CANADIAN JOURNAL OF ELECTRICAL AND COMPUTER ENGINEERING, VOL. 38, NO.

2, SPRING 2015

77

A New Adaptive Backup Protection Scheme

Based on Intelligent Electronic Devices
Un nouveau systme de protection de sauvegarde
adaptatif bas sur des dispositifs
lectroniques intelligents
Jing Ma, Member, IEEE, Wei Ma, Xin Yan, and Zengping Wang, Member, IEEE
Abstract A new adaptive interphase backup protection scheme based on intelligent electronic devices (IEDs)
is proposed in this paper. When the system is in normal operation state, the backup protection areas are
divided according to the operation status and topology of the primary and secondary devices in the power grid.
When fault is detected in the system, each IED will search for the other IEDs in the same protection area
and exchange the voltage and current synchronized phasor information with them. On this basis, the adaptive
action factor is constructed according to the proportional relationship between the phase voltage difference and
phase current after the fault. Then, by comparing and analyzing different characteristics of the adaptive action
factor in normal operation state and in fault state, the adaptive interphase backup protection can be realized.
Simulation results verify that the proposed method is able to identify the fault fast and accurately. It is highly
sensitive to different types of interphase faults and could operate reliably even when the fault location, system
structure, or system operation mode changes.
Rsum Un nouveau systme de protection de sauvegarde dinterphase adaptatif bas sur les appareils
lectroniques intelligents (AEI) est propos dans ce papier. Lorsque le systme est en tat de fonctionnement
normal, les zones de protection de sauvegarde sont divises selon ltat de fonctionnement et la topologie des
dispositifs primaires et secondaires dans le rseau lectrique. Lorsquun dfaut est dtect dans le systme,
chaque AEI cherche les autres AEI dans la mme zone de protection et va changer les informations de
tension et de courant de phase synchronises avec eux. Sur cette base, le facteur daction adaptatif est construit
conformment la relation proportionnelle entre la diffrence de tension de phase et le courant de phase
aprs le dfaut. Ensuite, en comparant et en analysant les diffrentes caractristiques du facteur de mesures
dadaptation ltat normal et ltat de dfaut, la protection de sauvegarde dinterphase dadaptation peut
tre ralise. Les rsultats de simulation permettent de vrifier que la mthode propose est capable didentifier
rapidement et avec prcision lorigine de la faille dans le systme. Ce nouveau systme est trs sensible aux
diffrents types de dfauts dinterphase et pourrait fonctionner de manire fiable mme lorsque les changements
de localisation de dfaut, la structure du systme, ou le mode de fonctionnement du systme changent.
Index Terms Adaptive action factor, branch coefficient, intelligent electronic devices (IEDs), protective range.

Manuscript received April 22, 2014; revised August 17, 2014; accepted
October 15, 2014. Date of current version April 29, 2015. This work was
supported in part by the National Basic Research Program (973 Program)
of China under Grant 2012CB215200, in part by the National Natural
Science Foundation of China under Grant 51277193, in part by the Chinese
University Scientific Fund Project under Grant 2014ZZD02, in part by the
Scientific Research Foundation for the Returned Overseas Chinese Scholars,
Ministry of State Education of 2011, under Grant 1139, in part by the
Natural Science Foundation of Hebei Province under Grant E2012502034,
in part by the Beijing Metropolis Beijing Nova Program under Grant
Z141101001814012, in part by the Excellent Talents in Beijing City under
Grant 2013B009005000001, and in part by the Fok Ying Tung Education
Foundation under Grant 141057.
J. Ma is with the State Key Laboratory of Alternate Electrical Power System
with Renewable Energy Sources, North China Electric Power University,
Beijing 102200, China, and also with the Bradley Department of Electrical
and Computer Engineering, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University,
Blacksburg, VA 24061 USA (e-mail: hdmajing@aliyun.com).
W. Ma, X. Yan, and Z. Wang are with the State Key Laboratory of Alternate
Electrical Power System with Renewable Energy Sources, North China
Electric Power University, Beijing 102200, China (e-mail: jnyzmawei@
163.com; yanxinsdu@163.co; wangzp1103@aliyun.com).
Associate Editor managing this papers review: S. Ali Khajehoddin.
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available
online at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/CJECE.2014.2364256

I. I NTRODUCTION

HE adaptive protection is able to change the performance,

characteristic, or setting value of protection according
to the real-time variation of system operating mode and
fault status. Major types of adaptive protection are adaptive
current protection [1], [2], adaptive voltage protection [3], [4],
adaptive distance protection [5], [6], and adaptive differential
protection [7], [8], and so on.
With the development of protection, many experts and
scholars are trying to use the wide-area information to improve
the performance of adaptive protection, which can be sorted
into three categories. The first category is based on the
electric information [9][11]. He et al. [12] present a backup
protection algorithm based on the fault component voltage,
which is immune to fault type and power flow transferring.
In [13], a novel fault diagnosis approach-based voltage and
current synchrophasors is put forward, which is suitable for
a large-scale power system with the limited coverage of
phasor measurement units (PMUs). The second category is

