Study on Wide-Area Backup Protection for Power systems

Huiming Xu,

Tianshu Bi,

Shaofeng Huang,

Qixun Yang

Sifang Institute, North China Electric Power University, Beijing (102206), P.R. China
Abstract
Protective relays, pivotal devices that can quickly identify and isolate fault area in power systems, is of great
importance for power network security and reliability. When the primary protection has failed to clear the fault or
mal-operation condition, the backup protection must ensure fault clearance to prevent the widespread influence to the
healthy part of the system. Studies on several well-known blackouts reveal that protective relays are involved and the
most troublesome ones are backup protective relays.
In this paper the limitation of traditional backup protections is detailedly investigated first. Then a new wide-area
backup protection system based on data exchange and coordinate operation among backup protective relays is presented.
The backup protection system is designed with the following performance: coordination and acceleration among
backup protection to clear faulty component, ability to distinguish inner fault and flow transferring, adaptive
protection-setting on-line according to network operational condition. The structure of wide area backup
protection system is also described in the end.
Keywords: Wide area Backup Protection (WBPS), coordination, wide area measurement (WAM), flow transferring,
power systems
1 Introduction
Protective relays, pivotal devices that can quickly
identify and isolate fault elements in power systems, are
the safeguards of power systems security. With the
development of interconnected power grid, the network
topological structure is increasingly complicated and the
operational environment of protective relays become
more and more austere. In several well-known blackouts,
which occurred in recent years, although the protective
relays operate correctly, the system state is deteriorated
and finally collapsed. The reason lies in that the existing
protections only utilize the local data and try to eliminate
the fault element or mal-operating condition as soon as
possible without consideration of the impact to the whole
system. For example, if a transmission line were
overloaded, then the corresponding relay would trip the
line, which results in heavily overload of other
transmission lines and thus lead to cascading trips. In
those cases, if the relay does not trip the overload line so
quickly and let the operator have enough time to
eliminate the overload, the cascading trips might be
avoided. Therefore, the study of protections in the whole
system viewpoint is paramount.
WAM (Wide Area Measurement) technology, which
is based upon PMUs (Phasor Measurement Units),
SCADA (Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition),
EMS (Energy Management System), communication
technology and information technology, has provided an

exchangeable platform for synchronous acquisition, real

time record, distant real-time communication and
analysis of power systems data. Wide area measurement
system (WAMS) makes synchronous data acquisition of
the whole system become possible. Besides, the snapshot
of the whole system can be updated every 20-50 ms [1~2].
These features afford a new path for power systems
protections, especially for back-up protections (The
operation delay of backup protections make it is possible
to accept and process the wide information of power
systems.) with the consideration of the whole system
status.
In this paper the limitation of traditional backup
protections is detailedly investigated in section 2. Then a
new backup protection system based on WAMS is
presented in section 3. The backup protection system is
designed to coordinate operation among backup
protective relays, especially for preventing cascading
trips under heavy loading condition, which might lead to
a wide spread blackout. Besides, the system can identify
the faulty component in power systems and minimize the
outage area, even with the mal-operations of circuit
breakers. Section 4 describes the structure of wide-area
backup protection system. Finally, a conclusion is given
in section 5.
2 Defects in traditional backup protections
To redesign a brand-new backup protection system,

we must analyze the traditional backup protections

adequately. Backup protections operate and clear the
fault components or area when main protections havent
detect the faults or been unable to operate. Backup
protections of transmission lines in china are usually
made up of zone 2 and 3 distance protection plus zero
sequence protection. Zone 2 elements are required to
detect phase and earth faults on the busbar at the remote
end of the line and operate in typically 0.5 s, if the fault
is not cleared by the main busbar protection. Zone 3
elements are expected to detect phase and earth faults on
any transmission line that is connected to the remote end
of the main protected line. Zone 3 elements operate in
typically 1.0 s. zero sequence protection are expected to
detect resistive earth faults for which operating times
would normally be between 1.0 and 3.0 s.
Backup protection must be delayed to ensure
priority is given to main protection. This proviso is
necessary because backup protection may trip a circuit
breaker remotely and disconnect a line that is not
faulted. The coordination among backup protection
relies on the operation time delays of each protection
device. But when the amount of required coordination
backup protections augment, the coordination of the
time delays become very complicated, even unable to
meet the demand of power systems. The scenario
shown in Fig. 1 demonstrates this situation. When a fault
occurs on one of the double circuit lines, and the main
protection at one end of the faulted line has totally failed.
Assume the backup protection used for those
transmission lines is consisted of forward looking zone 2
and 3 distance protection plus forward looking zero
sequence protection. Those traditional backup
protections, which is shown in Fig.1 in black, will
detect the fault and disconnect the four lines from the
network after the time delays have expired. This results
in a blackout of substation 2. When a high impedance
fault occurs, main protection cant detect the fault and
the same situation may also happen.

which is set in the protection device beforehand.

