcompute
the phase angle of relay current with respect to bus voltage,
then we can use the following logic to provide selectivity. If
therelaydetectsfaultandcurrentlagsVR(=Vp),thenpermit
relaytripping.IftherelaydetectsfaultandcurrentleadsVR
(= Vp), then inhibit the relay tripping. The discrimination
principlebasedonphaseanglecomparisonbetweenasetof
phasors, one of which is used as reference is called
Directional Discrimination Principle. Relays with this
principlearecalleddirectionalrelays.

Any Relay can be made directional by incorporating directional
elementinit.Forexamplewecanusedirectionalelementinover
currentrelaytomakeitDirectionalOvercurrentRelay.ThisRelay
will actuate if the angle between the fault current and Reference
VoltageissatisfiedANDovercurrentelementpicksup.

HowDirectionalRelaysaredesigned?

Thetorquedevelopedbyadirectionalunitisgivenas
T=VICos()K
Where,
V=RMSvalueofvoltagefedtothevoltagecoilofRelay
I=RMSvalueofcurrentfedtothecurrentcoiloftheRelay
=AnglebetweenVandI
=Maximumtorqueangle,fixedbydesign(Howfixed?)

As we know that Torque produced by a Relay = K112Sin,
whereistheanglebetween1 and2. K1 is some constant.
Thereforemaximumtorquewillbeproducedwhen=/2
TheangleisdevelopedbecauseofShadedPoleintheRelay
so how much lagging flux will be developed by Shaded Pole

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depends upon the construction and design. Therefore the

maximumTorqueangleisfixedbydesign.

The phasor diagram for directional overcurrent relay is shown

below.

Here,visthefluxcreatedbyVoltageCoilwhichlagsbehindthe
Voltage by around 70 to 80 degree. I is the flux created by
current coil. The net torque is produced by the interaction of v
andI.ThetorquewillbezeroiftheanglebetweenvandIis
180degreewhichisasshowninthephasorabove.Thisiscalled
Zero Torque Line. Also, if the angle between v and I is 90
degreethentheTorquewillbemaximumwhichisshownbydotted
lineintheabovephasorwhichiscalledMaximumTorqueLineand
the angle is called Maximum Torque Angle or Relay
Characteristics Angle (RCA). Here it is to be noted that V is
assumed fixed and hence reference phasor. This reference
phasoriscalledPolarizingquantity.

Now,asVisunchangedhencefortheproductionofnettorquefor
directionalRelay,
VICos()K>0

Assumektobenegligible,actuallyKisrestraintorquebecauseof
springandfriction.

VICos()>0

>+()/2

>+()/2

Thisequationcanberepresentedinpolarformasshownbelow.

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CarefullyobservethezonewheretheRelayoperatesandthezone
where it is not operating. Therefore, it is clear that the Relay
operates in between the Zero Torque Line on both side of
MaximumTorqueLine.ObservethatMaximumTorqueLineand
ZeroTorqueLineareperpendiculartoeachother.

Now,howtoselectreferenceVoltagePhasor?

Vector diagram and relationship between different phasors are
shownabove.

Here,VbcisperpendiculartotheVan.Thereforeitisbettertotake
Vbcasreferencephasor.WetaketheMaximumTorqueLineatan
angleof30withVbc.AsZeroTorqueLineisperpendiculartothe
MaximumTorqueLine,henceitisdrawnasshowninfigurebelow.
WeneedtocheckwhethertheRelaywilloperateforLinetoLine
andPhasePhasetoLinefaultforthisassumedreferencePhasor.
Itdoesoperate,whichisdescribedbelow.


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Nowconsideralinefaultinvolvingphaseaandb.Then,using3
phaselinemodelweget,

VaVf=ZsIa+Zm(Ia)=(ZsZm)Ia=Z1Ia

Similarly,

VbVf=ZsIb+ZmIa=(ZsZm)Ia=Z1Ia

So,VaVb=2Z1Ia

Ia=(VaVb)/2Z1
IfforsimplicityweassumeZtobepurelyreactive,thenfrombelow
figurewegetthatIfabwillbeatanangleof60degreeslaggingto
Van.Thus,unitwithVbcasreferencephasorwillpickuponboth
3phasefaultandLLfault.

For a LL fault involving phases a and c , Vac lags Van by .
Assumingpurelyreactivecircuit,thephasecurrentIawilllagVbc
by . As seen in the figure, Iac will be again in the operate region
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andthedirectionalunitwillpickup.Thus,thisunit(leadwithVbcas
reference phasor) will pickup for all phase faults involving phase
a.Incontrast,forLLfaultinvolvingphasesbandc,Ibcwilllag
Vbc by . Hence, it will lie outside the tripping region of the
directionalunit.Therefore,directionalunitwillnotpickup.

To summarize, the key feature in obtaining directional
discriminationistheplacementofzerotorquelinewhichseparates
theRXplaneintotworegionsviz.operateanddonotoperate.Itis
apparent that in numerical relays, this placement is quite flexible
and can be specified with respect to any one reference voltage
phasor.Thisplacementcanbemadeprogrammable.

Hope it might help you. Thank you! Waiting for your

comment

Related Posts:
1. Types of Relay Output Contact
2. Directional Earth Fault Protection
3. Reactance and MHO Relay
4. Impedance Relay

Power System Protection , Uncategorized

Over Current Relay and Its Characteristics

Directional Earth Fault Protection

sesherkabita April 12, 2016 at 7:00 am

Relay always ENERGIZES, relay contacts "pick up". It's technically incorrect to
use the term "pick up" when actually relay with its coils energizes.

Aditya Kumar April 12, 2016 at 7:02 am

Here the term Pick-up means it's pick up value at which it's coil gets energized
and makes contact. Thank you for sharing your knowledge!

bvrk6770 October 23, 2016 at 8:17 pm

Dear All,

The pick up means, the rotating disc starts moving at the Pick-up current

value. till then there will be a continuous torque on the disc but do not move.
When it moves this is nothing but PICKING UP the disc.

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HOPE MY EXPLANATION is appropriate.

Raj KUMAR

sivaramakrishnan s October 31, 2016 at 7:54 pm

nice explanation,

i have one doubt. if fault f1 occurs, how you say it lags vp. why f1 fault current
lags vp and f2 fault current lead vp. please reply

Aditya Kumar October 31, 2016 at 7:57 pm

Carefully observe the direction of fault current for both the faults,the
direction of current for both the fault will be opposite as sensed by the relay,
therefore in one case current lags while in other it leads. Hope you got the
point. Thank you for asking.

Anonymous October 31, 2016 at 7:58 pm

hi

mayur December 15, 2016 at 6:58 pm

nice explanation bro

as you say that when l-l fault A B occur fault current iab lags 60 by vbc and l-l
fault A C occur fault current iac lags volatge vbc 30. now my question is that
how to calculate fault current angle with respect to its phasor voltage during
L-L falut L_G fault and LLG fault . kindly suggest me some theory or material
where i can angle calculation during fault

admin December 16, 2016 at 1:23 pm

Thank you Mayur for asking! For L-G Fault, you can visit my post Single
Line to Ground Fault Analysis. For LL-G and L-L faults, soon I will be
posting on the topic of your interest. Please bear with me till then.

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