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Superimposed Components Based Sub-cycle Protection of Transmission Lines

A. P. Apostolov, Senior Member, IEEE, D. Tholomier, S. H. Richards, Member, IEE

Abstract Requirements for improvements of system stability and reduction in the effects of shunt type faults in transmission and bulk systems on sensitive industrial loads result in the development of protection relays with sub-cycle operating times. At the same time the relays have to be stable under wide area disturbance conditions. The paper discusses in detail the concept of superimposed components and their application for directional detection, faulted phase selection and power swing detection. Complex distance characteristics can be used to provide sufficient resistive reach to cover the expected range of fault arc resistances, while at the same time are not affected by encroachment of the load impedance in the distance characteristic. Direct relay-torelay communications allow the implementation of high-speed directional comparison protection. Index TermsProtective relaying, Superimposed components, Impedance characteristic, Directional comparison.

blackouts combined with the significant pressure on utilities to increase the loading of their transmission systems are the reasons to look at dynamic loading of transmission lines and the effects that it has on the commonly used distance relays. At the same time the characteristics of modern distance relays are analyzed in order to demonstrate that they can provide better protection and at the same time are not affected by dynamic loading conditions. II. SUPERIMPOSED COMPONENTS AND THEIR CALCULATION IN NUMERICAL RELAYS Since the dynamic stability is a function of the loading of the line and the duration of the fault, the operating time of the distance relay will affect the level of loading of the protected line. When a fault, such as a short circuit, occurs in the electric power system, it leads to a dynamic transition from the normal system condition to a fault system condition. The currents and voltages measured by the relay will change as a function of the pre-fault system configuration, as well as the parameters of the fault - fault type, fault location, fault

I. INTRODUCTION Distance relays have been successfully used for many years as the most common type of protection of transmission lines. The development of electromechanical and solid state relays with mho characteristics can be considered as an important factor in the wide spread acceptance of this type of protection at different voltage levels all over the world. Zone 1 of distance relays is used to provide primary highspeed protection of a significant portion of the transmission line. Zone 2 is used to cover the rest of the protected line and provide some backup for the remote end bus. Zone 3 is the backup protection for all the lines connected to the remote end bus. The implementation of distance relays requires understanding of its operating principles, as well as the factors that affect the performance of the device under different abnormal conditions. The setting of distance relays should ensure that the relay is not going to operate when not required and will operate when necessary. The behavior of distance relays during several recent major
A. P. Apostolov is with AREVA T&D Energy Automation & Information, Los Angeles, CA 90064 USA (e-mail: alexander.apostolov@areva-td.com). D. Tholomier is with AREVA T&D Energy Automation & Information, Levallois, France (e-mail: damien.tholomier@areva-td.com) S. Richards is with AREVA T&D Energy Automation & Information, Stafford, UK (e-mail: simon.richards@areva-td.com)

Prefault

Fault

i rly Current

i mem + ir

= Superimposed
resistance, etc.
Fig. 1. Superimposed components calculation

The superposition theorem is one of the fundamental tools in circuit analysis. It is typically used to find the solution to networks with multiple sources. Its main advantage is that it does not require the use of complicated mathematical operations to calculate the currents and voltages in any location of the power system.

Under the superposition theorem each source and its effect is considered independently. Then the results are summed to determine a particular unknown quantity. The current measured by a protective relay at a certain location of the power system will be the sum of the currents produced independently by each of the sources in the system. When a fault occurs in the power system, the superposition theorem allows us to consider the currents and voltages measured by the relay as the sum of all sources in the power system and a fictitious source at the fault location. A fictitious source voltage is equal in magnitude and opposite in polarity to the pre-fault voltage at the fault location. This fictitious source is applied to the system at the fault inception time zero. It results in changes in the magnitude and phase angle of the currents and voltages measured at the relay location ir(t) and vr(t). The changes in the currents and voltages measured are directly related to the fault. In general, ir(t) and vr(t) can be considered as containing two components - a steady-state component and a transient component. However, directly after the fault inception the transient is the prevailing component. Superimposed components can be used for system analysis if the fault system condition is caused by a single event (the fault inception) and no other simultaneous event has occurred. In this case the faulted network state can be considered as the result of the superposition of the pre-fault and the fault generated quantities (see Fig. 1): UA = UAf - UApf IA = IAf - IApf (1) (2)

