Jalthotage Dewadasa Thesis PDF

Protection of distributed generation
interfaced networks
Manjula Dewadasa
B.Sc (Hons) in Electrical Engineering
A Thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for

the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
Faculty of Built Environment and Engineering

School of Engineering Systems
Queensland University of Technology
Queensland, Australia
July 2010
Keywords
Distributed generation, Microgrids, Distributed generator protection, Converter
interfaced distributed generators, Protective relays, Inverse time admittance relay,
Relay coordination, Relay Grading, Islanded operation, Re-synchronisation,
Reclosing, Fold back current control, Fault detection, Fault isolation, Arc extinction,
System restoration.
Abstract
With the rapid increase in electrical energy demand, power generation in the
form of distributed generation is becoming more important. However, the
connections of distributed generators (DGs) to a distribution network or a microgrid
can create several protection issues. The protection of these networks using
protective devices based only on current is a challenging task due to the change in
fault current levels and fault current direction. The isolation of a faulted segment
from such networks will be difficult if converter interfaced DGs are connected as
these DGs limit their output currents during the fault. Furthermore, if DG sources are
intermittent, the current sensing protective relays are difficult to set since fault
current changes with time depending on the availability of DG sources. The system
restoration after a fault occurs is also a challenging protection issue in a converter
interfaced DG connected distribution network or a microgrid. Usually, all the DGs
will be disconnected immediately after a fault in the network. The safety of
personnel and equipment of the distribution network, reclosing with DGs and arc
extinction are the major reasons for these DG disconnections.
In this thesis, an inverse time admittance (ITA) relay is proposed to protect a
distribution network or a microgrid which has several converter interfaced DG
connections. The ITA relay is capable of detecting faults and isolating a faulted
segment from the network, allowing unfaulted segments to operate either in grid
connected or islanded mode operations. The relay does not make the tripping
decision based on only the fault current. It also uses the voltage at the relay location.
Therefore, the ITA relay can be used effectively in a DG connected network in which
fault current level is low or fault current level changes with time. Different case
studies are considered to evaluate the performance of the ITA relays in comparison
iii
to some of the existing protection schemes. The relay performance is evaluated in

different types of distribution networks: radial, the IEEE 34 node test feeder and a
mesh network. The results are validated through PSCAD simulations and MATLAB
calculations. Several experimental tests are carried out to validate the numerical
results in a laboratory test feeder by implementing the ITA relay in LabVIEW.
Furthermore, a novel control strategy based on fold back current control is
proposed for a converter interfaced DG to overcome the problems associated with
the system restoration. The control strategy enables the self extinction of arc if the
fault is a temporary arc fault. This also helps in self system restoration if DG
capacity is sufficient to supply the load. The coordination with reclosers without
disconnecting the DGs from the network is discussed. This results in increased
reliability in the network by reduction of customer outages.
iv
Table of Contents
List of figures
ix
List of tables
xiii
List of appendices
xv
List of symbols and abbreviations
xvii
Chapter 1: Introduction ............................................. 1

1.1 Background .............................................................................................. 1
1.2 Aims and objectives of the thesis ............................................................. 3
1.3 Significance of research ........................................................................... 3
1.4 The original contributions of the research ............................................... 4
1.4.1 A novel relay characteristic for DG connected networks ................. 4
1.4.2 A new DG control strategy for fast system restoration ..................... 4
1.5 Structure of the thesis ............................................................................... 5
Chapter 2: Literature review ..................................... 7

2.1 Introduction .............................................................................................. 7
2.2 Protection issues and solutions ................................................................ 8
2.2.1 Islanding operation and anti-islanding protection ............................. 9
2.2.2 Coordination between protective devices ....................................... 12
2.2.3 Protection in the presence of current limited converters ................. 17
2.2.4 Reclosing, re-synchronization and arc faults .................................. 21
2.2.5 Communication based protection .................................................... 23
2.3 Summary ................................................................................................ 25
Chapter 3: Protective relay for DG connected

networks ................................................. 27
3.1 Introduction ............................................................................................ 27
3.2 ITA relay characteristics ........................................................................ 28
3.3 ITA relay reach settings ......................................................................... 30
3.4 Different ITA relay elements ................................................................. 34
3.4.1 Earth elements ................................................................................. 34
3.4.2 Phase elements................................................................................. 34
3.4.3 Directional elements ........................................................................ 35
3.5 Connection of ITA relays to a network .................................................. 35
3.6 Settings of ITA relays to detect resistive faults ..................................... 37
3.6.1 Zone-1 settings ................................................................................ 38
3.6.2 Zone-2 settings ................................................................................ 39
3.6.3 Zone-3 settings ................................................................................ 39
3.7 Practical issues for admittance calculation ............................................ 41
3.8 Summary ................................................................................................ 43
Chapter 4: Evaluation of ITA relay performance . 45

4.1 Introduction ............................................................................................ 45
4.2 Inverse time overcurrent relays .............................................................. 46
4.3 Distance relays ....................................................................................... 48
4.4 ITA relays............................................................................................... 51
4.5 ITA relay performance ........................................................................... 54
4.5.1 A radial feeder with DGs................................................................. 54
4.5.2 Effect of source impedance on relay response ................................ 61
4.5.3 ITA relay response for different DG and load distribution profiles 62
4.5.4 An application of ITA relays to IEEE 34 node test feeder.............. 66
4.5.5 ITA relays for mesh network protection ......................................... 70
4.6 Limitations of ITA relays ....................................................................... 74
4.7 Summary ................................................................................................ 77
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Chapter 5: Fold back current control and system

restoration .............................................. 79
5.1 Introduction ............................................................................................ 79
5.2 Fold back current control characteristics ............................................... 80
5.2.1 Fold back during contingency ......................................................... 80
5.2.2 Restoration process.......................................................................... 83
5.2.3 Coordination with reclosers ............................................................ 86
5.2.4 DG protection .................................................................................. 87
5.3 Arc fault model selection for simulation ............................................... 88
5.3.1 Primary arc fault .............................................................................. 89
5.3.2 Secondary arc fault .......................................................................... 90
5.3.3 Arc extinction .................................................................................. 91
5.4 Simulation studies .................................................................................. 91
5.4.1 Results for permanent faults ............................................................ 93
5.4.2 Results for Arc Faults ...................................................................... 97
5.4.3 Auto reclosing ............................................................................... 100
5.5 Summary .............................................................................................. 104
Chapter 6: Experimental results ........................... 105

6.1 Introduction .......................................................................................... 105
6.2 Test feeder arrangement ....................................................................... 105
6.3 Relay performance evaluation ............................................................. 109
6.4 Relay response for different fault locations ......................................... 111
6.4.1 Fault at BUS-2 ............................................................................... 112
6.4.2 Fault at BUS-3 ............................................................................... 113
6.4.3 Fault at BUS-4 ............................................................................... 115
6.4.4 Fault at BUS-5 ............................................................................... 116
6.4.5 Relay response for source impedance change ............................... 117
6.5 Analysis of ITA relay degradation factors ........................................... 120
6.5.1 The effect of fault resistance and infeed ....................................... 120
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6.5.2 The effect of fundamental extraction ............................................ 124

6.6 Summary .............................................................................................. 130
Chapter 7: Conclusions and recommendations ... 131

