Chapter 2: Protection Of Equipment and Relay Setting

2.1 Transformer protection

The considerations for a transformer protection package vary with the application and importance
of the transformer. To reduce the effects of thermal stress and electro dynamic forces it is advisable
to ensure that the protection package used minimizes the time for disconnection in the event of a
fault occurring within the transformer.
Small distribution transformers can be protected satisfactorily, from both technical and economic
considerations, by the use of fuses or over current relays. This results in time-delayed protection
due to downstream co-ordination requirements. However, time delayed fault clearance is
unacceptable on larger power transformers used in distribution, transmission and generator
applications, due to system operation/stability and cost of repair/length of outage considerations.

2.1.1 types of transformer in substation

Power transformer:
Power transformer is installed at various power stations for generation and transmission of power. It
acts as a step-up or a step-down transformer for increasing and decreasing of the level of voltages
as per the requirement. The power transformers are available in various ratings of 400 KV, 200 KV,
110 KV, 66 KV, and 33 KV.
Auxiliary transformer:
Auxiliary transformer is employed for supplying power to substation auxiliary Loads. Auxiliary
Transformers are connected to the switchyard bus. LV side of the Auxiliary transformer is
connected to the auxiliary load buses. The auxiliary transformers are available in various ratings of
13.8 KV, 11 KV, 6.6 KV.
Instrument transformers:
Instrument transformer is high accuracy class electrical devices used to isolate or transform
voltage (VT) or current (CT) levels. The most common usage of instrument transformers is to
operate relay or metering from high voltage or high current circuits, safely isolating secondary
control circuitry from the high voltages or currents. The primary winding of the transformer is
connected to the high voltage or high current circuit, and the meter or
secondary circuit.
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relay is connected to the

2.1.2Faults in the transformer

Faults in the transformer are classified as internal faults and through faults.

Internal Faults:
Internal faults are the faults which occur internal to the transformer which may seriously damage
the insulation of the transformer and causes break down in transformer. So the transformer should
be immediately protected from these faults. These faults are divided as electrical and mechanical
faults
-Electrical faults:
Phase to Phase fault, Phase to ground, Inter turn faults will come under electrical internal faults. As
a result of winding insulation failure which often creates short circuit between phase to phase or
phase to ground results in high current flow. This high current flow may break the down the
winding.
A conducting bridge across the laminated structures of the core can permit sufficient eddycurrent to flow to cause serious overheating. The bolts that clamp the core together are always
insulated to avoid this trouble. If any portion of the core insulation becomes defective, the
resultant heating may reach a magnitude sufficient to damage the winding .
So for these faults the transformer should be switched off immediately and should be taken in to
service.
-Mechanical Faults

-The cooling medium failure results in high temperatures in transformer which effects the
insulation and casing. In long run this may result deterioration of component or even it may
also create fire in the transformer.
-In transformer tap changing mechanism there will be high current flow in the taping, if any
fault in this mechanism may result in flashing at tap changers

Through Faults:
Through faults are the faults which occur outside the transformer zone and cleared by the
downstream components. However the fault is not cleared by them, it may results in severe over
loading on transformer which results in large current flow through the transformer.
If the fault is at secondary side then a large current flow will result in secondary and it reflects high
current flow in corresponding primary winding. These faults are not serious but these may
deteriorate the insulation of the transformer and may create long time fault. Normally these faults
are cleared by over current protection which is placed on transformer primary.
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2.1.3Types of transformer protection:

Transformer electrical protection:
2.1.3.1 Differential protection.
2.1.3.2 Restricted earth fault protection
2.1.3.3 Over current protection

Transformer mechanical protection:

-Gas actuated relay (bucholze relay)
- Pressure relief device.
-Oil temperature and Winding temperature.
In this project I will study only transformer electrical protection.

2.1.3.1 Differential Protection

The protection of transformers is usually performed by differential protection. The differential
protection responds to the vector difference between two similar quantities. The C.T. connected on
the transformer windings should be arranged so that the same current is flowing between the two
sides as shown in fig.2-1.

Fig.2-1 Differential Protection

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Two basic requirements that the relay connection must satisfy are:
1. The relay must not operate for loads or external faults.
2. The relay must operate for internal faults.
Gives the connection for star and delta side show in Fig .2-2. in both cases three current
transformers is required.
To get the arrangement the following rules are followed:
- given power transformer former is connected in delta .Secondary of CTs connected in star .
- given power transformer former is connected in star . Secondary of CTs connected in delta .

