17th International Middle East Power Systems Conference, Mansoura University, Egypt, December 15-17, 2015

A Proposed Technique to Alleviate Fuse-Recloser MisCoordination for Power Systems Penetrated with DG
Using Probabilistic Neural Network
Amr AbouGhazala

Asmaa Mousa

Electrical Department, Faculty of Engineering

Alexandria Universit, Egypty
a.ghazala@electropower.com

Alexandria Electrical Distribution Company

Alexandria, Egypt
asmaa_mousa78@yahoo.com

Abstract - Distributed Generation (DG) contribution to

power system has many benefits, such as improving voltage
profile, increasing system reliability, reducing the power
losses and load peak shaving. However, DG contribution in
fault current may cause loss of existing protection
coordination, e.g. recloser-fuse coordination. This paper
presents a proposed technique to alleviate fuse-recloser miscoordination either by recloser resetting or using fault
current limiter. Trained probabilistic artificial neural
network (ANN) is applied to decide which technique should
be used. Two case studies with different parameter
combinations (129 and 96 cases) was simulated to test the
efficiency of the proposed algorithm. The ANN succeeded in
96% and 93.4 % of the examined cases.
Index Terms DG, Fuse- recloser coordination, ANN.

I. INTRODUCTION
The presence of distributed generation units connected to
power distribution networks is greatly increasing. Thus,
investment in distributed generation manufacturing and
integration with power systems has been increasing
exponentially in the last few years. Unfortunately, the
integration of DGs into current power distribution networks is
not yet problem free, as these networks were designed based
on the assumption that only loads, not generators, will be
connected to it. These problems may be classified into four
main categories: impacts on system protection, impacts on
voltage regulation, impacts on power quality, and
ferroresonance.
Before evaluation of these system impacts, data that can
properly describe both the DG and the utility system need to
be collected. Data needed to evaluate DG impacts are [1]:
Size rating of the proposed DG
Type of DG power converter (static or rotating)
Type of DG prime energy source (photovoltaic, wind or
fuel cell)
Operating cycles

Fault current contribution of DG

Harmonics output content of DG
DG power factor under various operating conditions
Location of DG on the distribution systems
Locations and setting of voltage regulation equipment on
distribution system
Locations and settings of equipment for over current
protection on distribution system
This paper focuses on one of system protection impacts
which is fuse-recloser mis-coordination. Fuse saving strategies
are usually applied by utilities to save lateral fuses from
temporary faults by de-energizing the line and re-energizing it
again using auto recloser before the fuse has a chance to blow.
In an overhead distribution system, between 80 to 95 percent
of the faults are of temporary nature and last usually for few
cycles. So, the purpose of re-closing is to clear temporary
faults without having any unnecessary permanent service
interruption, and also to prevent unnecessary fuse blow up.
However, adding a DG to the distribution system could affect
the timing coordination between the re-closer and the fuse due
to the additional fault current contribution from the DG. As a
result the coordination between the re-closer and the fuse may
be lost and the fuse could blow first or both the fuse and the
recloser could operate at the same time causing unnecessarily
down time due to fuse replacement [2],[3]. To avoid this
problem, this study suggests either to re-set the recloser or use
fault current limiter to limit the contribution of DG in fault
current to restore the system coordination.
II. FAULT CURRENT LIMITER (FCL)
Fault current limiter limits the amount of fault current
flowing through the system and allows for the continual,
uninterrupted operation of the electrical system, similar to the
way surge protectors limit damaging surges to household
devices [4].
The fault current limiter should meet the following functional
requirements,

17th International Middle East Power Systems Conference, Mansoura University, Egypt, December 15-17, 2015
1. Limit the first peak of the fault current.
2. Exhibits low impedance and low energy losses in normal
state.
3. Does not generate unacceptable harmonics in the normal
state.
4. Eliminate sensors and control devices if their reliability
compromises the overall reliability of the system.
5. Exhibits a smooth and gradual change of impedance from
the normal mode to fault mode and vice-versa.
6. Compactness.
7. Fail-safe operation.
8. Zero reset time.

Figure (2) shows that the fuse coordinates with the recloser
for temporary fault if the fault current is less than 508 A.
The short circuit simulation of this radial system shows that
fuse current (Ifuse=307 A) is nearly equal to recloser current
(Irec.=319 A), which is less than 508 A. Hence the
coordination between fuse and recloser is well achieved.

