Relay Protection and Substation Automation of Modern Power Systems (Cheboksary, September 9-13, 2007)

S2-2: System simulation, parameter determination and relay testing

Protection performance testing J. GOSALIA Doble Engineering Company USA jgosalia@doble.com

KEYWORDS
Testing the relays, power system, protective system, steady state testing, Power System Simulators, protection scheme

Introduction Modern relay systems are multi-function digital devices that are designed to provide complete protection for a power system component like line, transformer, generator etc. Some of the newer designs have over 2000 setting possibilities and require extensive configuration and setting procedures. The traditional method of testing individual Steady-State calibrations is no longer viable because of the excessive time required to reconfigure each individual element. With the modern test equipment we can, and should, do things differently in order to improve productivity. By testing the protection scheme under power system condition using modern test instruments the performance of the protection scheme can be ensured. Dynamic relay testing means testing under simulated power system conditions. A report from IEEE Power System Relaying Committee entitled Relay Performance Testing discusses how dynamic-state testing and transient simulations provide a far better understanding of how the relay system performs. By making a profile of the operation of the scheme, malfunctions can be found faster because it is easier to identify the changes in areas that don't operate the way they are expected. The objective of this paper is to present the different test methods their advantages and limitations. The paper also describes the use and advantages of performing satellite synchronized endto-end test. Traditional Relay Testing Historically, users performed relay testing using passive components such as variacs, load boxes and phase shifters. These tests only verified the relay setting and gave no indication of how the relay would operate under power system conditions. With the passive test instruments, this was the best that could be done. Traditional test methods are not only time consuming but also do not provide confidence that the relay will properly operate under power system conditions. The interaction of the relays in-built protection features and how they are affected by power system conditions need to be evaluated to truly understand the relays performance. Types of Relay Testing As relay designs became more advanced with the solid-state and microprocessor-based technology, advanced test methods should be used to test the relays, protection schemes and systems. The types of relay testing are:

Relay Protection and Substation Automation of Modern Power Systems (Cheboksary, September 9-13, 2007)

Integrity testing Application testing Integrity Testing This test establishes whether the relay was manufactured, delivered, installed, and maintained according to the relays published specifications. Integrity testing is normally performed as acceptance testing and for periodic testing to check the relay. Integrity Testing is also called Steady State testing or routine testing. Application Testing This test is performed after the Integrity Test. Application testing provides more comprehensive tests to ensure that the performance of the relay is satisfactory for its intended application. This is especially important when published specifications do not provide adequate detail to be sure of proper application. The test is performed by either DFR playback of specific fault disturbances or play back of the waveforms created by mathematical simulation to assess relay performance. Scheme testing using dynamic or transient testing falls in to this category. Steady-State Testing (Integrity Testing) In Steady-State Testing, phasor quantities are held stable for duration much longer than the operating time of the relay, and then are varied in increments much smaller than the resolution of the relay.

Figure 1 The reasons to perform Steady-State Testing are: To confirm relay settings. To determine faulty components of the relay. In the case of digital relays, Steady-State Testing can reveal the defects in functioning of coils, capacitors, and resistors. For Electro-mechanical relays, it can reveal weakened springs, dirty contacts or loose setting screws that may have vibrated loose and caused the settings to drift. Steady-State Testing can be very time consuming. Automation of Steady-State Testing provides many advantages. Some of the advantages are listed below. Reduced Testing time Provides consistent test methods so that results obtained can be used to evaluate the relay condition. Increased productivity of testing personnel, which results in increased job satisfaction and variety. Reduced protection maintenance cost and increased reliability Testing automation allows trending of historic test data, which can be used for scheduling test intervals. The procedures for these tests are based on the assumption that users only had basic test components available, such as variacs, load boxes and phase shifters. In Steady-State Testing phasors are slowly varied to determine relay settings (Figure 1). If the relays passed the test, all that was known that the relay is set correctly. All the components of a scheme are being tested this way to

Relay Protection and Substation Automation of Modern Power Systems (Cheboksary, September 9-13, 2007)

ensure their setting. With the Steady-State Testing, how the scheme will operates in service and under power system condition is not known? Certain assumptions are made in Steady-State Testing of distance relays as shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2 These tests do not simulate power system conditions and the important circuits like polarizing and memory circuits are not being tested. For these reasons, Steady-State Testing results should only be used for reference, as these tests do not test relays under power system conditions. In the past for more definitive tests under power system conditions, users could model their power system on a simulator at the manufacturers site, but this was very expensive and time consuming. Therefore, only protection schemes that were to be applied on critical applications were tested this way, using either a PTL (Programmable Transmission Line), TNA (Transient Network Analyzer), or ATL (Artificial Transmission Line). Application Testing: Dynamic-state Testing To ensure the performance of the scheme for the intended application, the scheme should be checked under power system condition. Before the application of a particular scheme, requirements of the protection scheme for the intended application need to be identified. Relay protection scheme design is characterized by two major considerations: Security: the measure of the relay not to misoperate for an external fault conditions Dependability: the measure of the relay to operate for an internal fault conditions These two considerations define relay reliability. The system component to be protected must be reviewed with regard to the power system as a whole, to establish the priority needed. As shown in Figure 3, the protection cannot be designed to provide both high security and high dependability, so the protection needs to be tested in a way that ensures the most important considerations are satisfied for a particular application.

