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Distance protection for multi-terminal

transmission lines
Article November 2011
DOI: 10.1109/EPECS.2011.6126836

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Almoataz Y. Abdelaziz
Ain Shams University
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Distance Protection for Multi-terminal

Transmission Lines
A. Y. Abdelaziz

M. Abdel Rahman

almoatazabdelaziz@hotmail.com

M. S. Moussa

m_abdel_rahmanca@yahoo.com

mohamedshawky1984@yahoo.com
Electrical Power and Machines Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Ain Shams University, Cairo,
Egypt

Abstract In order to supply small communities or facilities

in sparsely populated, remote rural areas, tapped transmission
lines provide an attractive solution to provide connections at
minimum cost. Using a tapped line saves the cost of building a
substation at the connection point and the cost associated with
the need to break the line. However, introducing a tap in the line
greatly complicates the protection. The situation is further
complicated by the increased use of distributed generation which
may be connected to the system load side.
This paper presents a protection scheme designed for protecting
multi-terminal transmission lines using distance relays. The
advantage of the proposed scheme is that it nearly eliminates the
need for communication channels among the different protection
system components. The proposed scheme has been verified by a
realistic system case study. The case study is an excerpt of the
Egyptian 66kV grid. The SIMULINK simulation results have
proved the validity and soundness of the proposed concept.
Index Terms Multi-terminal transmission line, distance
protection, teed circuit

I.

INTRODUCTION

A multi-terminal transmission line is defined as a

transmission line with three or more terminals. The line may
have either a load or a generation or both at any terminal.
A typical multi-terminal transmission line is a single
circuit line supplying a series of customers and industrial
facilities in remote communities. Those customers may have
local generation which may contribute to the network [1].
In Egypt, tapped lines usually exist within the 66 kV
transmission grids to save the cost of building a sub-station at
connection points in rural areas.
Protection of multi-terminal lines is not as simple as that
of two-terminal lines [2], primarily due to the multitude of
generation scenarios at the line multiple terminals. Therefore,
there exist many techniques used to protect multi-terminal
transmission lines.
For a fault f as shown in Fig. 1, there are contributions to
the fault current from each of the three terminals. For a relay
at bus (A), the voltage is related to the current by
EA = ZA IA + ZB (IA+IC)
(1)

Fig. 1: A typical multi-terminal Transmission Line

The current IC is the contribution to the fault current from

the tapped terminal. This current is known as the in-feed
current when it is in phase with IA and is called out-feed
current when it is in phase opposition to IA.
The apparent impedance seen by relay at bus (A) is
different from the true impedance to the fault (ZA+ZB) when
the tap current is in-feed the apparent impedance is greater
than the actual value and when the tap current is out-feed the
apparent impedance is lower than the actual value.
The protection scheme used for multi-terminal
transmission line should be: (i) simple, (ii) based on available
relay systems and (iii) cost effective [1]. There are many
techniques that have the potential to be used to protect multiterminal transmission lines, e.g., current differential
protection, directional comparison technique and distance
protection.
A. Current Differential Protection.
The simplest form of multi-terminal transmission line
protection is based on current differential relaying [1].
Whenever the imbalance in a phase current, ID,
Where
IA + IB +IC = ID
(2)
exceeds a preset value, the protection system will trip as
shown in Fig. 2.
The trip signal is communicated to all of the terminals to trip
local breakers. There are few complications associated with
this approach, e.g., the need for matched current transformers.

Fig. 2: Current Differential Protection Scheme for multi-terminal lines.

However, the main drawback of this scheme is in the

communications.
This
protection
scheme
requires
communication channels to carry current measurement data
from the terminals to either the main processing unit or to all
of the relays at the other terminals. In fact there is a need to
establish a communication link for each phase which is very
expensive [1, 2].
B. Directional Comparison Technique.
In this scheme, fault current transient detectors, connected
to the CTs at each end of the protected teed circuit, are used to
extract fault generated transient current signals. The polarity
of the fault generated transient current signal detected at each
end is consequently sent over to the line remote ends through
the communication link. Comparison between the polarities
detected at each end determines whether a fault is inside the
protected zone or not.
The operating principle of the proposed technique consists of
three parts:
1. Detection of the fault generated high frequency
transient current signals at each end of the protected
teed circuit.
2. Comparison between the polarities of the signals
detected at each end.
3. Decision whether or not a fault is inside the protected
zone.[3, 4].

three transient signals detected by the CTs which are installed

at buses A, B and C will all be the same. However, for a fault
outside the protected zone, for example at F2, the transient
current signals detected by the CTs at each bus will not all be
of the same polarity. Subsequently, the information about the
polarity of the fault generated transient current signals
detected by each relay is sent over to its associated relays at
the far ends of the protected teed network through the
communication links. The fault polarity comparison at each
end is the decisive factor whether a fault is inside the protected
zone or not [4, 5].
The main drawback of the scheme is the need to have a
separate communication link for each phase which is an
additional cost.
Therefore, distance protection technique is preferred due
to its simplicity and its cost advantage since it does not require
as many dedicated communication channels.
This paper presents a proposed distance protection
scheme for multi-terminal transmission line. Section II
describes the proposed technique. Section III is the case study.
Section IV discusses the results. Section V summarizes the
conclusions.
II.