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CANADIAN JOURNAL OF ELECTRICAL AND COMPUTER ENGINEERING, VOL. 38, NO. 2, SPRING 2015

based on the status information [14], [15]. Li et al. [16]

present a backup protection schemes based on the multisource information, which includes operation information of
the traditional primary/backup relays, directional protection,
status of breakers, and so on. The third category is based
on the comprehensive utilization of electric information and
status information. In [17], a protection scheme performed
by intelligent electronic devices (IEDs) is proposed, which
can reduce the number of relays installed at each line by
half. To improve the correctness and fault tolerance of backup
protection, Tong et al. [18] present a novel backup protection algorithm using traditional protection components and
PMUs data.
A new adaptive interphase backup protection scheme based
on IEDs is proposed in this paper, where the IEDs are utilized
to store line parameters, obtain voltage and current data, and
facilitate communication among the IEDs. When the system
is in normal operation state, the backup protection areas
are divided according to the operation status and topology
of the primary and secondary devices in the power grid
(using the graph theory, for example). When fault is detected
in the system, each IED will search for the other IEDs in the
same protection area and exchange the voltage and current
synchronized phasor information with them. On this basis,
the adaptive action factor is constructed according to the
proportional relationship between the phase voltage difference
and phase current after the fault. Then, by comparing and
analyzing different characteristics of the adaptive action factor
in normal operation state and in fault state, the adaptive
interphase backup protection can be realized. Simulation
results verify the correctness and effectiveness of the proposed
scheme.
II. A DAPTIVE BACKUP P ROTECTION S YSTEM
Based on the features brought by IEC61850 [19], some
protection schemes performed by IEDs have been put forward,
where the IEDs are able to obtain voltage and current in
a synchronized way with time tags [17]. Meanwhile, many
functions (such as many more protective functions, event monitoring/oscillography, enhanced metering, high-speed communication capabilities, and so on) can be integrated into IEDs,
allowing new power system problem-solving capabilities
while permitting significant cost savings as compared with
discrete protective relays, instruments, meters, recorders, and
transducers.
In the adaptive backup protection system, IEDs installed
at the circuit breaker (relaying point) are responsible for
collecting and processing data at the relaying point, as well
as communicating with IEDs in the same protection area to
realize the protective function of local components and interarea connecting lines. The structure of the system is shown
in Fig. 1. The communication media is Ethernet network.
The communication model is publisher/subscriber [20]. When
a fault occurs, information of some certain IEDs will be
delivered to some other IEDs simultaneously and information
from others will be received. IED acts as not only the
server (data publisher), but also the client (data subscriber).

Fig. 1.

Structure of adaptive backup protection system.

Fig. 2.

Simple power network.

The communication mode is multicast-application-association,

which provides single direction information exchange. There
is a multidata exchange between one server and several clients.
Single direction information exchange provides enough information for receiver to interpret contexts definitely. Clients can
detect loss and repetition of the information, and the receiver
can suggest to the clients on the information loss and tell
them to give away repeated information [21]. This system
is flexible in configuration and flexible in constitution, with
high adaptability, high reliability, and small communications
volume.
III. P RINCIPLE OF A DAPTIVE BACKUP P ROTECTION
Directional components are added at the relaying point,
where the IEDs are located (the current flowing from the bus
is defined as the positive direction current, and the current
flowing toward the bus is defined as the negative direction
current). The protection range of the IED is divided into
two parts: 1) the primary protection area and 2) the backup
protection area. The primary protection area is the line, where
the IED is located. The backup protection area includes the
line where the IED is located, the bus on the opposite side of
the line, and the downstream lines. Taking IED1 in Fig. 2 for
example, the primary protection area of IED1 is line JM, and
backup protection area, includes line JM, bus M, line MN, and
line MP.
In Fig. 2, the generators at bus J, N, and P represent
equivalent transmission systems, the equivalent impedances
being Z S J , Z S N , and Z S P , respectively. The impedances of

MA et al.: NEW ADAPTIVE BACKUP PROTECTION SCHEME BASED ON IEDs

line JM, MN, and PM are Z j m , Z mn , and Z pm , respectively.

When fault occurs on line MN, IED3 acts as the primary
protection, at the same time transmitting the collected voltage
and current information to IED1 and IED6, which act as the
backup protection.
A. Adaptation of Branch Coefficient in Traditional
Distance Protection Zone-II
For traditional distance backup protection, to guarantee that
the protective relaying is adaptive to the variation of system
operation mode, the setting value always applies the minimum branch coefficients. However, in view of the complex
network structure and dynamic operation mode, a fixed setting
value is not able to meet all the requirements for protection:
1) selectivity; 2) speed; 3) sensitivity; and 4) reliability [22].
To improve the protection performance of distance protection
zone-II, an effective way would be to change the method of
calculating the branch coefficient K b . Calculating K b only
according to the current of the neighboring line may not
be enough to realize the adaptive setting of distance protection zone-II.
According to the setting principle of distance protection
zone-II in [23], the setting impedance of the protection at
IED1 is