In reality, it is difficult to meet all the above requirements. The

actual characteristics of the FCL should be as close as possible
to the ideal requirements [5].
III. RADIAL POWER SYSTEM
The power system model shown in figure (1) represents a
part of 11 kV overhead distribution system with rated
frequency 50 Hz, 25 MVA short circuit with a single feed
from the utility. This power system will be considered as an
example to demonstrate how the protection devices, fuse and
recloser, will coordinate with each other.

Fig. 2 Fuse and recloser curves

IV. POWER SYSTEM WITH EMBEDDED DISTRIBUTED

GENERATION
After connecting distributed generation (DG), as in figure
(3), the power system becomes a multi-source system.
Accordingly, a mis-coordination would be expected between
the fast recloser and fuse curves.

Fig. 1 Radial power system.

Fig. 3 Power System after adding DG.

The fault current in radial feeder flows in one direction

from the main source to the fault location. For the previous
system, fuse at lateral feeder has to coordinate with the
recloser of the main feeder as in figure (2). The fuse used for
protecting this lateral feeder, in this case, is (63A ABB). the
fuse and the recloser equation

The fault current seen by the recloser equals the substation

current while the fuse current equals the DG current added to
substation current.
Irec.=Isub
(2)
Ifuse=Isub.+IDG
(3)
To maintain coordination the recloser fast time must be
greater than fuse time with time margin not less than 0.35
second.
The fuse characteristic equation is
Log(t)=a.log(I)+b
(4)

where T.D =13.5

For fast curve, A=0.05, M= ratio of I/Ipickup, Ipickup=140 A
For slow curve, A=0.1, Ipickup=260 A

Referring to fuse equation (4) and using curve fitting, a and

b constants of 63 A ABB fuse can be calculated as follows a=5.435, b=14.22. Recloser current equals 319A. substituting in

17th International Middle East Power Systems Conference, Mansoura University, Egypt, December 15-17, 2015
the previous equations, the DG current equals 106 A. hence
the DG size which maintain the fuse recloser coordination is
less than 2 MVA. It is important to note that this method
assumes that the substation current still constant, while the
substation current becomes lower due to DG sharing. This
means the situation is a little worse in real application.
If the previous system is imbedded with 5MVA or
10MVA, the simulation results can be summarized in table(1),
and coordination curves shown in figure(4)
TABLE I
SIMULATION RESULTS OF 5 MVA& 10 MVA DG PENETRATED SYSTEM

5MW DG
10MW DG

Recloser current
(Irec)
320A
315A

Fuse current
(Ifuse)
427A
504A

Fig. 4 Fuse-recloser mis-coordination for the system imbedded with 5MVA

and 10MVA DGs

Referring to figure (4), for system imbedded with 5MVA

DG, the recloser time equals 0.52 second and fuse time equals
0.69 second. The time margin equals 0.17 second which is
smaller than acceptable time margin. In this case recloser resetting may restore the fuse-recloser coordination. For the
system imbedded with 10 MVA DG, the fuse time equals 0.26
second which is even smaller than the required time margin.
Hence, the proper coordination is not achieved. A practical
solution may achieved by adding a fault current limiter in
conjunction with the distributed generation.

Main transformer size has been taken as 25, 30, 40

and 50 MVA.
The DG size has been taken as 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 10, 12,
15, 20 MVA.
Therefore the overall a set of training data consists of 144
cases (4*3*9). In each case, simulation has been conducted
and the decision of coordination maintenance has been taken
according to the following rules:
1. (No action) if the time margin between tfuse and trec.
is greater than 0.35 sec.
2. (Recloser resetting) if the time margin between tfuse
and trec. is less than 0.35 sec. and tfuse is greater than
or equal 0.45 sec.
3. (Use FCL) if the tfuse is less than 0.45 sec.
About 75% of the 144 cases were used for training the neural
network, and the remaining 25% were used to test the neural
network. The MATLAB code which is used to train and test
the neural network consists of the following steps
1. Input the training data in matrix form.
2. Normalize the input data.
3. Input target data which is the decision corresponding
to each input matrix element.
4. Convert input target data from indices to vector form
5. Constructing the ANN using the function
"NEWPNN"
6. Input the test data which is used to test ANN.
7. Normalize the test data.
8. Simulate test data by using the constructed ANN to
get output in vector form.
9. Convert the output vector to indices form.
10. Input the test target.
11. Calculate the error which is the difference between
output vector and test target.
VI. PROBABILISTIC NEURAL NETWORK
'NEWPNN' function is used in this code to construct
probabilistic neural network. Probabilistic neural networks
(PNN) are a kind of radial basis network suitable for
classification problems. In a PNN, the operations are
organized into a multilayered feed forward network, as in
figure (5).

