Numerical Relay: Modern Multifunctional
Protection system
Abhisekh Anand (T17EE001), Electrical Engineering Department, NIT Meghalya
Abstract— Modern numerical relays have many new
features that were not available in electromechanical or
analog relays. These new features include setting group
setting, programmable logic, and adaptive schemes.
Although these features make numerical relays very
powerful, they also create a need for reviewing
commissioning methods. Although there are several
references regarding commissioning of electromechanical
relays. Most methods employed today are based on
experience. With the advent of numerical relays, the
emphasis has shifted from hard ware to software. Hard
ware is more or less the same between any two numerical
relays, what distinguishes one numerical relay from the
other is the software.
Keywords-Power system protection, relays, digital
protection.
I. INTRODUCTION
Numerical relays have revolutionized protection,
control, metering and communication in power systems.
Functional integration, new methods of communication,
reduced physical size, and an enormous amount of
available information are but a few of the benefits of this
revolution. Having made the initial conceptual
adjustment of relating objects from electromechanical
technology such as rotating discs and moving armatures
to such electronic technology as analog to digital
converters and comparators protection practitioners then
must deal with programming a relay. Initially
programming was no more than selecting values for relay
settings. Further advancement in digital technology,
however has made possible advanced and sophisticated
programming of logical functions and analog quantities.
A good understanding of relay programming is
necessary to take full advantage of the many functions
integrated into numerical relays and use these functions
in different applications to enhance operation of a power
network. Unfortunately many users avoid relay
programming, considering it too complex. Because of
this perceived complexity, not all users investigate the
use of relay programming to realize automation and
control applications. Many cost saving opportunities and
simple engineering solutions to automation applications
are reliably achieved by using the protection relay
programming features.
II. RELAY
A protective relay is a device that senses the fault and
initiates the operation of the circuit breaker to isolate the
defective element from the rest of the system. Relays are
used where it is necessary to control a circuit by a
separate low-power signal, or where several circuits must
be controlled by one signal. The relays detect the
abnormal conditions in the electrical circuits by
constantly measuring the electrical quantities which are
different under normal and fault conditions. The
electrical quantities which may change under fault
conditions are voltage, current, frequency and phase
angle. Having detected the fault, the relay operates to
close the trip circuit of the breaker, this results in the
opening of the breaker and disconnection of the faulty
circuit.
III. BASIC OPERATION OF RELAY
A simple electromagnetic relay, such as the one shown
in the Fig1, is an adaptation of an electromagnet. It
consists of a coil of wire surrounding a soft iron core, an
iron yoke, which provides a low reluctance path for
magnetic flux, a moveable iron armature, and a set, of
contacts. The armature is hinged to the yoke and
mechanically linked to a moving contact or contacts. It is
held in place by a spring so that when the relay is de-
energized there is an air gap in the magnetic circuit. In
this condition, one of the two sets of contacts in the relay
pictured is closed, and the other set is open.
When an electric current is passed through the coil, the
resulting magnetic field attracts the armature and the
consequent movement of the movable contact or contacts
either makes or breaks a connection with a fixed contact.
If the set of contacts was closed when the relay was de-
energized, then the movement opens the contacts and
breaks the connection, and vice versa if the contacts were
open. When the current to the coil is switched off, the
armature is returned by a force, approximately half as
strong as the magnetic force, to its relaxed position.
Usually this force is provided by a spring, but gravity is
also used commonly in industrial motor starters. Most
relays are manufactured to operate quickly. In a low
voltage application, this is to reduce noise. In a high
voltage or high current application, this is to reduce
arcing. If the coil is energized with DC, a diode is
frequently installed across the coil, to dissipate the
energy from the collapsing magnetic field at
deactivation, which would otherwise generate a voltage
spike dangerous to circuit components. Some automotive
relays already include that diode inside the relay case.
Alternatively a contact protection network consisting of
a capacitor and resistor in series, may absorb the surge.
If the coil is designed to be energized with AC, a small
copper ring can be crimped to the end of the solenoid.
This "shading ring" creates a small out-of-phase current,
which increases the minimum pull on the armature
during the AC cycle.
 By analogy with the functions of the original
electromagnetic device, a solid-state relay is made with
a thyristor or other solid-state switching device. To
achieve electrical isolation an optocoupler can be used
which is a light-emitting diode (LED) coupled with a
photo transistor.