Protection device regard local measurement information
(such as: current, voltage, impedance, and so on) as input,
and the device make decision depending on that local
measurement information. The operation of single
protection device just ensures to clear fault on the
protected component. It doesnt take the impact to whole
network into account. Therefore, load encroachment into
the operating characteristics of traditional backup
protective relays could cause cascading trips on the
network again leading to a widespread blackout. As
demonstrated in Fig.2, assume there is a fault occurred
on interconnecting line (Line 3), and the protection
element (either main protection or backup protection)
acts correctly and removes the fault line from the system.
The power flow on Line 3 will be transferred to parallel
line: Line 2. This may cause that Line 2 is disconnected
from the network if loads on the line encroach into the
zone 3 distance characteristic. Then, the subsystemand
subsystem would be isolated. Furthermore, the flow
between subsystem and will be transferred to
interconnecting line between subsystemand. It could
result in an overloading on Line 1 and the
interconnection among subsystem , and will
be shut down ultimately with cascading trips on the
network leading to a widespread blackout. The larger the
network, the more catastrophic loss would be brought.

1-A

1-A

2-A

2-C

3-A

2-A

2-B

Line 2
Line 3

2-C

3-A

3-B

Fig.2-1 Fault occurred on line 3 and line 3 is removed

1-A

Line 1

2-A

2-B

Line 2
Line 3

2-C

3-A

3-B

Fig.2-2 Flow transition of Line 3 result in the trip of Line

2
1-A

Line 1

Line 1

2-A

2-B

2-C

Line 2
Line 3

3-A

3-B

Fig.2-3 Further flow transferring result in cascading trip

1-B

2-B

2-D

3-B

Fig.1 Backup protection operation situation while main

protection un-operated
Traditional backup protection operates depending
on whether load of the protected line reach the threshold,

of Line1
Fig.2 Flow transferring result in cascading trips among
subsystem, and
As for loop structure electric network, the cascading
trips may also occur shown as Fig.3. When Line 1 is
removed after fault, the load on Line 1 would large-scale

transfer to Line 2, Line 3 and Line 4. This may lead to

cascading trips of those lines; and the network will be
splitting into several islands. Subsequently, those islands
may rapidly collapse for inner exceeding unbalance
power. That is the main reason of most wide spread
blackouts [3].

P1

P2

Line 1

P3

of power systems requires that the adaptability of

protection should be considered. A new protection
scheme, which can reflect the operational status of
electric network and adjust the valve settings of each
protection, should be researched immediately to enhance
the security and reliability of the network.

P4
1

2 2-A
1-A Line 1

2-B

P6

P5
Line 2

Line 2
Line 3

tdelay

Line 3

Dynamic Area

P7
P8

Line 4

P10

P9

tz2
tz1 1-A

P11

P12

d
2-B

2-A

Fig.4 Threshold-setting problem of zone 2 distances in

Fig.3 Flow transition among loop-network

different operational status

The threshold of backup protection is set according

to the maximum and minimum operational mode of
power systems. It should be guaranteed that in any
operational mode (especially the minimum operational
mode) backup protection can initiate while fault in
terminal of the protection range, and the protection
(especially the maximum operational mode) cant initiate
while fault in anywhere of the next backup protection
range. The valve settings are invariable when the
operational status of power systems is changed. With the
increasingly development of electric network, the
network becomes more and more huge, the topological
structure of the network becomes more and more
complicated, the operational status of power systems
may be changed in a large-scale. But the valve settings of
protections are so conservative that those devices may be
suitable for some of the operational mode, but not
suitable for the others. Consequently, refusing initiation
or unwanted initiation of backup protective relays may
happen when faults occur in power systems. Fig.4 shows
the threshold-setting problem of zone 2 distances in
network. The operation delays of zone 1 distances and
zone 2 distances are represent by tz1 and tz2 respectively.
The difference of tz1 and tz2 ensure the priority of zone 1.
When zone 2 in 1-A coordinate with zone 2 in 2-A, the
protection range of zone 2 in 1-A could reach point d.
If a shorter line Line 3 connects into burbar 2, the
protection range of zone 2 in 1-A would be shortened to
point e, or even point f. Traditional backup
protection setting mode will make protection range of
zone 2 excessively short in this case. The disadvantage