II
II
I
II
I
Z j m + K b Z set.3
= K rel
Z j m + K b K rel
(1)
= K rel
Z mn
Z set.1
I
is the zone-I setting impedance of the protection
where Z set.3
I and K I I are the reliability coefficient of zone-I
at IED3. K rel
rel
and zone-II. K b is the branch coefficient. Z j m and Z mn are
the line impedance of line JM and line MN, respectively.
The branch coefficient K b is
Imn
(2)
Kb =
Ij m

where Imn is the short-circuit current on the fault line MN, and
Ij m is the short-circuit current on line JM where the upstream
protection is located.
Define the protection range of distance protection zone-II as
II Z
 Z jm

Z set.1
jm
I
II
II
= K rel
K rel
1 K rel
. (3)
K b Z mn
K b Z mn
The protection range Pr represents the line length on the
downstream line MN covered by the zone-II of the protection
at IED1.
According to (3), the branch coefficient K b has the followII :
ing relationship with the reliability coefficient of zone- II K rel

79

Therefore, when the protection range Pr is fixed, the reliability

I I should be
coefficient of distance protection zone-II K rel
inversely proportional to the branch coefficient K b .
Distance protection zone-II covers not only the whole line
length, but it should also be sensitive enough to fault at the end
of the line length. The sensitivity level of distance protection
zone-II K sen is expressed as


ZII
II
I Z mn
K sen = set.1 = K rel
1 + K b K rel
.
(5)
Z jm
Z jm
Apply (4) to (5), so that
K sen = 1 +

Z mn
Pr K b .
Z jm

(6)

Considering the errors, the sensitivity level of distance

protection zone-II should meet K sen 1.25. Thus, according to (6), the protection range should meet Pr 0.25
(Z j m /K b Z mn ). At the same time, to guarantee the selectivity
of protection, the protection range Pr should be smaller than
the zone-I protection range of the coordinating protection at
I . In other words, the protection range P
IED3, i.e., Pr < K rel
r
should meet
Z jm
I
0.25
Pr < K rel
.
(7)
K b Z mn
I ,
It can be seen from (7) that, when (Z j m /Z mn ) < 4K b K rel
there is a proper value for Pr . With a given Pr and the
branch coefficient K b (calculated by the real-time current
transmitted from the neighboring line), the reliability coeffiI I can be calculated according to (4). Apply
cient of zone-II K rel
I I in (1), so that the setting impedance of distance
K b and K rel
II
can be gained, i.e., adaptive setting
protection zone-II Z set.1
of distance protection zone-II can be realized. However, when
I , there is not a proper value for P ,
(Z j m /Z mn ) 4K b K rel
r
i.e., distance protection zone-II is not able to meet both
the requirements of sensitivity and selectivity. Thus, adaptive
setting of distance protection zone-II cannot be realized.
In summary, using the real-time current transmitted from the
neighboring line to calculate K b may not be able to realize
the adaptive setting of distance protection zone-II.

Pr =

II
K rel

Z jm
Z mn
Z jm
I
K b K rel + Z mn

K b Pr +

(4)

where Z j m /Z mn is decided by the network parameters. For

high-voltage transmission lines, line resistance R is far smaller
than line reactance X, thus the impedance angles of line
JM and line MN are nearly the same, i.e., (Z j m /Z mn )
(X j m /X mn ) = C(C is a real constant). Meanwhile, the
protection range of distance protection zone-I is a fixed
I is a constant, usually between 0.8 and 0.85).
value (i.e., K rel

B. Setting Scheme of Adaptive Backup Protection

The protection at IED1 is taken as an example to illustrate
the adaptive setting scheme of backup protection. Setting
principle: the backup protection should be able to cover the
whole line where the IED is located, and coordinate with
primary protection on the neighboring line.
When a three-phase fault occurs on line JM at F1 , which is
1 (in percentage) line length from bus J, the fault voltage
of phase A, B, and C measured at IED1 U J(3)A , U J(3)B , and
U J(3)
C meet the following equations:
 (3)
 
 

U U (3)  = U (3) U (3)  = U (3) U (3) .
(8)
JA
JB
JB
JC
JC
JA
Taking phase B and C for example, (8) could be unfolded as
 



 (3)
U U (3)  =  I(3) 1 Z j m I(3) 1 Z j m  = 31  I(3) Z j m 
JB
JC
JB
JC
JB
(9)

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CANADIAN JOURNAL OF ELECTRICAL AND COMPUTER ENGINEERING, VOL. 38, NO. 2, SPRING 2015

(3)
where IJ(3)
B and I J C are the fault current of phase B and C
measured at IED1.
Equation (9) can be rewritten as

 (3)
U U (3) 
JB
JC
(10)
 (3)
 = 31 .
 I Z j m 
JB

When a phase-to-phase (B-to-C) fault occurs at F1 , the fault

(2)
voltage of phase B and C measured at IED1: 1) U J B and
(2)
2) U J C always meet the following equation:
 (2)
 



U U (2)  =  I(2) 1 Z j m I(2) 1 Z j m  = 21  I(2) Z j m 
JB
JC
JB
JC
JB
(11)
(2)
where IJ(2)
B and I J C are the fault current of phase B and C
measured at IED1.
Equation (11) can be rewritten as


 (2)
(2) 
U J B U J C 

 = 21 .
(12)
 (2)