PROPOSED PROTECTION TECHNIQUE

Multi-zone distance relays are usually located at each

terminal of transmission lines, including multi-terminal ones.
Tripping of zone one protection initiates a tripping signal.
Reception of that tripping signal at the other terminals results
in the tripping of the circuit breakers at those terminals.

Fig. 4: Distance based protection scheme for multi-terminal lines.

Fig. 3: Directional comparison technique for multi-terminal lines.

When a fault F1 occurs on the protected multi-terminal

transmission line as shown in Fig. 3, high frequency transient
current signal is initiated, which travels towards each bus from
the fault point F1. For an internal fault, the polarities of the

This proposed scheme is an extension of the distance

scheme with the add security of using the local distance
relays zone 2. Where zone 1 of the relay covers 80% of the
protected line, while zone 2 is equal to 120% of the line.
When relays at bus A, B or C detect the fault in zone 1 of
each relay this means that the fault is in line 1 or line 2 or line
3. The relay which detected the fault in its zone 1 will trip
immediately and the trip signal is communicated to all of the
terminals to trip the respective local breakers.

When the relay at bus A detects a fault in its local zone 2

and at the same time the relay at bus B detects the fault in its
local zone 2, this means that the fault is inside the protected
line. On the other hand, if zone 2 of relay at bus A detects the
fault and relay at bus B or at bys C does not detect this fault,
this means that the fault is outside the protected line.
For example, for a fault F1 as shown in Fig. 4, zone 1 of
relay at bus A detects the fault such that the relay trips
immediately. Tripping signal is sent to all other relays at bus B
and at bus C. On the other hand, for a fault outside zone 1, at
F2, zone 2 of relay at bus A detects the fault. The respective
relay sends status signal to the comparators of the other two
relays at bus B and at bus C. If relay at bus B detects the fault
in its zone 2 with the existence of the status signal from relay
at bus A, which indicate that relay detects the fault in its local
zone 2, relay at bus B will trip. The tripping signal is sent to
the other two relays, at bus A and at bus C. Otherwise, if both
relays at bus B and at bus C do not detect the fault in their
local zone 2, this means that the fault is out of the protected
line.
Instead of using separate communication link for each
phase like the other schemes, this scheme does not need more
than one communication link for the 3 phase relays.
Fig. 5 shows the flowchart of the proposed scheme. This
flow chart was translated into an algorithm for distance relay
protection of multi-terminal transmission lines.
Step 1: Enter the value of the impedance of line 1.
Step 2: Measure the current and the voltage at bus A and read
the status of zone 2 in the other two relays R2 & R3.
Step 3: Calculate the apparent impedance at bus A and if it is
less than zone 2 of relay 1 impedance, then go to step 4. If not,
go to step 5.
Step 4: If relay R2 or R3 detect the fault in its zone 2, then go
to step 6. If not, go to step 5.
Step 5: If the apparent impedance less than zone 1 of relay
R1 then go to step 6. If not, go back to step 2.
Step 6: In this step, this is the directional condition, if the
current direction is going to feed the fault in line 1, this means
that the fault is in the protected zone and the relay should trip.
If not, this means that the fault is out of the protected zone and
the relay should not take any action towards this fault.
Step 7: Relay 1 should trip.

Fig. 5, Distance Protection Flowchart for Multiterminal lines.

III.

CASE STUDY

Fig. 6 shows a real case study excerpted from the

Egyptian 66 kV grid. A 43 km, 66 kV transmission line
connects two cities (Naser and El Wasta. The line is tapped to
supply a small village (Keshesha). The tap length is 5 km.
This configuration provided a cost effective solution for
supplying the little village. Table 1 presents the multi-terminal
transmission line data.

Fig. 7 shows the case study as modeled on the Matlab

Simulink. Several types of faults has been applied to this
system, viz., L-G, L-L, L-L-G and 3 phases fault in the
following locations:
Buses (A,B and C)
Lines (1,2 and 3)
Furthermore, to different generation scenarios with respect to
Bus C has been experimented, viz.,
1. Buses B&C are with sources
2. Bus B with source
3. Bus C with source
4. Buses B&C are without sources
Fig. 8 shows waveforms of 3 phase fault current and
voltage.

