APPLICATION OF NUMERICAL RELAYS FOR

HV SHUNT REACTOR PROTECTION

Z. Gajić, B. Hillstrőm, M. Kockott

ABB Automation Technologies AB

Vasteras, Sweden

ABSTRACT It is common for shunt reactors to be installed at both

ends of EHV lines, and sized to prevent the line voltage
Viewed in the substation yard, an HV, oil immersed, from exceeding design value when energized from one
shunt reactor does not differ much from a power end. Since there is usually some uncertainty as to which
transformer, but in reality it is not that simple. There are end of a line may be energized (or de-energized) first,
distinct differences between construction and operating shunt reactors are usually installed at both line ends.
characteristics of these two devices.
In order to explain the properties of shunt reactors Shunt reactor design principles
numerous current and voltage waveforms either Two different ways are used in building reactors,
captured as disturbance recordings in the field or commonly referred to as “gapped core” and “coreless”
simulated by ATP [8] will be presented. On all these [1] & [2]. The gapped core reactor has a subdivided
figures the nomenclature for current and voltage signals, limb of core steel with airgaps inside the winding – and
as shown in Figure 1 below, will always be used. no limb at all for the coreless concept.
A It is easy to verify that the gapped core concept becomes
B more advantageous as the loss evaluation rate increases
C and particularly at higher system voltages. This is due to
IA
IB 3Io
the higher energy density that can be achieved in a
IC
gapped core reactor compared to a coreless reactor.
UA UB UC
SHUNT REACTOR OPERATING
CHARACTERISTICS

Linearity
For normal operating voltages there is a linear
relationship between applied voltage and reactor current
(i.e. a small increase in voltage will result in a
proportional increase in current). The deviation from a
true sinusoidal shape in line voltage is in general
IaN IbN IcN negligible for normal operating voltages.
As the magnetic flux to a great extent has its path in
magnetic core steel the core steel will get saturated for
flux densities above a certain level, the saturation point.
IN
Once above the saturation point big excitation current is
needed to further increase the flux density.
Harmonic content
FIGURE 1: Shunt Reactor I & U Signal Definitions Steady state harmonics in reactor current arise from
partial saturation in the magnetic circuit. These effects
INTRODUCTION are in fact very small, and without practical importance
HV, oil immersed, shunt reactors are the most compact for relaying. Of all harmonics the third harmonic will be
and cost-efficient means to compensate reactive power the most dominant. In the reactor neutral the third
generation of long-distance, high-voltage power harmonics in the three phases add together and act like a
transmission lines, or extended cable systems during zero sequence current.
light load conditions. Two main application of the Asymmetry between phases
reactor can be identified as: The tolerances on asymmetry between phases of a three-
• Shunt reactors that are continuously in service, phase reactor or between single-phase units forming a
generally used for EHV and long HV three-phase bank can be judged by the amount of
lines/cables residual harmonics. The result is a zero sequence
• Switched shunt reactors are applied in the current in the neutral connection. Standards are realistic,
underlying system and near load centers but better tolerances are possible to achieve. A usual
figure is 0.5 %.
HV SHUNT REACTOR SWITCHING For a three-phase reactor the different phases will
experience different degrees of dc offset. The
The switching in of a shunt reactor gives rise to inrush combination of the individual phase current offsets will
current – a transient phenomenon related to saturation in give a neutral current rich in harmonics and also with
the shunt reactor magnetic circuit. In principle, it is the possibly dc offset from the zero line as shown in Fig. 3
same story as inrush current of a transformer, but there In recent years, so-called point-on-wave closing relays
are differences. A reactor core keeps no remanence, are available from switchgear manufacturers. By using
because of the air gaps, which makes the whole thing these relays switching of different power system
easier. However, the damping of the asymmetric devices, including shunt reactors can be performed
condition –“the dc component” – is slow, due to the without a disturbance to the rest of the power system
inherent low losses in a shunt reactor. It is therefore (see Figures 4 & 5).
necessary to keep this phenomenon in mind when
designing the relay protection system for HV shunt NUMERICAL PROTECTION RELAY RESPONSE
reactors. DURING SHUNT REACTOR SWITCHING
The instantaneous current values during shunt reactor
switching in can be visualized from Figures 2 & 3. Input All numerical relays utilize so-called sampling
data for all figures in this chapter are obtained from technique of the input current and voltage signals.
actual disturbance recordings in the field. Depending on Typically 12 to 32 samples per fundamental power
the switching instant the currents might have a long system cycle are used depending on the particular relay
lasting dc component. The worst condition is when the design. From these samples numerical relays calculates
reactor phase is closed in at zero voltage. The flux will root-mean-square values of the input quantities by using
increase with the voltage-time-area during the first different type of digital filters. These RMS values are
voltage half-cycle to a value twice the maximum flux in then typically processed by different protective
normal operation. The current is proportional to the flux functions (i.e. phase and ground overcurrent).
density, until reactor core saturation occurs. Above the In order to apply correct relay settings for shunt reactor
point of saturation the current will increase faster than protection application, it is of outmost importance to
the flux. Without saturation, the first peak of the current understand the relay digital filter response to typical
with full dc offset would be 2,82 times rated current. input current waveforms, which can be encountered.
The actual current peaks might rise to a value in Response of two different types of digital filters will be
between 3 and 5,5 times depending on the particular investigated.
shunt reactor design details. Such time intervals, when • TRMS (i.e. True RMS filter), which extracts
reactor core goes into saturation, are clearly visible in equivalent RMS value from the input signal.
current IB in Figure 2. The time to more or less fully Therefore this filter includes the dc component and
balanced operation around zero flux in the core may be higher harmonic components from the input quantity
fairly long often in order of seconds, but such condition into its output result
is of no harm for the shunt reactor itself.

