Impact of emulated inertia from wind power on under-frequency protection schemes of future power systems

Future power systems face several challenges.One of them is the use of high power converters that decouple new energy sources from the AC power grid.This situation decreases the total system inertia affecting its ability to overcome system frequency disturbances.The wind power industry has created several controllers to enable inertial response on wind turbines generators:artificial,emulated,simulated,or synthetic inertial.This paper deals with the issues related to the emulated inertia of wind turbines based on full-converters and their effect on the under-frequency protection schemes during the recovery period after system frequency disturbances happen.The main contribution of this paper is to demonstrate the recovery period of under-frequency transients in future power systems which integrate wind turbines with emulated inertia capability does not completely avoid the worse scenarios in terms of under-frequency load shedding.The extra power delivered from a wind turbine during frequency disturbances can substantially reduce the rate of frequency change.Thus it provides time for the active governors to respond.

A Novel Single Phase Grounding Fault Protection Scheme Without Threshold Setting for Neutral Ineffectively Earthed Power Systems

The setting values of thresholds for fault feature parameters are critical in all kinds of protection schemes.When the detected feature parameter value exceeds the setting value,the protection will trip.However,the setting value based conventional protection schemes sometimes cannot satisfy the protection requirements of neutral ineffectively earthed power systems(NIEPS)due to wide variations in operating conditions and the complexities of fault cases.In this paper,a novel single phase grounding fault protection scheme without threshold setting is proposed.The fault detection is achieved based on operating states rather than setting values.A fuzzy c-means algorithm is used to divide the operating state of the protected feeder into non-fault states and fault states.The cluster center of each state is then obtained by classifying the historical feature samples of the protected feeder extracted under various operating conditions into their corresponding states in a constructed multi-dimensional fault feature space.The distances between the detected feature samples and the cluster centers of the non-fault and the fault states are calculated.If the distance to the fault state is shorter than that to the non-fault state,a fault is detected.Otherwise,the feeder is considered normal.A PSCAD/EMTDC simulator is used to simulate a 35 kV NIEPS under various operating conditions,non-linear loads,and complex fault cases.Results show that the proposed single phase grounding fault protection scheme without threshold setting can protect the system correctly under all kinds of faults.

New protection scheme for internal fault of multi-microgrid

Multi-microgrids have many new characteristics, such as bi-directional power flow, flexible operation and variable fault current consisting of the different control strategy of inverter interfaced distributed generations (IIDGs), which all present challenges in multi-microgrid protection. In this paper, the current and voltage characteristics of different feeders are analyzed considering faults at different locations of the multi-microgrid. Based on the voltage and current distribution characteristics of the line parameters, a new protection scheme for the internal faults of multi-microgrids is proposed, which takes the change of phase difference and amplitude of measured bus admittances as the criterion. This proposed scheme has high sensitivity and reliability, is based on a simple principle, and can be easily adjusted. Simulation results using PSCAD/EMTDC verify the correctness and effectiveness of the protection scheme.

Fast Protection Scheme for Active Distribution Networks: Breaking Chains by Utilizing Auxiliary Relays

Due to the swift expansion and the deployment of distributed generation, protection systems of active distribution networks are more expected to be fast. In loop-based active distribution networks, directional overcurrent relays(DOCRs) are caught in different chains. These chains stand as the severe obstacle to follow fast-response protection, which remains a significant challenge. In this paper, to overcome this challenge, a fast protection scheme is proposed to break the chains in the corresponding loops by deploying auxiliary DOCRs. The most effective constraint associated with each chain is relaxed during the coordination process. Then, the auxiliary relays are employed to play the backup roles instead of conventional backup relays in the relaxed constraints. To avoid the misoperation of relays in the proposed scheme, low bandwidth communication links are suitably employed. Furthermore, the auxiliary relays are optimally placed and adjusted. The proposed approach demonstrates a mixed-integer nonlinear programming model which is tackled by particle swarm optimization(PSO) algorithm. Detailed simulation studies are carried out to verify the performance of the proposed approach.

Adaptive relay co-ordination using a busbar splitting approach for a system integrity protection scheme

Power system faults can often result in excessively high currents.If sustained for a long time,such high currents can damage system equipment.Thus,it is desirable to operate the relays in the minimum possible time.In this paper,a busbar splitting approach is used for adaptive relay setting and co-ordination purposes for a system integrity protec-tion scheme(SIPS).Whenever a fault occurs,the busbar splitting scheme splits a bus to convert a loop into a radial structure.The splitting schemes are chosen such that the net fault current is also reduced.Busbar splitting elimi-nates the dependency upon minimum breakpoints set(MBPS)and reduces the relay operating time,thus making it adaptive.The proposed methodology is incorporated into the IEEE 14-bus and IEEE 30-bus systems with single and multiple fault conditions.The modeling and simulation carried out in ETAP,and the results of the proposed busbar splitting-based relay co-ordination are compared with the MBPS splitting-based relay co-ordination.

