Using COMTRADE records to test protective relays

This purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how to use COMTRADE records to commission protective relays. COMTRADE records that have been captured by numerical relays and digital fault records during actual system events are of particular interest since these provide the ability to test protection for critical faults or disturbances such as an out of-step condition that are difficult to create using off the shelf test set software. Utilities and other customers can build a library of test cases. This paper shows how to use COMTRADE records to test transformer differential protection, loss of field protection and out-of step protection.