7.1 Conclusions .......................................................................................... 131
7.2 Recommendations for future research ................................................. 134
7.2.1 Consideration of rotary type DGs for protection........................... 134
7.2.2 Fold back type current control for rotary type DGs ...................... 134
7.2.3 The effect of single phase converters ............................................ 134
References
135
Publications arising from the thesis
143
Appendix-A
145
Appendix-B
147
Appendix-C
153
viii
List of Figures
Fig. 2.1 Different types of communication networks (Adapted from [55]) .... 24
Fig. 3.1 A radial distribution feeder................................................................. 28
Fig. 3.2 The variation of normalised admittance ............................................. 29
Fig. 3.3 Relay tripping characteristic curve ..................................................... 30
Fig. 3.4 A radial distribution feeder with relays .............................................. 31
Fig. 3.5 Relay protection zones and relay coordination .................................. 32
Fig. 3.6 Relay settings based on different forward and reverse reach ............. 33
Fig. 3.7 Relay connection diagram to the system ............................................ 36
Fig. 3.8 Process of relay tripping decision making ......................................... 36
Fig. 3.9 Relay tripping characteristics of different zones ................................ 41
Fig. 4.1 A radial distribution feeder with relays .............................................. 47
Fig. 4.2 Inverse time overcurrent relay grading .............................................. 47
Fig. 4.3 MHO relay characteristic ................................................................... 50
Fig. 4.4 MHO relay zone settings and timing diagram ................................... 50
Fig. 4.5 ITA relay grading ............................................................................... 52
Fig. 4.6 Faulted line with a relay ..................................................................... 52
Fig. 4.7 ITA relay characteristic in R-X diagram ............................................ 54
Fig. 4.8 Radial distribution feeder with DGs................................................... 55
Fig. 4.9 OC and ITA relay grading .................................................................. 57
Fig. 4.10 OC and ITA relay response when DG1 is connected....................... 58
Fig. 4.11 Distance and ITA relay response when DG1 is connected .............. 58
Fig. 4.12 OC and ITA relay time-current characteristic .................................. 59
Fig. 4.13 ITA relay response in grid connected mode..................................... 60
Fig. 4.14 ITA relay response in islanded mode ............................................... 61
Fig. 4.15 ITA relay response for SLG fault in islanded operation .................. 61
Fig. 4.16 System with two parallel transformers ............................................. 62
Fig. 4.17 Relay response for impedance change ............................................. 62
Fig. 4.18 Distribution feeder with DGs and loads ........................................... 63
Fig. 4.19 ITA relay response when fault resistance is 0.05 ......................... 64
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Fig. 4.20 Fault current seen by each ITA relay along the feeder..................... 65
Fig. 4.21 Random load and DG distribution profiles along the feeder............ 66
Fig. 4.22 ITA relay response for random load and DG distribution profiles .. 66
Fig. 4.23 IEEE 34 node test feeder with ITA relays ........................................ 67
Fig. 4.24 ITA relay response for SLG fault at node 858 ................................. 69
Fig. 4.27 Mesh network under study ............................................................... 71
Fig. 4.28 Equivalent representation of the faulted network............................. 74
Fig. 4.29 ITA relay response for different values of fault resistances and DG
currents ............................................................................................ 76
Fig. 5.1 Proposed fold back characteristics ..................................................... 82
Fig. 5.2 System restoration .............................................................................. 85
Fig. 5.3 Simulated radial feeder with DGs ...................................................... 92
Fig. 5.4 Calculated ITA relay response for a three phase fault ....................... 94
Fig. 5.5 DG1 response (a) output voltage (b) output current (c) real power
output................................................................................................. 95
Fig. 5.6 DG1 response (a) output voltage (b) output current (c) real power
output................................................................................................. 97
Fig. 5.7 System behaviour for an arc fault (a) arc voltage (b) arc current (c) arc
resistance (d) relay response ............................................................... 99
Fig. 5.8 DG1 behaviour for an arc fault (a) output voltage (b) output current 99
Fig. 5.9 DG1 behaviour when downstream relay fails (a) output voltage (b)
output current .................................................................................. 100
Fig. 5.10 DG1 response during fault and system restoration ........................ 102
Fig. 5.11 DG1 terminal voltage and output current ....................................... 103
Fig. 6.1 Experimental test feeder ................................................................... 106
Fig. 6.2 Single line diagram of experimental setup ....................................... 106
Fig. 6.3 NI PXI-1042Q chassis ...................................................................... 107
Fig. 6.4 ITA relay implementation on LabVIEW.......................................... 108
Fig. 6.5 Simplified single line diagram of the test feeder .............................. 109
Fig. 6.6 Calculated relay response in different zones for bolted faults ......... 111
Fig. 6.7 The variation of voltage and current for SLG faults at BUS-2 ........ 113
Fig. 6.10 The variation of voltage and current for SLG faults at BUS-5 ...... 117
Fig. 6.11 Voltage and current for a fault at BUS-2 ....................................... 118
Fig. 6.15 Change of parameters during a resistive fault at BUS-2 ................ 122
Fig. 6.16 Test feeder with an infeed .............................................................. 123
Fig. 6.17 Change of parameters for a fault at BUS-2 with fault resistance and
infeed ............................................................................................. 124
Fig. 6.18 A SLG fault at synchronous generator connected feeder ............... 125
Fig. 6.19 Current and voltage during a SLG fault ......................................... 126
Fig. 6.20 Values of relay parameters during a SLG fault .............................. 127
Fig. 6.21 Faulted current and voltage during a SLG fault ............................. 128
Fig. 6.22 Values of calculated relay parameters during a SLG fault............. 129
xi
List of Tables
Table 3.1 Selection criterion of a directional element ..................................... 35
Table 4.1 System parameters ........................................................................... 55
Table 4.2 OC relay settings ............................................................................. 56
Table 4.3 Zone characteristics of ITA relay .................................................... 56
Table 4.5 ITA relay forward and reverse reach settings.................................. 68
Table 4.7 Zone-3 grading of ITA relays .......................................................... 72
Table 4.8 Fault clearing time of ITA relays .................................................... 73
Table 5.1 Simulated system data ..................................................................... 92
Table 5.2 Arc model parameters ...................................................................... 97
Table 6.1 System parameters of the experimental setup ............................... 108
Table 6.2 Relay reach setting and tripping characteristic in each zone ......... 110
Table 6.3 ITA relay response for faults at BUS-2 ......................................... 113
Table 6.7 ITA relay response for SLG faults with higher source impedance 118
Table 6.8 Relay parameters during a resistive fault ...................................... 121
Table 6.9 Change of relay parameters due to fault resistance and infeed ..... 123
xiii
List of Appendices
Appendix-A Positive sequence admittance seen by ITA relay.....145
Appendix-B Converter structure and control147
Appendix-C LabVIEW program...153
xv
List of principle symbols and abbreviations

A, , k
Relay tripping constants
CB
Circuit breaker
CT
Current transformer
DFT
Discrete Fourier transform
DG
Distributed generator
FFT
Fast Fourier transform
IDG
Distributed generator current
Ip
Pickup current
IRa, IRb
Current in faulted phases A and B
Ir
Rated current of converter
ITA
Inverse time admittance
lp
Primary arc length
ls
Secondary arc length
MI
Multiple of pickup current
OC
Overcurrent
PCC
Point of common coupling
R1, R2, R3
Protective relays
Rf
Fault resistance
SLG
Single line to ground
TDS
Time dial settings
tp
Tripping time
VSC
Voltage source converter
Vs
Source voltage
xvii
VT
Voltage transformer
Ym
Measured admittance
Yr
Normalised admittance
YRK1
Positive sequence measured admittance
Yt
Total admittance
Zdg
Source impedance of distributed generator
ZLG
Apparent impedance
xviii
Statement of original authorship

The work contained in this thesis has not been previously submitted to meet
requirements for an award at this or any other higher education institution. To the
best of my knowledge and belief, this thesis contains no material previously
published or written by another person except where due reference is made.
Signature:.
Date:.
xix
Acknowledgements
First and foremost, I would like to convey my sincerest and deepest thanks to
my supervisors, Prof. Gerard Ledwich and Prof. Arindam Ghosh, for their
incomparable guidance and endless encouragement throughout my doctoral research.
It has been a great privilege for me to work under this supervision.
I wish to express my thanks to the Faculty of Built Environment and
Engineering, Queensland University of Technology (QUT) for providing me with
financial support during my research candidature.
I would also like to thank staff in the research portfolio office in QUT for their
generous support and assistance throughout the candidature, and the staff in the
School of Engineering Systems for providing such a helpful environment. Further, I
am thankful to staff in the Power Engineering Group for their valuable advice.
I would like to extend my appreciation to all the technical staff who supported
me during the laboratory experiments. Without this support, experimental work
would not have been successful.
I would further like to thank to all of my friends for sharing valuables ideas, for
supporting me during the experimental work, and for making the research period an
enjoyable one. Also, I am grateful to my parents for encouraging me to pursue higher
studies, and I thank them and my relatives for their constant support.
Last but not least, I would like to express my heartiest appreciation to my
beloved wife for her encouragement and support during the period of research in
Australia. Also, I cannot forget my son who brings joy and happiness to our small
nest.
xxi
Chapter 1: Introduction
1.1 Background
With the rapid increase in electrical energy demand, power utilities are seeking
for more power generation capacity. However, environmental and right-of-way
concerns make the addition of central generating stations and the erection of power
transmission lines more difficult. Thus, newer technologies based on renewable
energy are becoming more acceptable as alternative energy generators. This
renewable energy push is starting to spread power generation over distribution
networks in the form of distributed generation and will lead to a significant increase
in the penetration level of distributed generation in the near future. It is expected that
20% of power generation will be through renewable sources by the year 2020 [1].
However, by that time, the penetration level of DGs is expected to be higher in many
countries which are seeking accelerated deployment of renewable technologies. The
DGs based on renewable energy sources will help in reducing greenhouse gas
emissions. Moreover, these DGs can provide benefits for both utilities and
consumers since they can reduce power loss, improve voltage profile and reduce
transmission and distribution costs due to their location close to customers [2, 3].
A microgrid can be considered as an entirely DG based grid that contains both
generators and loads. It is usually connected to the utility grid through a single point:
the point of common coupling (PCC). To the utility grid, the microgrid behaves as a
fully controllable load which at peak hours can even supply power back to the utility
grid. A microgrid can operate in either (utility) grid connected mode or islanded
mode and can seamlessly change between these modes. In an islanded mode, the
DGs connected to the microgrid supply its loads, where a provision for load shedding
exists if the load demand is higher than the total DG generation.
Most of the existing distribution systems are radial where power flows from
substation to the customers in a unidirectional manner. Overcurrent protection is
used for such systems because of its simplicity and low cost [1, 4]. However, once a
DG or a microgrid is connected within the main utility system, this pure radial nature
is lost [2, 5, 6] and the existing protection devices may not respond in the fashion for
which they were initially designed [4]. This change in response may be due to the
change in parameters, such as source impedance, short circuit capacity level and
change of fault currents and fault current directions at various locations.
Solar photovoltaic cells produce power at dc voltage. Similarly, fuel cells and
batteries also produce dc output power. These are then converted into ac voltage
through dc-ac converters. Also, other sources such as wind and microturbines use a
converter stage for grid interconnection. All the converters try to protect themselves
by limiting their output currents. This becomes more crucial during faults. In general,
fault current is usually limited to a value that is twice the converter rated current [7,
8]. As a result of current limiting, the overcurrent devices may not respond or may
operate slowly. This is specifically true when an islanded system is supplied by
current limited converters. The aim of this research was to identify and address the
protection issues of distribution networks in the presence of the DGs and microgrids.
New protection strategies are proposed to overcome the difficulties of the existing
protection schemes.
1.2 Aims and objectives of the thesis

