5.

6 GROUPED ELEMENTS 5 SETTINGS

This protection is often applied to transformers having impedance-grounded wye windings. The element may also be
applied to the stator winding of a generator having the neutral point grounded with a CT installed in the grounding path, or
the ground current obtained by external summation of the neutral-side stator CTs. The Typical Applications of RGF Protec-
tion diagram explains the basic application and wiring rules.

Figure 599: TYPICAL APPLICATIONS OF RGF PROTECTION

The relay incorporates low-impedance restricted ground fault protection. This low-impedance form of protection faces
potential stability problems. An external phase-to-phase fault is an ultimate case. Ideally, there is neither ground (IG) nor
neutral (IN = IA + IB + IC) current present. If one or more of the phase CTs saturate, a spurious neutral current is seen by
the relay. This is similar to a single infeed situation and may be mistaken for an internal fault. Similar difficulties occur in a
breaker-and-a-half application of the restricted ground fault, where any through fault with a weak infeed from the winding
itself may cause problems.
The UR uses a novel definition of the restraining signal to cope with the above stability problems while providing for fast
and sensitive protection. Even with the improved definition of the restraining signal, the breaker-and-a-half application of
the restricted ground fault must be approached with care, and is not recommended unless the settings are carefully
selected to avoid maloperation due to CT saturation.
The differential current is produced as an unbalance current between the ground current of the neutral CT (IG) and the neu-
tral current derived from the phase CTs (IN = IA + IB + IC):
Igd IG IN IG IA IB IC (EQ 5.39)

The relay automatically matches the CT ratios between the phase and ground CTs by re-scaling the ground CT to the
phase CT level. The restraining signal ensures stability of protection during CT saturation conditions and is produced as a
maximum value between three components related to zero, negative, and positive-sequence currents of the three phase
CTs as follows:
Irest max IR0 IR1 IR2 (EQ 5.40)

The zero-sequence component of the restraining signal (IR0) is meant to provide maximum restraint during external ground
faults, and therefore is calculated as a vectorial difference of the ground and neutral currents:

5-182 T60 Transformer Protection System GE Multilin