FIGURE 2: Shunt Reactor Phase Inrush Currents

FIGURE 4: Phase Currents with point on wave
closing relay

FIGURE 5: Neutral Current with point on wave

FIGURE 3: Shunt Reactor Neutral Inrush Current closing relay
• DFF (i.e. Digital Fourier Filter), which extracts Therefore performance of these three relays during
only RMS value of the fundamental component from switching in of the shunt reactor will be explained here
the input signal. This filter effectively suppresses the in more details. It should be noted that HV shunt
dc component and higher harmonic components in reactors are typically switched in and out at least once
the input quantity. per day or even more often depending on the power
From Figure 8 it is obvious that the overcurrent relays, system loading patterns. As shown in Figure 2 during
which use DFF filtering technique, can be set more unsynchronized switching in of shunt reactor relatively
sensitive than the relays that use TRMS filter for its high and long lasting dc current component might
operation. Similar results can be obtained if similar appear in one or more phases. This current waveform
analysis is performed for the neutral point current as moves the operating point of CT magnetic core on the
well. All setting recommendation in this document will hysteresis curve in one direction and when the dc
be given for relays, which utilize DFF filtering component diminish it leaves the main CT with certain
technique (i.e. relays which effectively suppress the dc level of residual (i.e. remanent) flux. During normal
component and higher harmonic components in the operation reactor current is always around 1pu and
input quantity). therefore of a relatively low magnitude, which is never
big enough to move the operating point towards the
CURRENT TRANSFORMER PERFORMANCE origin. Therefore when next switching attempt comes,
DURING SWITCHING IN OF SHUNT REACTOR depending on the moment of switching, residual flux in
the CT core can increase or decrease. Thus this
It is well known fact that one of the principal difficulties mechanism will sooner or later cause CT saturation
with shunt reactor protection scheme is false operation during reactor switch in operation. This CT saturation
during reactor energizing and de-energizing [3], [4]. As then causes problems for protective relays, which lose
explained previously, during this period relatively high the correct information about the primary current and
and long lasting dc current component typically causes therefore can maloperate. Such CT saturation event is
most problems for protective relays. If the protection captured by numerical relay disturbance recorder and it
relays maloperate this typically happen some hundreds is shown in Figures 6 & 7.
of millisecond or even 1 to 2 seconds after circuit This type of CT saturation is reflected in the CT
breaker closing. What is most difficult to understand is secondary side as:
why this problem often happens randomly and not with • Loss of information about primary dc component
every reactor switching attempt. Most problems are • Reduced current magnitude
typically encountered with restricted ground fault
protection, differential protection, distance protection Figure 8 represents the DFF & TRMS filter output value
and ground fault protection during switching. for the IA current waveform shown in Figure 6.

