Distance Protection Testing

in an IEC 61850 Environment

Jan Ciechanowicz, Waldemar Rebizant

Department of Electrical Power Engineering
Wroclaw University of Science and Technology
Wroclaw, Poland
jan.ciechanowicz@pwr.edu.pl, waldemar.rebizant@pwr.edu.pl

Abstract—Distance protection is a crucial element in the
protection system of a transmission line. As the use of IEC 61850-
compliant IEDs (Intelligent Electronic Devices) in substations
grows, protection testing has to adapt in order to reliably and
efficiently test these advanced protection relays. Testing IEC
61850 IEDs poses many challenges, not only because such devices
usually combine protection and control functionality, but also
because of the complexity of the abstract data model defined by
the IEC 61850 standard. In an effort to present protection testing
knowledge in a concise and useful manner, this paper aims at
giving insight into the workings and testing of IEC 61850 distance
protection relays.
Keywords: protection testing; distance protection; IEC 61850
I. INTRODUCTION
Even though various aspects of distance protection still cause
a great deal of confusion, the general idea behind it is very
simple. Knowing the expected load impedance and its expected
variations, the distance relay is set up to constantly measure
actual impedance values and restrain as long as the values are in
a safe area on the R-X diagram but operate as soon as they take
values indicating the occurrence of a fault. The complexity of
distance protection arises not from this general idea but from the
need for proper coordination in the power grid and special fault
cases, which must be taken into consideration in order to provide
accurate and reliable line protection. These special
considerations are widely explored in scientific literature and are
not the focus of this paper. The goal of this paper is to facilitate
the transition from working with traditional distance relays to
working with IEC 61850 IEDs.
An in-depth understanding of the test object is needed for the
development of reliable testing procedures. After a general
comparison of traditional and IEC 61850-compliant distance
protection, this paper analyzes the IEC 61850 representation of
protection testing functionality in the ACSI (Abstract
Communication Service Interface). As the IED's interface, the
ACSI representation is what contains all parameters of the
distance protection and therefore defines its behavior. It is also
the testing target for protection testing engineers, soft- and
hardware.
Basic testing principles, which are founded on this
knowledge, are presented in this paper, including the setup of
the testing environment (usually within a substation) and
possible variations and technological improvements of the
testing process. Protection testing in IEC 61850 environments is
a constantly evolving field, with new soft- and hardware, as well
as new procedures emerging every year. Especially in regard to
the continued growth of distributed energy generation and the
use of IEC 61850 in this context [1], understanding how distance
protection in IEC 61850 works plays an important role in
ensuring the power grid's stability and efficiency.
II. DISTANCE PROTECTION: TRADITIONAL VS
IEC 61850
One of the aims of the IEC 61850 standard is to increase
interoperability by creating a set of universal modeling rules for
substation protection and communication devices. Traditionally,
every manufacturer of microprocessor protection relays
implements their own distance protection algorithm with their
own characteristic or set of supported characteristics and their
own, custom interface to the user. This user, usually a power
utility or protection testing engineer, must learn to work with
different models of the same protection function. More often
than not, the settings used by manufacturers to describe their
protection models vary widely, allowing for various degrees of
freedom in setting the protection function characteristic.
A. Distance Protection Characteristics
When working with distance protection, the most interesting
setting for protection engineers is the distance characteristic.
This geometrical figure represented on the R-X diagram defines
which measured impedance values are acceptable and cause the
relay to restrain, and which impedance values are the effect of a
fault and cause the relay to operate (Fig. 1). The traditional
circular shape of the characteristic is the result of the restrictions
of the mho element and is easily described only by the reach and
offset.
More and more often, polygonal characteristics can be found
in distance protection (Fig. 2). The settings required to
accurately describe a typical quadrilateral characteristic like the
one presented in Fig. 2 are the following [2] [3]:
• the reach value and reactive line angle (for the distance
reach),
• the angles of the right and left resistance blinder,
• the resistive ground reach value,

