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A digital protective relay as a real-time microprocessor system

Conference Paper · April 1997

DOI: 10.1109/ECBS.1997.581929 · Source: IEEE Xplore

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 A Digital Protective Relay as a Real-Time Microprocessor System

Bogdan Kasztenny Eugeniusz RosoIowski

The Technical University of Wroclaw

Wyb. Wyspianskiego 27 (I-S)
50-370 Wroclaw
POLAND

Abstract a power system and protects both this element from

complete damage and the rest of a system from in-
The paper presents a digital protective relay as a
complex real-time microprocessor system. From this duced disturbances.
point of view the basic hardware and software struc- In order to fulfill imposed duties, any protective
tures and functions of a digital relay have been relay measures a set of signals (currents, voltages,
described and classified. temperatures, etc.) and based upon such measure-
ments decides automatically whether or not a
1. Introduction protected element suffers a fault, and thus, whether
A modern power system is, apart from telecom- or not to initiate tripping-out and raise alarms.
munication systems, one of the largest complexes Initially, protective relays used to be built in
constructed and operated by a man both in terms of electro-mechanical technology; to shift, after inven-
geographical distances (thousands of kilometers) as tion of a transistor, to electronic (static) analog cir-
well as generated and transmitted power (thousands cuits; and finally, some fifteen years ago, after
of millions of watts). Such a system needs precise and spreading cheap and reliable enough microproces-
miscellaneous control with protection functions as sors, they switched to digital technology [1,2].
primary due to the top priority safety reasons. In power system protection by real-time operation
A power system consists of a number of intercon- one means:
nected elements like synchronous generators, power
transformers, transmission lines, busbars, capacitor (1) ability to sample and process the input signals
banks, etc. that provide continuous generation, trans- with the sampling rate at the level of 1kHz or
mission and distribution of electric power to final more, and
customers. However, each element in a power system (2) ability to react to internal faults in a protected
may suffer faults (short-circuits) due to degradation element within few tens of milliseconds or
of isolation, thunderstorms, staff mistakes, etc. Since faster.
enormous energy is generated and transmitted in
contemporary power systems, in the case of a fault, This paper considers a protective relay as a real-
the faulty element must be removed from the rest of a time microprocessor system and presents its basic ar-
sound (healthy) system as fast as possible (a few tens chitectures, design problems and adopted solutions.
of milliseconds) by opening appropriate circuit-
breakers (tripping-out). It is obvious that this kind of 2. Performance and operational
operation must be done automatically. A set of characteristic of digital relays
devices designed for this purpose is defined as power
system protection. The basic benefits gained from the application of
digital protection are broadly classified under five
Generally, a protection system is a kind of main areas [ 11:
“neural” complex that watches a “muscle” element of

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Proceedings of the 1997 Workshop on Engineering of Computer-Based Systems (ECBS '97)
0-8186-7889-5/97 $10.00 © 1997 IEEE
 2.1. Reliability cost of software, particularly in power system protec-
Digital relays can be designed to monitor themsel- tion which is rather low-volume industry, often
ves. The process of self-monitoring may be organized dominates the overall cost. However, the substantial
in a number of ways including execution of special improvement in performance of digital relays made
software functions and/or performing additional possible to reduce the cost-to-benefit ratio [1,2].
measurements.
2.5. Other functions and features
The separate problem is how to handle the results
of self-checking. Usually the following actions have With the introduction of microprocessor technol-
been taken by a self-monitoring relay: ogy, totally new features and facilities have been
made possible. Particularly they include:
restart the microprocessor system and/or,
l communication between relays to improve
lockout certain functions of a relay and/or,
reliability and speed-up the operation,
switch the protection functions to back-up relays 0 post-fault analysis of all observed transient
and/or,
phenomena,
raise the alarms. 0 post-fault calculation of a distance to a fault
(fault location),
It should be noted that self-monitoring does not in 0 adaptivity,
itself directly improve reliability, but it does provide
a means of signifying the operational state of protec- 0 settings controllable by hierarchical systems (sub-
tion equipment. This, in turn, has an indirect benefi- station computers),
cial effect on overall reliability by reducing the num- 0 and others.
ber of potential hidden failures.
Certainly, reliability is also improved by building
3. Hardware of digital relays
a degree of redundancy into hardware and/or The general arrangement of the hardware of a
software of a digital relay [1,2]. digital relay is shown in Fig.1.
2.2. Flexibility 3.1. Input transformers
Digital relays as programmable devices are much The analogue input variables, e.g. currents and
more flexible than their analogue predecessors. voltages are electrically insulated from the internal
Usually the same hardware platform is used as a base circuits by input transformers with grounded screens
for different types of relays. It reduces the develop- between primaries and secondaries. The cu.rrent (1A
ment, manufacturing and maintenance costs, im- or 5A rated) and voltage (1lOV rated) signals are
proves reliability, etc. Customizing relays becomes conditioned and converted to their voltage repre-
very easy by modifying the software to meet variety of sentation.
needs of utilities.

