Digitalization of Protection Relay Management

This paper is prepared in line with IEEE publication requirements and describes the aspects in which we can improve the way we manage protective relay devices through digitalization. Protection Relays are one of the Safety Critical Elements (SCE) of electrical systems and are designed to protect an electrical system from undesirable disturbance and equipment damage. It is subjected to checking, testing and calibration due to its criticality [2]. Essentially, upon detection of any electrical fault or disturbance the protection relay will send a trip signal to a circuit breaker to isolate the fault. Many industries have experienced protection relay failures in the past that have resulted in production loss and extensive equipment damage due to failures of this SCE equipment to function as required. With digitalization becoming prevalent and demanding nowadays, data centralization and the efforts towards digitalization of control and real time monitoring of protection relays has become crucial and with the advancement of technology and available applications can be realized sooner rather than later. In the case of protection relays in large scale electrical installations, these requirements become essential in supplementing human intervention in daily operations and maintenance activities. By having a centralised digital database supported with analytical tools, managing a wide range of protection relays in large scale electrical installation becomes simpler, more efficient, reporting-friendly, and enables users to take calculated risk for better decision making. Digitalization is a key step towards realizing remote operation of electrical facilities and further reduction in operational costs of such facilities.