EASTERN REGIONAL POWER COMMITTEE

MINUTES OF SPECIAL PCC MEETING FOR REVIEW OF ZONE SETTINGS

HELD AT ERPC, KOLKATA ON 10.04.2015 (FRIDAY) AT 11:00 HOURS

List of participants enclosed at Annexure-I.

Member Secretary, ERPC welcomed all the participants to the meeting and informed that zone
settings of distance protection for interstate lines are to be implemented as per the revised
Protection Philosophy of Eastern Region for better protection coordination within the region. He
requested all constituents to compute zone setting values for their respective distance relays and
submit the revised settings for reference and record.
ITEM NO. A.1: PROTECTION PHILOSOPHY OF EASTERN REGION
A special meeting was held on 30.12.2014 to review the zone settings based on CEA
recommendations at ERPC, Kolkata. After detailed deliberation, members decided the zone
settings of distance protection as follows:

Sl.
No.
1

Zone

Direction

Zone-1

Forward

Zone-2
(for 400
kV and
above)

Forward

Forward

Zone-2
(for 220
kV and
below)
Zone-3

Zone-4

Reverse

2a

2b

Forward

Protected Line Reach

Settings
80%

Time Settings
(in Seconds)
Instantaneous (0)

For single ckt- 120 % of

0.35
the protected line
For double ckt- 150 % 0.5 to 0.6 - if Z2
of the protected line
reach overreaches
the 50% of the
shortest line ;
0.35- otherwise
120 % of the protected
0.35
line or 100% of the
protected line + 50% of
the adjacent shortest line
120 % of the (Protected
0.8 - 1.0
line + Next longest line)
10%- for long lines (for 0.5- if Z4 reach
line length of 100 km overreaches the 50
and above)
%
of reverse
20%- for shot lines (for shortest line;
line length of less than 0.35- otherwise
100 km)

Remarks
As per CEA
As per CEA
As per CEA

As per CEA with

minor changes

As per CEA
As per CEA

In 28th PCC, Powergrid informed that the revised settings will be discussed at their Engineering
Wing in a separate meeting scheduled to be held in March, 2015. Powergrid informed that they
will communicate their views.
It was decided that a Special meeting for finalization of Zone settings as per the revised protection
philosophy will be held in the month of April, 2015. All constituents are requested to submit the
zone settings as per revised philosophy by 30th March, 2015.

NTPC vide mail dated 18.03.2015 has communicated their views on revised protection philosophy
which is enclosed at Annexure-A.1.
Till date, only BSPTCL has submitted the revised zone settings. And it was observed that Z-3
settings were not as the above philosophy.

JUSNL, DVC, OPTCL, WBSETCL, NTPC and Powergrid (ER-I, ER-II & Odisha projects)
are requested to submit for finalization of zone settings.
Deliberation in the meeting
The Protection Philosophy was reviewed again on the basis of comments received from NTPC
and Powergrid also in agreement with the principles, which is as given below:

Sl.
No.
1

Zone

Direction

Zone-1

Forward

Zone-2
(for 400
kV and
above)

Forward

Forward

Zone-2
(for 220
kV and
below)
Zone-3

Zone-4

Reverse

2a

2b

Forward

Protected Line Reach

Settings
80%

Time Settings
(in Seconds)
Instantaneous (0)

For single ckt- 120 % of the

0.35
protected line
For double ckt- 150 % of 0.5 to 0.6 - if Z2
the protected line
reach overreaches
the 50% of the
shortest line ;
0.35- otherwise
120 % of the protected line
0.35
or 100% of the protected
line + 50% of the adjacent
shortest line
120 % of the (Protected line
0.8 - 1.0
+ Next longest line)
10%- for long lines (for line 0.5- if Z4 reach
length of 100 km and overreaches the 50
above)
%
of reverse
20%- for shot lines (for line shortest line;
length of less than 100 km) 0.35- otherwise

Remarks
As per CEA
As per CEA
As per CEA

As per CEA
with minor
changes
As per CEA
As per CEA

Note: Zone-2:- Z2 Reach should not encroach the next lower voltage level.
Zone-3:- If Z3 reach encroaches in next voltage level, then Z3 time must be coordinated
with the fault clearing time of remote end transformer.
Zone-4:- If utility uses carrier blocking scheme, then the Z4 reach may be increased as per
the requirement. It should cover the LBB of local bus bar and should be coordinated with
Z2 time of the all other lines.
All the constituents agreed on the principles and ryder note as above.
Thereafter, PCC advised all constituents to submit their revised settings at the earliest as per the
above agreed philosophy so that the finalization of the zone settings can be done in the next
meeting.
All constituents agreed to submit revised settings within a month.
Powergrid was advised to submit the values of R, X, Ro, Xo parameters for various conductors
used in 132 kV, 220 kV and 400 kV lines so that values can be standardized for zone settings
computation.
Powergrid agreed.

ITEM NO. A.2:

SETTINGS OF DIRECTIONAL EARTH FAULT AND BACK UP O/C OF

TRANSMISSION LINES.