Figure 3 EHV protection applications demand that the protection scheme provide security to ensure system stability. Conversely, distribution protection applications demand system dependability to ensure continuity of power. Once decisions have been made on the appropriate protection for a given application, the user needs to confirm the proper operation of the protection before it is placed in service. This Testing needs to be performed at, or before, the commissioning stage. The advancements and affordability of microprocessor and digital signal processing technology now makes Testing of protection schemes by the user under power system conditions

Relay Protection and Substation Automation of Modern Power Systems (Cheboksary, September 9-13, 2007)

practical. Digital test equipment can be used to perform dynamic-state testing of protection scheme. Complete scheme and not the individual relay modules need to be tested using dynamic state Testing to evaluate the performance of the scheme. Modern, portable Power System Simulators are now readily available and reasonably priced, allows user to simulate power system events easily. Dynamic-state Testing allows fundamental frequency components to be synchronously switched to represent the power system events. The synchronous switching between the pre-fault, fault and post-fault conditions allows user to simulate a power system event easily and quickly. PC-based software controls the simulators and switches the phasors synchronously between the states to simulate power system events (Figure 4).

Figure 4 Test data for dynamic simulation can be calculated using short-circuit programs, fault simulation software or recordings of Digital Fault Recorders (DFR). Using this technique the response of the protection scheme can be analyzed for different fault types to ensure the proper operation of the scheme. It can be used to perform following tests on a line protection scheme. Reach accuracy for all fault types in all zones of protection Operate time Switch-on-to-fault protection Blown fuse detection Power swing blocking Programmable logic It is also important to note that dynamic-state testing allows the testing of various zones of distance protection scheme without the need to disable other zones, switch-on-to-fault protection, VT supervision etc. as duration of each state during simulation can be controlled. Using Dynamic State Simulation Testing, user can easily plot the dynamic characteristic of the relay. (Figure 5).

Figure 5 Considerations for Dynamic-state Testing: The first questions to ask are:

Relay Protection and Substation Automation of Modern Power Systems (Cheboksary, September 9-13, 2007)

How many test instruments are needed? Will the whole scheme be tested, or only a part of it? How many states are needed for simulation? How many connections are required? How many test leads will be needed? Once this is determined, the only equipment needed to begin testing is dynamic-state simulation software and high power active sources. Following example indicates the power requirement for testing simple line protection scheme at 1A, 5A and 10A fault current. Consider a typical microprocessor based line protection scheme with breaker fail and directional over current back up protection. Total impedance of the circuit for A to Ground fault loop including lead resistance for interconnection is approx. 2.37 Ohms. Following table indicates the power (VA) requirement for the current source for different values of test current. Test Current 1A 5A 10 A Power 2.37 VA 59.25 VA 237 VA

Power requirement of the current source increases by square of the test current. Power rating for current source is defined as the power delivered by the current source at the maximum current value of the current range. If the instrument has one current range of say 15 A and power rating of the current source is 100 VA, it will deliver 100 VA at 15 A. It will deliver 66 VA at 10 A 33 VA at 5 A 6.6 VA at 1 A To get more power at different test values, test instrument with multiple current range should be used. If the instrument of 450 VA rating has say 3 current range of 7.5, 15 and 30 A. It will deliver 300 VA at 10 A (at 15 A range) 300 VA at 5 A (at 7.5 A range) 60 VA at 1 A (at 7.5 A range) Test instrument with multiple current range is capable of providing more power compared to an instrument with one current range of the same power rating. Another important factor in determining power requirements is the test lead considerations. To reduce the power loss in the test leads, impedance of the test leads should be minimized. To minimize the impedance of the test leads: Use a larger gauge test lead Keep leads as short as possible Do not coil excess test leads Do not use the instrument ground as the return path Twisted pairs can be used to cancel mutual inductance Transient Simulation Testing (Application Testing) Transient simulation Testing simultaneously applies both fundamental and non-fundamental frequency components of voltage and current that represents power system conditions. The test signals can be the Actual signals received by protection scheme during power system disturbance captured by Digital Fault Recorders. Calculated signals using Electro Magnetic Transient Program (EMTP or ATP). Modern digital relays are capable of recording signals used by relays during power system disturbances but it may not capture high frequency components of voltage and current due to lower sampling rates compared to digital fault recorders.