Fig. 6: A 66 kV multi-terminal transmission line real case in Egypt.

Table 1: The case study multi-terminal transmission line data.

380/50
X1
X0
R1
R0
120/21
X1
X0
R1
R0

Ohm/km
0.34
0.95
0.08
0.25
Ohm/km
0.4
0.95
0.123
0.25

Fig. 7: The Case study as modeled on Matlab Simulink .

Fig. 8: Fault current and voltage for a 3 ph fault.

IV.

RESULTS DISCUSSION

Figs. 9a and 9b show the waveforms of the apparent

impedance to the relay in two cases the first one (fig. 9a) when
the fault occurs in zone 1 of the relay so the relay will trip
immediately.

Fig. 9a, Impedance waveform when the fault at zone 1 of the relay.

However, when the fault occurs in zone 2 of relay no.1

and at the same time in zone 2 of relay no.2 this means that the
fault is inside the protected line and the relay will trip but with
a delay 0.3 sec.

The proposed technique has a perfect efficiency with any type

of ground faults.
There is only one scenario where faults were not detected by
this technique, which is line to line fault on lines 2 or 3 and
buses B and C with pure loads without any kind of sources
(which rarely happens). For this scenario, zone 2 in relay R1
only can detect a fault as the current measured at bus A
increases, hence, the apparent impedance decreases less than
zone 2 impedance.
The difference between this case and any other ground fault
that the voltage measured at bus B or C will not drop to zero
and the current at these buses will not increase because of the
absence of power sources. Therefore, the apparent impedance
for relay R2 and R3 will not decrease to reach the value to be
detected by zone 2 in each relay.
To overcome this problem we can add another condition in the
relay program that when zone 2 of relay R1 detects a fault, the
relay should trip after 0.6 sec. This means that even if the fault
is outside the protected transmission line, relay R1 does not
take any trip action before the other concerned relays. This
condition can be added only for relay R1 at bus A when there
is a power source all the time.
Table 2 Shows results of the proposed technique for the case
study.
Table 2: Results of the proposed technique for the case study.
Fault
L-G
L-L
L-L-G
3 ph
Type
1
2
3
4
1
2
3
4
1
2
3
4
1
2
3
Case
Bus A
X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X
10km L1 X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X
20km L1 X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X
30km L1 X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X
Teed
X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X
5km L2
X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X
Bus B
X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X
2.5km L3 X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X
Bus C
X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X

X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X

Fig. 9b, Impedance waveform when the fault at zone 2 of the relay.

Fig. 10 shows impedance route in R-X axis and shows the

zones of the relay.

Where
Cases 1, 2, 3 & 4 are the different generation scenarios.
(x) = trip signal
(-) = no trip signal

V.

Fig. 10, Impedance route in R-X

CONCLUSION

Multi-terminal lines provide a cost effective method of

supplying power to sparsely populated rural areas. The
terminals may solely supply local loads or they may be
required to provide connections to networks containing both
load and generation.
Avoiding the costs of breaking the supply line and those
associated with building and equipping a substation at the tap
point results in a more complicated protection scheme.
The challenge for protection engineers is to provide a scheme
which can accommodate the variations in line configuration
and facilitate the addition of further taps if or when required
satisfying consumer needs.

This paper presented overview of the several schemes for the

protection of multi-terminal transmission line and proposed a
distance based protection technique. The simulation results
showed the effectiveness of the proposed distance relaying
scheme. This distance based relay scheme provides a cost
effective method as there is no need for separate
communication link for each phase. As well it does not need
for matched current transformers like the differential and
directional schemes.
VI.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors would like to thank Dr. M. El-Hadidy of the

Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company for supplying
them with the data for the case study presented in this paper.
VII.

REFERENCES

[1] M.A. Redfern and R. O'Gorman, A flexible protection scheme for multiterminal transmission lines IEEE Power Engineering Society General
Meeting, 2005. IEEE.
[2] Koglin, H.-J. Albert, M. Igel, M. Lobos, T. Waclawek, Z., Differential
protection of multi-terminal lines without synchronization IEEE Power
Engineering Society Summer Meeting, 2001.
[3] D R M Lyonette, Z Q Bo, G Weller, F Jiang A new directional
comparison technique for the protection of teed transmission circuits
IEEE Power Engineering Society Winter Meeting, 2000.
[4] Mao, P.L. Bo, Z.Q. Yao, L.Z. Li, R.M. Protection of Teed transmission
circuit using a new directional comparison technique Power System
Technology, 1998. Proceedings. POWERCON '98. 1998 International
Conference on 18-21 Aug 1998.
[5] Houlei Gao, Peter A. Crossley, A new current differential protection
scheme for teed transmission lines IEEE Power Engineering Society
General Meeting, 2006.