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Fig. 1. Mho characteristic (point A - restrain, point B - operate).
• the resistive phase reach value,
• the angle of the line in the fourth quadrant.
Unfortunately, these are not always found in the relay
settings. In fact, most of the time various settings of the
quadrilateral characteristic are not exposed to the user and the
ones which are accessible have different namings in different
IEDs. The missing settings are not editable and their fixed values
can usually be either found in the manual or obtained from the
manufacturer's technical support. This hinders the work of
protection engineers who have to set up and/or test the relays
without immediate access to all necessary information. They
must either:
• consult the manual or ask technical support every time,
• keep notes on fixed settings for each relay model, or
• remember everything.
The creation of protection functionality abstractions in IEC
61850 is an effort to standardize protection modeling so that all
relays of the same type share a single common set of parameters,
not bound to the manufacturer or model of the relay. This saves
time, effort and money and is a logical step to the creation of an
efficient and seamlessly interconnected network of power
produce.
III. IEC 61850 DATA MODEL
The IEC 61850 standard defines a set of abstract objects to
represent real physical devices and functionality. This layer of
abstraction, called the ACSI (Abstract Communication Service
Interface), is based on describing complex functionality using a
multitude of small building blocks.
The IEC 61850 data model uses abstractions in the
form of logical nodes (LN) for defining specific IED
functionalities. Every functionality requires its own logical node
and every logical node contains a number of data objects (DO)
which represent its parameters. As an example, instantaneous
overcurrent protection, as a separate functionality, is represented
by an IEC 61850 logical node named PIOC (Protection:
Instantaneous Overcurrent) and one of its parameters is the data
Fig. 2. Quadrilateral characteristic.
object StrVal (start value) containing the current value at which
the protection trips.
A. Logical Nodes Within an IED
As already mentioned, IEC 61850-compatible IEDs
combine the functionality of multiple protection, automation and
control elements in a single device. In order to realize distance
protection, an IED requires not only the distance protection
logical node PDIS (Protection: Distance) which implements the
distance element but also the LNs PTRC (Protection: Trip
Conditioning) and XCBR (Switchgear: Circuit Breaker). The
opening of a physical circuit is only performed by the circuit
breaker abstraction in the XCBR logical node, never by the
actual distance protection LN. However, the XCBR logical node
does not act on its own accord and needs to be controlled by a
trip signal from any of a number of possible sources. The PTRC
logical node is used to connect the circuit breaker model to the
root source of the trip signal, in our case the distance protection
LN (Fig. 3).
This topology could be simplified by including all of the
necessary functionality in a single logical node. The reason to
use three interconnected elements where one would suffice is the
increased flexibility provided by the modular solution. One of
the main features of the IEC 61850
standard is the possibility of building
a wide range of different
functionalities from a set of basic
reusable building blocks. It is because
of this approach that, as the IEC
61850-7-1 standard states, „the IED
composition is very flexible to meet
current and future needs”. Thanks to
this approach, one can easily set up a
protection environment as presented
in Fig. 4. In this setup, IED A
combines the functionality of distance
and time overcurrent protection, by
connecting both the PDIS and PTOC
logical nodes to the trip condition LN
PTRC. A different device, IED B, acts Fig. 3. Logical nodes
as backup and performs instantaneous within an IED.
 It was mentioned previously that the PDIS logical node
defines the protection behavior for one zone. In order to achieve
multi-zone protection, each zone must have its own PDIS LN.
The single-zone LNs are then connected to a PSCH (Protection
Scheme) logical node which models the entire line protection
scheme.
Practical experience of power utility operators and
protection testing engineers shows that theoretically required
parameters of the characteristic tend to be missing and that, more
often than not, IED vendors ignore the standardized logical
nodes in favor of their own, custom logical nodes tailored at
vendor-specific implementations of protection functionality.
This does not help in creating a clear and understandable,
interoperable abstraction for protection functions and in fact
only worsens the reputation of the IEC 61850 standard.

