This guide represents a short overview of fundamentals of a power system protection, operating principles and relay characteristics as well as description of main switchgear components like various types of circuit breakers, CTs and PTs, relays etc. Engineering use: Relays are used on feeders, transformers, buses, motors, generators, and transmission lines to protect equipment and improve system reliability. What controls it: Relay performance depends on the protected zone, CT/PT inputs, pickup settings, time delay, breaker clearing time, trip. Selectivity is a mandatory requirement for all protection, but the importance of it depends on the application. For example, unselective protection operation during a medium voltage network fault will cause an outage for an unnecessarily large number of consumers. Grid anomalies can be caused by over currents - the overload through lightning or malfunctioning electric equipment or a short circuit in the. Protective Relay Definition: A protective relay is an automatic device that senses abnormal conditions in electrical circuits and triggers actions to isolate faults. The protective and control devices can be used in, for example, single and double busbar applications, as well as radial, looped, and meshed grids. What controls it: Relay selection.