2.3. Operational performance

Research and field experience have shown that
digital relays can perform much better than conven-
tional relays. This is particularly so in long and/or
series compensated transmission lines and multi-
ended circuits [l]. A number of features is naturally
RS port
inherent to digital relays, e.g. memory, possibility of
shaping complex operational characteristics, real- on

time estimation of complex criteria signals, etc. er

2.4. Cost/benefit considerations

Fig.1. A typical hardware configuration off a
The cost of hardware reduces year by year, but the digital relay.

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 3.2. Anti-aliasing analog filter filtration of the input signals. Depending on the
The analog filter (AF) cuts-off the signal processing power of the front-end CPU also a part of
spectrum according to the Nyquist law. Low-pass 2nd the main computations may be performed here, such
order passive RC circuit is often adopted. as estimation of orthogonal components, DFT, com-
putation of phase shifts, etc. The results are send to
3.3. S&H and A/D converter the main CPU via Dual Port Memory (DPM).
Usually a digital relay consists of a single A/D con- 3.5. Main CPU
verter. However, quite often certain signals must be
processed in parallel (for example voltage and cur- The main CPU (or CPUs operating in parallel on a
rent from which the impedance is digitally com- bus) runs the programmed protection algorithm
puted). Therefore, as a rule, a sample and hold unit is which is the brain of any protective relay. The protec-
installed to freeze the input signals which are next se- tion algorithm itself is usually a sequence of com-
quentially processed. Another solution is to avoid putations of certain features of input signals such as
the S&H block and set-up the sequence of the A/D RMS, amplitudes of harmonics, impedance, active
conversion that takes into account further relations and reactive powers, phase shifts, etc. These quan-
between the input signals. It is acceptable, however, tities enable to recognize whether a protected ele-
only for fast A/D converters. ment is sound or faulty and make the primary protec-
tion decision (tripping-out).
Since contemporary digital relays base their
operation on information carried by the fundamental 3.6. Logic CPU
frequency components of voltages and currents, the
sampling rate of an A/D converter varies form 1kHz The logic CPU analyses results of on-line com-
up to few kHz what makes some 20 and more samples putations supplied by the main CPU and external bi-
per period of the fundamental frequency (50Hz or nary inputs in order to make the protection decision
60Hz). Certain special relays (such as travelling- as well as raises alarms and initiates certain proce-
wave-based relays) require however much higher dures for external devices.
sampling frequency. 3.7. Binary inputs
Since voltages in a power system may either
reduce (even to zero) or build-up, but not more than The binary inputs provide a part of information
by some lOO%, 12-bit resolution of an A/D converter important for proper performance of a relay. This in-
in the voltage channels is usually sufficient [1,2]. The formation contains:
currents, in turn, may reach the level of tens if not
hundreds of their rated values during short-circuits. 0 status (position) of circuit-breakers and switch-
gears,
Therefore 16-bit resolution is the technical minimum
for the current channels of a digital relay [1,2]. o status of other protective relays,
Usually a single A/D converter suits both the voltage 0 external lockouts,
and current channels: either it is a 16- or more-bit e and others.
converter or it is a 12-bit converter with an additional
circuit for dynamic scale changing. These inputs are electrically insulated either by
Since usually six analogue signals are processed by input relays or opto-couplers from the process
a relay (three voltages and three currents), the con- wiring. Often a kind of filtration is necessary to avoid
version time of an A/D converter below some 10~s is false recognition of a contact status especially during
sufficient. It makes the total conversion time below transients. A degree of redundancy is often intro-
O.lms what is only about 10% of the sampling inter- duces here by supplying both the contacts (position
val and leaves 90% of it for the basic computations. and negation). The sampling frequency for the binary
inputs may be substantially lower than for the
3.4. Front-end CPU analogue inputs (the sampling interval at the level of
The front-end processor controls the A/D con- some 10ms).
verter and usually performs the digital band-pass

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 3.8. Binary outputs
The binary outputs usually include: a0 GPS

0 tripping command to the breaker coils,

l alarms,
l self-monitoring alarms,
Comimunication link
. lockouts,
0 and others.
As a rule, the binary outputs are insulated by out- PROTECTED TfWNSMlSSlON LINE (hundreds of km)
put auxiliary relays usually operating on DC 24V or
11OV or 220V. Fig.2. Two protective relays (A & B) synchronized
by the GPS and communicating via
3.9. Interfaces communication link.