The main objective of this thesis was to design and develop efficient protection
strategies to achieve the fault detection, faulted segment isolation, system restoration
and reclosing for both grid connected and islanded operations of a microgrid or a
distribution network which mainly consists of current limited DGs. To achieve this
goal, the aims of the research project were identified as:
analysing the protection issues related to a microgrid and a distribution network

in the presence of DGs
determining the applicability of the existing protection strategies
determining the new protection strategies that are required to achieve

appropriate fault detection and protection of a network
addressing the protection issues associated with system restoration, arc

extinction and reclosing in the presence of converter interfaced DGs in a
network
While the main objective of the thesis was to propose a generic protection
solution for DG connected distribution networks, the focus was limited to converter
interfaced DGs. Moreover, the protection of DG connected distribution networks
without communication was considered for a simple and cost effective solution.
1.3 Significance of research

The penetration level of DGs in the power distribution network is expected to
be very high in the near future. In the current climate change scenario, many
renewable energy sources such as wind and solar are being connected very rapidly to
the utility network. This research will help to identify the protection problems related
to a distribution network or microgrid which consists of distributed generators and
minimize the protection issues in implementation with the use of the proposed
strategies.
1.4 The original contributions of the research

The main objective of this research was to propose protection strategies to
incorporate DGs into a micro grid or a distribution network by overcoming the
identified protection issues. The main contributions of this research can be listed as
follows.
1.4.1 A novel relay characteristic for DG connected networks

An inverse time admittance (ITA) relay characteristic is proposed to overcome
the deficiencies of the existing overcurrent relays. The ITA relay has the capability
of detecting faults under different fault current levels which is the usual scenario that
can be seen in a distribution network when several DGs are present. These relays can
isolate the faulted segments and allow the unfaulted segments to operate either in
grid connected or islanded mode. Moreover, the relay is capable of providing
adequate protection for the islanded system which has several converter interfaced
DGs.
1.4.2 A new DG control strategy for fast system restoration

The arc extinction during an arc fault, reclosing for temporary faults and the
system restoration after a fault is cleared are major protection issues in a DG
connected distribution network. Therefore, to overcome these problems, a control
strategy based on fold back current control is proposed for converter interfaced DGs.
The proposed control has the capability to restore the system automatically if the
generation is sufficient to supply the load demand in an islanded section. Self
extinction of arc is achieved by reducing the output current of DGs. Furthermore, an
effective method is proposed to coordinate the operations of reclosers and converter
interfaced DGs in a network. The fold back control provides maximum benefits to
customers by reducing outages since the DGs are not disconnected immediately
when there is a fault in the system.
The proposed ITA relay and fold back current control strategy for a converter
interfaced DG provide a complete protection solution for a DG connected network.
The relays detect and isolate faults effectively while the fold back current control
helps in arc extinction, system restoration and recloser coordination with DGs.
1.5 Structure of the thesis

This thesis is organised in seven chapters and three appendices. The research
aims and objectives are outlined in Chapter 1. The need and justification for the
research in this field are identified in Chapter 2. In this chapter, a literature review is
carried out to identify the protection issues related to DG connected distribution
networks and microgrids. Moreover, the deficiencies of the existing protection
schemes are identified and some of the already proposed solutions to overcome these
protection issues are analysed.
As a result of identification of the protection issues and the deficiencies of the
existing protection schemes in Chapter 2, a new ITA relay is proposed for DG
connected networks in Chapter 3. The ITA relay characteristics and its features,
which include relay reach settings and different relay elements, are discussed in this
chapter. Moreover, practical implementation issues of ITA relays are also discussed.
The proposed ITA relay performance is then evaluated in Chapter 4. The
fundamentals of the existing overcurrent and distance relays are discussed and their
features are then compared with the ITA relays. Different case studies are carried out
to show the efficacy of the ITA relays. Moreover, simulation studies related to the
ITA relays are also presented in this chapter. Applications of ITA relays for both
radial and mesh networks are examined and their limitations are identified.
A fold back current control characteristic for a converter interfaced DG is
proposed in Chapter 5. The protection issues related to the system restoration, arc
extinction and reclosing are also addressed in this chapter. Different case studies of
both permanent and temporary faults were carried out and are presented here to show
the efficacy of proposed fold back converter control.
Chapter 6 presents the hardware results obtained through the experimental
laboratory tests. The ITA relay characteristic is modelled using LabVIEW software
and the relay performance is investigated for different fault locations and different
system configurations.
Conclusions drawn from this research and recommendations for future research
are given in Chapter 7. The list of references and a list of publications arsing from
the thesis are provided at the end of the last chapter. In Appendix-A, different types
of relay elements are discussed, while Appendix-B give a detailed description of the
converter structure and control used in simulation studies. The LabVIEW program
used in ITA relay implementation is presented in Appendix-C.
Chapter 2: Literature review

2.1 Introduction
The cost of transmission and distribution is rising with the rapid increases in
the load demand. However, the costs of distribution generation technologies are
falling [2]. So from a costing point of view, it is becoming more worthwhile to
increase the generation at the distribution level by connecting a distributed generator
(DG) to meet the load requirement without expanding the transmission and
distribution infrastructure. In addition, there are several advantages of having DGs;
short construction time, lower capital costs, reduction in gaseous emissions, reduced
transmission power loss since generation is now closer to the load, improving voltage
profile, enhancing reliability and diversification of energy sources [9-11].
A microgrid can be considered as a small grid based on DGs. Generally, the
microgrid consists of renewable energy based DGs and combined heat and power
plants. It can operate either grid connected or islanded mode. Most of the DGs are
connected to the microgrid through power electronic based power converters which
pose operational challenges [12]. The protection system of a microgrid should
respond to faults within the microgrid irrespective of its grid connected and islanded
operation. For a fault in the utility grid, the microgrid should disconnect immediately
from PCC to maintain a continuous supply to the microgrid loads. On the other hand,

the smallest possible set of faulted lines of the microgrid must be isolated for a fault
within this grid.
However, protection of a distribution network becomes more complicated and
challenging once several DGs are connected (as in a microgrid). In this chapter, the
complications in system protection arising due to the connection of DGs to a
distribution network are discussed. Also some of the already proposed solutions are
mentioned.
2.2 Protection issues and solutions

The present practice is to disconnect the DGs from the network using an
islanding detection method when there is a fault in the system [13, 14]. This is as per
the IEEE recommended practice, standard 1547 [15]. This may work satisfactorily
when the penetration of DGs in a distribution system is low. However, as the
penetration levels increase or in the case of micro or mini-grid, the DGs will be
expected to supply power even when the supply from the utility is lost and the DGs
form a small island. This will prevent unnecessary customer power interruption.
Thus, the benefits of DG installations can be maximized allowing the DGs to operate
in both grid connected and islanded modes of operation, especially when the DG
penetration level is high.
Some of the issues in DG connected distribution networks or microgrids that
need attention are bi-directional power flow, change of relay reach, coordination
between protective devices, islanding, reclosing, protection in the presence of current
limited converters and temporary arc faults. These are discussed below.
2.2.1 Islanding operation and anti-islanding protection

Islanding occurs when the main supply is disconnected and at least one
generator in the disconnected system continues to operate. If a DG is allowed to
operate in this islanding condition, it will bring benefits to customers by reducing
outages [16]. However, if DGs are not designed to operate in islanded operation, this
can cause a number of safety issues [17]. The point where the islanded system is
created after the disconnection of the utility for a fault cannot be identified exactly.
Therefore at the moment of islanding, the generation and load capacity may not be
equal.
When synchronous generators are present in the islanded region and if loads
are larger than the generation then the generators tend to slow down which can lead
to under frequency tripping of generators. In this case, a load shedding scheme
should be implemented to maintain the stability in the islanded system. On the other
hand if load capacity is less than the generation, generators could experience over
frequency tripping and require a fast governor controller to respond and balance the
power [18]. Thus there is a need to identify the islanding condition in an expanded
islanded system which has the loads beyond the PCC. The type of prime mover and
controller mode (i.e. droop control, constant power, etc) affect the response of the
system at the event of the islanding. These responses have been described according
to the type of generation in [18].
Also islanding may increase the risk for the user equipment and utility power
apparatus due to the potential reduction in performance standards for voltage and
frequency and the issues relating to phase mismatching when reconnecting the DG
and utility [1]. It also can be a potential hazard to utility personnel working to rectify
the faulted segment as some portion of it can be live due to power supplied by DGs.

