Presentation 14.

Out-of-Step Protective Functions and Challenges in Testing

Herbert Proschek / Matthias Pairits, ANDRITZ HYDRO, Austria

Abstract The location of the relay is the measurement of the

impedance. The left end source may be the generator
Out-of-step protection is used more frequently in and the right end source may be the connected
generator protective systems. It detects loosing network. ZA, ZB and ZL represent the impedance of
synchronism of generators and disconnects the unit the generating sources and the transmission line.
from grid if necessary.
The Loss-of-Synchronism characteristic is the
Different methods are available as classical blinders trajectory of the measured impedance locus of the
scheme in the impedance plane or Pole Slip protective relay in the impedance plane when the
Counters. An overview of these two methods will be phase angle between EA and EB increases.
given.
Secondary testing of these functions is a challenge in
the relay development process and during
commissioning procedure.
Standard testing tools in the OMICRON Test Universe
as e.g. the Ramping module or State Sequencer have
been used for commissioning. For the relay
development process these testing methods don't
give satisfying results depending on the relay
parameter settings (as e.g. number of allowed slips).
The relay protective algorithms are very sensitive of
the trajectory in the impedance plane and its time
behavior. Interruptions or pauses between the
simulation steps cause the protective function to
retrigger and prevent useful testing results.
The OMICRON CM Engine library allows developing
user applications for relay testing. By use of this, a
Figure 2: General Loss-of-Synchronism Characteristic
special tool is created which allows simulating Out-
of-Step trajectories in the impedance plane with
This picture shows the Loss-of-Synchronism
defined time behavior. By use of this tool both
characteristic with different parameters n in the
mentioned Out-of-Step algorithms are compared. impedance plane. The parameter n is the ratio of EA /
E B.
1 Power Swings & Loss of The crossing of the characteristic with the
Synchronism impedance line AB is at = 180 degree and is called
the electrical center of the system.
Generators may lose synchronism with the power The operating characteristic of Out-of-Step pro-
system without failure in the excitation system tective functions must cover this characteristic to
because of a sever fault disturbance. detect this phenomenon.
Power swings are load surges such as those after the
removal of a short circuit. The characteristic is the
early stage of Loss of Synchronism.
2 Testing of Out-of-Step Functions
The following simplified single line diagram shows a The testing of Out-of-Step functions is more exciting
section of a transmission line with generating than other protective functions. Additional to the
sources on both ends. record and measurement of Start (Alarm) and
Operate (Trip) the time behavior is important.
Basically the impedance must follow a specific
trajectory in the impedance plane. When passing
specific lines and circles the Start output is set. After
a specific number of passes the Operate output
raises. This represents the slips of a generator in
non-stable situations.
Figure 1: Single Line Diagram for 2-Machine Problem There is an additional item which makes testing
quite difficult. All these criteria must occur with

OMICRON 2015 International Protection Testing Symposium

 Presentation 14.2

respect to one or more time intervals. There are time
intervals which must be shorter than a specific
(settable) value, others must be longer.
The change of the impedance values must occur
quite smooth, otherwise protective function
algorithms will block. Therefore standard test tools
like QuickCMC are not applicable. StateSequencer
and Ramping test module are possible with one slip,
but it becomes very difficult when testing more than
one slips.
There are two ways to develop the test trajectory.
Either to make a network simulation with stability
study. The other way is direct testing of the
characteristic of the protective function. For
development the second way is more useful so that
all parameters can be tested.
A suitable tool was found with the CMEngine
program library. A sequence of commands can be
stored in the sequence buffer in the CMC test device
for later execution. It will be shown later how this
feature will be used to test out-of-step protective
functions.
The black curve shows an example of the movement
of the impedance locus. The two red lines are the
blinders for slip number counter. The red impedance
circle limits the working area of the function.
The following picture shows one application
example in the ANDRITZ Hydro HIPASE Protection
System (short HIPASE). It provides the Out-of-Step
function by a single block (POU) in the Function
Block Diagram.
Figure 4: HIPASE Out-of-Step Protective Function
The left side shows the inputs (CTs, VTs, digital
blocking and forcing signals), the right side the
outputs (digital Start and Operate events,
measurement signals) of the protective function.
The parameters of the protective function can be
edited with the HIPASE Touchpanel.