IJ B Z jm
Combining (10) and (12), the adaptive action factor A f 1 is
defined


ks kd  IJ 1 Z j m 

Af1 = 
(13)
U J U J 
1

where U J 1 and U J 2 are the voltages of the fault phases

1 and 2 measured at IED1 and IJ 1 is the current of the fault
phase 1 measured at IED1.
kd is the fault type coefficient. For
three-phase fault, kd = 3; for phase-to-phase fault, kd = 2;
for normal operation,
kd = 1. ks is the error coefficient.
In this paper, ks = 3 (see Appendix).
Phase B and C are taken as an example to analyze the
operation characteristic of the adaptive action factor A f 1 .
When the system operates in normal state, the adaptive action
factor A f 1 is
A f1 =

ks | IJ B Z j m |
|U J B U M B |
=
|U J B U J C |
|U J B |

(14)

where |U J B U M B | is the voltage difference between bus J

and bus M. In normal operation state, the voltage
amplitude difference between two line ends is not big,
i.e., |U J B | |U M B |. Meanwhile, the voltage angle difference

between

two line ends is not >30, i.e., |U J B U M B |

(6 2)/2|U J B |. Thus, in normal operation state A f 1
( 6 2)/2 0.5176. Besides, comparison between
(10), (12), and (13) shows that, for any type of interphase fault
on any point of the line
where the IED is located, the adaptive
action factor A f 1 3. Considering the various error factors,
the setting value of A f 1 is set to be 1. If the currents at the
relaying point and from the IED of the other line terminal are
both positive, and A f 1 > 1, then it is decided as fault on this
line and the trip command is issued immediately.
When a three-phase fault occurs on line MN at F2 , which
is 2 (in percentage) line length from bus M, there is the

following relationship:
 
 (3)
  (3)

U

(3)   (3)
(3)
(3) 
M B U MC + U J B U J C U M B U MC
  (3)
 (3)   (3)
  (3)

(3) 
 + U
= 3 2  I Z mn  +  I Z j m 
= U
U
M BC

J BC

M BC

MB

JB

(15)
(3)
U M B

(3)
U MC

where
and
are the fault voltages of phase B and C
(3)

(3)
(3)
(3)
measured at IED3. U M
BC = U M B U MC and U J BC =
(3)
(3)
(3)
(3)
are the fault current of phase B
U U . I and I
JB

JC

JB

MB

measured at IED1 and IED3, respectively.

Equation (15) can be rewritten as
  (3)

 (3)   (3)

 

U
(3) 
M BC + U J BC U M BC 3 I J B Z j m
= 32 . (16)
 (3)

 I Z mn 
MB

When a phase-to-phase (B-to-C) fault occurs at F2 , there is

the following relationship:
 (2)
 
  (2)

U

(2)   (2)
(2)
(2) 
M B U MC + U J B U J C U M B U MC
 (2)   (2)

  (2)

  (2)
 

 

(2) 
= U M
BC + U J BC U M BC = 2 2 I M B Z mn + I J B Z j m
(17)
where U J(2)B and U J(2)
C are the fault voltages of phase B and C
(2)
(2)
(2)
= U M
measured at IED3. U M
BC
B U MC and
(2)
(2)
(2)
(2)
(2)
U J BC = U J B U J C . IJ B and IM B are the fault current of
phase B measured at IED1 and IED3, respectively.
Equation (17) can be rewritten as

 (2)

 (2)   (2)
 


U
(2) 
M BC + U J BC U M BC 2 I J B Z j m
= 22 . (18)
 (2)

 I Z mn 
MB
Combining (16) and (18), the adaptive action factor A f 2 is
defined
kd kr | IM1 Z mn |
A f2 =
(19)
|U M1 2 | + |U J 1 2 U M1 2 | kd | IJ 1 Z j m |
where U M1 2 = U M1 U M2 , and U M1 , U M2 are the
voltages of the fault phases 1 , 2 . IM1 is the current
of the fault phase 1 . U M1 , U M2 , and IM1 are all
measured at IED3 and transmitted to IED1. Similarly,
U J 1 2 = U J 1 U J 2 , and U J 1 , U J 2 are the voltages of the
fault phases 1 , 2 . IJ 1 is the current of the fault phase 1 .
U J 1 , U J 2 , and IJ 1 are all measured at IED1. kd is the fault
type coefficient. kr is the reliability coefficient, and in this
paper kr = 0.5 (see Appendix).
Phase B and C are taken as an example to analyze the
operation characteristic of the adaptive action factor A f 2 .
When the system operates in normal state, the adaptive action
factor A f 2 is
kr | IM B Z mn |
|U M BC | + |U J BC U M BC | | IJ B Z j n |
0.5 |U M B U N B |
=

(20)
3|U M B | + ( 3 1)| IJ B Z j n |

M B |. Therefore, in
where |U M B U N B | ( 6 2)/2|
U
normal operation state A f 2 < (3 2 6)/12 0.1494.
Besides, comparison between (16), (18), and (19) shows that,
for any type of interphase fault on the neighboring line,
Af2 =

MA et al.: NEW ADAPTIVE BACKUP PROTECTION SCHEME BASED ON IEDs

81

Fig. 4.
Fig. 3.

