Biased Differential Protection


A simple over current protection relay can also be provided for the protection of the transformer But the operating over current will always depend upon the system source impedance and may vary in case of large transmission network. Hence, for any fault in the transformer, this protection may not operate reliably. Further, for over current protection, time delay characteristics needs to be chosen to discriminate secondary side protection. This delayed operation may further damage the transformer during faults. Hence, a separate unit protection is required to be provided for the transformer which will operate instantaneously and will not depend upon source impedance. For this purpose, Differential protection is provided for the protection ofthe transformer.

High speed protection is provided for faults on both the HV and LV windings of transformer by a biased differential relay (D). The relay operates on the basic differential principle that HV and LV CT secondary currents entering and leaving the zone of protection can be balanced under load and through fault conditions, whereas under internal fault conditions balance will be lost and a differential current will cause the relay to trip. The zone of protection is clearly defined by the CT locations and, as the protection is stable for through faults, it can be set to operate without any intentional time delay.



The figure 2.0 illustrates the simple differential protection circuit for single phase. Under normal load condition, the secondary CT current of HV & LV windings are balanced, hence the operating current through the relay is almost zero. This remains true for even through fault condition also. In case of internal fault, direction of currents of HV & LV CT secondary will change and add up to operate the relay. In order to operate the Differential protection satisfactorily, it is necessary to balance the HV & LV CT Secondary currents, under normal and through fault conditions, both in phase and magnitude. In old electromechanical relays this was achieved by providing Interposing (IP) CTs. The purpose was to match the HV & LV CT Secondary current by selecting proper ratios of IP CTs. Further, correct operation of the differential protection requires that the transformer primary and secondary currents, as measured by the relay, are in phase. In case of phase difference, the relay will see through fault current as unbalance current and will operate. Hence, phase correction must be implemented. In applying the principles of Differential protection to transformers, variety of consideration needs to be taken into account. These include

                               I.        Correction for possible unbalance of currents of HV and LV CTs ( Ratio correction)

                              II.        Correction for possible phase shift across transformer windings (Phase correction)

                            III.        The effects of variety of neutral earthing and winding arrangement (Zero sequence filtering)

                           IV.        Effect of magnetizing inrush during initial charging (2nd Harmonic setting)

                             V.        Possible over fluxing during over voltage / under frequency conditions (V/F setting)

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