A microcomputer-based testing station for dynamic and static testing of protective relay systems

Dynamic and static power system relay performance testing before installation in the field is a subject of great interest to electric utility relay engineers. The common practice in utility testing of new relays is to put the new unit to be tested in parallel with an existing functioning relay in the power system, wait until an actual transient occurs and then observe and analyze the performance of new relay. It is impossible to have a thorough test of the protective relay system through this procedure. A microcomputer-based testing station (or PC-based testing station), that can perform both static and dynamic testing of the relay is described in this paper. The power system simulation laboratory at the University of Texas at Arlington, USA, is a scaled-down, three-phase, physical power system which correlates well with the important components for a real power system and is an ideal facility for the dynamic and static testing of protective relay systems. A brief introduction to the configuration of this laboratory is presented. Test results of several protective functions by using this laboratory illustrate the usefulness of this test set-up