Flowchart of adaptive interphase backup protection.

if 2 kr , then A f 2 1; if 2 > kr , then A f 2 < 1. As the

protection range of the backup protection should not exceed
the protected line plus 50% of shortest second line, the setting
value of A f 2 is set to be 1 and the requirement of selectivity is
met. When fault is detected in the system, the adaptive action
factor A f 2 is set according to (19), using the current, voltage,
and impedance of the neighboring line with the maximum fault
current. If after the time delay t, the adaptive action factor
A f 2 > 1, then it is decided as fault on the neighboring line
and the trip command is issued immediately.

New England 10-machine 39-bus test system.

TABLE I
L INE PARAMETERS OF IEEE N EW E NGLAND
10-M ACHINE 39-B US S YSTEM

C. Scheme of Circuit Breaker Failure

In the relay protection system, circuit breaker failure is
an important issue. In this paper, the circuit breaker failure
problem is dealt with in the following manner. After a certain
IED issues the trip command, monitor the circuit breaker
status. Once any circuit breaker failure is detected, the failure
signal is sent to all the neighboring IEDs and the IEDs trip at
the time the signal is received.
IV. A DAPTIVE BACKUP P ROTECTION P ROCESS
In the application of the proposed scheme, the fault type and
fault phase need to be identified first. On this basis, the adaptive action factor is constructed according to the proportional
relationship between the phase voltage difference and phase
current after the fault. Then, by comparing and analyzing
different characteristics of the action factor in normal operation state and in fault state, the adaptive interphase backup
protection can be realized. When the operation condition is
met, the switch will trip to separate the fault. The flowchart
of the proposed protection scheme is shown in Fig. 3, where
t is the time delay.
The detailed steps are as follows.
Step 1) Data are acquired via IEDs and the backup protection areas are divided.

Step 2) The adaptive backup protection starts when any

interphase fault is detected by modal fault component selector [4].
Step 3) Transmit and receive data with other IEDs in the
same protection area, and calculate the adaptive
action factors.
Step 4) If the value of adaptive action factor A f 1 is >1,
i.e., A f 1 > 1, then the trip command is issued
immediately. Otherwise, the A f 1 does not trip.
Step 5) If after the time delay t, the value of A f 2 is still
>1, i.e., A f 2 > 1, then the trip command is issued
immediately. Otherwise, the A f 2 does not trip.
V. S IMULATION V ERIFICATION
The IEEE New England 10-machine 39-bus system is
built in this paper using PSCAD/EMTDC for simulation
analysis, as shown in Fig. 4. The system reference power
Sbase = 100 MVA, reference voltage Ubase = 100 kV,
fundamental frequency f = 60 Hz, and generator parameters
and line parameters are shown in Tables I and II, respectively.
The structure of IEDs in the simulation is shown in Fig. 5.

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TABLE II
L INE PARAMETERS OF IEEE N EW E NGLAND
10-M ACHINE 39-B US S YSTEM

Fig. 6. Fault occurs at 90% of line 3-18. (a) Adaptive action factor of R18
for three-phase fault. (b) Adaptive action factor of R2 for phase-to-phase fault.
TABLE III
A DAPTIVE A CTION FACTOR OF R18 W HEN FAULT O CCURS ON L INE 18-3

Fig. 5.

Structure of IEDs in the simulation.

The access point G1 is to transmit relay protection tripping

and circuit breakers position information. The access point M1
is to transmit current and voltage sample value information.
Ethernet network is the communication media between IEDs.
Local terminal unit is the core of IED, which is responsible
for the adaptive backup protection scheme.
The fast Fourier transform (FFT) is used as filter algorithm,
where sampling rate is 64 samples per cycle of fundamental
frequency. The IED18 and IED2 are taken as an example to
illustrate the adaptive setting of the backup protection and its
coordination with the primary protection. In the simulation
tests, fault occurs at T = 0.30 s.
A. Fault on Line 18-3
When fault occurs at 90% of line 18-3, the adaptive action
factor of R18 is shown in Fig. 6. It can be seen that,

after fault occurs on line 18-3, the adaptive action factor of R18 A f 118 increases rapidly. When A f 118 > 1,
R18 operates immediately.
When fault occurs at different locations on line 18-3, the
adaptive action factor of R18 is shown in Table III. It can be
seen that, R18 is able to respond accurately to interphase fault
at any location on line 18-3. Moreover, when an interphase
fault occurs at the end of line 18-3, the adaptive action factor
of R18 has enough sensitivity, which can ensure the selectivity
of protection.
B. Fault on the Neighboring Line 3-4
When fault occurs at 30% of line 3-4, and if R3 as the
primary protection does not operate, then R2 and R18 will
provide backup protection. Figs. 7 and 8 are the adaptive action
factor characteristic of R2 and R18. It can be seen that, for any
type of interphase fault, after the fault occurs both A f 22 > 1
and A f 218 > 1, i.e., both R2 and R18 are effective as the
adaptive backup protection.
When fault occurs at different locations on line 3-4,
the adaptive action factors of R2 and R18 are shown in
Tables IV and V, respectively. It can be seen that, the adaptive

MA et al.: NEW ADAPTIVE BACKUP PROTECTION SCHEME BASED ON IEDs

83

TABLE IV
A DAPTIVE A CTION FACTOR OF R2 W HEN FAULT O CCURS ON L INE 3-4

Fig. 7. Three-phase fault occurs at 30% of line 3-4. (a) Adaptive action
factor characteristic of R2. (b) Adaptive action factor characteristic of R18.

