Function and role of bus bar protection relay in distribution substation

Bus bar of substations are important equipment where multiple facilities are centrally connected, and the impact of a fault is significant. Therefore, bus bar protection relays have unique functions to correctly detect the point of fault, which allows high speed fault elimination and minimization of outage area. This paper describes functions and roles of bus bar protection relays applied in distribution substation of Kansai Transmission and Distribution. After describing the concept of installation of bus bar protection relays, recent trends in device development tailored to the bus bar configurations of substations and the unique functions of bus bar protection relays are introduced. The retrofit methods that are being increasingly applied as a renewal solution for bus bar protection relays are then described, as well as prospects for bus bar protection functions in the future IEC 61850 full-digital substations.