FIGURE 8: Reactor phase current DFF & TRMS

FIGURE 6: Reactor phase current saturation

FIGURE 7: Reactor neutral current saturation FIGURE 9: Reactor neutral current 2nd harmonic
RESTRICTED GROUND FAULT RELAY DIFFERENTIAL RELAY PERFORMANCE
PERFORMANCE DURING SWITCHING IN OF DURING SWITCHING IN OF REACTOR
REACTOR

Modern numerical relays typically offer restricted Modern numerical relays typically offer differential
ground fault protection of a low impedance type. This protection of a low impedance type. This gives the
gives the following benefits to the end user: following benefits to the end user:
• This relay can be applied with different type of CTs • This relay can be applied with different type of CTs
at the reactor bushing and at reactor neutral point at the reactor bushing and at reactor star point (i.e.
(i.e. CTs doesn’t need to be identical) CTs doesn’t need to be identical)
• Main CTs can be shared with other relays • Main CTs can be shared with other relays
• No galvanic connection is necessary between CTs • No galvanic connection is necessary between CTs
at the reactor bushing and at reactor neutral point at the reactor bushing and at reactor star point
• In case of an internal fault no high voltages will • In case of an internal fault no high voltages will
appear in the CT secondary wiring appear in the CT secondary wiring

Typically these restricted ground fault relays of a low Here the situation is little bit easier because the relay
impedance type calculate the differential current as a measures essentially the same current on both ends of
difference between zero-sequence currents at the reactor the protected winding. However again the long lasting
bushings and the reactor neutral point. As additional dc component can cause uneven saturation of the two
operating criteria they often use directional principle CTs and cause the relay maloperations. Let’s have a
(i.e. product type relays). However for shunt reactor look into the disturbance-recording file captured by
protection these sometimes might not be enough to numerical relay, which is shown in Figure 11.
prevent maloperations. Let’s have a look into the As it can be seen in Figure 11 due to uneven CT
disturbance-recording file captured by numerical relay, saturation on the two winding ends differential
which is shown in Figures 6 & 7. protection had unwanted operation and it has
The problem is that when one or more phase CTs disconnected the shunt reactor from the power system.
saturate false 3Io current appears at the reactor Thus if sensitive setting is required for the differential
bushings. protection (i.e. 10-15% of the reactor rated current) it
Unfortunately this very often manifests as the current of might be necessary to have some additional means to
opposite polarity in comparison with the neutral point restrain low impedance differential protection relay
current, which then causes the directional restricted from maloperations during shunt reactor switching in.
ground fault relay (i.e. product type relay) to maloperate One effective method is to enable second harmonic
during reactor switching in. blocking feature commonly readily available in
Calculated phase angle difference between neutral point numerical transformer differential relay. Second
current and zero-sequence current at the reactor bushing possibility is to delay the restraint differential protection
for the above event is shown in Figure 10. operation only during reactor switching.
Obviously it is necessary to have some additional means
to restrain low impedance, restricted ground fault relay In the same time in order to have secure operation for
from maloperations during shunt reactor switching in. heavier internal fault, the unrestrained differential level
can be typically set down to 200% of shunt reactor rated
One very effective method is to check the amount of current and without any time delay.
second harmonic component in the shunt reactor neutral
point current and adaptively prevent relay operation if
the preset limit is exceeded (see Figure 9).

FIGURE 11: Reactor neutral current 2nd harmonic

FIGURE 10: Phase angle difference between 3Io &

IN during reactor switching
DISTANCE RELAY PERFORMANCE DURING Thus during external fault condition, when the faulty
SWITCHING IN OF REACTOR phase voltage is lower than the rated voltage, the current
in the faulty phase will actually reduce its value from the
Especially in countries influenced by USA protection rated value. Depending on the point on the voltage wave
practice distance or underimpedance relays are used for when external fault happens the reduce current might
shunt reactor protection. However these relays are as have superimposed dc component. Such behavior is
well affected by CT saturation during shunt reactor verified by an ATP simulation and it is presented in [7].
switching. Measured impedance by distance relay can As a result, shunt reactor unbalance current will appear
be as low as 70% of shunt reactor rated impedance in the neutral point. However, this neutral point current
during switching! will typically be less than 1 pu irrespective of the
Disturbance recording shown in Figures 6 & 7 was used location and fault resistance of the external fault.
to calculate apparent impedance, which would be seen
by distance relay during this switching. Apparent Similarly during an internal fault the value of the
impedances for all three phases are shown in Figure 12. individual phase currents and neutral point current will
depend very much on the position of the internal fault.
Assuming that due to the construction details, internal
shunt reactor phase-to-phase faults are not very likely,
only two extreme cases of internal phase to ground fault
scenarios will be presented here.