Protection Strategies against Cascading Failure for Power Systems of Ring Network

Power grid vulnerability is a key issue with large blackouts, causing power disruption for millions of people. The complexity of power grid, together with excessive number of components, makes it difficult to be modeled. Currently, researchers use complex networks to model and study the performance of power grids. In fact, power grids can be modeled into a complex network by making use of ring network topology, with substations and transmission lines denoted as nodes and edges, respectively. In this paper, three protection schemes are proposed and their effectiveness in protecting the power network under high and low-load attacks is studied. The proposed schemes, namely, Cascaded Load Cut-off (CLC), Cascaded Load Overflow (CLO) and Adaptive-Cascaded Load Overflow (A-CLO), improve the robustness of the power grids, i.e., decrease the value of critical tolerance. Simulation results show that CLC and CLO protection schemes are more effective in improving the robustness of networks than the A-CLO protection scheme. However, the CLC protection scheme is effective only at the expense that certain percentage of the network will have no power supply. Thus, results show that the CLO protection scheme dominates the other protection schemes, CLC and A-CLO, in terms of the robustness of the network, improved with the precise amount of load cut-off determined.

Improving the performance of power system protection using wide area monitoring systems

Wide area monitoring(WAM) offers many opportunities to improve the performance of power system protection. This paper presents some of these opportunities and the motivation for their development. This methods include monitoring the suitability of relay characteristics,supervisory control of backup protection, more adaptive and intelligent system protection and the creation of novel system integrity protection scheme. The speed of response required for primary protection means that the role WAM in enhancing protection is limited to backup and system protection. The opportunities offered by WAM for enhancing protection are attractive because of the emerging challenges faced by the modern power system protection. The increasingly variable operating conditions of power systems are making it ever more difficult to select relay characteristics that will be a suitable compromise for all loading conditions and contingencies. The maloperation of relays has contributed to the inception and evolution of 70 % of blackouts,thus the supervision of the backup protection may prove a valuable tool for preventing or limiting the scale of blackouts. The increasing interconnection and complexity of modern power systems has made them more vulnerable to wide area disturbances and this has contributed to several recent blackouts. The proper management of these wide area disturbances is beyond the scope of most of the existing protection and new, adaptive system integrity protection schemes are needed to protect power system security.

IEC61850 standard-based harmonic blocking scheme for power transformers

Transformer Differential and overcurrent schemes are traditionally used as main and backup protection respectively. The differential protection relay (SEL487E) has dedicated harmonic restraint function which blocks the relay tripping during the transformer magnetizing inrush conditions. However, the backup overcurrent relay (SEL751A) applied to the transformer protection does not have harmonic restraint element and trip the overcurrent relay during the inrush conditions. Therefore, major contribution of this research work is the developed harmonic blocking scheme for transformer which uses element (87HB) of the transformer differential relay (SEL487E) to send an IEC61850 GOOSE-based harmonic blocking signal to the backup overcurrent relay (SEL751A) to inhibit from tripping during the transformer magnetizing inrush current conditions. The simulation results proved that IEC61850 standard-based protection scheme is faster than the hardwired signals. Therefore, the speed and reliability of the transformer scheme are improved using the IEC61850 standard-based GOOSE applications.

Wide area measurements based fault detection and location method for transmission lines

Electric power grids are critical infrastructure for delivering energy from generation stations to load centers. To maximize utilization of assets, it is desirable to increase the power transferred over transmission systems. Reliable protection of transmission systems is essential for safeguarding the integrity and reliability of the power grid. Distance protection is the most widely used scheme for protecting transmission lines. Most existing protection systems use local measurements to make a decision while pilot protection is used in some circumstances. Distance protection may fail under stressed operating conditions, which could lead to cascading faults. This paper proposes a system integrity protection scheme by utilizing wide area measurements. The scheme partitions the system into subnetworks or protection zones and employs current measurements to derive a fault identification vector indicating the faulted zone. Then the fault location is pinpointed based on wide area measurements and network data. The proposed method is able to deal with multiple, simultaneous faults, and is applicable to both transposed and untransposed lines. Evaluation studies based on simulation studies are presented.