buffer is a function of the sampling rate of the relay, for example if the sampling rate is 24 samples/cycle, the buffer will contain 48 samples. Gp(t) = G(t-T)+( G(t-T)- G(t-2T)) Gp(t) = 2.G(t-T) - G(t-2T) G(t) = G(t)- Gp(t) (3) (4) (5)

where G(t) current or voltage sample at time (t) G(t-T) current or voltage sample one cycle prior to (t) G(t-2T) current or voltage sample two cycles prior to (t) Gp(t) predicted value at time(t) G(t) superimposed component of current or voltage at time (t) An advantage of the above method for calculation is that it provides a good estimate of the predicted sample value based on two pre-fault samples. However, the predicted values can be accurately calculated for only one cycle after the fault inception. After that G(t-T) will be affected by the fault, i.e. the predicted value will not be accurate, and so the sumperimposed component will not be accurate as well. Considering the fact that the relay will make a decision and issue a Trip signal based on one cycle of data, this is not a problem.

where: IApf pre-fault current at relay location (substation A) UApf - pre-fault voltage at relay location (substation A) IAf - fault current at relay location (substation A) UAf - fault voltage at relay location (substation A) IA - fault generated current at relay location UA - fault generated voltage at relay location The use of superimposed components in protective relays for faulted phase selection, power swing and directional detection provides numerous benefits based on the fact that it is directly related to the fault. It eliminates the effect of heavy load pre-fault conditions on faulted phase selection and directional determination. The calculation of the superimposed components of the phase currents and voltages is based on the latest samples measured and samples stored in the memory of the relay (see Fig. 2). There are different approaches to the derivation of the superimposed components. The general aim is to estimate what the expected no-fault current or voltage sample should be at this moment and then subtract that from the latest sample captured. One method [2,3] is to use two samples, captured one and two cycles earlier than the last sample captured by the relay at the same angle on the wave form to predict the expected nonfault sample value at time (t). This requires the relay to have a buffer that holds two cycles of samples. The size of this

Fig. 2 Method using two pre-fault samples to calculate predicted sample value

If the superimposed components have to be calculated accurately for more than one cycle, the calculation can be based on a single sample taken two cycles before the predicted sample, i.e. Gp(t) = G(t-2T) (6)

It the relay has a two cycles buffer, the superimposed components will be accurately calculated for two cycles after the fault inception.

The validity of superimposed components is confirmed based on several criteria monitored by a Sound Network Monitoring Algorithm: the line is not opened pre-fault quantities have a linear characteristic pre-fault quantities are within a specified range the unbalance in the circuit is not significant no power swing condition is detected the pre-fault impedance measured by the relay is outside of the operating characteristic Once the superimposed components of the currents and voltages have been calculated, the relay can run in parallel the different applications based on these quantities: Faulted phase selection Directional detection Power swing detection III. FAULTED PHASE SELECTION Faulted phase selection is an important function in transmission line protection relays. It is necessary to ensure that the right mho or quadrilateral elements are allowed to decide whether to trip according to the fault type. Phase selection avoids the operation of protection elements on unfaulted phases from tripping. Some examples are: A phase fault presents a ghost impedance on phases B and C due to all elements relying on residual current in the fault loop calculation. Operating on the wrong phase risks a single pole trip being converted wrongly to a 3 phase trip, or worse a forward trip for a reverse fault. As voltage collapses for a single-phase-to-ground fault, this also collapses certain phase-phase voltages (eg A-phase fault reduces also Vab and Vca). With heavy remaining load, this can also result in a three-phase trip. In 3-pole tripping applications a bad phase selection might mean wrong fault targets or fault report.
No Change!

phase selection can be based on superimposed quantities. One method is to use the superimposed components of the three phase-to-phase currents. Figure 3 shows the changes in two of the phase-to-phase currents (IBC and ICA) for a phase C-G fault. This fault produces the same superimposed component in the BC and CA currents and zero in the AB current. In the case of a phase-to-phase or two-phase-to-ground fault one of the phase-to-phase superimposed currents will be greater than the other two, while for a three-phase fault all three superimposed components will be similar. If the faulted phase selection is required to be maintained for time longer than the two-cycle buffer, the pre-fault samples from the buffer can be "recycled" and reused.
Fault

PH1

PH2

Fig. 4 Operation of superimposed components based faulted phase selectors

AB
Change!