In the first case the Phase A winding to ground fault, 1%

from the neutral point has been simulated in ATP [7].
As a result the phase currents on the HV side (i.e. in
reactor bushings) will be practically the same as before
the fault. However phase A current at the shunt reactor
star point and common neutral point current will have
FIGURE 12: Apparent impedance during shunt very big value due to so-called transformer effect. These
reactor switching currents can be so high to even cause CT saturation.
This type of the internal fault shall be easily detected
From Figure 12 is obvious that especially phase A and cleared by the differential, restricted ground fault or
distance element would have problem to remain stable neutral point ground overcurrent protection, but not by
during this switching attempt. reactor HV side overcurrent or HV residual ground fault
protections.
GROUND OVERCURRENT RELAY
PERFORMANCE DURING SWITCHING IN OF In the second case the Phase A to ground fault, just
REACTOR between the HV CTs and shunt reactor winding (i.e.
shunt reactor bushing failure) has been investigated. In
Numerical ground overcurrent relay might maloperate this case the currents have opposite properties. The
during reactor switching if it is set too sensitive. phase A current on the HV side is very big (limited only
Typically in such cases either pickup current value or by the power system source impedance and fault
time delay are increased. However, another very resistance), while the phase A current in reactor star
effective method for such type of problem is to enable point will have very small value due to a fact that phase
second harmonic blocking feature for ground A winding is practically short-circuited.
overcurrent relay, which is readily available in certain As a result, shunt reactor unbalance current will appear
numerical protections. Then the relay will check the in the neutral point. However, this neutral point current
second harmonic component level in the measured input will typically have a value around 1 pu (i.e. similar
current and prevent relay operation if the preset limit is value as during external ground fault).
exceeded (see Figure 9). This type of the internal fault (i.e. shunt reactor bushing
failure) shall be easily detected and cleared by the
SHUNT REACTOR BEHAVIOUR DURING differential, restricted ground fault or HV side
EXTERNAL AND INTERNAL FAULTS overcurrent or HV residual ground fault protections.
Neutral point ground overcurrent protection can operate
Shunt reactor is connected in parallel with the rest of the with the time delay.
power network, and it can be treated as a device with
the fixed impedance value. Therefore the individual For internal ground fault in some other location in-
phase current is directly proportional to the applied between these two positions the shunt reactor currents
phase voltage (i.e. I=U/Z), except during reactor core will have values somewhere in the range limited by
saturation. these two extreme cases.
SHUNT REACTOR TURN-TO-TURN This protection scheme was developed even before
PROTECTION SCHEMES multifunctional numerical relays were available. To
implement such shunt reactor turn-to-turn protection
Turn-to-turn faults in shunt reactor present a formidable scheme within multifunctional numerical relay utilizing
challenge to the protection engineer. The current and the its graphical configuration facilities, and readily
voltage changes encountered during such fault are very available logical gates, timers etc. shall not be a big
small and therefore sensitive and reliable protection problem for a modern protection engineer.
against turn-to-turn faults is difficult to achieve. At the
same time the longitudinal differential protection offers REACTOR MECHANICAL FAULT DETECTION
no protection at all for such faults. Hence special
protection schemes shall be employed. Similarly to the power transformers, HV oil immersed
One such scheme, often used in certain countries, shunt reactors typically have the following built-in
utilizes a fact that the HV shunt reactor winding is often mechanical fault detection devices:
made of two half-windings connected in parallel (i.e. the • Gas detection relay (i.e. Buchholz relay) with alarm
HV lead is brought out at the mid point of the winding, and trip stage
and the two neutral leads at the bottom and the top of • Sudden pressure relay
the winding). This gives the opportunity to install two • Winding temperature contact thermometer with
CTs in the winding star point (i.e. one in each winding alarm and trip stage
part). Then so-called split phase differential protection • Oil temperature contact thermometer with alarm
can be utilized to detect turn-to-turn faults. However and trip stage
this protection scheme have the following drawbacks: • Low oil level relay
• This special CT arrangement might cause reactor
manufacturing problems These mechanical relays are excellent compliment to the
• Typically low CT ratio is required, which can cause electrical measuring relays previously explained. It is