Fig. 1. Relay circuit diagram
IV. NUMERICAL RELAY
The numerical relay, also called a digital relay by some
manufacturers and resources, refers to a protective relay
that uses an advanced microprocessor to analyze power
system voltages and currents for the purpose of detection
of faults in an electric power system. There are grey areas
on what constitutes a digital/numeric relay, but most
engineers will recognize the design as having the
majority of these attributes:
1) The relay applies A/D (analog/digital) conversion
processes to the incoming voltages and currents.
2) The relay analyses the A/D converter output to
extract, as a minimum, magnitude of the incoming
quantity; most commonly using Fourier transform
concepts (RMS and some form of averaging are used
in basic products). Further, the Fourier transform is
commonly used to extract the signal's phase angle
relative to some reference, except in the most basic
applications.
3) The relay is capable of applying advanced logic. It
is capable of analyzing whether the relay should trip
or restrain from tripping based on current and/or
voltage magnitude (and angle in some applications),
complex parameters set by the user, relay contact
inputs, and in some applications, the timing and
order of event sequences.
4) The logic is user-configurable at a level well beyond
simply changing front panel switches or moving of
jumpers on a circuit board.
5) The relay has some form of advanced event
recording. The event recording would include some
means for the user to see the timing of key logic
decisions, relay I/O (input/output)
6) The relay has an extensive collection of settings,
beyond what can be entered via front panel knobs
and dials, and these settings are transferred to the
relay via an interface with a PC (personal computer),
and this same PC interface is used to collect event
reports from the relay.
7) The more modern versions of the digital relay will
contain advanced metering and communication
protocol ports, allowing the relay to become a focal
point in a SCADA system.
V. PRINCIPLE OF OPERATION
Low voltage and low current signals (i.e., at the
secondary of a VT and CT) are brought into a low pass
filter that removes frequency content above about 1/3 of
the sampling frequency (a relay A/D converter needs to
sample faster than 2x per cycle of the highest frequency
that it is to monitor). The AC signal is then sampled by
the relay's analog to digital converter at anywhere from
about 4 to 64 (varies by relay) samples per power system
cycle. In some relays, the entire sampled data is kept for
oscillographic records, but in the relay, only the
fundamental component is needed for most protection
algorithms, unless a high speed algorithm is used that
uses sub cycle data to monitor for fast changing issues.
The sampled data is then passed through a low pass filter
that numerically removes the frequency content that is
above the fundamental frequency of interest (i.e.,
nominal system frequency), and uses Fourier transform
algorithms to extract the fundamental frequency
magnitude and angle. Next the microprocessor passes the
data into a set of protection algorithms, which are a set
of logic equations in part designed by the protection
engineer, and in part designed by the relay manufacturer,
that monitor for abnormal conditions that indicate a fault.
If a fault condition is detected, output contacts operate to
trip the associated circuit breaker.
VI. FUNDAMENTAL REQUIREMENTS OF NUMERICAL
RELAY
1) SPEED: The relay system should disconnect the
faulty section as fast as possible for the following
reasons:
 Electrical apparatus may be damaged if they are
made to carry the fault current for a long time.
 A failure on the system leads to a great
reduction in the system voltage. As a result the
system may become unstable.
 The high speed relay system decreases the
possibility of development of one type of fault
into the other more severe type.
2) SENSITIVITY: It is the ability of the relay system
to operate with low value of actuating quantity.
3) RELIABILITY: It is the ability of the relay system
to operate under the predetermined conditions,
without reliability the protection would be rendered
largely in effective and could even become a
liability.
4) SELECTIVITY: It is the ability of the protective
system to select correctly that part of the system in
trouble and disconnect the faulty part without
disturbing the rest of the system.
5) SIMPLICITY: The relaying system should be
simple so that it can be easily maintained.
Reliability is closely related to simplicity. The
simpler the protection scheme the greater will be its
reliability.
6) ECONOMY: The most important factor in the
choice of a particular protection scheme is the
economic aspect. Sometimes it is economically
unjustified to use an ideal scheme of protection and
a compromise method has to be adopted. As a rule,
the protective gear should not cost more than 5% of
the total cost.
VII. ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF
NUMERICAL RELAY
A numerical relay has various advantages, some of
them are:
 Ability to combine a large number of protective and
monitoring functions in a single relay unit. In the
earlier protection systems, separate relay units were
necessary for each main function resulting in more
number of units, more wiring, and lesser reliability.
Measured values are processed digitally by
microprocessor.
 High level of flexibility: the relay meets the most
complex protective and monitoring requirements.
 Various protective functions can be freely selected
and allocated to the various auxiliary relays by
means of software tripping matrix.
 The memory of the relay enables the relay to retain
the values of variables responsible for tripping, time
taken to operate etc.
