Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
K Kauhaniemi”’, L Knmpnlained
‘University of Vaasa, Finland, *VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, Finland
INTRODUCTION
The appearance of these kinds of problems depends on
both the characteristics of the network and DG. Often
Traditionally distribution networks have been designed the existing protection arrangements of the network
to operate radially so that the power flows from upper must be changed as well. The DG interconnection
voltage levels down-to customers situated along the procedure can be complicated since the best solution
radial feeders. This has enabled also quite requires engineering studies covering the whole system
straightforward protection concept. Especially when including the network and the DG. An idealistic vision
applying overcurrent protection it bas been possible to for a plug and play solution seems to be still rather far
assume that the fault current can have only one away.
direction. This is not always true if there are distributed
generation (DG) units in the network. As the share of In short-circuit faults DG generates fault current that
distributed generation increases, distribution networks depends strongly both on the generator type and the
are becoming more like transmission networks where network configuration. Synchronous generators are able
generation and load nodes are mixed, and more complex to feed rather large sustained fault current while inverter
protection system design is unavoidable. based systems may be controlled so that their output is
limited to the rated current. From the point of view of
In order to analyze thoroughly the effects of distributed protection coordination the location of the fault in
generation on the requirements for the protection of relation to generator and protection devices dictates the
distribution networks, detailed simulation studies are outcome of the fault situation.
necessary. Dynamic modeling of various types of DG
technologies is required. Two serious problems, blinding of protection and false
tripping, are studied with more details in the following
This paper is based on simulation studies carried out by chapters. Loss-of-mains protection is an interesting
VTT Processes and University of Vaasa. In these issue that cannot be omitted when discussing about DG
studies PSCADEMTDC transient simulation software and protection. It is closely related to the automatic
has been applied. One of the key issues has been to reclosing and thus both of these topics will be briefly
verify that normal network protection schemes and covered also in this paper.
settings are not adequate when there are DG units
connected to the network. The protection coordination
between network protection and the protection of the PREVENTING OVERCURRENT RELAY
distributed generation units has also been studied. The OPERATION
results will be used to focus further research and
development of protection concepts on the essential
areas. When a large production unit or several small ones are
connected to medium voltage network, the fault current
seen by the feeder protection relay may be reduced,
POTENTIAL PROBLEMS TO PROTECTION which can lead to prevention of the operation of
overcurrent relays. This is also called protection under-
reach.
Previous studies have shown that distributed generation
causes several challenges to the protection of
distribution networks. The most commonly mentioned Basic Theory
problems are the following:
False tripping of feeders (sympathetic hipping)
Nuisance tripping of production units Theoretically the problem can be explained as follows.
Blinding of protection A situation, where a production unit is connected in a
Increased or decreased fault levels medium voltage (MV) feeder close to a primary
Unwanted islanding substation, is studied. When a fault occurs at the end of
Prohibition of automatic reclosing the feeder the fault current consists of contributions both
Unsynchronized reclosing from the grid (I,) and from the generator (I,) as shown
I1
ZL 2
Fault
xOkm 0 1 2 k m o 2 0 km * 24 km
0.5 I , I
FALSE TRIPPINGS
False tripping of healthy feeders can probably be solved
by directional overcurrent relays, but with the following
The basic principle of false tripping is shown in Figure considerations:
4. The short-circuit fault occurs on feeder 2, but also Protection against the bus faults may have to be
feeder 1 is tripped because of overcunent fed by the DG changed. There should be a transfer trip from the
unit. False tripping (sympathetic tripping) is typically main infeed relays (overcurrent relays at secondary
caused by synchronous generators, which are capable of side of the primary transformer) and the arc
feeding sustained short-circuit current. protection rclays to the feeder relays for the feeders
having significant amount of DG connected.
Directional relays are slower than non-directional
relays. In most cases they also cause extra costs~and
lead to solutions that differ from practices favored
by the network companies.
