Design of Virtual Distance Protection for Offline Transmission Line Relay Testing

In some countries, it is a common practice to re-set the relays after installation when a fault occurs. This reprogramming of settings can create damage to the equipment, or it might result in a wrong configuration. The aim of this work proposes an alternative to these problems through the virtualization of the protective equipment. The design presented in this paper reproduces the operation of a distance protection relay for offline Playback type tests on files, or pre-recorded failures extracted with COMTRADE files from field relays. Both features are introduced and validated using ATPDraw and transient simulation models of a basic power system. Results show the main advantages and contributions of virtualization as a tool for tranmission line protective relay testing.