Power quality may not be guaranteed within the island and there could be abnormal
conditions in voltage and frequency [19, 20]. In the islanded mode, short circuit
levels may drop significantly upon disconnection from the utility [1, 4, 19]. These
factors are the reason why anti-islanding protection is traditionally applied to achieve
the safety of personnel and equipment of the distribution system. Under and over
voltage relays, under and over frequency relays, vector shift and relays for detecting
rate of change of frequency (ROCOF) can be used as devices to detect islanding [10,
19, 21]. The common practice is to disconnect the DGs before the first reclosing
occurs after a fault in the system. Therefore anti-islanding protection devices should
be appropriately coordinated with other protective devices such as reclosers in the
system. From the reliability point of view, applying the anti-islanding protection to a
microgrid is disadvantageous.
An anti-islanding protection relay should detect the islanding condition within
the required time (typically 200 to 400 ms) and should trip all the generators. On the
other hand, it should not trip for small frequency variations in the system. A microprocessor based line tracking system is suggested for detecting islanding condition of
a hydro power distributed generator (HPDG) using the changes of voltage,
frequency, active power and reactive power [10]. This method can be used to detect
the islanding condition of HPDG quickly and to isolate it from the main grid.
ROCOF relay needs very sensitive settings for the fast islanding detection under a
small imbalance of active power. However, it may cause to trip the anti-islanding
relay for the small frequency variations. Usually frequency tripping requirements
(i.e. under and over frequency) of a relay and islanding detection relay settings are
analysed separately. As a result, two relays are required to perform the task; one for
the under/over frequency protection of the generator and another for the islanding
10

detection. However, these two relays are operated based on the system frequency.
Reference [21] has proposed a graphical method based on application region of the
frequency relay to determine the islanding requirements without disturbing the
frequency tripping requirements. Further this paper outlines how to coordinate the
operation of the islanding detection relay and standard frequency tripping relay.
Reference [20] also provides a mathematical development to determine the
application region of a frequency relay which satisfies both the islanding detection
and frequency tripping requirements. It has been shown that the frequency relay can
be replaced by an islanding detection vector shift relay if the proper settings are
selected. Similarly, a method is suggested to find out the application region of a
voltage relay to satisfy both the anti-islanding and voltage variation protection in
[22]. After disconnecting the main utility, the loading effect on DG is suddenly
changed. As a result, balance condition of loads and harmonic currents will change.
Therefore Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) of current and voltage unbalance at the
DG terminal have been introduced as two new monitoring parameters to detect the
islanding condition with voltage magnitude in [23]. Test results have shown that this
method can be used efficiently for improved performance.
The DGs are expected to supply either an increase of load at grid connected
operation or emergency loads at the islanding operation. Thus the islanding operation
is important to ensure supply continuity to customers. Therefore, implementing an
anti islanding operation every time a fault occurs reduces the reliability of the
system. The authors in [6] proposed a method for a distribution network with high
penetration of DGs to use the conventional protective devices without disconnecting
the DGs from the system when a fault occurs. In this case, each DG should be
connected to two feeders which operate in a loop. The DG is required to be isolated
11

from the faulted feeder after the fault occurs and a micro-processor based line
protection relay is used to implement the scheme. However this scheme may increase
the fault clearing time which can affect the dynamic condition of the system. Voltage
and frequency should be maintained in the desired range, in the presence of
disturbances in the islanding system. Control strategies should be implemented
considering over-generated and under-generated islanding conditions [10].
It has been mentioned that the only way to maintain the existing coordination
system in the presence of arbitrary DG penetration level is to disconnect all DGs
instantly in the case of a fault [2]. It would result in the DG disconnection for a
temporary fault as well. Therefore it is clear that new protection strategies are
required to investigate with the DG penetration to the utility. In addition, if the DG is
not disconnected from the system at the event of a fault, the fault arc would not
extinguish during an automatic recloser open time, since the source feeding the fault
still remains. Thus a compromise solution between islanding operation and antiislanding protection needs to evolve.
2.2.2 Coordination between protective devices

The coordination of protective devices based on current is relatively easy when
the distribution network is radial. However, with the connection of microgrids or
DGs to the utility, the radial nature no longer exists and it permits the power flow to
be bi-directional rather than uni-directional [14, 24]. This may create a number of
protection coordination issues. On the other hand, the protective devices should be
coordinated in the distribution network considering reliability (correct operation),
selectivity (minimum system disconnection), speed of operation (minimum fault
duration), simplicity (having minimum protective equipment) and economics
(maximum protection under minimum cost). These coordinated actions should be
12

implemented fast enough to prevent personal hazards and equipment damage [25].
Generally, the protection of the distribution network is done using the current
measurement based on the coordination of fuses, overcurrent relays, reclosers and
sectionalisers [26]. It should consist of a primary and backup protection system
which has proper time grading between each devices. As an example, tripping time
increases towards the main utility source from the fault location and operation device
sequences for a fault in a DG may be the first low voltage breaker, then the fuse,
after that the line recloser, finally if fault still exits it should be cleared by the
substation circuit breaker.
The coordination based on the current is relatively easy in the unidirectional
power flow networks, because the fault current reduces along the feeder [26].
However, with the growth of distributed generators, the system permits the power
flow to be bi-directional rather than uni-directional [5, 27]. This may create a number
of feeder protection issues. It causes relays to under-reach or over-reach [28]. The
DG location in the distribution network influences the relay reach to reduce or
increase. It has been shown that the reach of an overcurrent relay will reduce in the
presence of a DG [29]. Among the protective devices currently used, reclosers and
fuses usually do not have the directional sensing feature but a relay can easily be
made to have that feature [2]. In addition to that, the DG can contribute by suppling
short circuit currents to the neighbouring faulted feeder and operating the protective
device in the healthy feeder [30]. The only possible way to coordinate the existing
protection schemes is to disconnect all the DGs for every fault even for the
temporary faults [2]. However, it has been mentioned before that this is not a
desirable solution to this problem.
13

An adaptive protection method is proposed for the distribution system with
high DG penetration level in [2]. In this approach, several zones are formed with a
reasonable balance of loads and DGs. Each breaker and recloser should have
communication capability and each individual zone breaker should be available to
check the synchronization function. At the beginning, load flow and short circuit
analysis for all types of faults need to be carried out. After the changes of system
configuration due to the loads or DGs , the load flow and short circuit analysis again
have to be repeated. This will not be feasible when a larger number of plug and play
DGs is connected /disconnected. Moreover, this adaptive method is complex as it is
not easy to define zones with the fluctuation of loads and DG generation. However,
protection is independent of DG size and location. The impact of DG capacity on
relay operation and coordination in a radial distribution system has been studied in
[31]. It has been shown that for a downstream fault from the connection point of a
DG, the relay selectivity remains unchanged and sensitivity improves due to the
increase in fault current. But there is a maximum capacity for the DG to keep the
relay coordination. Further a method was suggested to find out the maximum value
for the DG capacity. On the other hand for an upstream fault from the DG connection
point, it has been shown that the misoperation can occur for a low capacity DG.
Problems of protective devices coordination in a distribution network have
been addressed in [5]. To achieve the coordination among fuses, total clearing (TC)
time of a fuse should be less than the minimum melting (MM) time of the other fuse
for a particular value of fault current. After a DG penetrates into the system, the fault
current magnitude and direction can change and this initiates the problems in the
coordination. Usually a recloser has a sequence of operations as it employs two
operating characteristics curves called fast and slow. Most of the faults, which are
14