longitudinal differential protection problems during recommended to arrange that these mechanical relays
reactor switching in, if the same CTs are used for trip reactor circuit breaker independently from electrical
both differential protections relays. However signals from mechanical devices shall
• This scheme can be only used if the shunt reactor is be connected to binary inputs of numerical relays in
specifically ordered with these CTs order to get time tagging information, disturbance
recording and event reporting in case of their operation.
Second turn-to-turn protection scheme for shunt
reactors, successfully used in some other counties, TYPICAL REACTOR CONTROL SCHEMES
utilize the following facts:
• HV power system voltages are well balanced during The shunt reactors are generally designed for natural
normal load conditions cooling with the radiators mounted directly on the tank.
• Modern HV, oil immersed shunt reactors have very However sometimes it is required to have some control
small manufacturing asymmetry between individual action in the cooling circuit depending on the status of
phases the shunt reactor circuit breaker. The control action can
• Shunt reactor winding impedance is approximately be initiated by the circuit breaker auxiliary contact or by
proportional to the square of the number of active operation of an overcurrent relay set to 50% of the
turns reactor rated current. By using overcurrent relay secure
• Short circuit between some number of turns will control action is obtained when reactor is energized
cause the decrease of the winding impedance only in regardless the circuit breaker auxiliary contact status.
the faulty phase and corresponding small raise of the In order to improve power system performance, lately it
shunt reactor neutral point current is often required by the electrical utilities to perform
• Currents during turn-to-turn fault are of the small automatic shunt reactor in and out switching, by
magnitude and they will not produce any sufficient monitoring the busbar voltage level. This functionality
unbalance voltage is quite easy to integrate into multifunctional, numerical
• Any external cause of neutral point current (i.e. relay. However user must carefully check relay
external phase to ground fault) will cause performance regarding the following points:
appearance of unbalance voltage which can be used • Over/under voltage relay with reset ratio or 1% or
to block the operation of turn-to-turn protection better is required for such application
scheme • Over/under voltage relay shall be capable to
In case of a bigger winding turn-to-turn fault which operate only when all three voltages are
might cause the sufficient voltage unbalance, sensitive above/below set operate level or relay must be
directional zero sequence relay connected on the shunt capable to measure and operate on the value of the
reactor HV side and set to look into the reactor shall be positive sequence voltage
capable to detect such fault.
TRADITIONAL SHUNT REACTOR Actually it shall be noted that the numerical
PROTECTION AND CONTROL SCHEMES multifunctional relays can offer much more functionality
than shown on the previous two figures. Please refer to
Usually multifunctional numerical protection relays are the following section to see proposed shunt reactor
used for both power transformer and shunt reactor protection scheme with modern, multifunctional
protection. However, typically old protection schemes numerical protection relay.
for shunt reactor protection, with just a few protection
functions are still specified and applied today. CONCLUSIONS
The first protection scheme utilizes restricted ground
fault protection (i.e. 87N) as reactor unit protection. The paper has described a number of details regarding
This protection shall trip instantaneously for all internal HV shunt reactors and their protection and control
phase to ground faults. For internal phase-to-phase fault schemes. In order to help the end user to properly select
detection, overcurrent protection (i.e. 50/51) is utilized. and apply multifunctional numerical relays for HV shunt
Ground overcurrent protection (i.e. 50G/51G) is used as reactor protection and control, an example of possible
backup protection for ground faults and as main application of such relay, which utilizes DFF filtering
protection for circuit breaker pole disagreement technique, is presented on the next page in Figure 15.
condition. All proposed protection or control functions in Figure
15 are typically readily available in multifunctional
numerical transformer protection relays. However
suitability of a particular relay to be used for shunt
reactor application shall be carefully evaluated.
Table 1 gives the summary about each function from
Figure 15 as well as some typical setting values [5], [6].
These settings are proposed for HV shunt reactors with
own circuit breaker. In case that the HV shunt reactor is
directly connected to the HV line without its own circuit
breaker, these settings have to be revised. The proposed
settings shall be considered only as guidelines.