BC
Change!

Two phase selectors can be implemented for each phase-tophase loop. The first (PH1) is the just described method comparing the last sample with one taken two cycles earlier. It will reset (see Figure 4) after two cycles, because then it will be comparing two samples taken under fault conditions. The second (PH2) remains picked-up because it uses for the calculation of the superimposed components pre-fault data stored in the relay memory. One of the big advantages of the superimposed components based faulted phase selection method is that it does not require any settings and is not significantly affected by the magnitude of the pre-fault load current. It also works very well under evolving fault conditions.

CA

IV. DIRECTIONAL DETECTION Conventional directional detection methods are based on the changes in the phase relationship between a measured phasor and a reference (polarizing) phasor. This approach has been applied successfully for many years. However, because of extensive filtering requirements in order to obtain correct measurement, it is not applicable when very high speed fault clearing is required, as is the case with the distributed bus protection application. Alternative solutions for ultra high speed directional detection based on the transient response of the power system when a fault occurs have been considered

1 Cycle Comparison

1 Cycle Comparison

Ground Fault, Phase C

Fig. 3 Superimposed components based faulted phase selection

Since the superimposed components are directly related to the changes in system parameters caused by the fault, faulted

for more than twenty years and successfully implemented in several generations of protective relays. The directional wave detector relay was first introduced and implemented in a directional comparison communication based scheme. The directional wave detectors operate when a sudden change in both the current and voltage signals measured by the relay occurs. The so called Traveling Wave Approach was based on the comparison of polarity between i and v directly after the fault that yields the direction of the motion of the first traveling wave.

system when a fault occurs is the transient energy method, that is the subject of this paper. The high-speed detection of the direction of the fault is a very important factor to be considered during the evaluation of the distributed bus protection system. Typically the directional element in a multifunctional protective relay is based on the phase relationship between phase or sequence currents and selected polarizing quantities, such as zero sequence currents or zero and negative sequence voltages. However, changing system configuration may affect the polarizing quantities used for directional determination and result in relay misoperation. For example, if the directional element is negative sequence voltage polarized and the source behind the relay has low negative sequence impedance, the measured negative sequence voltage at the relay location can be very low. As discussed earlier in the paper, superimposed currents and voltages that are directly related to the fault may also be used with great success to determine the direction of the fault. A further development of the method based on the sign of the ratio of i and v is to use the product of i and v , i.e. the transient power or even further integrate this transient power over certain period of time directly after the fault inception to derive the transient energy. The direction of the transient energy is based on the three phase products of the superimposed phase currents and voltages. The direction of the fault is determined by the sign of the transient energy caused by the inception of the fault, given by S = U.I dt (7)

The three phase energy transition is given by S = (Ua. Ia +Ub. Ib +Uc. Ic )dt
Fig. 5 i and v measured by the superimposed components based directional element for a forward and reverse fault

(8)

which is calculated in the relay as S = (Uai. Iai +Ubi. Ibi +Uci. Ici ) (9)

A further development of this principle is used in a digital directional comparison protection relay [1]. Both relays use the superimposed components principle which is discussed in more detail in the next section of the paper. Figure 1 shows the i and v measured by the relay for a forward and reverse fault. The forward direction for the relay is considered to be from the bus into the line. It can be seen from the figures that for a forward fault the i and v have different polarity. This is due to the fact that the transient current and voltage waves traveling from the fault location towards the system cause changes with different polarity in the currents and voltages at the relay location. For a reverse fault the changes of the currents and voltages measured by the relay have the same polarity. The next step in the development of directional detection methods based on the transient phenomena in the power