3 Method with Classical Blinders

Pole slip is detected by monitoring the impedance
locus on the impedance plane. During normal
operation the locus is in the positive R-area.
During instable operation the locus moves from right
to left passing the X-axis. This event is detected by
first passing the blinder R1 and then the blinder R2.
When first time passing the blinder R1, the Start
event picks up. When passing blinder R2 the slip
number is increased by 1 and if the total number of
slips is reached the Operate event picks up.
Figure 5: HIPASE Touchpanel with Protective Function
Parameters

Start and Operate events of the protective function

can be monitored by the Single Line Diagram on the
HIPASE Touchpanel.

Figure 6: HIPASE Touchpanel with Single Line Diagram

Figure 3: Impedance Plane with Classical Blinders

OMICRON 2015 International Protection Testing Symposium

 Presentation 14.3

4 Method with Pole Slip Counter 5.1 Sequencer Impedance

An impedance sequencer is realized in ProCmc.
This method is a combination of Underexcitation
function and Pole Slip Counter. Underexcitation A table in the worksheet defines time intervals and
solely will pick-up during most out-of-step complex impedance values. These values are points
conditions but not trip due to the time behavior of in the impedance plane which are connected
the phenomenon. together with straight lines to form the test
trajectory. The time information is the time interval
The Start output of the Underexcitation protection is
between two points. The user can enter as many
the criteria for unstable condition and is the start of
lines as necessary.
the function. A counter within a time window makes
the counting of pole slips. After reaching of the
desired total pole slip numbers the function activates
the Operate output. The HIPASE function block
diagram shows one POE for Underexcitation and one
POE for Pole Slip Counter.

Figure 7: HIPASE Pole Slip Counter Protective Function

5 ProCmc Figure 9: Table with Time Interval and Impedance Values

The tool ProCmc was created for easy and quick Depending on the time length of the impedance steps
working with OMICRON CMC test systems. It runs on the application calculates impedance points with
Microsoft Excel with Visual Basic for Applications linear approximation.
(VBA). This platform was used because it is installed The example above gives the following test
on all computers in the company. It also provides an trajectory (black curve):
easy to use user interface with worksheets.
The heart of the communication to OMICRON CMC
test system is the CMEngine program library which
is installed together with OMICRON Test Universe. In
ProCmc there is a class module in VBA which
provides enumerations, properties and methods
which can be used when creating specific test
applications. This module creates a reference to the
CMEngine object.
The first worksheet on ProCmc is used to connect
and disconnect with an OMICRON CMC test system.

Figure 10: Test Trajectory

The blue circle is the unity circle of nominal current

Figure 8: Lock and Unlock CMC Test System to ProCmc
Every test application runs on a separate worksheet
where the user can prepare all necessary
calculations and preparations with easy to use tools.
The test is started with a button which is assigned to
a macro subroutine in VBA. The results are written
by the subroutine to specific cells in the worksheet.
These values can be used for further calculations and
visualizations with charts.
and voltage. The brown pointer is the actual
impedance according current and voltage output of
CMC test system. During test the brown pointer
moves to give feedback of the progress.
The test trajectory is simulated by CMC test system
by changing current and voltage amplitude and
phase angle within specific time. Therefore the
sequence buffer in the CMC is used to store the
different current and voltage values. They can be
loaded to the system before execution. With a
command the sequence can be started.

OMICRON 2015 International Protection Testing Symposium

 Presentation 14.4

The Start and Operate output of the function is
connected to binary inputs at CMC test system.
During the test the impedance value at the Start and
Operate event is recorded and stored in in the result
table in the worksheet. Additional the two events are
shown in the impedance plane with yellow (Start)
and red (Operate) pointers. This gives an optical
feedback of the test results.
5.2 ProCmc with Blinders
The sequencer impedance can be used to test
different types of Out-of-Step protective functions.
The impedance plane not only shows the test
trajectory, but also the characteristic of the
protective function. The next picture shows the two
blinders as straight line and the impedance circle
according the settings of the protective function.
5.3 ProCmc with Pole Slip Counter
The Pole Slip Counter is triggered with the
Underexcitation protective function. Therefore it is
important to have a look to the characteristic of this
function.
The characteristic in the load plane is a curved
straight line in the leading area. In the following
picture the load diagram is displayed with the
reactive power on the abscissa and the active power
on the ordinate. That means positive active power is
in the upper area, lagging reactive power (over-
excitation) is on the right side. Leading reactive
power (under-excitation) is on the left side.

Figure 13: Underexcitation Characteristic in the Load Plane

The characteristic in the impedance plane can be

calculated with a 1/Z transformation. It forms a big
circle. Its diameter corresponds to the basepoint of
the line in the load plane.

