Remote recloser configuration: settings, curves and logic

What it is and when you need it

Remote recloser configuration means setting up the recloser control without traveling to the pole or the substation. It covers protection functions, time-current curves, reclosing sequences, logic and communications. Our team does it from our office in Bogotá (UTC−5), over an encrypted connection that you authorize for each task, for clients worldwide.

Reclosers protect distribution circuits, substation feeders and industrial plant feeders. They tend to be far away and spread across the network, so every site visit to change a setting costs time and leaves the circuit waiting. With secure remote access, the same task is done without a truck roll.

Typical cases:

• A new recloser arrives with factory defaults and needs the project settings before energization.
• The utility or your protection coordination study approves new settings.
• A recloser tripped or went to lockout and you need to know why.
• The network changed: new distributed generation, a longer circuit or a new tie point.
• You want to back up every configuration and compare it against the approved version.

This is one of the tasks within our remote relay configuration service.

What is included

• Protection settings: phase and ground overcurrent (50/51, 50N/51N), sensitive earth fault, directional elements (67, 67N), voltage (27, 59) and frequency (81), depending on what the control offers. Device numbers follow IEEE C37.2.
• Time-current curves: fast and delayed curves, IEC or IEEE curves, manufacturer-specific curves, time multipliers, minimum response times and time adders.
• Reclosing sequence (79): number of trips to lockout, dead times, reset time and which curve each trip uses, for example to run a fuse-saving scheme downstream.
• Control functions: cold load pickup, inrush restraint, settings groups, hot line tag / live line work mode and blocking conditions.
• Programmable logic, loop and transfer schemes, and sectionalizer modes when the control supports them.
• Communications: DNP3, IEC 60870-5-104 or Modbus, point maps to the SCADA and time synchronization.
• Data retrieval: event logs, fault records, oscillography and load profiles.
• Configuration backups before and after every change.

We also check that the rated frequency in the settings file (50 Hz or 60 Hz) matches your system. It is an easy detail to miss when a control or a settings template comes from another market.

How we work

1. We confirm the equipment. You tell us the brand, control model and firmware version. With that we confirm we have the right software and experience for that control.
2. We set up secure access. We agree with you on how we reach the control: through the substation network, the recloser’s modem or a dedicated communications device. The connection is encrypted and is never left open to the internet.
3. You authorize the work. Access is enabled only for that task and within the window you define.
4. We back up and apply. We save the active configuration, load the approved settings and compare what was loaded against what was approved, setting by setting.
5. We verify. We check measurements, status points and SCADA communication with you. If the equipment is being installed, your field crew performs secondary injection, or our test team does it with an Omicron CMC 356 in Colombia or on request elsewhere.
6. We report. You receive a change report with both backups and the session log.

We do not publish step-by-step programming of any control: it depends on the model, the firmware and your study, and it is the work we do for you.

Standards and criteria

Reclosers are designed and tested to IEC 62271-111 / IEEE C37.60. Interrupting rating, number of operations and mechanism timing depend on the model and are taken from the manufacturer’s data.

Inverse-time curves follow IEC 60255-151 or IEEE C37.112, plus the proprietary curves many controls include. Settings must coordinate with the fuses, relays and other reclosers on the circuit, so we take them from an approved study, not from factory defaults. If you do not have one, our team can carry out a protection coordination study. When the circuit has generation or can be fed from both ends, we review directional elements and ground polarization with particular care.

For communications, the point map is built for your SCADA protocol, either DNP3 (IEEE 1815) or IEC 60870-5-104. We adapt the settings and the signal list to the local code and the utility requirements that you give us.

Remote access security

• Encrypted access: the connection is encrypted and does not expose the control to the internet.
• Only with your authorization: we never connect to a device without your request for that specific task.
• Every change is logged: who connected, to which device, what changed and when.
• Backup before and after: if something does not behave as expected, we restore the previous configuration.

What you receive

• The final configuration file of the control and a copy of the previous one.
• The applied settings table, compared against the approved settings.
• Downloaded events, fault records and oscillography, with our analysis when you ask for it.
• The communications point map, if it was configured.
• A job report with the session log.

Brand-specific pages

Each control family has its own software and quirks. See our pages for NOJA Power, Schneider Electric ADVC, Eaton Form 6 and SEL.

Why Tiza Group

• One team accountable from start to finish: the people who receive your request apply the change and stand behind it.
• Proven remote configuration capability across protective relays, reclosers, control and communications.
• Major brands: NOJA Power, SEL, Schneider Electric, Siemens, ABB, GE, Fanox and Efacec, among others.
• Field judgment: our team has tested and commissioned this equipment, from design through energization, in substations up to extra-high voltage and in industry.

Not sure the settings on a recloser are right? Ask for a relay trip analysis or tell us about your equipment on our contact page.