 No need for measuring instruments at the output as
data can be seen digitally.
 Comprehensive self-monitoring self-checking
feature.
 Allow GPS (Geographical positioning system) time
stamping.
 Increased reliability due to self-checking.
 Data interface access – increased communication
ability. These relays can communicate with other.
 Relays, protected equipments, and control and
protection devices in the substation.
 User friendly, yet highly capable.
 Relay provides fault designations and information.
 High speed.
 Save quantized data from faults and disturbances.
Apart from these there are some disadvantages of
numerical relays:
 High initial cost.
 Requires stable power supply.
 If used for multifunction in a single feeder, failure
of relay may cause total protection failure for the
equipment.
VIII. ADAPTIVE PROTECTION USING NUMERICAL RELAY
Numerical relays can be designed to include abilities to
change their settings automatically. Some of the
functions that can be made adaptive are:
 Using the most appropriate algorithms during a
disturbance.
 Changing settings of relays of a disturbance network
as the system loads or configuration change.
 Changing the settings of second and third zone
disturbance relays as the system operating state
changes.
 Compensating for the CT & PT errors.
 Changing the allowable overload of circuits and
equipment as the ambient conditions, especially the
temperature change. Changing the circuit auto-
reclosers delays to ensure that the circuit is reclosed
after the arc is extinguished.
 Fiber optical communication with substation LAN.
 Adaptive relaying scheme.
 Permit historical data storage.
IX. APPLICATIONS
1) Control a high-voltage circuit with a low-voltage
signal, as in some types of modems or audio
amplifiers.
2) Control a high-current circuit with a low-current
signal, as in the starter solenoid of an automobile.
3) Detect and isolate faults on transmission and
distribution lines by opening and closing circuit
breakers (protection relays).
4) Isolate the controlling circuit from the controlled
circuit when the two are at different potentials, for
example when controlling a mains-powered device
from a low-voltage switch. The latter is often
applied to control office lighting as the low voltage
wires are easily installed in partitions, which may be
often moved as needs change. They may also be
controlled by room occupancy detectors in an effort
to conserve energy.
5) Logic functions, the Boolean AND function is
realised by connecting normally open relay contacts
in series, the OR function by connecting normally
open contacts in parallel. The change-over or Form
C contacts perform the XOR (exclusive or) function.
Similar functions for NAND and NOR are
accomplished using normally closed contacts. The
Ladder programming language is often used for
designing relay logic networks.
6) Safety-critical logic, they are widely used in safety-
critical logic, such as the control panels of
radioactive waste-handling machinery.
 X. SERVICE LIFE OF NUMERICAL RELAY
A typical service life of numerical relays is between
fifteen and twenty years. For comparison electro
mechanical relays had a service life of 20
years.Numerical relays are sophisticated devices with
printed circuit board. In case of hardware faults the relay
has to be replaced because of computer technology. For
errors in software the requirement is to download a
correct or a new version of relay software into the relay
hardware. When feeder protection has to be updated or
modified, it is easier to replace all protection especially
if the different manufacturer employed for protection
modification. Sometimes the numerical protection is
replaced a few years after the first installation. Rapid
changes in computer technology causes a shorter life of
current numerical relays because of requirements for
relay replacements when other protection and control
assets are being replaced. Once when the computer
technology stabilises the real service life of the numerical
relays will be available.

XI. CONCLUSION
Numerical relays are highly compact devices,
characterised with fast operation, high sensitivity, self-
monitoring, and low maintenance. Online remote data
exchange between numerical relays and remotely located
devices offers remote relay settings applications, data
processing for network operations and maintenance or
remotely analysing recorded fault data. With numerical
protection, because of the numerous and complex
settings to be entered it is important to have procedures,
processes and standards in place to ensure careful
management of the modern numerical relay. It has been
found possible to standardise on the large number of
settings entered, leaving a few site specific settings to be
determined. It is important that the settings are not
entered manually on site, but downloaded into the relay
after careful checking and factory tests. Numerical relays
are environment friendly because of very small amount
of raw material used for their manufacturing easy
dismantling and the good component rate of recovery
and recycling. Only printed circuit boards have to be
separated and processed separately.

REFERENCES
[1] S. H. Horowitz, A. G. Phadke, Power system
relaying, Third Edition, John Wiley and Son Ltd,
England, 2008.
[2] J. Lewis Blackburn, “Protective Relaying, Principles
and Applications”, Second Edition, 1998.

[3] Michael W. Young, “Protective Relaying for

Technicians”, First Edition, 1990.