Protective relay testing

To enable electrical installations and relays to be tested to the new IEC 61850 international communication standard for electricity substations, an IEC 61850 option has been introduced for the MPRT protective relay test system, together with MGC configurator software.

The software allows users to import parameters from configuration files in SCL (substation control language) format and use them to configure the test set to subscribe to pre-selected messages. Data from the received messages is assigned to the binary inputs of the test set, so that the messages effectively take the place of hard-wired connections to the binary outputs of the relays.

This arrangement provides for both manual and automatic relay testing, using either the integral touch view interface of the test set, or relay-testing software.

The software can also assign the binary outputs of the instrument to simulate circuit-breaker status, while the touch view interface can be used to perform high-speed trip and reclose timing tests.