TABLE I. Settings of the PDIS logical node [4].

PDIS class - settings

PoRch Polar reach is the diameter of the Mho diagram
Fig. 4. Remote circuit breaker control. PhStr Phase start value

overcurrent protection [3]. Both IEDs A and B control the same GndStr Ground start value
circuit breaker without the need for copper wiring, as the signal DirMod Directional Mode
may be transmitted over a network.
PctRch Percent reach
B. The PDIS Logical Node Ofs Offset
Most protection functions in IEC 61850 have two mandatory
status data objects: Start and Operate. The Start DO represents PctOfs Percent offset
the starting of the relay operation, when a fault has been detected. RisLod Resistive reach for load area
For zone 1 distance protection this will be nearly synonymous
AngLod Angle for load area
with tripping a connected circuit breaker, but already zone 2
protection uses an internal timing mechanism so as not to trip TmDlTmms Operate time delay mode
too quickly. For this reason, any connected PTRC logical node
OpDlTmms Operate time delay
will wait until the Operate DO sends out a tripping signal, which
may happen immediately after Start is set, after some delay or PhDlMod Operate time delay multiphase mode
not at all if the fault is cleared before the delay timer expires. PhDlTmms Operate time delay for multiphase faults
In addition to Start and Operate, the PDIS logical node GndDlMod Operate time delay for single phase ground mode
defines over twenty settings (Table 1) which together make up
the behavior of the distance function for one zone. All of the GndDlTmms Operate time delay for single phase ground faults
PDIS settings are optional and their presence in an IED largely X1 Positive sequence line (reach) reactance
depends upon the type of characteristic which the protection
realizes. A brief overview of the more basic settings is given in LinAng Line angle
this chapter, in order to facilitate working with 61850 distance RisGndRch Resistive ground reach
protection.
RisPhRch Resistive phase reach
It must be noted that the characteristic type is not explicitly
defined as it is dictated by the presence or absence of certain K0Fact Residual compensation factor K0
DOs. All the required parameters for a characteristic shape K0FactAng Residual compensation factor angle
should be present while all settings for other characteristics
should be absent. The PoRch setting should only be present RsDlTmms Reset time delay
when using circular characteristics of the mho element and the
RisGndRch and RisPhRch DOs define the reach for quadrilateral
characteristics. PhStr and GndStr are the levels of phase and
ground measurements which cause the distance protection to
operate. PctOfs defines the offset of the characteristic, in percent
of the line length. The timing behavior is defined by the DOs
TmDlTmms, OpDlTmms, PhDlMod, PhDlTmms, GndDlMod,
and GndDlTmms.
 IV. TESTING IEC 61850 DISTANCE PROTECTION
A. Traditional Distance Protection Testing
When considering protection testing in an IEC 61850
environment, the question arises: „why should it work any
differently than with non-61850 relays?” In fact, the black-box
testing process performed by a protection testing engineer is
usually very much the same, regardless of the technology
implemented in the protection relay.
The task of the protection engineer is to artificially feed the
relay voltage and current measurement values which fake
various line impedances. These test points must be inside the
distance characteristic, on its border and just outside of the
shape on the R-X diagram (Fig. 5). The relay must operate for
points within or on the borders of the characteristic and restrain
for points outside of it, regardless whether it is
IEC 61850-conform or not. Again, the difference lies in
efficiency and interoperability.
In order to properly choose the test points, the exact shape
of the R-X characteristic must be known, which means that the
same problems arise which were already discussed in Chapter
I. Having a standardized distance protection model is an
immense help when choosing the test points because the R-X
characteristic can be calculated in the same way for every
testing process. An example of an extremely inefficient though
not incorrect testing process would be manually calculating the
test points on paper and subsequently manually operating a
voltage and current generator to feed the values to the relay.
Modern protection testing equipment takes over most of these
tasks, suggesting appropriate test points and checking all of
them one after another while automatically clearing the relay in