Relay Protection and Substation Automation of Modern Power Systems (Cheboksary, September 9-13, 2007)

Typical DFRs can record signals at 200 to 400 Sec steps and EMTP can generate signal at 50 to 100 Sec steps. The sampling rate used for EMTP or ATP simulation is important to truly simulate power system conditions with different fault inception angle. DC coupled power amplifiers are used to play transients into the relay. Transient Testing helps user In evaluating relay and protection scheme performance under actual power system conditions In the analysis of questionable relay operations In testing relays and protection scheme with special characteristics. Sample by sample control of the voltage and current sources of the test instrument is required to faithfully reproduce the waveforms. One important point need to be considered here is to study how test instrument plays back the events. Some DFRs, records the events at different sampling rate in one recording. Hence test instrument should be able to replay different rates of the recording. If play back of the signal is to be done at rate different than originally recorded utmost care need to taken in the sampling rate conversion. End-to-end Testing Today, many utilities perform end-to-end Testing regularly as a means to test the entire protection scheme at both line ends under power system condition. End-to-end Testing is the ultimate testing tool because this test closely simulates the actual conditions the protection will experience in service. End-to-end scheme Testing can be used to Evaluate the performance of the complete protection scheme and it's associated equipment. Ensure the proper operation of the communication equipment for pilot relaying schemes. Prove the proper coordination and operation between two line ends of a line protection scheme in current reversal and evolving fault conditions. End-to-end Testing can be used for commissioning tests and as a diagnostic tool. The test does require high power to check the complete scheme that may include primary and backup relaying, high fault current events, and schemes mixed with digital and Electro-mechanical relays.

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Figure 6 To ensure the accuracy of the test, Global Positioning Satellite synchronization (GPS) needs to be utilized as shown in Figure 8. Power system simulator with built in GPS satellite receiver can synchronize its output accurately using time signal from the GPS satellite. The GPS system provides a range of output signal options, the most useful to electric utilities being the 1 pulse per second (1PPS) synchronizing pulse and the IRIG-B Standard Time Code signal.

Relay Protection and Substation Automation of Modern Power Systems (Cheboksary, September 9-13, 2007)

The test instrument, when equipped with the GPS time sync option, can use the 1PPS signal from the GPS receiver to phase lock the synchronizing signal. The IRIG-B signal is used by the test is linked to a local laptop PC via RS232 Cable. This time is then used by the Dynamic State Simulation or transient play back Software to synchronize the test instruments at any substation. A test instrument can be set to initiate, automatically, an end-to-end test at exactly the same time. The only thing the test engineer at each terminal need to verify is that the GO AT (Start) time on each stations PC display for the State Simulator Program or transient program shows the same time. This is the Test instrument initiation time, which in an End-to-end test must be the same at each terminal. By injecting the appropriate voltage and current phasors at each end of the line, performance of the protection scheme along with the associated equipment like communication scheme can be easily checked. When test instrument is equipped with GPS satellite receiver, it can use 1PPS signal from the GPS receiver to phase lock the synchronizing signal. This is very useful when testing protection schemes located on panels in different locations within the same substation. The lead burdens that would be experienced to wire the schemes together would exceed the power requirements of the test sets. Synchronization using GPS avoids this as test instruments can be placed near the relay panel for testing protection scheme without excessive lead burden. As and example breaker fail relay and line protection scheme may be located in two different panel. To check both schemes at the same time, set of test instrument can be placed near each panel and can be tested simultaneously using same start time. Conclusion Steady-State Testing can only test each individual component of a system. The entire system cannot be tested as a whole to observe its behavior under power system conditions. The inability to test the complete system leaves many gaps in the test procedure. Misoperations in service are generally due to the performance of the untested parts of the system. Steady-State Testing only confirms that relay is alive and setting has not drifted. It is useful in ensuring that electromechanical components are working properly. Steady-State Testing should be automated using PC for efficient and consistent Testing. Test data should be stored and can be used to track the drifting in the test results and test scheduling. Dynamic Testing synchronously changes the fundamental frequency voltage and current phasors and closely simulates power system events. Computerized control of the instrument and PC power system model allows user to evaluate protection performance for the different power system events. Dynamic Testing of the complete protection scheme ensures the proper functioning of the scheme during power system disturbances. Complete protection scheme should checked rather than testing individual relays or modules, as complete scheme testing confirms the proper interaction between various modules of the scheme. In testing complete scheme, it is very important that test instrument is capable of supplying required power. Multiple ranges on the current source are capable of providing more power compared to only one current range. Transient Testing simulates fundamental, harmonic and all other frequency component including DC component in the voltage and current phasors. It is very useful in analyzing the questionable response of the protection scheme. Modern test instrument with DC coupled amplifier with sample by sample control allows play back of the transient event using PC based transient program. Care need to be taken in data conversion if the play back rate is not the same as recording rate. The use of satellite synchronized dynamic Testing provides the closest simulation to true power system conditions that is available with existing technology. This provides all the benefit of observing how the protection system operates and relates to all its components. End-to-end Testing dramatically increases confidence in the reliability and proper operation of the protection under actual operating conditions. Satellite synchronized dynamic Testing now makes routine end-to-end Testing feasible and desirable. The quality of the test results, combined with the reduction in test time, allows a previously special test to become routine, thus improving the quality and reliability of the protection.