E – 1659 Protection Relay Testing and Commissioning

The testing and verification of protection devices and arrangements introduces a number of issues. This happens because the main function of protection devices is related to operation under fault conditions so these devices cannot be tested under normal operating conditions. This problem is worsened by the growing complexity of protection arrangements, application of protection relays with extensive software functionalities, and frequently used Ethernet peer-to-peer logic. The testing and verification of relay protection devices can be divided into four groups:

Routine factory production tests

Type tests

Commissioning tests

Occasional maintenance tests