Extensive evaluation of high performance protection relays for the Hydro-Quebec series compensated network

This paper reports on an extensive study to compare the performance of 8 preselected high performance power line protection systems on the Hydro-Quebec series compensated network. The paper first presents an evaluation of the commissioning aspects and manufacturing quality of the tested relays. It then describes the simulated network, the relay testing procedure, and the laboratory test results obtained on a modern real time power system simulator. Published results of relay performance on series compensated lines are scarce and this paper provides valuable information for utility protection engineers. A total of 115,000 network disturbances were simulated and recorded on 20 different 735 kV lines; fractional test results for 84,030 cases are presented in the paper. The approach using real time power system simulation proved to be an efficient technique for evaluating protection relay performance. The laboratory test results demonstrated that the two best protection principles to be applied on the Hydro-Quebec series compensated network are those based on current differential and segregated phase comparison. The analysis does not take into account telecommunication requirements or other external constraints