around 80% of the total faults in the distribution system, are temporary. Therefore
protective devices coordination should be done in an appropriate way when recloser
and fuse are present in a distribution system. Moreover the recloser should operate
fast enough to give a chance to clear the fault before the fuse [2, 5]. To achieve this
fast characteristic, the recloser should lie below the MM curve of the fuse. The fuse
should only operate for a permanent fault. This operation is obtained if the slow
characteristic of recloser lies above the TC curve of the fuse within the considered
minimum and maximum fault currents region. If DG is connected upstream to a
recloser, the fault current seen by the recloser and further downstream fuses will
increase. As a result the required margin between the fast characteristic of recloser
and minimum melting curve will tend to reduce. Thus there is a probability of losing
the coordination with any fuse further down to the recloser [32]. On the other hand, if
a DG is connected between a recloser and a fuse, the fault current seen by a fuse
increases and this may cause it to lose coordination. Before the DG connection, the
recloser and fuse see the same fault current. However, after the connection, the fuse
will see more current than the recloser and it responds before the recloser in the event
of a fault downstream to the fuse location. The effect on coordination increases with
DG capacity. Studies in [33] have shown that traditional reclosers are unable to keep
the coordination with fuses in the presence of high DG penetration. Further this
paper has proposed a microprocessor based recloser to perform the task under this
system condition.
When relays are present in the distribution system, time of operation of each
relay and among relays is called Coordination time interval for the faults should be
coordinated appropriately [5]. Overcurrent relays are the simplest and widely used in
protection applications. They are used in the distribution system as the primary
15

protection and in transmission as backup protection [34]. There are several types of
overcurrent relays available to select from depending on the application.
Instantaneous overcurrent relays are mostly used to protect sub-transmission lines
while definite time relays are used in ungrounded or high impedance grounded
systems. Moreover inverse time relays can easily coordinate with other protective
devices and they are usually employed to protect distribution networks. A software
model of a inverse time overcurrent relay has been developed to simulate in PSCAD
[34].
High backup time for the minimum fault currents is a disadvantage of
overcurrent relays. A method which proposes to find the time element function for an
overcurrent relay to reduce the back-up time to a constant value independent of the
fault current magnitude rather than in the conventional overcurrent relay is given in
[35]. References [36] and [37] present the IEEE standard analytical equation for the
different types of overcurrent relays (i.e. moderately inverse, very inverse, and
extremely inverse) and operating and reset characteristics that can be taken for
coordination purposes. Relays employed in the radial networks have both inverse
time and instantaneous elements to achieve a quick response for the severe faults as
well as the coordination among relays [26].
Also in the case of the islanded microgrid, the ratio between the source
impedance and protected line is relatively high compared to the utility and this
initiates a coordination problem since discrimination among relays are difficult at
this time [26]. When the network with a large number of lines is fed by a single
source station, the ground overcurrent relays have to be set with a large time delay
period such as five seconds to maintain a good coordination in the system. As a
result existing protection systems are upgraded with digital ground impedance
16

elements to achieve high speed fault clearing [38]. Reference [39] shows a method
to calculate directional overcurrent relays setting for both grid connected and
microgrid which consists of synchronous generator based DGs. In this method, the
Particle Swarm Optimization algorithm is used in the relay coordination problem to
obtain the optimal settings for the directional overcurrent relays while maintaining
the minimum operating time and coordination among relays. It has been shown that
it is not possible to calculate a setting time for the relays in both the grid connected
and islanded modes of operation. Hence a central control protection unit is required
to change the setting according to the system configuration. However fault current
seen by each device may change according to the location of microgrid connected to
the utility and fault location. Hence attention to coordinate protective devices is
essential.
There are numerous papers which address the coordination issues with the
presence of DGs in the distribution network. However, so far there is little attention
to the coordination analysis of the current limited converter interfaced DGs.
2.2.3 Protection in the presence of current limited converters

The fault current may change due to the presence of DGs in the network [2, 16,
19, 39, 40]. Its impact depends on the size, type, number of the DG, location of the
DG [5, 31]. Basically three types of DGs exist with different properties; synchronous
generators, induction generators and converter interface DGs [4]. Transient
behaviour and short circuit current levels vary based on the type of the generation
[41]. Microgrids which consist of synchronous generators tend to contribute an
additional fault level in the system [31]. However generators can increase or decrease
the fault current seen by protective devices depending on the location. The impact of
synchronous DGs on coordination between voltage sag and overcurrent protection
17

are studied in [40] considering the sensitive equipment response. Fault current
behaviour and fault detection in a distribution network for different types of faults in
the presence of an induction generator has been studied in [4]. The system which is
not designed with DGs may not work properly with existing protective devices once
several DGs are connected to the system [6]. In the presence of a generator within
the network, the fault current detected by a protective device located at the beginning
of the feeder can be reduced due to the rise of voltage drop over the feeder section
between the generator and the fault [4]. Therefore the faults previously cleared in a
very short time may now require a significant time to clear.
Most of the distribution resources in the microgrid are connected through the
power electronic converters [12]. For example, the dc power is generated by using
the sources such as fuel cell, micro turbine, or a photovoltaic and converters are
utilised to alter the dc power into ac power. These converter interface generators
supplies the currents not much greater than the nominal load currents [26]. Basically
the controller of the converter mainly consists of two control schemes named voltage
control and current control and it regulates the output active and reactive power [42].
In the voltage control mode, the converter produces a three phase balanced ac
voltage at the terminal. The current control scheme, which is explained in [42], uses
two control loops, an inner loop for the current output and outer loop for the power
output. It has been shown that the current control scheme responds slowly due to the
outer power loop.
However, converters do not supply sufficient current to operate current sensing
devices in a fault condition because they have been designed to limit the fault current
at a value that is not more than twice the rated current. As a result, overcurrent
devices may not respond or take a long time to respond [8, 26, 43, 44]. Therefore
18

protecting a converter dominated microgrid is a challenging technical issue under the
current limited environment [25]. Moreover there is a requirement to find other
protection techniques to solve this problem [7, 26, 27]. One possible approach which
facilitates using the existing overcurrent protection is up-rating of converters to
supply the required fault current. However this will be a costly process. Another
approach that is proposed to overcome this problem is to use a flywheel energy
storage system to obtain the necessary fault current in the event of a fault [44]. The
flywheel supplies the required fault current to operate the overcurrent protective
devices in the islanding operation.
A stand-alone three phase four leg voltage source converter model has been
studied to observe the fault behaviour of an islanded microgrid for different types of
faults in [7]. During a fault, the converter works as a constant current source
supplying the positive sequence current to the system. There are no active sources in
the negative or zero sequence networks. So it has been shown that the microgrid is
equivalent to a current source with parallel impedance which depends on the fault
type. In this converter topology, large voltages can be seen in healthy phases for
unbalanced faults. In [25], fault behaviour in a converter supplied microgrid has been
presented considering different types of converter topologies and microgrid earthing
systems. The paper concludes that the fault response strongly depends on the
converter control strategy.
Reference [26] suggests a voltage based fault detection scheme as a solution
for the converter dominated microgrid which operates on low fault current levels. It
describes three types of methods to detect the voltage in the faulted phase and
compares the detection time of the methods. The paper concludes that the neutral
grounding configuration affects fault detection. In addition, the paper further
19

proposes an adaptive overcurrent scheme which selects the lower current threshold to
operate the overcurrent device based on the value of voltage detection. In reference
[45], abc-dq transformation of the voltage waveforms is used to identify if the short
circuit condition is inside or outside a set zone in a microgrid. Voltage disturbance at
each relay location is calculated by comparing the reference value with the obtained
dc values in the d-q synchronous rotating frame. The tripping decision is made by
selecting the location which has the highest mean average disturbance value with the
help of a communication link among relays.
A differential relay based protection scheme is proposed to protect a microgrid
in either grid connected or islanded mode in [16]. In this, a central control unit is
used to make decisions on control and protection devices. Line parameters of the two
ends of a protected line have to be monitored by means of a wire connection if the
line is short or by a pilot wire communication if the line is long. The need for
communication channel is a disadvantage of the differential protection scheme.
Moreover, the response of DGs places between two relays will affect their
performance. Another approach for the protection of microgrid with converters in
both islanded and grid connected operation is presented in [8]. A static switch has
been designed to open the microgrid for all types of faults and faults should be
cleared using techniques which do not rely on high fault currents within the
microgrid.
In [29], simulation results show that a converter based DG has a considerable
effect on the detection of the fault current as seen by an overcurrent relay. The relay
reach will be reduced with the DG connection due to the reduction in the fault
current. An adaptive technique is proposed to set the pickup current of the
overcurrent relay based on the amount of DG power injected to the system. The
20

minimum pickup current of the relay is update depending on the fault type and
location. Further, the response of an converter interfaced fuel cell under a fault
conditions has been investigated and it has been shown that the fault will cause the
voltage to drop below to a value such that the undervoltage relay would operate to
trip the DG if the fault occurs near the DG. Therefore undervoltage relay can be used
under a fault condition to determine the status of the DG. Furthermore, IEEE
standard 929-2000 states that converters will sense a short circuit by voltage drop
rather than sensing the short circuit current. Another option is to design the
protective devices to operate for small fault currents. However, this may cause
nuisance tripping [16, 19, 46]. Thus there is a need to assure that for both the
microgrid itself and for the grid connected modes, the protection system is operating
in an adequate fast, selective and reliable way to clear the faults [39].
2.2.4 Reclosing, re-synchronization and arc faults

