ADAPTIVE PROTECTION SYSTEM FOR DISTRIBUTION NETWORKS WITH DISTRIBUTED ENERGY RESOURCES

N. Schaefer*, T. Degner*, A. Shustov#, T. Keil+, J. Jaeger+

#

*Fraunhofer IWES (formerly ISET e.V.), Germany, Koenigstor 59, 34119 Kassel, bereich-a@iset.uni-kassel.de Areva NP GmbH, Germany, Kaiserleistr. 29, 63067 Offenbach, shustov@web.de (A. Shustov formerly was with *.) + University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany, Cauerstrasse 4, 91058 Erlangen, keil@eev.eei.uni-erlangen.de

Keywords: Adaptive network protection, definite time overcurrent (DTOC) / inverse definite minimum time (IDMT) relays, distributed energy resources, distributed generation

Abstract
This paper deals with the concept development and laboratory testing of an adaptive protection system for distribution networks with distributed energy resources. Adaptation of protection relay settings according to currently available shortcircuit current at respective grid nodes, is one solution to cope with the challenges originating from distributed generation. The challenges in conventional protection systems in low and medium voltage grids are discussed and a new concept of an adaptive network overcurrent protection is developed. The soft- and hardware realization of the concept are described and first results of laboratory tests are presented.

1 Introduction
As a consequence of the increasing contingent of distributed energy resources (DER) in low and medium voltage networks the technical, economical and legal boundary conditions for grid design and control are changing. Thus, the complexity concerning control, network protection and operation grows significantly. Structural changes in the network conditions, which occur due to the integration of DER and the dependency on both local and time variable availability of renewable energy sources, pose new challenges for the network protection, equipment and control systems. Several authors have examined the functionality of conventional protection concepts in presence of DER, and identified reliability and selectivity problems [2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10 and 13].

2 Development of adaptive protection system

In this chapter impacts of DER on conventional protection systems are summarized and preconditions and requirements on an adaptive protection system are given. Then the development of an adaptive protection concept and its implementation to software and hardware is described. 2.1 Preconditions for concept development In the past DER were obliged to immediately disconnect from the grid in case of network disturbances or faults. By steady

increase in DER penetration, the disconnection of all these on-site power generators due to each temporary fault in the transmission level may lead to severe stability problems and is not acceptable any longer. In order to supply adequate short-circuit current and efficiently support grid stability, guidelines in Germany and several other countries require fault-ride-through (FRT) capabilities for DER connected at high (HV) and medium voltage (MV) level. The German BDEW (formerly VDN and VDEW) published guidelines for the interconnection of DER to the HV level in 2004 [14] and MV level in 2008 [1]. These guidelines describe interconnection requirements and ancillary services, which are to be provided by DER (e.g. behaviour of DER under fault conditions). For the LV level similar guidelines are in the pipeline and will be published in the near future. Under fault conditions DER remain connected to the grid and contribute to grid stability by injecting reactive current and support grid voltage for a definite time. If the fault is not cleared after a certain time, instead of DER disconnection from the grid a suitable control system may also initiate intended islanded operation of a grid section to uninterruptedly supply power to as many loads as possible. As DER have a dominantly fluctuating character, their contribution to short-circuit current and the direction of shortcircuit current permanently are subject to changes. Modern network protection systems have to become more intelligent. As described in this paper, one solution to this challenge is an automatically adaptable protection system according to the actual network conditions. The settings permanently have to be adapted to the current network status, comprising type of network operation (interconnected to the main grid or islanded), grid configuration (e.g. sectioning points) and interconnection of DER and loads respectively. One of the biggest advantages of distributed and on-site power generation respectively is to supply the local loads with energy and to unload the public grid. Such a grid can be designed as an unbalanced multi-source-grid, where all sources for feed-in form a collective pool of mean sources. According to this, if there is a fault and the main grid fails (black-out), the on-site power generators can support uninterrupted grid operation, by means of switching to big, separated medium or low island modes operation (establishment of Mini- or Microgrids) and appropriate operation management (e.g. load shedding), and, by doing so, supply the remaining customers with electricity. By this general tendency of increase in DER penetration as well as development of concepts