Based on the earlier discussions on the effect of the fictitious source at the fault location on the changes of the phase currents and voltages measured at the relay location we can conclude that it is always negative for forward faults and positive for reverse faults. This method allows accurate directional detection under varying system conditions and is not affected by series compensated transmission lines or mutual coupling. Therefore, it reduces the probability of relay misoperation and provides a very fast (between to of a cycle) and reliable directional decision that can be used by a distributed bus protection system. The transient energy directional detection method has been successfully implemented in numerical transmission line protection relays. Another directional detection superimposed components based method looks at the fact that for a forward fault v at

the relay location gives the voltage drop across the source impedance due to the i fault current flow. Analysis of Fig. 5 shows that i will be approximately in anti-phase with the source impedance angle. For a reverse fault v at the relay location gives the voltage drop across the transmission line and the remote end source impedance due to the i fault current flow. In this case i will be approximately in phase with the angle of the total line + remote end source impedance angle.
(Zs+ZL)

result in continuous change of current that will be seen as continuous output from the relay superimposed current elements PH1 and PH2 described earlier in the faulted phase selection part of the paper and Figure 4. This method offers some significant advantages, such as: Will detect all power swings whether fast or slow, and ensure correct blocking of zones. Detects, and remains stable for 3 and 2 phase swings the latter is especially important for the resulting 2 phase swing during single pole autoreclose. Using this method the relay is able to operate for faults occurring during a power swing
Power swing Fault

V I - V
-Zs

Reverse fault
2.5 cycles

Forward fault
PH1
Fig. 6 i and v phase relationship for a forward and reverse fault

PSB active

PSB removed

V. POWER SWING DETECTION Power swing detection is another important transmission line protection function. It can be used successfully either to block distance protection elements in order to prevent them from tripping the protected line during power swings, or to issue a trip command to separate two systems and limit the spread of a wide area disturbance. Power swing detection in conventional relays is based on the detection of the impedance crossing of a band surrounding the distance trip characteristic. It is clear that the time when the relay will detect the power swing will depend on the size and shape of the distance trip characteristic, as well as on the specifics of the system disturbance.

PH2

Fig. 8 Superimposed components elements operation during power swing

Locus of power swing

I
Load area

Fig. 7 Impedance based power swing detection

The superimposed components offer an advanced alternative to the distance methods for power swing detection. This approach is based on the fact that a power swing will

For a power swing condition there will be a continual output from PH1. While during a fault PH1 will remain picked-up for 2 cycles, during a power swing it will remain picked-up for the duration of the swing. If this state exceeds 2.5 cycles and no distance comparator has operated then the power swing detection can be activated. Several actions follow the operation of the power swing detector:: All distance elements and zones selected by the user during the relay setting process are blocked A power swing blocking alarm will be issued if a distance element detects that the swing impedance entered the tripping zone The minimum threshold used by PH2 is increased to twice the maximum superimposed current prevailing during the swing. As a result, PH2 will reset at this moment (as seen in Figure 8.) It is important to mention that depending on the location of the protective relay in the power system the detection of a power swing may also be used to issue a trip signal to separate two parts of the system. The change of the threshold and the following reset of this phase selector element allows it to be used to detect a fault that occurs during the power swing. An unbalanced fault will cause a step change in the superimposed components of the currents in the faulted phases. The phase selector will change and unblock some of the distance elements to allow a trip (see Figure 9). In order to improve stability for external faults that occur during a power swing, the blocking is removed only from zones that start

within two cycles of the detection of a fault. The zones that have the power swing impedance inside their characteristic before a significant change in the superimposed current was detected will remain blocked. When the power swing is over, the phase selectors will reset and the relay will return to its normal operating condition.
Continuous I During Swing Fault Inception

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Fifty Second Annual Conference for Protective Relay Engineers, College Station, Texas, March 1999 Implementation of a Transient Energy Method for Directional Detection in Numerical Distance Relays, A. Apostolov, IEEE PES Transmission and Distribution Conference, New Orleans, Louisiana, April 1999

