GE 850 Multilin Relay

[capnron]

Facility that I am working at has SR850 Feeder relays in service. There is an IRIG B time signal from the DCS to coordinate all of the protective relays. On all other multilins 745,750,M60. etc. this is not a problem. However with the 850's every time signal causes a "Set Date/Time" Event Record trigger roughly about every 16-17 seconds, 24/7. So we have relays with millions of Events, which causes overwrite of the oldest events losing any useful data before it can be retrieved. GE Tech. Support says that the IRIG Event trigger cannot be turned off. I have been through the settings and also don't see any options except type of IRIG signal. Real Time Clock Events are disabled. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[marks1080]

Disabling IRIG might be better than useless events. There's likely no protection function with that relay that needs a synchronized time signal. Will make reading event reports a little more annoying but better than nothing.

 

[dpc]

Sounds to me that the 850 needs a firmware upgrade. Agree that you probably need to disable IRIG clock synch until GE fixes this.

Good luck.

 

[thermionic1]

Are all of the signals (relays) connected in the same loop. Can you try a separate output for the 850's? What is the format (modulated / unmodulated). Can you connect a DMM (AC) and measure the signal @ 850's?

As others have mentioned, disconnecting the IRIG signal should not do any harm. I'm only aware of certain 87L relays that require a time sync.

 

[bacon4life]

If you use the relay to supply data to the EMS/SCADA, the IRIG signal may be important so that events get archived correctly. If you have a SCADA system that only uses the relay/RTU/IED timestamp, the reported sequence of event data will be totally scrambled until you have every single feild device time synchronized. This was an unfortunate lesson learned from buying a new SCADA system.

 

[capnron]

IRIG B signal is amplitude modulated. 8 MV Substations with various GE Multilins in service, all synced via IRIG B. Found that the Data Logger and Transient Recorder left at default settings. Will try to catch trip evets via those for now.

 

[capnron]

GE firmware upgrade took care of the Irig signal causing an event to be recorded every few seconds. Took several approaches to customer service to find the person with the right answer.

 

[thermionic1]

Thanks for the follow up capnron. It's always good to know the issue was solved and how.