RELAY

When ever occurs a fault Then the current should halt. Otherwise, the fault current increases. And the service continuity decreases. Then the relay should act quick And the circuit breaker should trip. Thus the faulty section is disconnected And the power system is protected.

RELAY
( As per IEEE 100 -1984 ) Relay is an electric device that is designed to interpret input conditions in a prescribed manner and after specified conditions are met to respond, to cause contact operation or similar abrupt change in associated electric control circuits. Inputs are usually electric, but may be mechanical, thermal or other quantities. Limit switches and similar simple devices are not relays.

PROTECTIVE RELAYS
A relay whose function is to detect defective lines or apparatus or other power system conditions of an abnormal or dangerous nature and to initiate appropriate control circuit action. Fuses are also used in protection. But fuses are only over current protective device with a circuit opening fusible part that is heated and severed by the passage of the over current through it.

Thus protective relays and their associated systems are compact units of analog, discrete component and / or digital network connected through a power system for the purpose of sensing problems.

Single or Multiple Inputs

Sensing

Integration timings etc.

Amplification

Output Single or Multiple

Logic Representation of Electric Relays

The term PROTECTION does not indicate or imply that the protection equipment can prevent TROUBLE , such as fault and equipment failures. It cannot anticipate trouble. The protective relays act only after an abnormal or intolerable condition has occurred with sufficient indication to permit their operation. Thus protection does not mean PREVENTION, but rather minimising the duration of trouble and limiting the damage, outage time, and related problem that may otherwise result.

FIVE BASIC FACTS OF PROTECTIVE RELAYS

1. RELIABILITY :To ensure that the protection scheme will perform correctly. 2. SELECTIVITY :To ensure maximum continuity of service with minimum system disconnection. 3. SPEED OF OPERATION :To ensure minimum fault duration and consequent minimum equipment damage. 4. SIMPLICITY :To have minimum protective equipment and associated circuitry to achieve the protection objectives. 5. ECONOMY :To provide maximum protection at minimum total cost.

CLASSIFICATION OF RELAYS
1. PROTECTIVE 2. REGULATING Generally dont respond to system faults unless faults are far too long.Associated with Tap changers of Transformers, Governors of generating equipments. 3. RECLOSING, SYNCHRONISM CHECK, SYNCHRONISING(PROGRAMMING) These are related to computers & used in energising or restoring lines to service after an outage and in interconnecting pre-energised parts of system. 4. MONITORING To verify conditions in the power or protective system (Alarm units) 5. AUXILLARY i ) Contact Multiplication ii) Circuit Isolation

Frequent Requirement of Control System

i ) More outputs for multiple tripping, alarms and operating other equipment such as recording and data acquisition, lock out and so on. ii ) Contacts that will handle higher currents or voltages in the secondary system. iii ) Electrical and magnetic isolation of several secondary circuits.

TYPES OF RELAYS
ELECTRO MECHANICAL RELAY These relays are based on the comparison between operating torque/force and restoring torque/force. As the characteristic of such relay is limited, hence it can perform only one protective function. VA Burden of such relay is high. ELECTRO MAGNETIC RELAY These relays have a coil or an electromagnet energised by coil. The coil is energised by the operating current or voltage. A plunger or rotating iron vane is subjected to the action of magnetic field produced by the operating current or voltage. These relays are operational both for AC and DC, because torque is proportional to I2 . These are fast operated relays due to small length of travel and light moving parts.

IDMT RELAY
The current setting is changed by plug setting to get desired number of turns in the coil. Time multiplier setting is in the form of an adjustable back stop. The desired time setting is obtained by changing the relative position of contacts by adjusting the length of travel of moving contacts.

STATIC RELAYS
In these relays, the sensing, comparison and measurements are made by electronic circuits having no moving part. These relays have low burden and versatile characteristics, thus incorporate several protective control and monitoring function in one compact unit. Microprocessor based relays have several features such as : i) Indication of operating values and thus no need of separate indicating instrument. ii)Reduction in number of relays as a single relay can perform even 10 different protective functions (e.g. AZ1114 ALIND RELAY) iii) Increased Reliability due to internal monitoring of own relay circuit. iv) Memory function can flash on the display the magnitude of current & instant of time at the moment of tripping. v) Extended range of application.

Fault clearing time is elapsed time between the instant of occurrence of fault and the instant of final arc extinction.

F.C.T. = RELAY TIME +CB TIME Relay Time = Instant of fault occurring to closure of trip circuit CB Time = Closure of trip circuit to final arc extinction Normally CB time is between 20 to 50 milliseconds (1 to 2.5 cycles)

AUTO RECLOSURE SEQUENCE

Fault Occurs

C.B. Trips

Auto Reclosure Feature

C.B. Recloses If fault persists CB Trips & Remains open If fault is cleared CB Remains closed

The auto reclosing of EHV lines is high speed and single shot i.e. only one reclosing is attempted

AUTO RECLOSURE SEQUENCE

S.N. NO. OF TIME IN OPERATION CYCLES MILLI SEC 1 0 Fault occurs REMARKS CB in closed position Protective gear starts operating Fast relay functioning Operating mechanism starts to open

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

0-2 2 2 to 4.5 4.5 to 6 6 to 18

0-40 40 40-90 90-120 120-360

Relay Time Trip circuit closed

Opening time of CB CB final arc extinction CB is of 4 cycles Dead time 12 cycles for De-ionization CB remains open 13.5 270 CB contacts starts closing 18 360 CB contacts touch for reclose 20 400 CB Reclosed CB closes in 0.4 sec CB will remain closed, if Single shot auto reclosure complete fault has vanished. CB will open again, if fault still persists & will remain locked open.