A digital relay is usually equipped with a number

Regardless the nature of a communication link it
of interfaces enabling communication with:
must be capable of reliable transmission of the
amount of information at the level of few hundred
0 local keyboard and display,
bytes every sampling period (i.e. every lms or so). It
0 sub-station computer, must be remembered thlat not speed but reliability of
0 remote relays, the communication channel is the key point.
0 others (printer, fault locator, modem, etc.).
3.12. Sampling synchrabnization
RS232 is nowadays often used as a communication When two or more relays located geographically
port [2]. on different terminals of a multi-terminal protected
element (such as transmission line) operate based on
3.10. Power supply
the differential principle their sampling clocks must
Reliable power supply is extremely important for be synchronized with the accuracy better than some
the performance of protective relays. The impulse 5~s [5]. Nowadays a Global Positioning System
power suppliers operate on both DC and AC voltages (GPS) providing the accuracy 0.2-0.5~s is commonly
with the rated values used by the utilities in their sub- used for synchronizatiotn of digital protective relays
stations (DC llOV, 22OV, AC 22OV, etc.). The power [5] (Fig.2).
suppliers for digital relays are often designed to suf-
fer 2-3 sec. power interruptions playing to some ex- 4. Software of digital relays
tend a role of small-rating UPS systems.
The software of modern digital relays consists of
3.11. Communication Channels three main parts:
Protective relays communicate with each other
(a) the relaying algorithm per se,
particularly in the case of transmission lines where
two relays located at both ends of a line (i.e. hundreds (b) the communication software,
of kilometers from one another) exchange certain (c) the self-monitoring software.
amount of data (Fig.2).
The last two kinds of software are not specific for
In the area of digital protective relays three types digital relays but rather common for any complex
of communication links are used for this purpose: microprocessor system.
(a) high-frequency signals on wires of power trans- The relaying algorithm per se is usually sub-
mission lines (via capacitive coupling), divided into two basic sub-procedures:
(b) fiber optic channels [3],
(1) real-time estimation of criteria signals (features
(c) microwave channels [4].

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 of the sampled voltages and currents), and decision. The overcurrent relays usually measure the
(2) comparison of the criteria signals with pre-set RMS or the amplitude of the first harmonic of the
or even adaptable settings (thresholds) in order current.
to make the final decision (to trip or not to
trip). 4.4. Special protection
Certain elements in a power system (generators,
The first stage may be based on one out of the fol-
motors, transformers, etc.) must be equipped with a
lowing approaches [l]:
number of extra relays protecting against very
specific operating conditions that may lead to the
sinusoidal-waveform-based algorithms,
damage (for example protection against the negative
Fourier and Walsh-based techniques, sequence currents in a stator of a synchronous gener-
least-square methods, ator). Such as relays use extra sensors and/or com-
on-line solution of a differential equation of a bination of the above protection techniques.
protected element model, and
travelling-wave-based methods. 5. New approaches

As far as the basic protection principles are con- Few years ago the scientific efforts have switched
sidered the following protection techniques are from the approaches born in the era of electro-
broadly distinguished: mechanical relays to Artificial Intelligence (AI)
methods [6]. Researchers identified the task per-
4.1. Differential protection formed by any protective relay as pattern recognition
with only two classes of patterns to be recognized:
In this technique (used for protecting power trans- “internal faults” and “other conditions”. Fig.3 il-
formers, generators, busbars, transmission lines) the lustrates the problem. Fig.3a and 3b display the dif-
instantaneous values of currents or powers are com- ferential current of a power transformer relay for a
pared at each terminal of a protected element. The
differential signal indicates on an internal fault.
Saturation of current transformers, inrush and over-
excitation phenomena in power transformers and a
number of other phenomena bring out, however, cer-
tain problems when applying this protection law.

4.2. Distance protection

This technique (used for protecting transmission ...I i. ._
lines, generators, busbars) estimates the positive se- 00 20
20 40
40 t In4 0 20 40 t WI

quence impedance in a three-phase system from real-

time voltages and currents. Such as impedance is a
geometrical measure of a distance to a fault, and
thus, indicates whether or not a protected element
suffers an internal fault. This protection law meets its
limitations when applied to long and/or series com-
pensated and/or parallel transmission lines. Tran-
sient behaviour of current and voltage transformers
brings out certain extra problems for impedance
relays.
Fig.3. The differential current (in all three
4.3. Overcurrent protection phases) of power transformer relay for a
sample internal fault (a & c) and inrush
For certain configurations of a power system, the conditions (b & d).
amplitude of the short-circuit current may indicate The information avaiable at t= 85ms
on a faulty element and be a base for tripping (a & b) and at t= 1Oms (c & d).

