POWER SYSTEM PROTECTION
1 Lecture 6
DIFFERENTIAL RELAY
A differential relay is one that operates when the phasor difference of two or more
similar electrical quantities exceeds a pre-determined value
Relay will operate when
•enough current passes
through the operating coil.
•If no current passes or low
amount of current passes,
relay won’t operate.
•Notice that, the relay is
1000A overcurrent type.
Say. normal 1000A flows
from Right to Left
❑So, 5A current will flow at
the secondary.
❑As 5A flows at the So, During healthy condition,
secondary of both CTs
Differential relay won’t operate.
along same direction,
no current will go through
the operating coil 2
DIFFERENTIAL RELAY (CONTD.)
if internal faults happen,
something different will be
happened.
See there is an internal ground
As 2000A flows from ground to fault, 10A current fault at the winding
will flow at the secondary of right CT.
Again, say, 500A flows from fault to the load, 2.5A will flow at the secondary of the left
CT.
Here, as two primary currents (2000A.500A) both flow along the same direction, their
secondary currents will flow at the same direction. Thus, as we observe from the figure,
7.5A (difference current) will flow in the operating coil.
Wsing KCL law, we can find this current.
Now if this current crosses the threshold limit of the overcurrent relay, this relay will
operate.
3
DIFFERENTIAL RELAY (CONTD.)
Consider another case:
to load ground fault
herem again we consider a ground fault. But this time, 1000A and 2000A both flow to the
ground fault from different location.
So at secondary, the induced current flows opposite direction of one another.
So that,
▪The total current 15A will flow in the operating coil.
▪If this 15A crosses the threshold of the overcurrent relay of this system, the relay will
operate.
4
DIFFERENTIAL RELAY (CONTD.)
Consider external fault case:
10A
0A
10A
1000:5 1000:5
2000A 2000A
Fault current
Consider an external fault case. Very high current will flow along the same
direction, thus same current will induce in the secondary of the CT.
Consequently, no current will flow at the operating coil. We can observe this
easily.
5
DIFFERENTIAL RELAY (CONTD.)
i2 - i1
So we can draw the differential relay like the above diagram.
when
□i2 = i1 , no current will flow to the coil
□i2 ≠ i1 , differential current will flow when, both currents flow along the
same direction
□i2 ≠ i1 , summation current will flow when,currents flow opposite to one
another. i2 -(-i1 )=i2 +i1
6
DIFFERENTIAL RELAY (CONTD.)
Limitation : This relay is not free from limitations.
□ Identical CTs may not have identical secondary currents.
□ The impedances of the pilot cables that connect two CTs will cause a
slight difference between the currents at the two ends of the section to be
protected. If the relay is very sensitive, the small difference current can
cause tripping operation.
□ In case of long lines, charging current due to pilot-wire capacitance
effects may be sufficient to cause relay operation even under normal
conditions
□ In power transformer, to alter the voltage and current, tap changers are
used. This phenomenon alters the tap ratio. this causes unbalance on both
sides. So that, relay my operate. To eliminate this, the ratio of CTs should
be changed with the changing of power transformer.
□ CT mismatch
This is not for exam.
7
PERCENTAGE DIFFERENTIAL RELAY OR
BIASED BEAM RELAY
For reducing the limitations of differential relay, another type of relay is used. The
relay is called “percentage differential relay”.
The conceptual diagram can be drawn
like this figure. The relay won’t operate
for any fixed value.Here,
❖ Operating coil current and restraining coil
current are in the same circuit.
❖ They are related to each other by a fixed
ratio.
When the operating coil current is greater
than the fractional relation of the current
flowing through the restraining coil, the
relay will operate.
Here,
✔operating coil current tries to trip the
circuit
✔Restraining coil gives the opposite
force . It restrains the relay from 8
operation
PERCENTAGE DIFFERENTIAL RELAY(CONTD.)
The actual circuit is look
like this
Operating coil current is
same as before.
Look at the restraining coil.
The coil is connected at the
operating coil middle of the operating coil.
•So the equivalent current of
restraining coil
the restraining coil is
Here, proportional to
□operating function α (i2 - i1 ) (i1 + i2 )/2
□ restraining function α (i1 + i2 )/2
the operating current should be
greater than a fixed ratio of:
this can be expressed as percentage,
so we call this percentage
differential relay
9
PERCENTAGE DIFFERENTIAL RELAY(CONTD.)
if we fix the ratio 0.05 or 5%, relay
operate when the ratio of any situation
is greater than that fixed value. But if
the value is less than that, the relay
when, operating
function is less than
when, operating won’t operate.
function is greater
the threshold
than the threshold
Here,
□operating function α (i2 - i1 )
□ restraining function α (i1 + i2 )/2
□It is clear that, the more current flows through the
restraining coil, the more current needed to operate the
relay.
□So, the differential current needed under heavy load is
greater than the light load condition for operating the 10
relay.
PERCENTAGE DIFFERENTIAL RELAY(CONTD.)
Operating Characteristics: If the ratio of
is in this region, the
relay will operate
I2 - I1
This is for overcurrent
characteristics of the
relay.
Threshold of
overcurrent
12
OPERATING CHARACTERISTICS UNDER DIFFERENT
ABNORMAL CONDITIONS
We observe that, at various
abnormal conditions, such as
•Under Load Tap Changing
•CT error
•Ratio mismatch
I2 - I1
Plain differential relay may
operate for maximum time
while the percentage
differential relay won’t operate.
So we understand the advantages of percentage differential relay over plain 15
differential relay.
