Distance Characteristic Guesser Application

Application Note

Distance Characteristic Guesser –

Testing Templates
V 1.0

APN-00003-2008-V1

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 Distance Characteristic Guesser Application

Content

1 Introduction............................................................................................................................................... 3
2 How to use the templates ........................................................................................................................ 3
3 Template explanation ............................................................................................................................... 7
4 Contact Information / Technical Support ............................................................................................... 8

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 Distance Characteristic Guesser Application

1 Introduction

With the release of Test Universe 2.22, a new tool embedded in the Advanced Distance Module was
launched.

The Distance Characteristic Guesser, which is optimized for relays with QUAD characteristics, is a nice tool to
find out an unknown distance protection relay characteristic.

To allow quick and easy testing with Advanced Distance and the Distance Characteristic Guesser, Omicron
has created three different test templates for

• forward (characteristic-guesser-FWD.adt),
• reverse (characteristic-guesser-RVS.adt)
• and forward + reverse zones (characteristic-guesser-ALL-ZONES.adt).

All three templates support the following fault type distance characteristics:

• Single phase earth fault

• Two phase fault
• Three phase fault

Those three templates are provided with this application note and can be found in the Omicron User Forum.

Please be aware that testing a relay's distance characteristic with these templates will cause many

2 How to use the templates

1. Open the template you want to use (e.g. characteristic-guesser-FWD.adt)

2. Open the Test Object Parameters ( )

3. In the guesser section [Figure 1], all required data has to be entered.
After taking the settings the search lines will automatically be adjusted, depending on the values that
have been entered at 'Max. expected R Reach' and 'Max. expected X Reach'.
Figure 6 on page 7 shows an example how the search lines test looks like.

[Figure 1] The Guesser Section

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 Distance Characteristic Guesser Application

4. It is recommended to test only one fault type in one test. Therefore, delete the search lines for two
fault types (e.g. if the three phase fault distance characteristic should be determined, delete the
search lines for two phase fault and single phase fault).

5. The test can now be executed by pushing the Start button. Depending on the relay trip times and the
expected R and X reach, the test for FWD or RWS lasts about 30 minutes. Testing the whole charac-
teristic with the ALL ZONES-template lasts about twice as long.

6. After the test is finished, open the Distance Characteristic Guesser [see Figure 2].

[Figure 2] The Distance Characteristic Guesser

The Distance Characteristic Guesser then calculates the different zones.

If the result is not well enough, smoothing the curves by setting another tolerance or setting more edges can
cause a better result. In some cases it is also necessary that the number of zones is changed.

By default the smoothing tolerance is set to 50mΩ. In this example, the tolerance was changed to 200mΩ.

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 Distance Characteristic Guesser Application

Another possible way to get better results is to add more search lines in the Advanced Distance module where
the zones are not guessed well enough.
When more search lines are added after the test has already been executed, the "Play" button gets enabled
again. If the button is pushed, only the additional search lines will be tested.

Figure 3 shows a refined test of the example from page 4.

[Figure 3] The refined Distance Characteristic Guesser example

Compared to the real zones appearance of the relay [Figure 4], the result of the Characteristic Guesser [Fig-
ure 4] looks quite good.

[Figure 4] Real zones appearance

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 Distance Characteristic Guesser Application

The guessed distance characteristic can now be exported as RIO file [Figure 5] and later be imported into the
Test Object Data.

[Figure 5] Rio Export in Distance Characteristic Guesser

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 Distance Characteristic Guesser Application

3 Template explanation
1
All required settings in the Advanced Distance Module are linked via LinkToXRIO .

The test current is set to the double value of the nominal entered current (e.g. 10A for 5A nominal current).

The search lines in the Advanced Distance Module are automatically sized to 120% (in R and X direction) of
the higher max. expected reach value entered in the GUESSER part of the test object settings.
The absolute search resolution is by default 2% of the higher max. expected reach value and the search inter-
val is set to 5% of the same value.

Figure 6 shows an example. R_MAX is set to 2Ω, X_MAX to 5Ω. X_MAX is bigger than R_MAX, so X_MAX is
used for the calculation. 120% of X_MAX is 6Ω, so the search lines will reach 6Ω in R- and X- direction.

[Figure 6] Template example in Advanced Distance

1
) See XRIO Reference Manual for more information about LinkToXRIO

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 Distance Characteristic Guesser Application

4 Contact Information / Technical Support

Europe, Africa, Middle East

OMICRON electronics GmbH
Phone: +43 5523 507-333
E-Mail: support@omicron.at
Web: www.omicron.at

Asia, Pacific
OMICRON electronics Asia Ltd, Hong Kong
Phone: +852 2634 0377
E-Mail: support@asia.omicron.at
Web: www.omicron.at

North and South America

OMICRON electronics Corp. USA
Phone: +1 713 830-4660 or 1 800 OMICRON
E-Mail: techsupport@omicronusa.com
Web: www.omicronusa.com

For addresses of OMICRON offices with customer service centers, regional

sales offices or offices for training, consulting and commissioning please visit
our Web site.

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