It is hoped that this paper will provide some guidance to

FIGURE 13: First traditional protection scheme those seeking assistance in HV shunt reactor protection
and control issues.
The second protection scheme utilizes differential
protection (i.e. 87) as reactor unit protection. This BIBLIOGRAPHY
protection shall trip instantaneously for all internal
phase to phase and phase to ground faults. Overcurrent [1] Carlson, Å., “Shunt Reactor Manual”, ABB Power
protection (i.e. 50/51) is used as backup protection for Technology Products/Transformers, Ludvika-Sweden,
internal phase-to-phase faults. Residual overcurrent 2002-08-20
protection (i.e. 50N/51N) is used as backup protection [2] ABB Transformatori, “Pamphlet Shunt Reactors”,
for ground faults and as main protection for circuit Roma-Italy
breaker pole disagreement condition. [3] Switchgear Committee of the IEEE Power
Engineering Society, “IEEE Application Guide for
Shunt Reactor Switching”, IEEE Std C37.015-1993
[4] IEEE Power Systems Relaying Committee, “IEEE
Guide for the Protection of Shunt Reactors”,
ANSI/IEEE C37.109-1988
[5] Nylen, R., “Shunt Reactor and SVC Protection
Application Guide”, ABB Relays, Västerås-Sweden,
1988-11-17
[6] Elmore, W. A., editor, Protective Relaying: Theory
and Applications, Marcel Dekker, Inc., 1994.
[7] Z.Gajic, B. Hillstrom & F. Mekic, “HV Shunt
Reactor Secrets for Protection Engineers”, WPRC 2003
[8] ATP is the royalty-free version of the
Electromagnetic Transients Program (EMTP). For more
info please visit one of the following web site:
FIGURE 14: Second traditional protection scheme http://www.ee.mtu.edu/atp/
 FIGURE 15: complete HV shunt reactor protection and control scheme
with modern, multifunctional, numerical relay

TABLE 1: List of functions for complete HV shunt reactor protection and control scheme
Function Comment Typical setting shown in percents
of the shunt reactor rating
87=low impedance Check suitability for shunt reactor Set restraint differential level to 10-15% with 2nd
diff. protection application with relay manufacturer. harmonic restrain set at 10%. Set unrestraint
differential level 200%.
87N=low Check suitability for shunt reactor Set differential level to 10%. Set operate angle for
impedance REF application with relay manufacturer. directional criteria to ±65 deg. Relay shall include
protection adaptive 2nd harmonic restrain feature.
#1-50/51=HV Backup protection, sensitive for internal Set low set to 130% with time delay in between
overcurrent faults close to the reactor bushings. 0.6s and 1s. Set high set to 250% with time delay
protection of 0.1s.
#2-50/51=HV Backup protection, sensitive for internal Set low set to 130% with time delay in between
overcurrent fault close to the reactor star point. 0.6s and 1s. Set high set to 200% with time delay
protection of 0.1s.
#3-50/51=HV Used as circuit breaker failure protection Set low set to 30% with appropriate time delay as
overcurrent and indication that reactor is energized CBF protection. Set high set to 50% in order to
protection for the cooling control logic. indicate that shunt reactor is energized.
49=thermal Shall be used with great care. Shunt Specific manufacturing data are required in order
overload protection reactor overload can only be caused by to properly set this function. Possible to use
overvoltage in a power system winding/oil contact thermometer instead.
50G/51G=ground Backup protection, sensitive for internal Specific system data are required in order to
fault protection in fault close to the reactor star point. Used properly set this function.
reactor neutral point for turn-to-turn fault detection logic.
50N/51N=ground Backup protection, sensitive for internal Set low set to 20% with time delay in between
fault overcurrent faults close to the reactor bushings. 0.6s and 1s or even longer. Use 2nd harmonic
protection in reactor blocking. Set high set to 175% with time delay of
HV side 0.1s.
59N=unbalance Used for turn-to-turn fault detection Specific system data are required in order to
overvoltage logic. properly set this function.
67N=directional Used for turn-to-turn fault detection Specific system data are required in order to
ground fault logic. properly set this function.
protection
27&59=under/over Used for automatic shunt reactor control. Specific system data are required in order to
voltage Often more than one stage required. properly set these functions.