Generally minimum time of 0.2 second must be allowed to elapse to enable the fault zone to become de-ionized completely. Hence a dead time of 0.3 second has been chosen for safe reclosure time. In 25 KV AC Traction, time for single shot auto reclosure is set at 0.5 second i.e. before the opening of DJ of loco in 0.6 second.

OPERATING TIME OF RELAYS

(RDSO : - TI/PSI/PROTCT/CONVEN/2000 dated 1.9.2000)

Instantaneous OCR Mho Relay Master Trip Relay Circuit Breaker

- Less than 15 ms - Less than 50 ms * - Less than 15 ms - Less than 65 ms

* This value is at maximum torque angle of 75 0 and at 15 % less fault impedance than the relay setting.

Disadvantages of Electro mechanical relays

Bulky, poor accuracy, slow in operation High VA burden, require frequent calibration EMI and harmonics tend to effect Integrated functions, multiple characteristics and memory storage not possible Fault waveform recording & analysis not possible

Reasons of spurious tripping of relays

Growth of trees in section, sparking at ROB, FOB, improperly set locomotive spark gaps Excessive relay settings Load encroachment of Inst OCR and MHO Relay Magnetic inrush currents Operation of WPC for regenerative current

Reasons of spurious tripping of relays

(Contd.) Initial energisation of a transformer on NO load causes currents going upto 5 times full load rating of transformer depending upon the instance of switching ON. These though die out within 0.5 sec but are sufficient to cause tripping of relays. These inrush currents are rich in 2nd harmonics

Statistics of distance protection relays on I.R.

Type of relay Total relays Tripping of the relays / month (Characteristics) on I.R. Max Min Avg YTG 14 (Lenticular) 12 29 5 10.3 YCG14(Mho) 372 105 9 21.3 AZ1114 (Parallelogram) 23 16 2 5.1 Others 37 40 5 19

Load encroachment Inst OCR

Inst OCR is set at 5 times the relays settings and acts in < 15 ms. Upto the set value of the current the relay shall trip at higher time. Typically the relay is set to 1000 to 1500 amp to cover instantaneous faults of 5000 to 7500 amp Thus the relay will trip at 1000 to 1500 amp current in about 100 msec This is load encroachment of inst OCR

In

n n ou OCR u v

50% n ng 20% op R 10% 0% 1 Cu 2 n n 3 o h 4 5 ng 40% 30%

Regenerative Current Handling

Regenerative currents if fed back to grid may cause WPC tripping These current fall in the 2nd quadrants Selected area of WPC operation for 100 to 150 degree in the 2nd quadrant solves this problem At present only AZ 1114 latest version is immunized for regenerative currents

Regenerative Current Handling

X Fault Area

WPC Area

Regenerative area

Load area R

Need for a Delta - I Relay

1. Conductor falling on rocky terrain. 2. Dry twig touching OHE 3. Monkey menace or bird faults on brackets and 9-T insulators. 4. Bond not properly connected or open 5. Delta I can protect fault current upto 200 Amps

Panto flashover prevention relay

Tripping of one of the CBs at a TSS & during this state if a locomotive enters the TSS IOL it can cause flashover at the OHE Depending upon the intensity of the flashover current, their can be catenary strands cutting or parting of OHE The solution to such a problem is to eliminate the flashover by switching OFF the arc feeding circuit breaker

Tripping of mainline CB for faults in yards

1. Normally big yard and loco sheds are known to cause excessive tripping of the CB 2. Divisions sometimes provide separate CB to feed such locations in order to avoid mainline tripping 3. However, effective segregation is seldom achieved due to the characteristics of the relays provided.

Tripping of mainline CB for faults in yards

(Contd.) 4. This problem can be solved by blocking the mainline CB for a period of 100 ms from the time of tripping of the yard OCR. 5. This shall block the mainline relay for yard fault but for the mainline faults the system shall remain unaffected 6. RDSO has cleared this scheme in 1998 for implementation on Zonal Railways

Remedial Measures
1. Relay settings to be done as per RDSO standard guidelines 2. Tripping monitoring is an important tool to judge section performance 3. Adequate relays are not available as spares. 10 % relays of each type with a minimum of one relays of each type required 4. Availability of high speed auto reclosure to ensure quick power supply availability 5. Changes in section like removal of BT-RC change of CT and the transformer ratings needs review of the relays settings.

Remedial Measures
(Contd.) 6. Bonds connections to be ensured, tightened for an effective return path for the faults. 7. Training of staff at the depot levels is must 8. To summarize (a) Modern day Microprocessor based relays are far more superior than the ancient electromechanically technology, when ever need is felt, replacement should be done in a phased manner. (b) Monitoring of the protective relays performance as per their characteristics should be closely watched by the Sr.DEEs through regular and frequent inspection.