A DISTANCE PROTECTION STRATEGIC SPARE RELAY FOR 132/66kV OVERHEAD LINES

The South African electrical supply utility (Eskom) has been experiencing problems in the field of protection, maintenance and in-service breakdowns which influence the quality of electrical supply to the consumer, an important and integral component of the utility business. As a result, further development of the generic relay, implemented as a strategic spare relay for the replacement of several schemes operating within Eskom's southern region has been initiated. These include the electromechanical, solid state and numerical distance protection relays and scheme failures on the 132/66W feeder network The research considers the development, testing and configuration of the strategic spare relay in terms of software and peripheral hardware for the input and output terminal connections, generic equations and settings, for the purpose of scheme replacements. The various schemes are assessed for stepped distance and permissive intertrippingfor three and single pole operation. This is done in conjunction with the internal and external circuit diagrams to understand the detailed operation of the scheme and to ensure the effective implementation of the strategic spare relay. The generic relay is configured for the emergency replacement of the various schemes during in-service breakdowns. This constitutes a temporary installation and therefore the downtime of all the distance protection schemes that require replacement, is limited to a minimum.