During special meeting on 30.12.2014 members raised the issue regarding finalizing settings of
the Directional Earth Fault (DEF) and Back up O/C. Earlier it was decided that all DEF and Back
up O/C would be of IDMT characteristic because the operating time of IDMT relay will depend on
the magnitude of fault current. Therefore, Back up O/C relay can not be coordinated with Distance
Protection Relay, which are of definite time characteristic. So, they can be coordinated only with
other IDMT relay instead of line or back up O/C and E/F relay of auto-transformer. Now, the
question was how the back up E/F relay can be coordinated with Z3 of Distance relay.
It was viewed that some flexibility should be allowed in time setting because back up E/F relay
should operate prior to or later than Z3 relay will depend on the nature/ importance of the network
in the next line section/ next voltage level. It was decided that further deliberations were required
and all constituents were advised to submit their views on the issue in the next PCC meeting
In 27th PCC, members raised the issue regarding finalizing settings of the Directional Earth Fault
(DEF) and Back up O/C.
The house was informed that a separate meeting would be held after 29th TCC Meeting for
finalization of the protection settings. Meanwhile, constituents were advised to send their views on
revised settings.
Constituents agreed but the comments from the constituents are still awailed.

Members may opine.

Deliberation in the meeting
During the deliberations, it was emerged that presently most of the constituents were using the
following settings:
i)

ii)

Back up O/C: As back up for VT fuse fail or loss of voltage. Settings: 150 % with 1.8
sec delay for definite time and for IDMT settings characteristics shall be such that at
150 %, it takes 1.8 sec.
DEF: 30% of neutral current with 1.5 sec delay. Some constituents calculate its settings
by creating a fault at 80 % of line and in co-ordination with Z2.

After detailed deliberations, PCC advised all constituents to submit their present settings of Back
up O/C and DEF and the philosophy used behind such settings within a week. Thereafter, the
detail of these settings will be studied and final settings for Back up O/C and DEF will be decided
in next meeting.
All constituents agreed.
DVC has submitted their present philosophy for DEF & DOC which is enclosed at Annexure-A.2.

Meeting ended with vote of thanks to the chair.

****************

NTPC VIEWS
The present philosophy of Z1 and Z2 reach setting followed by NTPC is in
line with CEA recommendations. The proposal of extending Z1 reach of 132
Kahalgaon (NTPC)- Kahalgaon line to 100% is also acceptable as delayed
fault clearance affects our auxiliaries.

Z2 operation time being adopted is 0.4 s and 0.5-0.6s for long line
followed by short lines which is adequate keeping in view the fault
clearance time and LBB time.At the most Z2 time can be reduced to 350mS
with LBB time delay of 200mS. Presently, Z3 reach is set to cover 120% of
protected line plus longest line emanating from remote sub-station,
provided it does not reach into the next voltage level.

As per latest CEA recommendation Zone 3 reach has been recommended to

cover 120% of protected line plus longest line. Zone 3 operation time shall
be required to be co-ordinated with remote end Transformer protection (
Inverse
OC/EF).
In order to implement the recommended philosophy following inputs will
be required:

1. A detailed system study is required to be done by respective RPCs with

respect to infeed at remote end and to ensure that Z3 reach setting is well
co-ordinated with remote end transformer protection.
2. Adopted transformer setting at remote end.
3. Availability of Bus Bar and LBB protection at remote end.
Other options like installing impedance protection for transformers, and
duplicated LBB at remote end for better co-ordination may be explored.

Till such time present philosophy of Z3 as descried above may be

continued.

22

Annexure-A.2

D/O/C & D/E/F RELAY SETTING PHILOSOPHY USED IN DVC NETWORK

D/O/C & D/E/F IN 220KV & 132KV SYSTEMS:

In our 220KV & 132KV Systems where most of our lines have one Distance Relay & one Back Up
D/O/C & D/E/F Relay the 67 time settings are based on the following philosophy: for a fault at 80
% of line the 67 relays shall operate after Zone 2 time + 100ms. Thus it is coordinated with Z2
fault clearance and we would like to keep it like that if there is no objection from the utilities with
whom we are interconnected.

D/O/C & D/E/F IN 400KV LINE PROTECTION:

In our 400 KV system where two Distance Relays are present as Main 1 & Main 2 Protection O/C
is only activated in Non Directional mode under Fuse Fail conditions and is not continuously ON.
The P/U is kept at 150% of Max Load in most cases.
D/E/F is always activated and under VT Fail becomes Non Directional. It is being conceived as
back up to Zone 3 protection to clear high resistive earth faults undetected by distance protection
reach. The P/U is kept sensitive at 20% of CT rating in most cases.
The time setting of both D/O/C & D/E/F protection of line should be more than Zone 3 time of line
protection and should remain coordinated with Remote Bus ICTs D/O/C & D/E/F Protection.
Since generally ICTs 67 & 67N operates at Zone 3 time of other voltage level + 100 to 200ms
margin the tripping time comes to about 900ms - 1.0s for a fault on other voltage level (considering
Z3 time of other voltage level as 800ms). If the Z3 time of other voltage level time is more this
time has to be increased. Thus Line D/O/C & D/E/F should operate at around 900ms + 100 to
200ms margin = 1.0 to 1.1s for a fault on remote bus and should remain coordinated for fault at 5%
of other voltage level line.
An optional IDMT Minimum time (if configurable in relay) may be set to Z3 time + 100ms margin
= 1.0 to 1.1 sec so that Z3 operates earlier than 67 & 67N for faults within line section.
400KV

400KV

220KV

220KV

ICT
Z3 = 800ms
67 / 67N =
1.0s 1.1s

Z3 = 800ms

67 / 67N =
900ms 1.0s
Figure 1

FAULT