I LOSS-OF-MAINS PROTECTION
the power mismatch in the island to be created in the Primary results of these studies have given a clear
loss-of-main situation is close to zero. indication of the potential protection problems that need
to be solved either by suitable recommendations relating
There are several methods developed for loss-of-mains to protection design or possibly some new protection
protection. One of the standard solutions seems to be the algorithms. Solutions are urgently needed since the
rate of change of frequency (ROCOF) protection share of distributed generation is expected to increase
method as pointed out by Guillot et al (2). Another quite rapidly.
common protection method applied is the vector shift
method presented, e.g., in Jenkins et al (3). One of the areas where further studies are needed is the
application of autoreclosing with DG. From the network
Redfern et al (4) have proposed monitoring of the reliability point of view this is a very important issue
fluctuation of the power output from the generator. This since today autoreclosings are able to handle a major
method is suitable only for synchronous generators. part of the faults.
Positive sequence undervoltage method has been found
r
effecti e in Denmark by DEFU (5). However, totally
satisfy ng LOM protection solutions are still missing.
This paper has focused on the medium voltage
networks. However similar problems may arise in the
low voltage networks where mainly fuses are applied
for the network protection. Another group of problems
AUTORECLOSING that has not been covered is the earth faults related
problems. Further studies are going on with the aim of
new protection concepts for distribution networks
In overhead medium voltage networks, automatic having distributed generation.
reclosing is a very effective mean to clear faults. E.g. in
Finland, ca. 80% of faults can be cleared with high-
speed autoreclosing and 15% with time-delayed REFERENCES
autoreclosing. The impact of autoreclosing is based on
extinction of arc during the dead time of the reclosing
sequence. In the Nordic countries, dead time is typically 1. Brahma, S.M., Girgis, A.A., 2002, IEEE PES Winter
only 0.3 s. Meetinr, Vol. I , “Microprocessor-Based Reclosing
to Coordinate Fuse and Recloser in a System with
Distributed generation seems to be rather incompatible High Penetration of Distributed Generation”, 453 -
with current reclosing practices as noted, e.g., in Dugan 458
and McDermott (6). In suitable conditions DG may
prevent the arc extinction and the momentary fault 2. Guillot, M., Collombet, C., Bertrand, P., Gotzig, B.,
becomes permanent. During the dead time of the 2001, CIRED, IEE Conf, Pub. No. 482, “Protection
reclosing sequence the generators in the network usually of Embedded Generation Connected to a
tend to drift away from the synchronism with respect to Distribution Network and Loss of Mains Detection”
the grid. Thus the reconnection made without any
synchronization, which is the usual way, may cause 3. Jenkins, N., Allan, R., Crossley, P., Kirschen, D.,
serious damages to the generators, as well as high Strbac, G., 2000, Embedded Generation, IEE
currents and voltages in the neighboring network.
4. Redfern, M.A., Usta, O., Bmett, J.I., Fielding, G.,
Simulation studies have confirmed the high risk of out- 1993, 5th Int. Conf. on Developments in Power
of-phase reclosing. As a conclusion to this it can be System Protection, “A new digital relay for loss of
stated that rapid and reliable loss-of-mains protection is grid to protect embedded generation”, 127 -130
needed. DG units must be disconnected very fast during
the dead time of autoreclosing sequence. 5. D E W , 1995, Relaebeskvttelse ved decentrale
produktionsanlaeg med synkrongeneratorer.
Teknisk rapport 293,2. udgave
CONCLUSIONS
6. Dugan, R.C., McDermott, T.E., 2002, IEEE Ind.
Appl. Mag., MadApr. 2002, 19 - 25
According to the simulation studies proper coordination
of the protection of network and DG units is important
in order to avoid false tripping. In certain cases also
directional protection is necessary to guarantee
selectivity. DG units that are capable of providing large
short-circuit current may prevent the operation of feeder
relays. On the other hand, overcurrent relays cannot be
applied with inverter based DG units that do not feed
any significant short-circuit current.