VIII. BIOGRAPHIES
Alexander Apostolov received MS degree in Electrical Engineering, MS in Applied Mathematics and Ph.D. from the Technical University in Sofia, Bulgaria. He has worked for fourteen years in the Protection &Control Section of Energoproject Research and Design Institute, Sofia, Bulgaria. From 1990-94 he was Lead Engineer in the Protection Engineering Group, New York State Electric & Gas where he worked on the protection of the six-phase line, application of microprocessor relays, programmable logic and artificial intelligence in protection. 1994-95 he was Manager of Relay Applications Engineering at Rochester - Integrated Systems Division. 1995-96 he was Principal Engineer at Tasnet. He is presently Principal Engineer for AREVA (formerly ALSTOM) T&D EAI in Los Angeles, CA. He is a Senior Member of IEEE and Member of the Power Systems Relaying Committee and Substations C0 Subcommittee. He is ViceChairman of the Relay Communications Subcommittee, serves on several IEEE PES Working Groups and is Chairman of Working Group C3: New Technology Related to Power Systems Protection and Working Group C9: Guide for Abnormal Frequency Load Shedding and Restoration. He is member of IEC TC57 and CIGRE WG 34.01.He is Chairman of the Technical Publications Subcommittee of the UCA International Users Group. He holds three patents and has authored and presented more than 140 technical papers. Damien Tholomier received a BEng in Electrical and Automation Engineering in 1992 from the University of Marseilles, France (Ecole Polytechnique Universitaire de Marseille). Damien joined ALSTOM T&D GmbH in Stuttgart, Germany where he worked for 5 years in the Protection & Control department as Power System Application Engineer. In 1997 Damien moved as Marketing Manager High Voltage Protection Business Unit with Alstom T&D Protection & Control in Lattes, France where he worked on full scheme distance protection algorithms. From 1999-2001 he was Sales & Service Director for Mediterranean Countries and Africa. Since 2002 he is Marketing Protection Relays Director for ALSTOM T&D EAI where he worked on new busbar relay (application of universal topology and CT saturation detection algorithms). Simon Richards is the UK-based Marketing Director for Protection Products from AREVA. AREVA has recently acquired the Transmission and Distribution businesses of ALSTOM. Protection Products are a part of AREVAs Energy Automation and Information activity, and the author is based in Stafford, UK. He has a B.Eng (Hons) in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from the University of Bath, and is a Chartered Engineer, and MIEE. Previously a 25kV electrification Distribution Engineer for the 500km West Coast Main Line railway between London and Scotland, Simon also held a number of protection applications engineering positions within ALSTOM prior to his current role. The Marketing function provides technical support to Sales and Service teams worldwide, and investigates opportunities for new product developments.

Exaggerated RMS Delta

Unblock
Fig. 9 Fault detection during a power swing

VI. CONCLUSIONS Superimposed components have proven to be a very powerful tool that allows the development of advanced faulted phase selection, directional detection and power swing detection methods. The use of two cycles of pre-fault samples and their further "recycling" allows the accurate calculation of the superimposed components for different periods of time after a fault inception. The superimposed components based methods described in the paper are very efficient in the sense that they are very fast, while at the same time they do not require any configuration by the user. High-speed directional detection methods described in the paper can be combined with direct digital relay-to-relay communications to implement fast directional comparison transmission line protection schemes. The superimposed components based power swing detection also allows a faster detection of such condition. It can be used to block protection elements from tripping, and at the same time can be used to separate two parts of a system affected by a wide area disturbance. This method also allows the detection and successful clearing of a fault that occurs during a power swing. VII. REFERENCES
[1] Experience with Directional Comparison Protection for Series Compensated Transmission Lines, D. Tziouvaras, A. Apostolov, Western Protective Relaying Conference, Spokane, Washington, October 1998 Advanced Methods for Faulted Phase Selection and Directional Detection in Numerical Distance Relays, A. Apostolov, C. Duffy, D. Tholomier,

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