High frequency impedance based fault location in distribution system with DGs

Distributed Generations (DGs) with power electronic devices and their control loops will cause distortion to the fault currents and result in errors for power frequency measurement based fault locations. This might jeopardize the distribution system fault restoration and reduce the grid resilience. The proposed method uses high frequency (up to 3kHz) fault information and short window measurement to avoid the influence of DG control loops. Applying the DG high frequency impedance model, faults can be accurately located by measuring the system high frequency line reactance. Assisted with the DG side recorded unsynchronized data, this method can be employed to distribution systems with multiple branches and laterals

An islanding detection method for multi-DG systems based on high-frequency impedance estimation

Active islanding detection methods are generally employed for grid-connected inverter-based Distributed Generation (DG). However, there might be mutual influences and power quality issues caused by the disturbance signal when multiple inverters are involved. To address those problems, this paper analyzes the potential failure mechanism of the f-Q (frequency-reactive power) drifting active method in multiple-DG situations. Then, a novel high frequency transient injection based islanding detection method that is suitable for both single and multiple-DGs is proposed. Compared with the conventional injection methods, a high frequency impedance model for DG is provided for better theoretical analysis. By means of the intermittent Time Domain Low Voltage Condition (TDLVC) injection control, this method can achieve good accuracy and reduce disturbances to power system

Sparse Voltage Measurement-Based Fault Location Using Intelligent Electronic Devices

This paper proposes a fault-section location method based on sparse measurements, aimed at asymmetrical faults. A virtual current vector is defined to indicate the faulted section, which is sufficiently sparse except that the fault position corresponding entries are nonzero. To simplify the algorithm, the virtual vector is fixed by amplitudes of voltages and impedances and the feasibility is demonstrated. The Bayesian Compressive Sensing theory is introduced to reduce the number of required intelligent electronic devices (IEDs). In addition, the minimal number of IEDs and their allocation are discussed. The performance of the proposed method is validated in a 69-bus, 12.66 kV distribution system with six distributed generations (DGs) in response to various fault scenarios. The simulation results show that the method is robust for single-phase, double-phase, and double-phase to ground faults with high resistance under noisy condition. Furthermore, the method is applicable for networks with inverter interfaced DGs

Marine power distribution system fault location using a portable injection unit

A portable injection unit for Active Impedance Estimation (AIE) is built and tested in a DC zonal marine power distribution system to provide useful information for system protection and restoration. The portable unit generates current “spikes” and injects them into the system once short circuit faults are detected (by measuring the system voltage drop). The faulted system impedance can be estimated by AIE and comparing the estimated impedance with the pre-calibrated value, the fault location can be determined. The proposed method does not rely on system fault transient information or communication from the remote-end measurement and offers fast and accurate fault location in DC marine distribution systems. The proposed method has been tested and validated on a 750V, 2 MW twin bus DC Commercial Test Facility with the system both de-energised and energised

Historical data based energy management in a microgrid with a hybrid energy storage system

In a micro-grid, due to potential reverse output profiles of the Renewable Energy Source (RES) and the load, energy storage devices are employed to achieve high self-consumption of RES and to minimize power surplus flowing back into the main grid. This paper proposes a variable charging/discharging threshold method to manage energy storage system. And an Adaptive Intelligence Technique (AIT) is put forward to raise the power management efficiency. A battery-ultra-capacitor hybrid energy storage system (HESS) with merits of high energy and power density is used to evaluate the proposed method with onsite measured RES output data. Compared with the PSO algorithm based on the precise predicted data of the load and the RES, the results show that the proposed method can achieve better load smoothing and maximum self-consumption of the RES without the requirement of precise load and RES forecasting

Transient high-frequency impedance comparison-based protection for flexible DC distribution systems

Flexible direct current (DC) distribution systems have emerged as the development trend for future distribution grids. However, these systems are vulnerable to DC faults, rapid fault identification and faulted line selection method are required to enhance the security of the entire system. A novel transient high frequency impedance comparison based DC protection for flexible DC distribution systems is proposed in this paper. The control independent high frequency impedance model of power converter is also investigated. Based on this model, the proposed method identified the faulted lines by comparing high frequency impedance measurement differences. For DC bus with multiple branches, this technique minimizes the threshold calculation job, which is usually difficult to process for the transient value based protections. Strict synchronization of data is also not required for this method. The simulation model of four-terminal flexible DC distribution networks is built in PSCAD/EMTDC to verify the effectiveness of the proposed protection model. Simulation results prove that the protection is robust to fault transition resistances and the measurement noise

Advanced DC zonal marine power system protection

A new Active Impedance Estimation (AIE) based protection strategy which is suitable for utilization in a DC zonal marine power distribution system is presented. This method uses two triangular current "spikes" injections for system impedance estimation and protection when faults are detected. By comparing the estimated impedance with the pre-calibrated value, the fault location can be predicted and fault can be isolated without requiring communication between two injection units. Using co¬operated double injections and line current measurement (directional fault detection), faults in the system with same impedance and different fault positions can be distinguished, located and isolated. The proposed method is validated using experimental test results derived from a 30kW, 400V, twin bus DC marine power system demonstrator. The experimental tests were applied to both faults during normal operation and faults that occur during system restoration

Influence of inverter-interfaced renewable energy generators on directional relay and an improved scheme

Renewable energy sources (RESs) are typically interfaced to the grid using power electronics which can cause their fault current characteristics to display significant low frequency harmonics and unbalanced sequence impedances. Such current characteristics can lead to the operation failure of fault component based directional relays. To demonstrate the influence of inverter-interfaced renewable energy generators (IIREGs) on directional relays in detail, analytical expressions for the IIREG equivalent positive- and negative-sequence superimposed impedances are derived in this paper. Considering various factors, the angular characteristics of the sequence superimposed impedances are investigated. Based on these attributes, it can be concluded that fault component based directional relays may be unable to operate in some circumstances. A novel high-frequency impedance-based protection scheme is proposed to manage the adaptability problem by determining the fault direction due to a stable impedance angle. The theoretical analysis and the proposed scheme are tested and verified through real time digital simulation (RTDS) simulation and field testing data

A Hardware-in-Loop Simulation of DC Microgrid using Multi-Agent Systems

Smart-grid is a complex system that incorporates distributed control, communication, optimization, and management functions in addition to the legacy functions such as generation, storage, and control. The design and test of new smart-grid algorithms require an efficient simulator. Agent-based simulation platforms are the most popular tools that work well in the control and monitoring functionalities of the power electric network such as the microgrid. Most existing simulation tools necessitate either simulated or static data. In this paper, we propose a hardware-in-loop simulator for de-microgrid. The simulator reads the power generated by the PV panels and the battery SoC using Raspberry PI. A physical agent that runs on Raspberry PI sends the real-time data to a de-microgrid simulator that runs on a PC. As a proof of concept, we implemented a load-shedding algorithm using the proposed system