between. Providing the settings of the distance function to the
testing equipment is really the only thing that is difficult to
automate unless all distance functions share a common set of
settings.
B. Full IEC 61850 Environment
In an IEC 61850 environment, the distance characteristic
could even be acquired automatically by the testing equipment
by checking the settings of the IED. The only limit in
IEC 61850 test automation is how comfortable one feels with
carrying out tests based on the information acquired from the
test object. This issue could be solved by starting the test
process with an additional test case aimed at checking the
validity of queried information from the internal data model.
Even testing line distance protection installed at both ends of
the line can be automated by using time synchronization among
testing equipment on both ends of the line. With both
substations accessible through the same IEC 61850 network, it
would be quite imaginable to test both ends of the line with a
single piece of testing equipment.
Another thing to note is the possible change of the test setup
in fully IEC 61850-compliant environments. Traditionally, the
measurements required by the distance protection IED are
provided by wiring all necessary signals to the backside of the
IED. IEC 61850 defines an alternative way of transmitting
measurement values in the form of GOOSE messages (Generic
Object Oriented Substation Event). GOOSE messages
containing voltage and current transformer outputs can be
Fig. 5. Example distance protection testshots.
transmitted to the IED over an Ethernet network, so that the
only data input to the device is an Ethernet connector [5]. This
serves to further increase interoperability and efficiency within
substations.
V. CONCLUSIONS
This paper shows the aspects which must be taken into
consideration when transitioning from testing traditional
distance protection to IEC 61850-conform distance protection.
It is important to remember that despite practical difficulties
resulting from the relative complexity of the IEC 61850 data
model, using IEC 61850 IEDs in power utilities has the
potential to increase protection testing efficiency and as a result
to reduce downtime for transmission lines. However, it can be
clearly observed that the industry has not yet committed to the
idea behind this standard and still heavily uses custom, vendor-
specific logical nodes and data objects, thus creating less
improvement in terms of interoperability than could be
achieved. The multitude of vendor-specific data classes present
in many modern IEDs hinders the work of power utility and
protection engineers, even though more and more of these IEDs
have IEC 61850 certification.
One of the problems is without a doubt the high level of
freedom which the standard gives to IED manufacturers. Since
extensive use of custom extensions does not lead to increased
clarity or interoperability in any way, it prompts the question
whether perhaps a more restrictive approach would yield better
results for the future of the power grid. However, for this to
succeed, the standard would have to meet all the needs of
manufacturers and utility operators, which is currently not the
case. IEC 61850 is constantly corrected and updated with
Technical Issues and new editions of the standard aim to fix
what is broken. Perhaps, as long as the standard is not in a
satisfactory state, one should not be surprised that IEDs use
custom data classes and extensions to model what the standard
would otherwise not support.
REFERENCES
[1] Sinclair A., Finney D., Martin D., Sharma P.: Distance Protection in
Distribution Systems: How It Assists With Integrating Distributed
Resources, IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications, Vol. 50, Issue 3,
May-June 2014, pp. 2186-2196.
[2] Apostolov A., Vandiver B.: On the standardization of distance
characteristics, Power System Conference: Advance Metering,
Protection, Control, Communication and Distributed Resources,
Clemson, SC, 13-16 March 2007, pp. 209-212.
[3] Benmouyal G., Guzmán A., Jain R.: Tutorial on the Impact of Network
Parameters on Distance Element Resistance Coverage, presented at the
40th Annual Western Protective Relay Conference, Spokane, WA, 15-17
Oct. 2013.
[4] IEC 61850-7-4:2010: Communication networks and systems for power
utility automation – Part 7-4: Basic communication structure –
Compatible logical node classes and data object classes.
[5] Apostolov A., Vandiver B.: Functional Testing of IEC 61850 Based
Protection Relays, 60th Annual Conference for Protective Relay
Engineers, College Station, TX, 27-29 March 2007, pp. 333-340.