A Practical Protection Coordination Strategy Applied to Secondary and Facility Microgrids

In a conventional distribution system, protection algorithms are designed to operate on a unidirectional high fault-current level. In a microgrid, a fault current from distributed generation (DG) may bring about a relay malfunction because of the bidirectional and relatively small fault current. The...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inEnergies (Basel) Vol. 5; no. 9; pp. 3248 - 3265
Main Authors Jin, Dae-Geun, Choi, Jong-Chan, Won, Dong-Jun, Lee, Hak-Ju, Chae, Woo-Kyu, Park, Jung-Sung
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Basel MDPI AG 01.09.2012
Subjects
Algorithms
distributed generation
Electric power
Electricity distribution
Energy
fault current
Load
microgrid
protection coordination
protection device
Renewable resources
Test systems
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Summary:In a conventional distribution system, protection algorithms are designed to operate on a unidirectional high fault-current level. In a microgrid, a fault current from distributed generation (DG) may bring about a relay malfunction because of the bidirectional and relatively small fault current. Therefore, the conventional protection scheme is not applicable to microgrids and a new protection method must be developed. In this paper, two protection coordination algorithms which can be applied for facility and secondary microgrids are proposed, respectively. The proposed protection algorithms eliminate faults not by the EMS signal but by directional relays. Moreover, this makes the algorithms flexible regardless of the types and numbers of DG. The proposed protection algorithms were simulated at the KEPCO RI Microgrid Demonstration Site.
ISSN:1996-1073
1996-1073
DOI:10.3390/en5093248