PRIMARY AND BACK UP PROTECTION OF TRANSMISSION LINES BASIC AND TUTORIALS

The main protection system for a given zone of protection is called the primary protection system. It operates in the fastest time possible and removes the least amount of equipment from service.

On Extra High Voltage (EHV) systems, i.e., 345kV and above, it is common to use duplicate primary protection systems in case a component in one primary protection chain fails to operate.

This duplication is therefore intended to cover the failure of the relays themselves. One may use relays from a different manufacturer, or relays based on a different principle of operation to avoid common-mode failures.

The operating time and the tripping logic of both the primary and its duplicate system are the same. It is not always practical to duplicate every element of the protection chain.

On High Voltage (HV) and EHV systems, the costs of transducers and circuit breakers are very expensive and the cost of duplicate equipment may not be justified. On lower voltage systems, even the relays themselves may not be duplicated.

In such situations, a backup set of relays will be used. Backup relays are slower than the primary relays and may remove more of the system elements than is necessary to clear the fault.

Remote Backup
These relays are located in a separate location and are completely independent of the relays, transducers, batteries, and circuit breakers that they are backing up. There are no common failures that can affect both sets of relays.

However, complex system configurations may significantly affect the ability of a remote relay to ‘‘see’’ all faults for which backup is desired. In addition, remote backup may remove more sources of the system than can be allowed.

Local Backup
These relays do not suffer from the same difficulties as remote backup, but they are installed in the same substation and use some of the same elements as the primary protection. They may then fail to operate for the same reasons as the primary protection.