Electrical bus protection method & apparatus

1. A protection relay for a power line system where current on a bus is provided to one or more power lines for receiving and generating power, and where associated with each of said power lines is a current transformer for providing a line signal representative of current flowing through a respective power line, and wherein said protection relay is operative for generating a fault trip signal in response to a detected power line fault, the protection relay comprising:

a signal processor responsive to said line signals for generating a fault trip signal in response to a detected fault on any one of the power lines;

means for summing said line signals, separately for each power line phase, for all power lines coupled to said bus and producing,

a first signal indicative of the phasor sum of all line signals, and

a second signal representative of the magnitude sum of said line signals;

means for deriving,

a first time derivative signal representative of the first derivative of said first signal, and

a second time derivative signal representative of the first derivative of said second signal;

means for deriving,

a first harmonic signal representative of the a selected harmonic of said first time derivative signal, and

a second harmonic signal representative of a selected harmonic of said second time derivative signal;

means for determining the harmonic phase difference between said first and second harmonic signals;

phase comparator means responsive to said harmonic phase difference for selectively generating a blocking signal for blocking said fault trip signal if said harmonic phase difference satisfies a first condition; and

a trip signal generator means responsive to said first and second signals for generating a fault trip signal upon said first and second signals being beyond a defined bus differential characteristic conditioned upon the status of said blocking signal.

2. A protection relay for a power line system where current on a bus is provided to one or more power lines for receiving and generating power, and where associated with each of said power lines is a current transformer for providing a line signal representative of current flowing through a respective line, and wherein said protection relay is operative for generating a trip signal in response to a detected power signal line fault, the protection relay comprising:

signal processor responsive to said line signals for generating a trip signal in response to a detected fault on any one of the power lines;

means responsive to said line signals for detecting current transformer saturation; and

means for selectively generating a blocking signal for blocking said trip signal in response to detection of current saturation of said current transformer.

3. A protection relay for a power line system where current on a bus is provided to one or more power lines for receiving and generating power, and where associated with each of said power lines is a current transformer for providing a line signal representative of current flowing through a respective line, and wherein said protection relay is operative for generating a fault trip signal in response to a detected power signal line fault, the protection relay comprising:

a first signal processing means responsive to said line signals for generating a fault trip signal in response to a detected fault on any one of the power lines enabled upon the absence of a blocking signal; and

a second signal processing means responsive to said line signals for,

(i) detecting current transformer saturation; and

(ii) for selectively generating said blocking signal for blocking said fault trip signal in response to detection of saturation of said current transformer occurring for less than a selected maximum block time.

4. The protection relay of claim 3 wherein said blocking signal is a function of (i) the first time derivative of the phasor sum of said line currents, and (ii) the first time derivative if the magnitude sum of said line currents.

5. A method for providing fault protection for power line systems where current on a bus is provided to one or more power lines for receiving and generating power, and where associated with each of said power lines is a current transformer for providing a line signal representative of current flowing through a respective line, and wherein said protection relay is operative for generating a fault trip signal in response to a detected power signal line fault, the method comprising the steps of:

generating a fault trip signal in response to a detected fault on any one of the power lines conditioned upon the absence of a blocking signal;

detecting saturation in response to said transformer line signal associated with any current transformer associated with any of said power lines; and

selectively generating said blocking signal for blocking said fault trip signal in response to detection of said saturation of said current transformer occurring for less than a selected maximum block time.

6. The apparatus of claim 5 further including the steps of:

(i) determining a first time derivative of the phasor sum of said line currents, and

(ii) determining the first time derivative if the magnitude sum of said line currents.

7. A protection relay for a power line system where current on a bus is provided to one or more power lines for receiving and generating power, and where associated with each of said power lines is a current transformer for providing a line signal representative of current flowing through a respective power line, and wherein said protection relay is operative for generating a fault trip signal in response to a detected power line fault, the protection relay comprising:

a signal processor responsive to said line signals for detecting a fault associated with any one power line and generating a fault trip signal in response thereto;

means for summing said line signals, separately for each power line phase, for all power lines coupled to said bus and producing, a first signal indicative of the phasor sum of all line signals, and a second signal representative of the magnitude sum of said line signals;

signal processing means for deriving,

a first time derivative signal representative of the first derivative of said first signal, and

a second time derivative signal representative of the first derivative of said second signal;

means for deriving,

a first harmonic signal representative of the a selected harmonic of said first time derivative signal, and

a second harmonic signal representative of a selected harmonic of said second time derivative signal;

means for determining the harmonic phase difference between said first and second harmonic signals;

a signal phase comparator responsive to said harmonic phase difference for selectively generating a blocking signal for blocking said fault trip signal if said harmonic phase difference satisfies a first condition; and

a trip signal generator responsive to said first and second signals for generating a fault trip signal upon said first and second signals being beyond a defined bus differential characteristic conditioned upon the status of said blocking signal.