for establishing such island-mode-able partial grids, it is expected in the near future, that in case of grid faults DER will stay connected, either doing fault-ride-through or feeding a Microgrid. By considering this situation in advance, the network protection concepts that will be used in such grids have to take into account the structure of Microgrids and have to be reliable and selective according to that. By this grid segmentation in island-mode-able partial grids and grids, which serve for energy balancing between Microgrid and public grid, special needs and requirements have to be formulated for network protection. That means the zones built up by Microgrid concepts will be boundary conditions for external and internal network protection. Internal network protection will observe the actual network state within of one zone (one Microgrid) and to respond on internal faults. External grid protection will observe the actual network state outside of Microgrids and care for selectivity. At the transition area between the first zone (Microgrid) and the external network a circuit-breaker would be supposable, also equipped with automatic reclosing feature and caring for a complete disconnection of the Microgrid from the main grid as well as for its reconnection. Such a grid design would require a special intelligence with a high level of automation and the use of extensive communication structures and technologies. 2.2 Impact of DER on reliability of conventional protection systems During design of conventional grids (without on-site power generation) the overcurrent protection devices in radial feeders were usually graded bottom-up, i.e. in opposition to the uni-directional energy flow. Short-circuit currents were calculated in advance in compliance with grading intervals between relays, that protect the grid elements and their equipment in corresponding protection zones. In general there are some factors that can have an impact on functionality of conventional protection systems by high penetration of distributed generation. According to [2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10 and 13], as already mentioned in chapter 1, these mainly are the following: Bi-directional power flow Change of grid hierarchy in the autonomous grids (stand alone grids); old task of transmission / distribution is no longer applied, the MV level serves for energy balancing Change of grid topology when connecting on-site power generators to different nodes of the grid Fluctuating energy generation from renewable sources Availability of short-circuit current contribution of DER These impacts will not be discussed in detail at this point. Further information can be found in publications given above. 2.3 Considered grid structure and protection coordination Due to the common radial structure of distribution grids, the investigations performed have been made for radial feeders. Brahma und Girgis [2] and Shustov [13] have made short-circuit calculations for radial feeders with DER infeed and observed, that the short-circuit currents ISCmin and ISCmax, which are used for grading of overcurrent protection relays, are de-

pendent on connection point and fed in power from DER units. Because of this, the directions of and contributions to short-circuit currents will shift. Further analyses of the behaviour of overcurrent protection devices consisting of fuse-fuse, fuse-relay, relay-relay combinations by means of time-current diagrams have shown that the adjusted grading intervals between tripping characteristics have changed or are partially not kept. Furthermore, it was observed that in the time-current diagram there are areas, where selectivity is not kept. The results of studies with different scenarios of on-site power generation are: The combination fuse-fuse is inapplicable for keeping of selectivity, because it does not provide flexibility for setting of tripping characteristics as well as no direction sensitivity feature. The combination fuse-relay is also practically inapplicable, as mentioned before, because of fuse character. The combination relay-relay is applicable, whereas the relays have to be equipped with direction sensitivity feature and for each DER feed-in configuration the relays must be separately coordinated. These investigations confirm the guess that the factors mentioned in subsection 2.2 have an impact on the functionality of conventional network protection systems. As a result of this study, adaptive relays may be one solution for changed grid conditions. The adaptation is to be performed according to new grid conditions and resulting short-circuit-current bands. 2.4 Requirements for concept development In order to provide reliability and selectivity of network protection for a high DER penetration, requirements and suggestions for implementation of adaptive protection relays have been formulated in the following. Technical Requirements: Utilization of microprocessor-based relays Universality and multifunctionality Cost effectiveness Requirements on additional protection functions: Direction sensitivity feature is to be added. Each relay shall offer possibility for use of different tripping characteristics that are freely configurable. Selectivity checking / adaptation of tripping characteristics: For each new grid configuration as well as feed-in situation the short-circuit calculations are to be launched for the feeder, that is to be protected. After each short-circuit calculation a selectivity check for each short-circuit current direction is necessary. If no selectivity is given, the tripping characteristics for the protected feeder have to be modified in order to keep selectivity for each short-circuit-current direction. Requirements on the operative adaptation: Operative adaptation has to be carried out in loop-mode in order to always consider actual grid conditions. In order to observe the new grid conditions, the data bases of units for operation management (e.g. decentralised energy management systems, DEMS), that contain information on operation of DER, have to be polled.

