The invention relates to a hierarchical protection method, which comprises the following steps: firstly, establishing a hierarchical protection system, further judging whether a power system breaks down, then responding the fault by the protection system, detecting whether the fault exists after the protection system waits for corresponding protection time, if so, after time delay, responding thefault by the protection system, generating a corresponding tripping algorithm according to the fault position and a topological structure, and then sending a tripping signal to a transformer substation; further continuously detecting whether the fault exists or not, if so, sending the tripping signal to a circuit breaker on a line connected with an information-losing transformer substation when the adjacent transformer substation loses voltage after time delay again; and finally, after the protection action time of S1-S5, if the fault still exists, sending the tripping signals to the circuit breakers at two ends of the fault element after the action condition time delay is met, the fault is simply and orderly responded and removed by the hierarchical protection system, the complex settingprocess of the traditional backup protection is avoided, the action is effectively and reliably sent, and the working efficiency is improved.