Selectivity Problem in Adaptive Overcurrent Protection for Microgrid With Inverter-Based Distributed Generators (IBDG): Theoretical Investigation and HIL Verification

The advancements in smart grid technologies had brought forth the prospect of self-healing distribution grid through intentional islanding, aided by the steadily rising penetration of inverter-based distributed generations (IBDGs). Adaptive protection is the key enabler for this resilient grid archi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:IEEE transactions on power delivery 2022-08, Vol.37 (4), p.3313-3324
Main Authors: Wong, Jorinda Yuh Ru, Tan, ChiaKwang, Bakar, Ab Halim Abu, Che, Hang Seng
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adaptive protection
Circuits
Comparative studies
Distributed generation
Electric power distribution
Electric power systems
Inverters
islanding
Microgrids
Optical character recognition software
Overcurrent
power distribution networks
power system faults
power system protection
Relays
Selectivity
self-healing microgrid
Sensitivity
Short circuit currents
Smart grid
Smart grid technology
smart grids
Topology
Voltage control
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Summary:The advancements in smart grid technologies had brought forth the prospect of self-healing distribution grid through intentional islanding, aided by the steadily rising penetration of inverter-based distributed generations (IBDGs). Adaptive protection is the key enabler for this resilient grid architecture. For cost-effectiveness, overcurrent relays (OCRs) with adaptive features had been proposed, often with the sensitivity problem due to low short-circuit current magnitude from the IBDG taken into consideration and largely addressed. However, apart from this widely discussed sensitivity problem, there is an underlying issue on selectivity of the OCR which is frequently disregarded when designing an adaptive overcurrent protection scheme for IBDG dominated microgrid. This selectivity problem is mainly caused by the current diversion to load during fault, which is often disregarded when performing OCR grading for a conventional grid. In this paper, this selectivity problem of the OCR is discussed in depth through a comparative study of conventional grid and a modern IBDG dominated grid. The coordination time interval margin violations problems are demonstrated through theoretical calculations and real-time hardware-in-the-loop experiments. This research aims to provide better insights into the selectivity problem as a step towards achieving a cost-effective yet reliable overcurrent-based adaptive protection for IBDG dominated microgrid.
ISSN:0885-8977
1937-4208
DOI:10.1109/TPWRD.2021.3126897