EARTfelt Welcome, dear friends of protection and control engineering! The generator protection relay MCDGV4 of the HighPROTEC series manufactured by WOODWARD in Germany have long been regarded as reliable and high-precision IED's for the protection of medium-sized generation units. Since the last release now also the phase distance protection with power swing blocking and load blinder as well as the out of step protection were supplemented, meanwhile also large generators are fully covered.
In our current article, we introduce you to the features and highlights of the MCDGV4. At the end of the article, there is a short video, here we provide you an overview of the associated operating software Smart view SE.
What enables the MCDGV4 to manage even high range generators?
First of all, the powerful number of high-precision protection functions, which we will see below. The MCDGV4 leaves nothing to be desired.
Connection example MCDGV4 without block transformer
Enlarged representation of the available ANSI functions of the MCDGV4
Let's see the long list of all supported protection functions and the corresponding ANSI codes:
Protection functions:
21P Phase Distance Protection
24 Overexcitation Protection (Volts per Hertz)
25 Synchronizing or Synchronism-check
27 Undervoltage Protection
32 Directional Power Protection
40 Loss of Excitation / Loss of Field
46 Unbalanced Current Protection
47 Unbalanced Voltage Protection
49 Thermal Protection
50 Overcurrent (instantaneous)
50P Phase Overcurrent (instantaneous)
50N Neutral Overcurrent (instantaneous)
50Ns Sensitive Neutral Overcurrent (instantaneous)
50R Overcurrent residual current
51 Overcurrent
51P Phase Overcurrent
51N Neutral Overcurrent
51Ns Sensitive Neutral Overcurrent
51R Overcurrent resudual current
51C Voltage Controlled Overcurrent (via adaptive Parameters)
51Q Negative Phase Sequence Overcurrent (multiple trip characteristics)
51V Voltage Restrained Overcurrent 55 Power Factor Protection
55 Power Factor Supervision
59 Overvoltage Protection
59TN Third Harmonic Neutral Overvoltage
59A Overvoltage Protection
59N Neutral Overvoltage Protection
64REF Restricted Ground Fault Protection
67 Directional Overcurrent
67N Directional Neutral Overcurrent
67Ns Sensitive Directional Neutral Overcurrent
67P Directional Phase Overcurrent
67R Directional Overcurrent resudual current
68 Power Swing Blocking
78 Out of Step Tripping
81 Frequency Protection
81U Underfrequency Protection
81O Overfrequency Protection
81R ROCOF (df/dt)
87G Generator Differential Protection
87GP Generator Phase Differential Protection
87GN Generator Ground Differential Protection
87U Unit Differential Protection (protected zone includes generator and step-up transformer)
87UP Unit Phase Differential Protection (protected zone includes generator and step-up transformer)
Supervision functions:
50BF Breaker Failure
60FL Voltage Transformer Supervision
60L Current Transformer Supervision
74TC Trip Circuit Supervision
Optional Supplemental Devices
26 Temperature Supervision (additional RTD Box)
56 Loss of excitation (XE2DC)
64R Rotor Earth Fault Protection (XR1)
The mentioned protection functions are all on board in the HighPROTEC series. This major advantage is already in the planning phase of the protection concept to wear, no function points, no consideration of the processor load, no thought in terms of the transformer rated currents: Because even here, the device can later be switched between 1 A and 5 A.
Among the functional highlights of the MCDGV4's
🌐 Comprehensive phase and ground differential protection detects electrical faults within the entire block protection area
🌐 Phase distance protection, two elements
🌐 Power swing blocking
🌐 Out of step tripping
🌐 The overexcitation protection comes along with two elements (e.g. for the protection of the step-up transformer during run up (V/f)
🌐 Six elements (voltage dependent) over-current protection (ANSI / IEC / 51C / 51V) + 4 earth fault elements
🌐 Inadvertent energization detection in order to detect the inadvertent supply of the mains voltage to the generator during standstill
🌐 Negative phase sequence protection e.g. in case of loosing a phase
🌐 Digital integration of analog signals, e.g. Buchholz supervision (up to 24 signals)
🌐 Optional temperature supervision with up to 12 external sensors
🌐 QV protection, Undervoltage-Reactive Power protection
🌐 Considerably frequency protection package: Six elements configurable as f <, f>, df/dt, Vektor Surge
🌐 Synch Check (Generator to mains, mains-to-mains), options e.g. to switch onto dead bus
Also on board:
The MCDGV4 has a 120-second non-volatile fault recorder, a 20-fault recorder, an event recorder for up to 300 events, and the ability to record up to 4000 non-volatile trend records for each channel with 10 channels.
Commissiong is very well supported by WOOWARD. For fault analysis, the MCDGV4 has a very practical fault simulator. This offers the possibility of simulating measured quantities or measured values of currents and voltages. By means of the corresponding submenu, three simulation cycles can be realized:
🌐 Pre-fault
🌐 Failure
🌐 Post-fault State (Phase)
Free programmable logic, time synchronization, IT security and sufficient communication options incl. IEC61850 are mandatory (see also "Unboxing" WOODWARDS MCDGV4).
Smart view | The software tool for all HighPROTEC devices
In the following video we give you an overview of the HighPROTEC operating software Smart view in connection with a MCDGV4.
You have now got a little insight into the software Smart view, in our view, a successful configuration and commissioning tool. We are glad that you have shared your most valuable with us, your time,
until next time,
HEARTfelt Greetings Alexander Muth (👨💻)