TABLE V
A DAPTIVE A CTION FACTOR OF R18 W HEN FAULT O CCURS ON L INE 3-4

Fig. 8. Phase-to-phase fault occurs at 30% of line 3-4. (a) Adaptive action
factor characteristic of R2. (b) Adaptive action factor characteristic of R18.

backup protection is able to cover 50% of the downstream

line 3-4. When fault occurs within the protection range, the
adaptive action factor is bigger than the setting value, and
the adaptive backup protection operates correctly. When fault
occurs outside the protection range, the adaptive action factor
is smaller than the setting value, and the adaptive backup
protection does not operate.
C. Simulation of Transition Resistance
When fault occurs at different locations on line 18-3 via
50- transition resistance, the adaptive action factors of R18
is shown in Table VI. When fault occurs at different locations
on line 3-4 via 50- transition resistance, the adaptive action
factors of R2 is shown in Table VII. It can be seen that,
when fault occurs via transition resistance, the adaptive action
factors A f 1 and A f 2 both decrease. For A f 2 , this means the
protection range extended to the downstream line shortens.

But for A f 1 , fault on the whole line length can still be

reliably identified. Therefore, the proposed scheme is immune
to transition resistance in some degree.
D. Simulation of Error in Measurements
The adaptive protection scheme may be affected by the
error in measurements of current and voltage signals due to
capacitor voltage transformer (CVT) transients and current
transformer (CT) saturation. Suppose the fault occurs on
line 18-3 and line 3-4 at different locations, and this issue has

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TABLE VI
A DAPTIVE A CTION FACTOR OF R18 W HEN FAULT O CCURS
VIA

50- T RANSITION R ESISTANCE ON L INE 18-3

TABLE IX
A DAPTIVE A CTION FACTOR OF R2 AND R18
W HEN FAULT O CCURS ON L INE 3-4

TABLE VII
A DAPTIVE A CTION FACTOR OF R2 W HEN FAULT O CCURS
VIA

50- T RANSITION R ESISTANCE ON L INE 3-4

TABLE X
T IME TAKEN BY THE A DAPTIVE I NTERPHASE BACKUP P ROTECTION
TO I SSUE THE

T RIPPING C OMMAND

TABLE VIII
A DAPTIVE A CTION FACTOR OF R18 W HEN FAULT O CCURS ON L INE 18-3

been studied. The simulation results of the adaptive action

factors based on the measurements of secondary sides of
CVT and CT are shown in Tables VIII and IX. It can be
seen that, the protection range of A f 1 is not affected by the
measurement errors due to CVT transients and CT saturation.
However, the protection range of A f 2 is affected, which may
refuse to operate at the end of the protection range.

an effect on the fault currents, and consequently on adaptive

interphase backup protection. Suppose the fault occurs on
line 3-4, and this issue is studied.
Suppose at t = 0.3 s, a phase-to-phase fault occurs on
line 3-4 at 30% line length from Bus3. The adaptive action
factor A f 1 at R4 identifies the fault accurately and issues the
trip command at t = 0.3264 s (it can be seen from Table X
that, the average time taken to issue the trip command is
26.4 ms for A f 1 ). The protection at R4 then trips immediately.
However, the adaptive action factor A f 1 at R3 fails to issue
the trip command. Therefore, R2 and R18 will act as backup
protection to clear the fault. The characteristic curves of the
adaptive action factors are shown in Fig. 9.
Comparing Fig. 7 with Fig. 9, it can be seen that, when
system topology changes after the fault, the characteristic
curves of the adaptive action factors experience a certain
degree of fluctuation. However, the backup protection is still
reliable in operation.

E. Simulation of Structure Changing During the Fault

F. Time of Issuing the Tripping Command

The structure of the power system could change during the

fault. These transitory changes in the system topology have

The time taken by the adaptive protection to issue the

tripping command may vary with fault location and fault type.

MA et al.: NEW ADAPTIVE BACKUP PROTECTION SCHEME BASED ON IEDs

85

Fig. 9. Phase-to-phase fault occurs at 30% of line 3-4. (a) Adaptive action
factor characteristic of R2. (b) Adaptive action factor characteristic of R18.