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 sample internal fault (tripping required) and mag- (b) an ANN itself is usually proposed to be feedfor-
netizing inrush conditions (blocking required), ward, non-linear, fully interconnected and com-
respectivelly. These figures obviously differ enabling posed of three layers,
the recognition. However, they correspond to the (c) the output layer ettcodes the result of recogni-
data avaiable to the relay at t=85ms after the begin- tion, and consequently, the corresponding
ning of the disturbances. The information avaiable, decision to be taken.
say at t =lOms when actualy the tripping signal is ex-
pected, is significantly less (the white areas in Fig.3c The ANN applications to power system protection
and 3d). keep spreading rapidly and cover on-line fault loca-
The appropriate pattern recognition methods are tion, post-fault analysis, type of fault recognition,
being investigated and implemented in power system automatic reclosure, and many others.
protection. They include:
6. Conclusions
(1) probabilistic approach, This paper presents a digital protective relay for
(2) fuzzy set approach, and power system protection as a real-time microproces-
(3) artificial neural network approach. sor system. From this point of view the typical
hardware and software structures and functions have
In the first family of methods the Kalman filter been described and classified.
dominates as a measuring tool [7], while the maxi-
As operating in a heavy electro-magnetic environ-
mum likelihood test is considered as a decision-
ment, operating in real-time, calling for communica-
making instrument [S].
tion links over hundreds of kilometers, calling for
Fuzzy set theory enables to describe quantitatively precise sampling synchronization on one hand, with
the uncertainties appearing during the operation of a high reliability demands imposed on the other hand,
protective relay. Particularly the fuzzy set approach a digital protective relay is found a challenging prob-
to power system protection assumes [9,10,11]: lem for hardware designers, software programmers
and protection engineers.
(a) fuzzy criteria signals as antidote to uncertainties
caused by dynamic measurement errors,
7. Bibliography
(b) fuzzy settings as remedy to shady boundaries
(thresholds) is a universe of criteria signals be- [l] Johns A.T., Salmon SK., Digital protection for
tween faulty and sound operation of a protected power systems, IEE Power Series No.15, London
plant, 1995.
(c) multi-criteria decision-making methods for ag- [2] Ungrad H., Winkler W., Wiszniewski A., Protec-
gregation of different in nature and reliability tion Techniques in Electrical Energy Systems,
protection criteria, and finally Marcel Dekker, Inc., New York, 1995.
(d) formal measure of information and balance of
costs of conceivable wrong decision as factors [3] WG H-2 of IEEE Power System Relaying Com-
mittee, “A survey of optical channels for protec-
supporting the decision-making routine.
tive relaying practices and experience”, IEEE
Transactions on Power Delivery, Vol.10, No.2,
Invention of error back-propagation method for April 1995, pp.647-658.
training multi-layer Artificial Neural Networks
(ANNs) in early eighties pushed forward ANN ap- [4] Wilson R.E., “An investigation of time transfer
accuracies over a utility microwave communica-
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The common core of this approach assumes: Delivery, Vol.& No.3, July 1993, pp.993-999.
(a) ANN input vector consisting of present samples [5] WG H-7 of IEEE I?ower System Relaying Com-
mittee, “Synchronized sampling and phasor
of voltages and/or currents and/or their pre-
measurements for relaying and control”, IEEE
processed values accompanied by certain num- Transactions on Power Delivery, Vol.9, No.1,
ber of historical samples what creates a sliding January 1994, pp.4412-452.
data window of a constant length,

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 [6] CIGRE Study Committee 34 Strategic Plan 1992- [9] Wiszniewski A., Kasztenny B., “Primary protec-
2002, CIGRE Materials, 1992. tive relays with elements of expert systems”,
[7] Girgis A.A., “A new Kalman filtering based digi- Proceedings of the 1992 CIGRE Session, Paris,
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Apparatus and Systems, Vol. PAS-101, No.9, [lo] Kasztenny B., “Digital relaying in power system
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[S] Sagakuchi T., “A statistical decision theoretic ap-
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on Power Apparatus and Systems, Vol. PAS-99, differential transformer relay based on fuzzy
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Vol.10, No.4, October 1995, pp.1786-92.

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