A new protection scheme for feeders of microgrids with inverter-based resources

• Published in: Electric power systems research 2023-11, Vol.224, p.109632, Article 109632
• Main Authors: Sharma, Jigyesh, Sidhu, Tarlochan S
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Digital relays; Distributed energy resources; Microgrid protection; Phasor measurement unit
• ISSN: 0378-7796
• DOI: 10.1016/j.epsr.2023.109632

•Novel protection technique for microgrids with inverter-based resources.•Effective both in grid-connected and islanded modes of operation unlike other relays such as differential relays.•Not affected by inverter-type and its control strategy, microgrid topology and level of generation. Due to the unavailability of a suitable relay for microgrid protection, various utilities are fitting available IEDs for the protection of microgrids. At present, microgrid protection is achieved using a combination of conventional numerical relays. These numerical relays are not suitable for all kinds of microgrid architectures and do not provide complete protection with inverter-based generators. Since these relays were designed considering the fault characteristics of synchronous generators, they fail to respond to the fault characterized by inverter-based generators. This paper proposes a new protection technique that is independent of the type of generating sources, control philosophy of inverters as well as microgrid architecture. Simulations are performed using PSCAD/EMTDC and performance of the protection scheme is also evaluated in real-time using RTDS. Pertinent results are presented which demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed scheme.