Suppose the fault occurs on line 3-4, and this issue is

studied.
According to the fault phase selection method in [5], the
fault type and phase can be identified within 0.5 period
cycle after the fault occurs. For the proposed adaptive backup
protection scheme, the adaptive action factor A f 1 needs only
the electrical variables from IED for setting, while the adaptive
action factor A f 2 needs the communication between relevant
IEDs as well to complete setting. According to [17], the communication time between IEDs is not >10 ms. Considering the
time delay of A f 2 (t usually values between 0.3 and 0.6 s [2]
and is set to be 0.5 s in this paper), the time taken by the
adaptive interphase backup protection to issue the tripping
command is shown in Table X.
It can be seen from Table X that, the time taken by the
adaptive interphase backup protection to issue the tripping
command is not affected by the fault location and fault type.
When a fault occurs, it takes the adaptive action factor A f 1
an average of 26.4 ms to issue the tripping command, and
the adaptive action factor A f 2 an average of 536.4 ms. The
response time of 26.4 ms, includes of fault phase selection,
sensors used, FFT processing, and IEDs to compute fundamental phasors. The response time of 536.4 ms includes of
fault phase selection, sensors used, FFT processing, communication delay, protection action delay, and IEDs to compute
fundamental phasors.
G. Comparison With Other Existing Schemes
1) Traditional Distance Backup Protection Scheme: According to the traditional distance protection setting principle
in [23], when a phase-to-phase fault occurs on line 3-4
at different location, the measured impedance trajectory of
R2 and R18 are shown in Fig. 10. It can be seen that, when
a fault occurs at 10% of line 3-4, the traditional distance
protection zone-II of R2 and R18 can operate accurately. When
a fault occurs at 30% of line 3-4, R2 and R18 refuse to operate,
which may cause the fault range enlarged, and ever endanger
the safety and stability of power system. However, when a

Fig. 10. Simulation result of traditional distance protection when fault occurs
on line 3-4 at different location. (a) Measured impedance trajectory of R2.
(b) Measured impedance trajectory of R18.

phase-to-phase fault occurs at 30% of line 3-4, R2 and R18

can operate accurately by the proposed scheme, which can
been seen in Fig. 8.
2) Current Differential Protection Scheme: Current differential protection is based on the Kirchhoff current law, and
the operation equation is
| Im + In | > K (| Im | + | In |)

(21)

where Im and In are the current phasors at bus m and bus n,

respectively. K is the restraint coefficient.
Current differential protection is highly sensitive and adaptable to various kinds of faults and abnormal operation states.
However, its performance is prone to be affected by the
time delay due to the communication channels. For example,
current differential protection may maloperate for external disturbance if the data are asynchronous. Suppose a three-phase
fault occurs at 30% of line 3-4, and the protection of line 3-18
is taken to study.
Fig. 11 shows the simulation result of line 3-18 when
there is a communication delay. It can be seen that, the
operation quantity | I3 + I18 | is bigger than restraint quantity
K (| I3 | + | I18 |) within a short time when a fault occurs
on line 3-4, which can cause the maloperation of current
differential protection. For the proposed adaptive backup
protection scheme, the adaptive action factor A f 1 relies only
on local information, there is no maloperation caused by data
asynchronization. However, the adaptive action factor A f 2

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Fig. 11. Simulation result of current differential protection scheme when a

three-phase fault occurs at 30% of line 3-4.

Fig. 13.
Positive sequence current angle absolute differences for lines
connected to Bus3 when a phase-to-phase fault occurs at 30% of line 3-4.

Fig. 12. Positive sequence voltage magnitudes when a phase-to-phase fault

occurs at 30% of line 3-4.

needs the communication between relevant IEDs as well to

complete setting. Thus, when there are time delays between
the measurements in backup protection area and the arrival
of the information to the correspondent IED (i.e., time delays
between sending and arrival of transmitted phasors), the IED
should wait for the arrival of phasors with the same time tag of
the local measurements (to compare signals in a synchronized
way).
3) Wide-Area-Based Backup Protection Scheme: A backup
protection scheme based on PMUs is introduced in [11],
which can distinguish between internal and external faults for
interconnected lines. The principle of the protection scheme
depends on comparing positive sequence voltage magnitudes
at each bus during fault conditions inside a system protection
center to detect the nearest bus to the fault. Then, the absolute
differences of positive sequence current angles are compared
for all lines connecting to this bus to detect the faulted line.
However, the synchronization signals of the PMU are provided
by GPS system, the continuous availability of which cannot be
guaranteed. If the PMUs are in fault, or the synchronization
error is too big, the backup protection will fail to function.
Take the PMU installed in Bus4 of Fig. 4 to study, which
has lost communication function for some sort of failure.
When t = 0.3 s, a phase-to-phase fault occurs at 30% of
line 3-4, the positive sequence voltage magnitudes of Bus2,
Bus3, and Bus18 are shown in Fig. 12. The minimum value is
selected to indicate the nearest area to the fault is Bus3. Then,
the absolute differences of positive sequence current angles
for all lines connecting to Bus3 are calculated in the system

Fig. 14. Waveforms of voltage and current during power swing. (a) Voltage
waveform. (b) Current waveform.

protection central. Due to failure of the PMU installed in Bus4,

the angles difference of line 2-3 and line 3-18 can only be
calculated, which is shown in Fig. 13. It can be seen that, the
maximum value is 3.1, which is smaller than the threshold
boundary amounted by 100, and the system protection central
cannot identify the fault.
In the proposed scheme, the IED at the relaying point is used
as the decision-making unit. When the communication links
fails during the fault, the adaptive action factor A f 2 would not
be able to realize protective relaying. However, the adaptive
action factor A f 1 , which relies only on local information, is
still able to identify and clear the fault. Compared with the
wide-area protection technique reported in [11], the proposed
scheme has higher reliability.
H. Simulation of Power Swing
Fig. 14 shows the voltage waveform and current waveform during one power swing case, where the power swing
cycle is 0.2 s. For this power swing case, the response of
adaptive action factor is shown in Fig. 15, and the measured

MA et al.: NEW ADAPTIVE BACKUP PROTECTION SCHEME BASED ON IEDs

Fig. 15.

