Distribution power factor monitoring in presence of high RES integration using a modified load encroachment technique

• Published in: IET renewable power generation 2018-05, Vol.12 (7), p.851-858
• Main Authors: Mortazavi, Hashem, Mehrjerdi, Hasan, Saad, Maarouf, Lefebvre, Serge
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: defined monitoring zones some alarms; digital distance relay; distance relay mal‐operation; distance relay protection zones; distributed power generation; distribution power factor; heavy load conditions; high RES integration; IEEE 8500 node test feeder; load encroachment scheme; modern digital distance relays; modified load encroachment technique; on‐line power factor monitoring; power engineering computing; power transmission faults; power transmission protection; relay protection; Research Article; unbalanced distribution system feeder loading
• ISSN: 1752-1416; 1752-1424; 1752-1424
• DOI: 10.1049/iet-rpg.2017.0743

This study presents a new approach in application of distance relay in distribution system. During the heavy load conditions, the load encroachment of impedance into the distance relay protection zones is a well-known reason for distance relay mal-operation. Therefore, all the modern digital distance relays are equipped with the load encroachment scheme. This study proposes the idea of using the load encroachment scheme of distance relay for monitoring purpose in the presence of renewable energy resources (RES) integration. Furthermore, it will be presented that based on the defined monitoring zones some alarms can be defined. The OpenDSS and Matlab software are used to test the effectiveness of the method with the IEEE 8500 node test feeder. The proposed method is tested with the unbalanced distribution system feeder loading and distributed model of solar generations. The dynamic performance of the proposed method is studied for on-line power factor monitoring of the feeder with the sun irradiation dynamic. The results show the necessity of power factor monitoring in the distribution system with RES integration. In addition, the simplicity of the proposed method allows its easy application in the digital distance relay.