Through analysis above, the defects of traditional

backup protections can be concluded as follow:
1) Backup protective devices lack of coordination
with each other, especially with those backup protective
relays in neighbor. Thus, it results in unselective
initiation of backup protections and removal of health
component from power systems.
2) Traditional backup protections are distributed
around the power network and each box only processed
local data. Those devices make decision only according
to local information, but ignoring the flow transferring
impact on the whole network. That is the main reason of
most wide spread blackouts.
3) The thresholds of backup protections are fixed,
but the operational status of power systems is complicate.
The threshold-settings of backup protection should take
the most austere condition into account, so the protection
range will be limited to the shortest area and the
performance of backup protection cant work well.
4) The coordination among backup protection relies
on the operation time delays of each protection device.
But increasing of backup protection requires time delays
augment, the coordination of the time delays become
very complicated and too long, even unable to meet the
security and reliability of power systems.
3 Function of Wide-area Backup Protection System
(WBPS)
The idea of traditional protection device design is
based on collocating protection devices on every point
in power systems to realize the quick fault selection

and isolation and enhance the security and reliability

of whole network. Many of the existing backup
protective relays, in particular those that have been in
use for many years were restricted to the collection
and analysis of local data. But power systems consist
of a large number of single components, and each
component has interrelationship with the others. The
local data, which a single protection device acquired,
is not adequate enough to reflect the whole power
systems operational condition. So it severely limits the
capability of the device and may impede to draw the
proper solution.
In the view of whole system, the purpose of
backup protection devices should be regarded as
minimizing the loss and maintaining stability for
power systems when a fault happened in the network.
To reach this purpose, the proper design notion of
protection devices should be to make decision based
on whole power systems. WAMS provides a platform
to share the information among backup protections. It
endows protection devices with a brand-new
viewpoint.
3.1 Coordination and acceleration of backup
protections
Depending upon multi-point measurement
information, coordination among backup protections
to minimize the impact of a fault on network can be
achieved by communication among those backup
devices [4~11]. Those adopted methods are wide area
current differential [4~6], expert system [7~9] and
multi-agent technology [11]. By information on WAMS,
we can actualize the selection of faulty component
and minimize the outage area. Thereby the
cooperation backup protection can be realized, and the
fault clearing time can be curtailed. The coordination
and acceleration of backup protections can be
actualized in the following two ways:
1) Unitive electric network backup protections
control centre for fault clearing. When a fault is
happened in power systems, the protection devices,
which are installed in the system, detect the fault
information and send it to the unitive backup
protection control centre. The protection control
centre can quickly distinguish which is the faulty
component by the entire network fault information.
Then, the centre sends the tripping instruction to the
relative backup protection device and locks the other
devices at the same time. There are following issues
should be considered:
How to found the criterion to identify the

faulty component based on wide area measurement

information.
For a large scale inter-connected electric
network, multi-grade protection control centre can be
used to realize cooperation and acceleration of backup
protections instead of single protection control centre.
The measurement information may be
incomplete. In this case, the protection control centre
should plot the faulty region out instead of faulty
component selection.
2) Distributed backup protections for faulty
component identification based on the measured fault
information communication among each protection
devices. When a fault happened in power systems, the
protection devices, which are distributed installed in
the network, initiate according to each fixed value and
measure the fault information. Backup protection
sends the measured information to the remote backup
protection devices, which have logical coordination
relationship with it, and receives the measured
information from the remote ones. Each backup
protection device processes local and remote
information to identify the faulty component
separately, and sends tripping or blocking signal to
relative relays.
3.2 Coordination of backup protections and stability
control devices
The coordination of the backup protections and
stability control devices is an approach to eliminate
blackout originally [12~13]. Making use of the
information platform, which is provided by the
WAMS, is capable to actualize the information share
between protective relays and stability control devices.
Therefore the coordination between backup protective
relays and stability control devices also can be
realized. As to the coordination between backup
protective relays and stability control devices, the
issues, which should be considered, are listed as
follows:
Research
on
transmission
section
performance and PMU placement based on
transmission section flow fast-decoupling.
Design of transmission section protection
based on real time flow measurement. It means that
when a fault appears on a certain transmission section,
how to act in those relative protective relays correctly
to avoid cascading trips.
Unification of backup protection devices
and stability control automatic devices. That is, how to
coordinate the backup relays and stability control

