Patent ID: 7239496

Claim:
A protective relay system for power line thermal protection using programmable logic present within the relay with the capability of constructing associated logic equations, comprising: a protective relay for power lines, which includes a programmable logic capability by which the end user of the protective relay can enter settings which are then used by the relay in carrying out its thermal protection functions; a set of stored thermal model equations which when solved emulate the temperature of a power line conductor, based on a plurality of individual setting values which are enterable into the relay by the end user, the plurality of individual settings including solar model settings directed toward heating of the conductor affected by solar considerations, thermal model settings which are determined from physical aspects of the conductor and temperature settings, and wherein the solar model settings include a default solar heating value, a solar absorption coefficient, the conductor diameter, the longitude of time standard, the longitude of the conductor and the latitude of the conductor, wherein the thermal model settings for the conductor include its AC resistance at 25° C., the temperature coefficient of the AC resistance, the thermal heating capacity and the thermal resistance of the ambient temperature, and wherein the temperature settings include the estimated ambient temperature, the estimated offset temperature, the high temperature threshold, the low temperature threshold and the conductor initial temperature, and wherein the logic and logic equations implement the entered setting values into the thermal model equations which produce an emulated temperature of the conductor; and means for providing an indication when the temperature of the conductor exceeds a preselected value.