Most of the faults (around 90%) in the power system are temporary arc faults
(such as insulator failures, conductors clashing due to strong wind, animal contacts,
lightning strikes, etc). These faults can be successfully cleared by de-energizing the
line long enough such that the arc self extinguishes. Usually reclosers which open
and close a few times successively are used to clear such faults without any large
scale power interruption [47]. Maximum dead time of single phase reclosing in
transmission lines are decided by the system stability requirements, where time
exceeding 1.5-2 s is not permissible [48]. While the consumers experience a shorter
outage time due to automatic reclosing, these breakers cannot be used for permanent
faults [47]. Reclosing a circuit in which the fault still exists can be harmful to the
system components such as generators, transformers, etc. A proposal has been made
21

based on artificial neural network algorithms to solve this problem by analysing the
voltage of the open phase conductor during the recloser dead time interval [47].
Usually three phase reclosers are used in distribution networks. In a DG or
microgrid connected distribution network, the reclosing should be done with proper
synchronization since this will join two live systems. The maximum time available
for automatic reclosing without losing synchronism should be considered. During the
auto recloser open time, if the island and main grid undergo a phase mismatch, then
it may lead to damage to the equipment and DGs in the microgrid [5]. However, if
the DG is connected using a converter, the risk of damage to the DG is low as it has
its own protection [49]. Dead line voltage relay and sync-check relay can be used to
prevent out of phase reclosing [19]. In general, a DG is disconnected before the first
reclosing occurs in the system. This requires that any anti-islanding protection should
operate very quickly. As a result, the recloser should coordinate with the antiislanding protection, which is a challenging task [19]. A communication link can be
established between the line recloser and the DG to transfer trip signal to disconnect
the DG quickly [50]. An automatic synchronizing or synchronism check relay should
be used at the PCC breaker when restoring the system after disconnection [18]. Resynchronizing can be done manually or automatically using synchronism check relay
with a synchronous generator based DG. However for a converter interfaced DG,
automatic re-synchronizing is preferred [46].
In the case of arc faults, sufficient time should be given to de-ionize the gas
path during the recloser open condition. Otherwise the arc may reignite again and
fault will not be clear [49]. Also, if DGs are kept connected to the system during
recloser open time, they can sustain the arc. The arc self-extinction action depends
not only on the fault current magnitude, but also on the transient recovery voltage
22

rate after successful arc extinction at the current zero crossing [51]. Also the arc
extinction time is proportional to the arc time constant [52]. On the other hand, the
fault current magnitude of an arc fault is limited by the arc resistance. Sometimes it
results in difficulties of detecting the fault [53]. Moreover, the arc voltage at the fault
point is a source of errors in the fault locating process [54]. Therefore protection of
distribution network and restoration under arc fault is a challenging task.
2.2.5 Communication based protection

The distribution system protection will be complicated when the DGs are
spread throughout the network. As a result new protection issues will arise for the
traditional distribution networks. To address some of the issues, a protection based
on a communication medium has been developed. Communication media including
power line carrier (PLC), microwave and optical fibre have long been used for the
transmission line applications. However, in nature, the distribution lines are different
from transmission lines. These lines are shorter and they have numerous tapped
loads. Therefore a particular communication method for a distribution system
protection should be fast and reliable. Basically three types of communication
networks can be identified as shown in the Fig. 2.1 [55]. In centralised networks, all
nodes are connected to a central point, which is the acting agent for all
communications. A network distributed across many nodes rather than centralized
around a central point is known as a decentralised network. On the other hand, in a
distributed network, if nodes are located on scattered way, they may still be capable
of working either independently or jointly as required. The increase of
implementation of renewable energy sources to the distribution system has changed
the configuration from centralised to decentralised network.
23
Fig. 2.1 Different types of communication networks (Adapted from [55])

The installation of a larger number of DGs can cause the loss of protection
selectivity.
Communication
media
may
be
the
internet,
PLC,
wireless
communication, etc. In [56], PLC based methods are proposed for the coordination
of voltage control, islanding detection for a DG and controlling the interface devices
at the PCC. The Islanding detection method is introduced to minimize the problems
of traditional methods based on frequency and voltage measurements. High
attenuation levels can be expected in distribution lines when their structure is
complex and lines are long. To avoid such problems, repeaters need to be installed in
this implementation. Application considerations of internet as the real time
communication medium for providing the loss of mains protection of a DG has been
studied in [55].
The distribution system becomes a multi-source when one after another DG
gets connected at different locations. This change in system configuration will cause
false tripping and relay coordination problems. As a solution for these problems,
reference [57] has proposed a new current protection scheme based on
communication to a multi-source distribution system. Wide area measurement is
used to decide the appropriate protection actions to locate the fault with the use of
communication channel. An adaptive method is proposed in [58] to set the relay
settings in real time using wide area measurements based on communication. A multi
24

agent approach based on communication is proposed in [17] to provide protection of
the power system and coordination between the protective devices in the presence of
DGs. A new method is proposed in [13] based on analysing the sign of wavelet
coefficients of the fault current transient to locate and isolate a faulted segment. In
this, relay agents are proposed to implant the proposed protection scheme. A fault
location and fault isolation technique of a DG connected distribution network using
neural networks is presented in [59]. In this, the system has different zones and the
relay at substation communicates with zone breakers to take appropriate actions.
With the use of communication, relay coordination has the ability to rapidly
select the faulted region. However, installation of extensive communication will
require time. Once the power system is smart grid ready, various smart relays can be
installed. Till that time, protection without any or low levels of communication will
be the most cost effective solution.
2.3 Summary
In this chapter, a brief summary is presented based on the review of the
previous published research work on the protection issues which arise after the
connections of DGs and microgrids to distribution networks. There are several
benefits available for both the network operator and customer by utilising DGs or
DG based Microgrids. Reliability can increase if the islanded system can continue
the supply to the loads rather than disconnecting all the DGs by anti-islanding
protection schemes. Therefore within the islanded system, a protection scheme
should work satisfactorily. Different types of protection issues have been addressed
in the literatures and different solutions have also been proposed to overcome these
issues.
25

The proposed protection scheme should isolate the faulted segment as quickly
as possible from the network. The DGs can then supply the power to unfaulted
segments in the network if they have been designed to operate in islanded mode. To
achieve that solution, several protection solutions have been proposed based on
communication for DG connected networks. However, most of them need reliable
communication medium for fast operation.
Most of the time, current sensing protective devices have been used to detect
the faults in the network. However, with the high penetration level of converter based
DGs, protection of the system has been identified as a key challenging issue.
Although different solutions have been proposed to solve this problem, further
studies are still required to identify and improve the efficient fault detection methods.
In the near future, when more DGs come into operation, protection will be a
challenging task due to the network complexity.
26
Chapter 3: Protective relay for DG connected

networks
3.1 Introduction
In a high penetrative DG network, a small possible portion should be isolated
during a fault allowing unfaulted segments to operate in either grid connected or
islanded mode to increase the system reliability by maximizing the DG benefits. To
achieve the faulted segment isolation, both upstream and downstream protective
devices should detect and isolate the fault. However, with the connection of DGs to a
distribution network or within a microgrid, fault current level can vary depending on
the DG connectivity, DG type and DG location. It results in difficulty of coordinating
existing overcurrent protective devices since network configuration changes.
Moreover, settings of these overcurrent relays to incorporate DGs are not possible if
DG power output changes with time or their connectivity is not consistent.
Furthermore, protection will be a challenging task when using converter
interfaced DGs because of the output current limiting during a fault in the network.
As a result of current limiting and intermittent nature of DGs, the fault isolation from
downstream side will be very difficult using the existing overcurrent relay which
normally operates depending on the fault current levels. Therefore new protection
schemes, which are not dependent on the fault current level of the network, are
required to accomplish the protection challenges in the DG context. In this chapter, a
27
Chapter 3: Protective relay for DG connected networks

novel Inverse Time Admittance (ITA) protective relay is proposed based on the
measured admittance of the protected line to avoid deficiencies of existing protection
schemes. The fundamentals of ITA relays are explained in this chapter.
3.2 ITA relay characteristics

A radial distribution feeder as shown in Fig. 3.1 is considered to explain the
ITA relay characteristics. It is assumed that the relay is located at node R and node K
is an arbitrary point on the feeder. The total admittance of the protected line segment
is denoted by Yt while the measured admittance between the nodes R and K is
denoted by Ym. Then the normalised admittance (Yr) can be defined in terms of Yt and
Ym as
Y
Yr = m
Yt
(3.1)
Fig. 3.1 A radial distribution feeder

The variation of normalised admittance along a radial feeder is shown in Fig.
3.2 by assuming the feeder has a length of 3000m while the total feeder impedance is
(0.195 + j 1.4451) . It can be seen that normalised admittance decreases when
measured point moves away from the relay location.
28
Fig. 3.2 The variation of normalised admittance