V. NEURAL NETWORK APPLICATION

To help the system operator to decide whether fuserecloser coordination, needs recloser resetting, or requires
fault current limiter, neural networks can be used. The main
variables which effect the recloser and fuse currents are the
short circuit level of the network (MVA), the main transformer
size (MVA), and the distributed generation size (MVA).
MATLAB /SIMULINK is used to simulate the network for
different conditions.
Short circuit level (MVA) has been taken from 25 to
100 MVA in step of 25 MVA.

Fig. 5 The basic architecture of the PNN.

17th International Middle East Power Systems Conference, Mansoura University, Egypt, December 15-17, 2015
A Probabilistic Neural Network (PNN) consists of four
layers. One is the input layer where the actual input vector is
given. The second one is the pattern layer with one neuron for
every training example. Input layer and pattern layer are fully
connected. The next one is the summation layer, where the
results of the pattern layer will be added. In this layer we have
one neuron for each class we want to distinguish. The neurons
of the pattern layer are connected to the neurons of the
summation layer based on the class of the neuron in the pattern
layer. So every neuron in the pattern layer of the same class is
connected to the same neuron in the summation layer. The last
layer is the output layer where the estimated class of the input
data is shown. PNNs use exponential function instead of
sigmoid function which is used in back propagation networks.
There are several advantages for using PNN instead of back
propagation networks.PNNs are much faster than back
propagation networks. PNNs can be more accurate than back
propagation networks. On the other hand, PNNs are slower
than back propagation networks at classifying new cases and
PNNs require more memory space to store the model [6], [7].
The previous results show that only 2 of 38 tested data
wrongly detected by the neural network. The neural network
succeeded to detect the true decision for about 95% of the
tested data. Although results show high level of accuracy for
the usage ANN as a classifier, yet the level of generalization of
such network is doubtful. This is due to the limited number of
parameters which used in the training set. For the sake of
better generalization of ANN, more parameters are needed to
be included. This is discussed in the next section.
VII. ADVANCED ANN FOR COORDINATION
MAINTAINABILITY
For better generalization of the obtained results, more
advanced artificial neural network is constructed to cope with
other electrical power systems with different parameters. Many
varying parameters should be used to train the artificial neural
network. These parameters include the short circuit capacity of
the power system at the point of study, main transformer rated
power, distribution transformer rated power, distributed
generator rated power, distributed generator relative location
and distributed generator type, See figure (6).

VIII. Testing The proposed Algorithm with 2 Case Studies

a. Case 1 System Parameters
1. Short circuit level: the short circuit capacity (MVA), as
seen at the point of substation covers three distinct levels
of 100MVA, 50MVA and 25MVA.
2. Main transformer power: main transformer rated power
will take the values of 25MVA, 30MVA and 50 MVA.
3. Load rated power: will be 80% of the rated power of the
distribution transformer. The rated power of distribution
transformer will be taken as 1MVA, 1.6MVA and 2MVA.
1MVA transformer is protected using 63 A fuse.
1.6 MVA transformer is protected using 100 A fuse.
2 MVA transformer is protected using 160 A fuse.
4. DG rated power: the distributed generator rated power
will be taken as follows:
For rotating machines (e.g. synchronous machine, diesel
engine)
2MVA, 5MVA, 10 MVA, 15 MVA and 20 MVA when
short circuit level capacity equals 25 MVA.
2MVA, 5MVA, 10 MVA, 20 MVA and 50 MVA when
short circuit level capacity equals 50 MVA.
5MVA, 10MVA, 20 MVA, 50 MVA and 70 MVA when
short circuit level capacity equals 100 MVA.
For static power sources
0.8 MWh, 2MWh and 5 MWh
5. DG location: there are three cases, shown in table (2),
depend on location of DG and fault location as shown in
figure 7. In this table, the notation Ir and If mean fault
current seen by recloser and fuse respectively, and Is and
IDG mean fault current flowing from utility substation and
DG respectively.

Fig. 7 presence of DG in distribution system

TABLE II
RECLOSER AND FUSE CURRENTS

case
Fig. 6 Advanced ANN for coordination maintainability

1
2
3

DG
unit
DG1
DG1
DG2

Fault
location
Fault 1
Fault 2
Fault 1

Recloser
current(Ir)
Is
IDG
Is+IDG

Fuse
current(If)
Is+IDG
Is+IDG
Is+IDG

17th International Middle East Power Systems Conference, Mansoura University, Egypt, December 15-17, 2015
Case1: In this case, the recloser time (fast curve) should be
less than fuse time by time margin (> 0.35 second) [8].
Case 2: In this case, to maintain the original
coordination
scheme, the recloser time (fast curve) should be less than fuse
time by time margin (> 0.35 second), where the recloser
current is smaller than fuse current.
Case 3: In this case before using the DG, the recloser
current nearly equals zero if the fault occurs in the lateral
feeder. To maintain the original coordination scheme, the
recloser time should be greater than the fuse time with time
margin (> 0.35 second).
6.