Figure 11: Test Trajectory after Function Test

The brown line shows the actual position of the

impedance locus during the test procedure.
The Start and Operate events of the protective
function are monitored by two binary inputs and will
be recorded during the test. The two events can be
seen in the impedance plane with yellow and red
lines. The example above shows the setting
immediate trip, which means that the operate output
comes with passing of the second blinder R2.
The Start and Operate events are recorded as
complex impedance values (real and imaginary
parts) in a separate table.

Figure 14: Underexcitation Characteristic in the Impedance

Plane

The black test trajectory together with the protective

Figure 12: Table with Function Test Results
This table can be copied to the test protocol for
further use.
function characteristic is shown on the next picture.
The Start event is the crossing of the green
characteristic of the Underexcitation function with
the black line on the right side. After leaving the
green circle on the left side the Underexcitation
function drops off. The next slip starts when the

OMICRON 2015 International Protection Testing Symposium

 Presentation 14.5

locus crosses the green curve on the right side again.
These pulses are counted by the Pole Slip Counter
and after reaching of the desired total pole slip
numbers the Operation event picks up.
The pole slip counting is equipped with time
supervision, after which the actual pole slip number
is reset to zero. There is also a maximum time delay
between two counting inputs.
shown in the impedance plane. With this it can be
checked if the test trajectory is well prepared.
The binary input of the CMC test system for Start and
Operate event can be selected. Additional a binary
output can be selected which is closed during the
test.
The following picture shows the first page of the test
report.

Figure 15: Test Trajectory after Function Test

The Start and Operation events are shown with

green and red lines in the impedance plane. The Start
line comes with the first crossing of the green line.
The Operate line comes also with the crossing of the
green line but after reaching of the desired number
of pole slips.
The events are also recorded as complex impedance
values in the result table together with time Figure 17: Test Report for 78G Page 1
information.
The second page shows the table with the impedance
points for the test trajectory and the result table.

Figure 16: Table with Function Test Results

6 Test Report
When testing protective functions test reports are
important. A lot of time is spent to prepare these
documents. Therefore it is necessary to produce
them automatically as much as possible.
The worksheet with tables, charts, input data and
test results is prepared with printing areas and can
be used for direct printing.
The first page shows the settings of the protective
function. According these values the characteristic is Figure 18: Test Report for 78G Page 2

OMICRON 2015 International Protection Testing Symposium

 Presentation 14.6
7 Summary and Conclusion
OMICRON CMEngine is a very powerful software
library which provides the connection to one or
more CMC test systems. Every programming
language can connect with this library. Together
with Microsoft Excel and VBA it is possible to
prepare user applications for very specific test
solutions. There is no need for big programming
work, because all worksheet tools in Microsoft Excel
can be used.
This article showed an application for testing of Out-
of-Step protective functions. The application is
prepared for general use. It can test different types
of functions with different characteristics.
The first function under test was a classical function
type with impedance measurement and supervision
of the movement of the locus in the impedance plane.
The second function under test was a combination of
two functions. Most of the protective equipment
already has an Underexcitation protection. During
out-of-step this protection picks-up and falls back
with every slip. With a special function these pickups
can be counted. The Operate output picks up after
reaching the desired number of slips.
The application verified that both methods can be
used for the Out-of-Step protective function.
With MS Excel worksheet tools it is quite simple to
make a printout for the test report.
Literature
[1] Das OMICRON Test Universe, HTML Help
[2] CMEngine, User Manual, 2012
[3] Digital Relay System DRS, Protective Function
Library, ANDRITZ Hydro, 2007
[4] Protective Relaying with ELIN DRS, Herbert
Proschek, ANDRITZ Hydro, Rev.F
OMICRON 2015 International Protection Testing Symposium
About the Authors
Herbert Proschek was born in
Vienna in 1966. He studied electrical
engineering at the technical university
in Vienna and joined the company
ELIN Energieversorgung GmbH in
1993. This company changed to
VA TECH ELIN, VA TECH HYDRO,
VA TECH SAT and finally to
ANDRITZ HYDRO GmbH. He works as
a protection engineer and is involved in the development
of the new HIPASE protection system.
Matthias Pairits is head of the
protection department at ANDRITZ
HYDRO GmbH.
He studied electrical engineering at
the technical university in Vienna
and joined the company ELIN
Energieversorgung GmbH in 1998
(now ANDRITZ HYDRO GmbH.).
He worked as project manager and commissioning
engineers for protection systems in power plants
and switchyards in projects on various continents.
He was involved in the development of the digital
decentralized busbar protection.
Since 2011 he is head of the protection department
of ANDRITZ HYDRO GmbH which is the Center of
Competence for the protection in the group.