Adaptive relays for overhead line protection

In the liberalized energy market scenario protective relays play an important role in assuring continuous service in the power system where a malfunctioning could lead to serious damages to a wide number of operators having access to the power system. Considering that power lines are operated many times below a rated load current, in this paper an adaptive procedure is presented in order to manage power distribution systems according to dependability or security requirements. In particular, a procedure to obtain an inverse time trip curve by means of a microprocessor, connected to a relay, is presented. The procedure adapts the trip characteristic depending on the conductor temperature, wind speed, emissivity and solar absorbity and is implemented on a microprocessor Rabbit 2200 considering a Drake conductor, 795 kcmil 26/7 ACSR.