The change of normalised admittance along the feeder is used to obtain an
inverse time tripping characteristic for the relay. The general form for the inverse
time characteristic of the relay can be expressed as
tp =
Yr 1
+k
(3.2)
where A, and k are constants, while the tripping time is denoted by tp. The values
for these constants can be selected based on the relay location in a feeder and the
protection requirements. The shape of the proposed inverse time tripping
characteristic can be changed by varying the constants to obtain the required fault
clearing time. When a network consists of different types of protective devices, these
constants can be selected appropriately for coordination purpose. For example, the
coordination between the relay and a fuse can be considered. In this case, these
constants should be selected properly according to the tripping characteristic of the
fuse. The relay tripping characteristic for A = 0.0047, = 0.08 and k = 0 is shown in
Fig. 3.3. The magnitude of the normalized admittance (i.e. Yr) becomes higher as the
fault point moves towards the relay location. As a result, the relay gives a lower
29

tripping time for a fault near to the relay. On the other hand, higher fault clearing
time can be obtained when the fault is further away from the relay location.
Fig. 3.3 Relay tripping characteristic curve

It is to be noted that the normalized admittance in (3.2) should be greater than
1.0 for relay tripping. This implies that the measured admittance is greater than the
total admittance as shown in (3.3). This constraint is used by the relay algorithm to
detect a faulted condition in the network. Moreover, the relay algorithm checks this
constraint continuously during the faulted condition until relay issues the trip
command to avoid any unnecessary tripping due to the effect of transients. The
tripping time is decided depending on the calculated value of measured admittance.
Y
Yr > 1 m > 1 Ym > Yt
Yt
(3.3)
3.3 ITA relay reach settings

The ITA relay reach settings can be implemented by choosing a suitable value
for the Yt. This is totally dependent on the protection requirements such as primary
and backup protections. For a particular relay, different values of Yt can be assigned
30

to generate a number of required zones of protection. In each zone, the relay has a
unique tripping characteristic. It checks whether the measured admittance is greater
than the total admittance of that particular zone before starting the relay tripping time
calculation. A large coverage and minimum tripping time can be achieved by
increasing the number of zones. It also leads to a good coordination amongst the
relays in a feeder. Any upstream relay always provides the back up protection for the
immediate downstream relay in the feeder.
The radial feeder shown in Fig. 3.4 is considered to explain the relay reach
settings. The relays are located at BUS-1, BUS-2 and BUS-3. It is assumed that each
relay has two zones of protection. Zone-1 of each relay is selected to cover the whole
line segment between two adjacent relays, while Zone-2 is selected to cover twice
the length of the first line segment. The reach setting is set based on the positive
sequence admittance of the considered line segments. Zone-1 and Zone-2 tripping
characteristics are the same for all the relays. For example, relay tripping
characteristic curves for two adjacent relays R1 and R2 are illustrated in Fig. 3.5. The
locations of relays R1 and R2 and the tripping time of these relays against the distance
to the fault from the relay locations are shown in the figure. Each zone has different
values for the constants in (3.2) resulting different relay tripping characteristic
curves. It can be seen from Fig. 3.5, Zone-2 of R1 will provide a backup for the relay
R2. Another zone can be assigned with a different tripping characteristic, if required.
Fig. 3.4 A radial distribution feeder with relays
31
Fig. 3.5 Relay protection zones and relay coordination

The proposed new relay does have the ability to isolate the faults occurring at
either side of the relay in a radial feeder. This is because the absolute value is taken
into consideration in admittance normalizing process. However, for the relay to
operate for reverse faults there must be an infeed that is located downstream from the
relay. If the distribution network consists of these relays located at equal distances,
the same forward and reverse reach can be used to isolate forward and reverse faults.
The value for the reach of a particular zone should be selected according to the
requirement.
However, the reach setting should be different for forward and reverse faults,
when the relays are not placed equidistant from one another. In this case, each relay
has the capability such that the forward and reverse reach settings can be set
appropriately. For example, the reach setting of Zone-1 of the relay R3 in Fig. 3.4 is
considered. It is assumed that the lengths of the line segments 2-3 and 3-4 are not
equal. The forward reach of R3 is selected as 120% of line 3-4, while the reverse
reach of R3 is chosen as 100% of line 2-3 and 20 % of line 1-2. In this case, both the
reverse and the forward reach should have different values since line length between
32

relays are not equal. To accomplish forward and reverse reach in relays, the relay
should sense the fault direction. Moreover, the relay has the capability to identify
whether the fault is in the forward or reverse direction. Any method which will
determine the fault direction can be used for this purpose.
One possibility is to measure the relative difference of angle between the
current and bus voltage. The fault current lags the bus voltage for a forward fault
while for a reverse fault the fault current leads the bus voltage. In [60], relative phase
angle between fault current and pre-fault voltage is used to determine the fault
direction. Another possibility is to calculate the negative sequence impedance seen
by the relay. Based on the calculated value, the relay identifies the fault direction to
select the appropriate reach setting. This approach is only valid if the fault is
unsymmetrical since negative sequence will not be present for symmetrical faults.
The negative sequence impedance is always positive for the reverse faults and it is
negative for the forward faults [61]. The positive sequence directional element
proposed in [62] can be also used to identify the fault direction. After identifying the
fault direction, the process of tripping time calculation can be implemented as shown
in Fig. 3.6.
Fig. 3.6 Relay settings based on different forward and reverse reach
33
3.4 Different ITA relay elements

The ITA relay has different types of protection elements to detect different
faults. All elements are designed to operate based on measured admittance of the
protected line. These elements are explained below.
3.4.1 Earth elements

These elements will respond for the line to ground faults. The number of
elements varies depending on whether protection has been configured as directional
or non-directional. If protection is directional, then there are two independent earth
elements per phase. The positive sequence measured admittance; YRK1 seen by this
relay element is given by (3.4). The derivation of this formula is given in AppendixA.
I Ra + I Ra 0 RK1 1
YRK 0
YRK1 =
VRa
(3.4)
where IRa is the rms line fault current through the relay while IRa0 is the zero
sequence fault current seen by relay and VRa is the faulted phase rms voltage. The
line parameters are used to calculate the ratio of YRK1/ YRK0. The relay reach is set
based on the positive sequence admittance of the protected line segment. This relay
reach and calculated measured admittance in (3.4) are utilized to make the tripping
decision and tripping time calculation.
3.4.2 Phase elements

These elements will respond for the line to line faults in the network. Similar to
the earth elements, the number of phase elements per phase varies depending on
whether protection has been configured as directional or non-directional. For
34

example, for phase A, two phase elements are employed, if protection is nondirectional, one for the faults between phase A and phase B and another for the faults
between phase A and phase C. Measured admittance seen by a phase element for a
line to line fault, between phase A and phase B, can be expressed as,
I I Rb
YRK1 = Ra
VRa VRb
(3.5)
where IRa and IRb are rms phase currents in faulted phases and VRa and VRb are faulted
phase rms voltages. This measured admittance in (3.5) is used by relay logic to detect
a line to line fault in the network.
3.4.3 Directional elements

The directional elements can be used to identify whether the fault is in forward
or reverse direction from the relay. This will help to implement separate reach
settings for each direction especially when a relay protects non-equidistant zones.
The user has been given the facility to select the preference as listed in Table 3.1.
Table 3.1 Selection criterion of a directional element
Setting
Operation
Directional
Each element has two settings to cover both forward

and reverse direction faults
Non-directional
Each element operates regardless of the fault direction
Directional blocking
Each element only operate either forward or reverse

direction (user can select the direction)
3.5 Connection of ITA relays to a network

The basic connection diagram of the ITA relay is shown in Fig. 3.7. Voltage
and current at the relay location are obtained using a voltage transformer (VT) and a
35

current transformer (CT) respectively. The relay output is linked to the tripping coil
of the circuit breaker (CB). The relay continuously monitors the input parameters and
executes the relay logic to identify a faulted condition in the network. The process of
making the tripping decision is shown in the Fig. 3.8. Based on the fundamental
voltage and current, the admittance is calculated, which is the measured admittance
of the relay point at a given time. The measured admittance and values for the relay
reach settings are the inputs to the relay logic. This logic consists of normalized
admittance calculation, relay characteristic equations, relay tripping time
calculations, identification of fault direction and defined relay constraints. The
faulted condition is detected by using the constraint in (3.3). Once fault is detected,
the calculated tripping time based on measured admittance is fed through an
integrator to obtain the tripping signal for the CB. Also relay checks whether the
fault detection signal exists until relay issues the tripping command to avoid any
nuisance tripping.
Fig. 3.7 Relay connection diagram to the system
Fig. 3.8 Process of relay tripping decision making
36
3.6 Settings of ITA relays to detect resistive faults

