Redundant communications in a protective relay
AssigneeGeneral Electric Company
InventorMarzio Pozzuoli
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A redundant communications scheme for a protective relay which allows high-speed, reliable, and fault tolerant communications between peer protective devices in a power distribution network. Communications over a selectable primary communication channel are interrupted and switched to a secondary communication channel, which can operate according to a different communication protocol, when a fault is detected on the primary communication channel. The fault detection and switching is performed transparently to the main protective relay processor.
Claims25
A protective relay with redundant communications capabilities, comprising:
- a digital relay processing module which performs protection and control functions in a power distribution network;
- connections for electrically connecting to a line in a power distribution system;
- and
- a plurality of communications ports for communicating relay data over one of a plurality of channels, communicating over a primary communication channel if no faults are detected by the relay on the primary communication channel, and communicating over a secondary channel if the relay detects a fault on the primary communication channel.
A circuit for providing redundant communications in a digital protective relay comprising:
- a serial interface adaptor transceiver for controlling the exchange of protective relay information between the digital protective relay and a network, including selecting one of a plurality of communication channels for communicating protective relay information;
- a first transceiver for exchanging protective relay information between the serial interface adaptor transceiver and the network over a first communication channel, when the first communication channel is selected;
- and
- a second transceiver for exchanging protective relay information between the serial interface adaptor transceiver and the network over a second communication channel when the second communication channel is selected.
A method for transmitting protective relay information from a protective relay, comprising the steps of:
- receiving protective relay information to be transmitted;
- determining whether a primary communication channel is subject to a fault or interference condition;
- transmitting the protective relay information on the primary communication channel if the primary communication channel is not subject to the fault or interference condition, and switching the transmission of the protective relay information to a secondary communication channel if the primary communication channel is subject to the fault or interference condition.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.