Exercise Solution: Overcurrent Protection Coordination

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 Exercise Solution: Overcurrent Protection Coordination

Exercise: Given the following data, your task is to determine the settings of the phase inverse-time
overcurrent element on the 34.5 kV side of the example industrial substation transformer.

• Transformer data: 5 MVA, 34.5/13.8 kV, Z = 6.5%

• Three-phase short-circuit currents:

 34.5 kV bus = 5,000 A

 13.8 kV bus = 2,572 A

Requirements:

• Time coordination with the main circuit breaker Relay 2 is not required, although it may be
desired for fault locating. There must be a coordination margin of at least 0.3 seconds
between Relay 3 and Feeder Relay 1.

• Relay 2 does not have an instantaneous element. The feeder relays each have an
instantaneous element set at 1,000 A primary.

• The current transformer ratios available for Relay 3 are 80-100-150-200/5.

• Assume that the pickup currents must be chosen as whole numbers.

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 Exercise Solution: Overcurrent Protection Coordination

The setting criterion suggested allows a transformer overload of 25 percent. If the transformer will
not be overloaded, the criterion can allow 10 percent overload or even less. The setting depends on
the operation scenarios in which the transformer is intended to work.

If thermal protection is used, the overcurrent relay can be set to a higher value to prevent thermal
damage from overloads or low fault currents. This is useful, specifically in cases where there could
be a large cold-load restoration current.

Keep in mind that for a typical ANSI-type transformer, the minimum short-time damage current is
about 1.8 to 2.0 times the rated current.

With the initial criterion, and assuming whole numbers for the pickup current, the result is as follows:

CTR = 150 / 5
IPU = 4 A

The result implies a primary pickup current of:

4 • 150 / 5 = 120 A

120 / 83.67 = 1.43 or 43% overload

Note that if a digital relay were used, the pickup current could be set at 3.5 A, which allows an
overload of 26 percent.

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 Exercise Solution: Overcurrent Protection Coordination

Relay 3 must properly coordinate with the feeder relays for all feeder faults, which implies
coordination with the feeder relay 50 and 51 elements.

To achieve coordination with the feeder relay 51 element, we need to start by determining the
51 element operating time for a fault at the instantaneous element reach point, which is the closest
fault for which the 51 element will operate.

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 Exercise Solution: Overcurrent Protection Coordination

Once we have T1, we complete the process by determining the Relay 3 time dial setting TD3 that
ensures coordination with the feeder relay 51 element.

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 Exercise Solution: Overcurrent Protection Coordination

We assume an operating time of 1 cycle or 0.0167 s for the feeder relay 50 element. Using this value,
we determine the Relay 3 time dial setting TD3 that ensures coordination with the feeder relay 50
element.

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 Exercise Solution: Overcurrent Protection Coordination

This slide shows the resulting time-current plot. The fault current values at the high- and low-voltage
sides of the transformer are shown as the two thick vertical lines in the figure. Even though the relay
selectivity was checked on these current values, coordination must be verified for all possible faults.
This check includes faults that produce low current values. We can verify this coordination for all
possible fault currents using the time-current plot.

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 Exercise Solution: Overcurrent Protection Coordination

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