For polling of DEMS a communication system is needed, that is capable of short and long distance data transfer. Due to the fact that the communication occurs in nonreal-time, the communication has to be extended by realtime data acquisition of grid state. The implementation of this concept shall preferably be done without extension of the existing grid. Access to the energy management system: The connection of DEMS and the adaptive relays is necessary according to the following requirements: The connection between DEMS and adaptive relays serves for inquiry of DER availability to the respective data bases, in order to provide data for the calculations of DER short-circuit current contributions. Each data base contains information on availability and short-circuit contribution of each DER. The data base table has to be dynamically updated by DEMS depending on weather prediction data and schedule of DER start-up. Requirements on communication technique [cp. 11]: For data transmission already existing media and infrastructure shall be used (e.g. Ethernet, DLC). By the utilization of (for instance) DLC there shall be no negative impact on the transmission of energy. Standard protocols shall be used. Data speed must be sufficient for the application. 2.5 Flowchart of adaptive protection concept As a solution according to the before mentioned challenges and requirements the scheme, given in Fig. 2.1, is suggested [12, 13]. In the flowchart the bold-lined figures indicate modules involved in protection adaptation and the thin-lined figures indicate modules of conventional protection technique. The concept consists of two blocks: a real-time block and a non-real-time block. The real-time block operates like a conventional protection relay. It monitors the actual grid state by acquisition of grid parameters, e.g. current transformer measurements, and sends a tripping signal to the respective circuit breaker, if required. The non-real-time block uses prediction data of DER availability, in order to prove selectivity of tripping characteristics for each new feed-in situation and to adapt tripping characteristics, if selectivity is no longer given. If the adaptation is successful (i.e. the boundary conditions are not broken), the tripping characteristics of respective relays will be changed. If the solution is not possible without breaking the boundary conditions, a signal will be generated, that forbids the acceptance of the DER operation predicted by the DEMS. 2.6 Implementation to hardware and software For the implementation of the suggested concept and the hardware verification respectively, a real-time capable PXI Embedded Controller PXI-8186 with integrated graphical development platform LabVIEW (for design, control and test), analogue Data Acquisition Card PXI-6071E and Digital I/O Card PXI-6528 is used. Both the design of hardware architecture and the choice of software environment are done

according to the requirements on computing power and realtime capability of the system. The software-technical realization of the concept shown in the flowchart (Fig. 2.1) has been performed in LabVIEW. With LabVIEW the user interface as well as the program logic has been created by means of graphical blocks.
Start

Real-time block

routine for protection adaptation

acquisition of actual grid state

analysis of actual grid state

no

disturbance ?
yes

no

tripping condition reached ? yes

tripping signal to switch

Non-real-time block
connection building with DB of DEMS Acceptance of matched tripping characteristics

data request transmission via communication medium

Dec. Energy Management System

forbidden / No Selectivity
yes

DER availability inquiry in prediction DB of DEMS

provides prediction data of DER

no

Found?

Data transmission via communication medium

Matching Of Tripping Characteristics while taking into account the boundary conditions
no

Short-circuit current

Selectivity Conditions

Protection goal Achieved?

yes

no changing of tripping characteristics

Figure 2.1: Flowchart of adaptive protection concept [12, 13]

3 Laboratory test
Tests of the developed adaptive protection system have been carried out in the laboratory of Fraunhofer IWES. 3.1 Test set-up For the tests a physical 10-kV Medium Voltage Network Simulator (MVNS) and units of DER and loads are used. The connection establishment between the data base of the DEMS and the adaptive protection relay is realized in LabVIEW via ODBC-interface by using of Freeware-library LabSQL. The data base of the DEMS is realized as MySQL-data bases. In order to access the data of DEMS-data base for adaptation of tripping characteristics, a communication link between the adaptive protection relay and the data base of DEMS is established via Ethernet and DLC respectively.

The algorithm of the adaptive protection relay calculates the actual short-circuit current supplied by the main grid and all available DER connected to the appropriate feeder, and adapts the high-set overcurrent element (I>>) of the protection relay. The tripping characteristics implemented to the adaptive protection relay are definite time overcurrent (DTOC) and inverse definite minimum time (IDMT) characteristics. The user-defined tripping characteristics can be set by entering their current-time coordinates, which will be interpolated by means of linear functions. The boundary conditions of tripping range consist of inrush currents and damage curves of network equipment and have also been implemented to the algorithm (i.e. inrush currents and damage curves of different transformer types, motor start-up current curves and thermal damage curves of power lines). All the data, settings and parameters of tripping characteristics, boundary conditions etc. are stored in an MS-Access data base. For supporting of detecting the fault location and fault diagnosis, steady-state and transient data can be saved in LOG files. 3.2 Test procedure and results To prove proper functioning of the adaptive protection relay, tests are carried out according to different operational steps: Establishment of data base connection and query of data, Adaptation of protection settings. The tests are done for both islanded and interconnected operation of the test grid. After having successfully established the data base connection and started query of data, the adaptation of protection settings according to the amount of interconnected DER and the actual grid switching state can be tested. For the calculation as well as for the adaptation of protection settings by the adaptive protection relay, characteristic data of equipment have to be entered and predefined parameters on protection characteristics have to be selected.
CB Feeder 1 T-1 Relay T-2 DEMS CB1 CT1