The DG type refers to whether it is a rotating machine or a

static source.

b. MATLAB./SIMULINK Program
MATLAB/SIMULINK is used to simulate the system with
varying parameters. Therefore the overall a set of training data
consists of 3(S.C level)*3(main transformer)*3(distribution
transformer)*
5(DG
size)*3(DG
location)
+3(S.C
level)*3(main transformer size)*3(distribution transformer
size)*3(DG size)*3(DG location) = 405 (for rotating machine)
+ 243 (for static source) = 648 cases
Each case has been simulated on MATLAB./SIMULINK
to calculate fuse and recloser currents. These currents have
been allocated on the relevant coordination curves to
determine which action is needed to be taken to preserve
system coordination. As mentioned before, three different
actions may be expected. These are; no action, recloser resetting or using fault current limiter. These three outcomes
have been assigned values of 3, 1 and 2 respectively. The
MATLAB code which used to train the ANN follows the same
steps of the program used in the previous section.
C. RESULTS

The ANN failed to detect the true decision for only 5 cases
out of 129 cases. The ANN succeeded in 96% of the examined
cases. The cases which the ANN failed to detect the true
corrective decision are as shown in table (3).
TABLE III
COMPARISON BETWEEN THE TRUE CORRECTIVE DECISION AND ANN DECISION

Case 1
Case 2
Case 3
Case 4
Case 5

ANN decision
(output)
1
3
2
2
3

True corrective decision

(test target)
2
2
3
1
2

The previous comparison shows that, in cases 3 and 4

the ANN recommended to use fault current limiter
which will be safer but also more costly. In cases 1, 2
and 5 the recommended decision is not suitable to
restore system coordination.

d. Case 2 System Parameters

1. Short circuit level: the short circuit capacity (MVA), as
seen at the point of substation covers three distinct levels
of 200MVA,100MVA, 50MVA and 25MVA.
2. Main transformer power: main transformer rated power
will take the values of 25MVA.
3. Load rated power: will be 80% of the rated power of the
distribution transformer. The rated power of distribution
transformer will be taken as 300 kVA and 500 kVA.
300 kVA transformer is protected using 25 A fuse.
500 kVA transformer is protected using 40 A fuse.
4. DG rated power: the distributed generator rated power
will be taken as follows:
For rotating machines (e.g. synchronous machine, diesel
engine)
2MVA, 5MVA, 10 MVA and 15 MVA when short circuit
level capacity equals 25 MVA.
2MVA, 5MVA, 10 MVA and 20 MVA when short circuit
level capacity equals 50 MVA.
5MVA, 10MVA, 20 MVA and 50 MVA when short
circuit level capacity equals 100 MVA.
5MVA, 10MVA, 20 MVA and 50 MVA when short
circuit level capacity equals 200 MVA.

5. DG location: there are three cases as shown in case

study (1)
MATLAB/SIMULINK is used to simulate the
system with varying parameters. Therefore the
overall a set of training data consists of 4(S.C
level)*1(main transformer)*2(distribution
transformer)* 4(DG size)*3(DG location) = 96 cases
20 cases used to train the ANN, and 76 cases used to
test the ANN.
The ANN failed to detect the true decision for only 5 cases
out of 76 cases. The ANN succeeded in 93.4% of the
examined cases. The cases which the ANN failed to detect the
true corrective decision are as shown in table (4).
TABLE IV
COMPARISON BETWEEN THE TRUE CORRECTIVE DECISION AND ANN DECISION

Case 1
Case 2
Case 3
Case 4
Case 5

ANN decision
(output)
2
2
2
2
2

True corrective decision

(test target)
3
3
1
3
3

17th International Middle East Power Systems Conference, Mansoura University, Egypt, December 15-17, 2015
X. CONCLUSION
The penetration of DGs to distribution networks greatly
impacts the distribution networks performance and reliability.
Among the various problems that associate the DG integration
with general utilities, is fuse-recloser mis-coordination. To
overcome this problem, if occurred, this study suggested two
remedial actions which are reset recloser or use fault current
limiter. For better utilization of the available remedal actions,
a particular selected class of neural networks has been chosen
to help the system operator to maintain the reliable operation
of the power systems penetrated with distributed generators.
This technique will decide with upto 96% success rate the
suitable method to restore system total coordination.
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