devices to eliminate the underlying crisis, which lead

to blackout catastrophe.
3.3 The adaptive dynamic valve setting of protection
devices
Much effort has been put in research of adaptive
protective relay in recent years, such as ground
protection[14], Zone Distance[15]. Furthermore, by
WAMS platform, the adaptive setting of backup relays
can be realized as a whole. Adaptive dynamic valve
setting of all backup protection devices can be
realized by founding a network protection-setting
centre (PSC) for on-line adjusting value settings of
relays according to electric network operating
condition. Through the introduction of WAMS, the
operational topological structure of the whole electric
network can be formed in the centre with the ON-OFF
status information of each component in the network.
According to the operational topological structure and
the parameters of system, the valve settings of each
protection, which suitable for the current operational
condition, can be calculated in the PSC and be sent to
each protection devices through communication
channels. So the valve settings can be dynamic
designed to reflect the operational condition of electric
network and to follow the change of network structure.
As shown in Fig.4, the dynamic area of zone 2 in 1-A
can be adjusted on-line according to the ON-OFF
status of breaker in 2-B. The issues of adaptive
dynamic valve setting of protection device should be
considered as follows:
Research on the equivalence method of
power systems parameters, while the PSC processes
the settings calculation.
For a large-scale electric network, the time
of settings calculation may be last a long period. The
settings of some typical operational mode of power
systems can be calculated beforehand. According to
measured information of WAMS, the centre can select
a certain settings scheme directly.

data from distributed measurement units, and they should

have the following function: identify flow transferring
and calculating the valve settings of backup protective
relays (that is, working as PSC). The function of faulty
component identification can be accomplished by WBPC
and sub-WBPC, it can be also achieved by those
distributed backup protection devices. When the decision
has been made, the instructions of tripping or blocking
and valve settings would be send to the relative relays.
WBPC
Sub-WBPC
B
P
D

Sub-WBPC

B
B
...
P
P
D
D

B
P
D

B
B
...
P
P
D
D

Sub-WBPC
B
P
D

B
B
...
P
P
D
D

WBPC means Wide-area Backup Protection Centre

BPDmeans Backup Protection Device
means transferring direction of
measured information
means transferring direction of
tripping or blocking signal

Fig. 5 Conceived system structure of WBPS

Sub-WBPC is responsible to protect the region
respectively, which it covers. When the inner
information is not sufficient to draw a proper decision,
the sub-WBPC exchange demanded data with the
adjacent ones. As to some decisions, which involve the
entire network, for example large-scale flow transferring
between regions, data of the entire network would be
sent to WBPC. Then, the optimal decision would be done
by WBPC and sent to the relative relays through
sub-WBPC.
The stability control devices have not shown in
above figure. But the coordination of protections and
stability control devices can also be realized by WBPC
or sub- WBPC like coordination among protections.
5 Conclusion

4 System structure of WBPS

The conceived system structure of WAPS is shown
in Fig.5. According to the topological structure of
electric network and strong or weak degree of their
relationship, Sub-WBPC may cover one or more
substations. The information of whole electric network is
separately measured in those points, where protection
devices installed, and those protection devices share their
information (local and remote ones) through the
sub-WBPC. WBPC and sub-WBPC collect wide-area

Based on analyzing the defects in traditional backup

protections, a new WAMS based backup protection
system is provided in this paper. The WPBS is designed
to actualize the following functions: 1) Coordination
among backup protections to isolate faulty component
and accelerating fault clearing time; 2) Providing backup
protections with ability to distinguish inner fault and
flow transferring; 3) Adjusting the valve settings of
protective relays on-line to acclimatize to network

operational condition. In the end, the system structure of

wide area backup protection system is also presented.
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Biographies
Xu huiming (1978-) is PD.H. student at North China Electric Power
University. He graduated with B.Eng. degree and M.Eng. degree from
Hefei University of Technology in 1999 and 2003 respectively. His
research interests are in power systems protection and control.
T.S. Bi (St.M1998, M2002) received her B.Sc. (Eng.) and M.Sc.
(Eng.) degrees in EE from North China Electric Power University in
1994 and 1997 respectively and her Ph.D. degree in EE from the
University of Hong Kong in 2002. Since then she has joined North
China Electric Power University as an associate professor. Her research
interest is power systems control, protective relay and the application
of artificial intelligence in power systems.
S.F. Huang received his B. Sc. (Eng.) degree in EE from North China
Electric Power University in 1981. Since then he has joined the same
university. He is currently a professor and his research interest is power
systems control and protective relaying.
Q.X. Yang received his B. Sc. (Eng.) and M.Sc. (Eng.) degrees in EE
from Zhejiang University in 1957 and 1960 respectively and his PhD.
Degree in EE from the University of New South Wales, Australia.
Since 1960, he has joined North China Electric Power University. His
research interest is power systems control and protective relaying. He is
a Chinese Academician of Engineering.