the short-circuit characteristic (thermal damage curve, Ith,cable) of the LV cable, which is installed between the motor and the transformer T-2. The tripping characteristic for Feeder 2 controls the operation of the circuit-breaker CB2 at the LV side of transformer T-2 (based on the measuring signals received from current transformer CT2). The tripping characteristic is set in between of the motor start-up characteristic and the damage curve of the LV cable, and its high-set element (I>>) is set to 0.8 times minimum short-circuit current. For interconnected operation the minimum short-circuit current at Feeder 2 is calculated to ISCC = 3700 A, which is indicated in Fig. 3.2. Therefore, I>> (CB2) is set to 0.8 times 3700 A (= 2960 A) for interconnected operation. For islanded operation (all short-circuit current provided by DER only, i.e. synchronous generator at Feeder 1) the minimum short-circuit current at Feeder 2 is calculated to ISCC,islanded = 800 A (see Fig. 3.3). Therefore, I>> (CB2) is now set to 0.8 times 800 A (= 640 A).
Ith,cable Ith,cable

Tripping curve CB2

IMotor, start-up

IMotor, start-up

Tripping curve CB2

IMotor,rated

ISCC

IMotor,rated

ISCC,islanded

Figure 3.2: I-t protection diagram for Feeder 2, interconnected operation

Figure 3.3: I-t protection diagram for Feeder 2, islanded operation

M
Feeder 2 CB2 CT2

Figure 3.1: Test set-up For the test two radial MV / LV feeders of the MVNS are considered (see Fig. 3.1). At each of the two MV feeders (Feeder 1 and Feeder 2) there is a 10 / 0.4 kV transformer. At the LV side of transformer T-1 (Feeder 1) a synchronous generator with grid-forming capabilities is connected. At the LV side of transformer T-2 (Feeder 2) an inductive motor with a rated current of IMotor,rated = 50 A is connected; this value is indicated in the two current-time (I-t) protection diagrams (Fig. 3.2 and Fig. 3.3). These diagrams show the protection settings at Feeder 2 for interconnected (Fig. 3.2) and islanded operation (Fig. 3.3). The diagrams also contain the simplified motor start-up characteristic (IMotor,start-up) and

As can be seen from the diagrams above the adaptive protecttion relay automatically adapts the protection settings in accordance to current conditions of the considered grid section. In case of a fault occurring in the considered grid section or in the main grid, the tripping characteristic of CB2 is exceeded and a tripping signal is generated by the adaptive protection relay in order to trip circuit breaker CB2; in this last matter the adaptive protection relay behaves like a conventional protection relay. Similarly to the example above, the protection settings are adapted for a change in amount of interconnected DER (i.e. a change in short-circuit current provided by DER). The adaptive protection relay continuously sums up DER shortcircuit current contribution (relevant data available from data base servers of DEMS) and the short-circuit current contribution originating from the main grid (if applicable). The line indicating the overall short-circuit current is shifted accordingly and the respective CB tripping characteristic/s is/are adapted to the new conditions. These first test results only show the proper functioning of the adaptation of protection settings. Further tests with scenarios, where selectivity cannot be kept by application of

conventional protection concepts, are planned and shall prove the benefit of adaptive protection concepts. [3]

4 Discussion
The developed adaptive protection relay permits automatic adaptation of protection settings according to the actual type of grid structure and the interconnection of DER. In case of a fault, a routine implemented to the adaptive protection relay generates reliable and selective tripping signals which are sent to the respective circuit breaker/s. Moreover, the adaptive protection relay allows for continuous measurement and monitoring of analogue and digital signals originating from the grid. During the performed laboratory tests the input and output signals of the test network have been available in realtime. The data from the DEMS have been available in non-real time and have been used for the adaptation of protection settings. The functioning of the developed adaptive protection system in terms of adaptation of relay tripping characteristics has been demonstrated successfully for an example network branch. Further improvements and tests with scenarios, where conventional concepts fail, are planned. As a literature review revealed, in the field of adaptive protection concepts there are many different approaches, for instance [3, 9 and 13]. Due to the expected increase in the level of automation, especially within the distribution level (cp. smart grids), adaptive protection concepts will become more and more imaginable and technically feasible.

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) for the support of the research project Neue schutz- und leittechnische Konzepte fr elektrische Energieversorgungsnetze mit dezentralen Stromerzeugungsanlagen. The authors would like to thank the European Commission for funding the project More Microgrids (SES6-019864). The authors would further like to thank the Bundesministerium fr Umwelt, Naturschutz und Reaktorsicherheit (BMU) for funding the project Modular Systems Technology III Networking of Modular PV and Hybrid Systems (Contract No: 0329900B). Only the authors are responsible for the content of this publication. Mr Shustov contributed to this work during his former employment at ISET e.V., which now is Fraunhofer IWES. [9]

[10]

[11]

[12]

[13]

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