Fig.2-2 differential protection of Delta-Star transformer

Simple differential protection system is inadequate because the following difficulties arise:
1. Difference in length of pilot wires on either side of relays. The difficulty is overcome by
connecting adjustable resistors to pilot wires. These are adjusted on site to get equipotential
points on pilot wires. Taps can be provided on operating coil and restraining coil of relay for
adjusting the balance.
2. Mismatching of current transformers: Because the current transformers on the two sides of
a protected transformer must have different ratios, they cannot be of identical designs.
Quite often they must have different numbers of turns in their secondary windings and
their core dimensions cannot be the same because of the numbers of turns to be
accommodated on them and because of the difference in the amounts of insulation
needed on the primary windings. As a consequence, the exciting m.m.f.s needed at each instant
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by the two current transformers will usually be different, thus causing their
transformation errors to be unequal. The resulting differences in the secondary currents
will cause imbalance current to flow in the relay. As the primary and secondary line CT
ratios may not exactly match the transformer rated winding currents, digital/numerical relays
are provided with ratio correction factors for each of the CT inputs. If interposing CTs
are used, ratio correction may not be such an easy task and may need to take into account a
factor of 3 if delta-connected CTs or ICTs are involved. If the transformer is fitted with a tap
changer, line ct ratios and correction factors are normally chosen to achieve current
balance at the mid tap of the transformer.
3. Tap changing alters the ratio of voltage (and currents) between HV side and LV side.
Differential protection should be provided with bias (restrain) which exceeds the effect of
variation in secondary current due to tap changing.
4. Magnetizing current inrush: When power transformers are switched on, initially there is no
induced e.m.f., the conditions is similar to switching an inductive circuit. Since the resistance
of the coil is low, a large inrush of magnetizing current takes place. The magnitude of which
depend on circuit conditions and the voltage at the instant of switching. Maximum values of 6
to 8 times the rated current can flow in the winding. Usually this high current decays after few
cycles to the normal current but in some cases it may take 2 4 seconds.
Formerly, the relay was provided with time lag of 0.2 1 second. By this time, the inrush
current would vanish and the relay does not trip unnecessary. However for many faults, the
relay time lag might cause substantial damage to the transformer.
To prevent this problem make update in differential system called (percentage biased) differential
relay .

percentage biased differential relay:

Bias is applied to transformer differential protection for the same reasons as any unit protection
scheme to ensure stability for external faults while allowing sensitive settings to pick up
internal faults as sow in Fig.2-3 With line CT/ICT ratios and correction factors set to achieve
current balance at nominal tap, an off nominal tap may be seen by the differential protection as an
internal fault. By selecting the minimum bias to be greater than sum of the maximum tap of the
transformer and possible ct errors, mal operation due to this cause is avoided.
This relay has an additional unit the restraining coil, in addition to the operating coil. The current in
the operating coil is proportional to (I1-I2). If n is equal to the number of turns of the restraining
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coil with the operating coil connected to the mid point of the restraining coil, then the total
ampere-turns are equal to I1(N/2 ) + I2 (N/2 ), which is the same as if (I1+I2 )/2 flowed through
all of the restraining coil.
the relay restraining force increases with the magnitude of

( I1+I2) , thus preventing

unnecessary tripping due to any ct unbalance errors. In addition, the restraining torque is increased
in the presence of through-fault currents, producing a more stable operating characteristic and
preventing relay mal operation. In relays that have variable tapings in the restraint coil
circuits, the tapings can be set to balance out any currents due to differences in the CTs.

Fig.2-3 Percentage biased differential relay

Tripping characteristics for differential:
The Xaxis is the Restraint Current is the measure of current in the transformer. Differential
relay sensitivity is inversely proportional to restraint current. Relay manufacturers use a variety of
calculations like the maximum of the winding currents or the average of the currents as shown in
Fig.2-4.
The Yaxis is the Differential/Operate current is the sum of all winding currents after amplitude
and angle compensation
The Minimum Pickup region is used between zero and approximately 0.5 per unit restraint
current. It provides security against CT remanence and accuracy errors and is usually set between
0.3 and 0.5pu.
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-The Slope (1) region is used between the minimum pickup region and the slope 2 breakpoint.
Slope1 provides security against false tripping due to CT accuracy. Class C CT accuracy is +/10%,
therefore 20% should be the absolute minimum setting with greater than 40% preferred. For LTC
applications, another +/10% is added.
-End of slop 1 This is the second knee point of the tripping characteristic determines the end of the
over current zone in the direction of increasing restraining current in fault free operation. It is
recommended to set half the maximum through fault current
-The Slope (2) region is used above the slope 2 breakpoint, which is normally set at 2pu. Slope 2
Provides security against false tripping during through fault events where CT saturation is likely.
Above 2pu current, a significant DC current component will be present and therefore saturation is
likely. Slope 2 is normally set at 6080%

Fig.2-4 Tripping characteristics for differential.

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2.1.3.2 Restricted earth fault protection ( differential protection )

Fig.2-5 connections of the earth fault

Earth faults on secondary side are not reflected on primary side when the primary winding is delta
connected or has unearthed star point. In such cases, an earth fault relay connected in residual
circuit of 3 CTs on primary side operates on internal faults in primary windings only. Because earth
faults on secondary side do not produce zero sequence currents on primary side, restricted earth
fault protection may then be used for high speed tripping for faults on star connected earthed
secondary winding of power transformers.
the connections of the earth fault relays connected in the residual circuit of the line CTs.as shown in
Fig.2-5 the connection of the restricted earth fault protection relay in the secondary side and earth
fault protection in the primary side.
If the fault F1 in Fig.2-5 beyond the transformer windings, I1 and I2 will flow so that the current in
the earth fault relay is negligible. For earth fault within the transformer star connected windings, I 2
flows and I1 is negligible. Hence I2 causes the relay to trip the circuit.
When fault occurs very near the neutral point of the transformer, the voltage available for driving
the earth fault current is small and the fault current would be low. If the relay is adjusted to sense
such small currents, it may operate under normal unbalance conditions. It is common to set the
relay to pick up at about 15% of the rated current. Such setting leaves a portion of the windings
unprotected. Therefore it is called unrestricted.
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2.1.3.3 Over current protection:

Due to the importance of coordination between all over current relays in substation to be able to
isolate the area of faults only so I will be discuses in details in chapter two

2.1.4 Transformer protection diagram

Transformer protection diagram as shown in Fig.2-6 represent the connection between CT and
relays

Fig.2-6 transformer protection diagram

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