Adaptive action factor characteristic during power swing.

Fig. 16. Measured impedance trajectory of conventional distance relay during

power swing.

impedance trajectory of conventional distance relay (setting

value Z set = 6.6204 + j 94.6800 ) is shown in Fig. 16.
It can be seen that, the proposed scheme and the conventional
distance protection scheme may cause protection to maloperate
during power swing. To avoid an unintended operation, power
swing blocking function needs to be integrated into IEDs [24].

87

between the two line

30, the adaptive
ends
reaches

action factor A f 1 = ( 6 2)/(2 3)ks . When interphase

fault occurs on the line, the adaptive action factor
A f 1 = ks . Since the setting value of A f 1 is 1, when
the system
operation state, it
requires
isin normal

that
A f 1 = ( 6 2)/(2 3)ks 1, i.e., ks (3 2 + 6)/2.
When fault occurs at the end of the line, it requires that
A f 1 = ks 1.
Therefore, the value range of ks is 1
ks (3 2 + 6)/2. If ks applies a relatively small value,
for example ks = 1, then the protection might refuse to
operate when fault occurs at the end of the line. On the
other hand,
ifks applies a relatively big value, for example,
ks = (3 2 + 6)/2, then the protection might maloperate
when the system is in normal operation state.In view of these
factors, the margin coefficient ks is set to be 3 in this paper.
The value range of the reliability coefficient kr is kr 0.5.
When the system is in normal operation state, if the voltage
phase angle difference between thetwo line
endsreaches 30,
the adaptive action factor A f 2 ( 6 2)/(2 3)kr . When
phase-to-phase fault occurs at the midpoint of the downstream
line, the adaptive action factor A f 2 = 2kr . Since the setting
value of A f 2 is 1, when the system
is in normal
operation
state, it requires
that
A

(
6

2)/(2
3)kr 1,
f
2

i.e., kr (3 2 + 6)/2. The protection range of backup

protection should not exceed 50% of the downstream line,
thus when fault occurs at the midpoint of the downstream
line, it requires that A f 2 = 2kr 1. Therefore, the value
range of kr is kr 0.5. Besides, the bigger kr is, the longer
the protection range could extend to the downstream line, and
the better it is for system safety and stability. In view of these
factors, the reliability factor kr applies the value of 0.5 in
this paper.

VI. C ONCLUSION

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

A new adaptive interphase backup protection scheme based

on IEDs is proposed in this paper, which has the following
characteristics.
1) The setting value is able to vary with the fault type.
Within the protection zone, it is able to operate reliably.
Besides, it is adaptive to or unaffected by system structure, operation mode, and fault type.
2) The protection range of the adaptive backup protection
is effectively extended, thus maloperation probability of
the far backup protection is reduced.
The proposed adaptive protection scheme is suitable for
phase-to-phase fault and three-phase fault. As for adaptive protection suitable for grounding faults, further study is needed in
this regard. Meanwhile, when the proposed protection method
is applied to real grid, it requires the installation of IED at
each relaying point, as well as a substation communication
network with IEC61850 as the communication protocol.

The authors would like to thank many members of the

faculty and many students who contributed greatly to this
research. They would like to thank Dr. A. G. Phadke.

A PPENDIX
The value
range
of the margin coefficient ks is 1
ks (3 2 + 6)/2. When the system is in normal
operation state, if the voltage phase angle difference

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Jing Ma (S06M08) was born in Hebei, China.

He received the B.S. and Ph.D. degrees from North
China Electric Power University, Beijing, China, in
2003 and 2008, respectively.
He was a Visiting Research Scholar with the
Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer
Engineering, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State
University, Blacksburg, VA, USA, from 2008 to
2009. He is currently an Associate Professor with
the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering,
North China Electric Power University. His current
research interests include power system equipment modeling, diagnoses, and
protection.

Wei Ma was born in Gansu, China. He received

the B.S. degree from North China Electric Power
University, Beijing, China, in 2012, where he is currently pursuing the masters degree with the School
of Electrical and Electronic Engineering.
His current research interests include power
system adaptive protection and control.

Xin Yan was born in Shandong, China. He received

the B.S. degree from Shandong University, Jinan,
China, in 2013. He is currently pursuing the masters
degree with the School of Electrical and Electronic
Engineering, North China Electric Power University,
Beijing, China.
His current research interests include power
system adaptive protection and control.

Zengping Wang (M05) was born in Hebei, China.

He received the B.S. and M.S. degrees in electric
engineering from North China Eletric Power University, Beijing, China, in 1985 and 1988, respectively,
and the Ph.D. degree from the Harbin Institute of
Technology, Harbin, China, in 1997.
He is currently a Professor and the Dean of the
School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering with
North China Eletric Power University. His current
research interests include power system equipment
protection, fault analysis, and wide-area protection.