Higher fault resistance can affect the operation of ITA relays. Therefore a
method of relay settings is described to achieve successful relay operation in the
presence of fault resistance. The relay carefully checks the constraint in (3.3)
continuously, which is the comparison between the measured admittance (Ym) and
the total admittance (Yt) setting of a particular zone. The relay detects a fault in the
network when Ym becomes higher than Yt. For a fault within a particular zone, Ym is
always greater than Yt, if fault resistance is zero. However, with the increase of .fault
resistance, Ym can become less than Yt. Also the maximum fault resistance which
allows the relay to operate depends on the fault location of the line. For example, the
relay can operate for a higher resistive fault, if the fault is near the relay than when it
is further away from the relay since a higher value of fault resistance can be
compensated by each zone for near faults.
Another protective zone is introduced to achieve the tripping operation of the
relays under resistive faults. The maximum fault resistance which can be tolerated by
the relay is decided based on the loads of the feeder. In this case, the relay operation
can be obtained up to a pre-defined value of fault resistance. This method will not
work for higher resistive faults, where fault currents are in same levels as load
currents. The minimum equivalent impedance of loads (i.e. the maximum load
condition in the system) is calculated based on the known system parameters under
the normal operation. That will be the corresponding maximum fault resistance
which can be tolerated by the relay under the faulted condition. If the relay reach
settings are below the minimum equivalent impedance of the loads, the relay may
trip under normal operation as identifying the load as a high resistive fault. However,
a safety factor is introduced to avoid unnecessary relay operations. For example,
37

effect of cold load inrush can be considered. Therefore, it is proposed to select one
third of minimum equivalent impedance of loads as the fault resistance setting.
A relay, if it has two zones, has two tripping characteristic curves. In this case,
total admittance, Yt should be set separately for each zone depending on protection
requirements. Instead of these two zone characteristics, another characteristic will be
introduced to discriminate the high resistive faults as mentioned above. Hereinafter,
this zone is denoted by Zone-3. In this case Yt consists of corresponding line
impedance and the maximum fault resistance which is determined based on loading
condition. A coordination time interval should be kept between adjacent two Zone-3s
of relays to obtain the correct relay grading. Otherwise relay characteristic of Zone-3
in each relay will not show a considerable time difference for the faults with low
fault resistance. Also the tripping time is set to a little higher value than the settings
in the normal zone operations, since there is no requirement to isolate the faults with
lower fault currents faster than the faults with higher fault currents. The radial
network shown in Fig. 3.4 is considered again to illustrate the relay settings for all
the zones.
3.6.1 Zone-1 settings

Zone-1 reach setting is similar for all the relays if they are located equidistant.
Therefore, Yt is set by assuming the Zone-1 will protect 120% of the first line, Z12
being the impedance between two adjacent buses.
Yt _ Zone1 =
1
(1.2 Z12 )
(3.6)
Tripping characteristic for Zone-1 can be given by,

tp =
0.0037
Yr0.08 1
+ 0.05
(3.7)
38

Yt is set by assuming Zone-2 will protect 200% of the first line. This setting is
also similar for all the relays. The reach setting and tripping characteristic can be
given by
Yt _ Zone2 =
tp =
1
(2 Z12 )
0.0037
Yr0.1 1
(3.8)
+ 0.15
(3.9)

This zone represents a broader coverage of the protected line including the
compensation for fault resistance. The value of Yt can be set using the allowable
maximum fault resistance. The allowable maximum fault resistance is denoted by Zf
after calculating the maximum load and adjusting it using the safety margin. It
should be noted that Zf is the maximum fault resistance that can be handled by the
relay when fault occurs in the far end of the protected zone. It is not the fault
resistance in a particular fault condition. In this case, Yt for the Zone-3 can be set as,
Yt _ Zone3 =
1
( Z12 + Z f )
(3.10)
Zone-1 and Zone-2 tripping characteristics are same for all the relays.
However, setting of Zone-3 will be different for each relay since coordination time
margin should be kept among the relays. If relays are designed to operate for both
forward and reverse faults, then the relay will have two different tripping
characteristics in Zone-3; one for forward faults which can be denoted by Zone-3F
and other one for reverse faults which can be given by Zone-3R. In this case, the
directional feature should be added to the relay for differentiation of forward and
39

reverse faults. If the relay detects the fault as forward, then forward tripping
characteristic, t_Zone3F is activated. On the other hand, reverse tripping characteristics,
t_Zone3R is activated if fault is detected by the relay as reverse.
The Zone-3 tripping characteristic of each relay can be modified by assigning
different constant values. A minimum tripping time characteristic should be selected
for the furthest downstream relay to discriminate the forward faults. It can be then
increased according to the coordination time interval between two adjacent relays.
This Zone-3 grading is similar to the TDS setting of an overcurrent relay in a radial
feeder. On the other hand, the minimum tripping time characteristic for reverse fault
is selected to the furthest upstream relay. The settings of Zone-3 for the relays R1, R2,
and R3 in the radial feeder of Fig. 3.4 can be given as shown in (3.11)-(3.13)
respectively. These settings can be changed according to the protection requirements.
t Zone3F _ R1 =
t Zone3R _ R1 =
t Zone3F _ R2 =
t Zone3R _ R2 =
t Zone3F _ R3 =
t Zone3R _ R3 =
0.0037
+ 1.15
Yr0.1 1
0.0037
Yr0.1 1
(3.11)
+ 0.45
0.0037
Yr0.1 1
0.0037
Yr0.1 1
0.0037
Yr0.1 1
0.0037
Yr0.1 1
+ 0.85
(3.12)
+ 0.75
+ 0.55
(3.13)
+ 1.05
The tripping characteristics of relays R2 and R3 in radial feeder of Fig. 3.4 are
considered to illustrate the Zone-3 operation. The relay characteristics are shown in
Fig. 3.9. In this case, only two relays are considered for clear illustration. Zone-3
40

tripping characteristics of R2 and R3 are calculated using (3.12) and (3.13)
respectively. The figure also shows the combined forward relay characteristics of
Zone-1 and Zone-2. It can be seen that forward Zone-3 as well as reverse Zone-3
characteristics of each relay have been graded appropriately to achieve the backup
protection. For example, it is assumed that a fault between BUS-1 and BUS-2 in the
system cannot be detected by the primary zones (i.e., Zone-1 and Zone-2) of R1 and
R2. Then, in this case, R2 detects the fault in reverse Zone-3 to isolate the fault from
downstream side while R3 provides the backup protection as shown in Fig. 3.9.
Fig. 3.9 Relay tripping characteristics of different zones
3.7 Practical issues for admittance calculation

The process of fundamental voltage and current extraction is very important on
tripping time calculation since the tripping time is decided based on the calculated
measured admittance. Therefore the fundamental extraction methods and the factors
which can influence on the fundamental extraction should be considered. Harmonics,
current transients and decaying dc magnitude and time constant can be identified as
the major challenges on fundamental extraction. The decaying dc component can
41

usually appear in current signal. However, the decaying dc magnitude and time
constant cannot be calculated before a fault occurs since it depends on the system
configuration (X/R ratio), fault location and the value of fault resistance.
Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) or Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) can be
used to extract the fundamental component from a sampled waveform. FFT is a fast
way of calculating the DFT. FFT can accurately calculate the fundamental in the
presence of harmonics and signal noises. However, it is not immune to decaying dc
component.
DFT is widely used in digital protective relays. DFT can extract the
fundamental in the presence of harmonics, however it is also not immune to decaying
dc component [63]. Some previous studies propose some interesting techniques to
calculate the fundamental component accurately in the presence of decaying dc
component. A method is proposed in [63] to eliminate the effect of decaying dc
component by calculating the time constant of the faulted current waveform. In this
algorithm, the dc magnitude is then calculated based on the calculated time constant
for a cycle and subtract the dc magnitude from samples to obtain the DFT without
decaying dc component. A DFT based filter algorithm is presented in [64] for digital
distance relays to extract the fundamental accurately. In [65], a method is described
to remove the decaying dc component for an application of protective relays. It can
be applied either half cycle or full cycle of the sampled waveform to calculate the
fundamental.
In proposed ITA relays, the measured admittance is calculated using the faulted
phase fundamental voltage and current in the relay location. The first coefficient is
only sufficient for this calculation. One of the dc decaying removal algorithms as
mentioned above can be used in ITA relay application to minimise the error in
42

tripping time calculation. However, the speed of the calculation and burden on the
processor should be carefully considered when selecting a particular algorithm to
avoid the errors coming form decaying dc component on tripping time calculations.
3.8 Summary
In this chapter, the basic features of the proposed ITA relay to protect a
distribution network or a microgrid which has several DGs are discussed. The relay
inverse time characteristic and relay reach setting have been explained. Furthermore,
different relay elements and a method of relay setting to achieve fault detection under
higher resistive faults have been explained. Finally, the challenges of implementing
ITA relays and possible solutions to avoid them are identified.
43
Chapter 4: Evaluation of ITA relay

performance
4.1 Introduction
Faults can be usually identified by sensing the current level in an electrical
power system since high currents can be seen during the faults. Overcurrent (OC)
relays, fuses and moulded case circuit breakers (MCCBs) are the common type of
current sensing protective devices used in distribution networks. The OC relays can
be classified as definite current or instantaneous, definite time and inverse time based
on the operating characteristics. In this chapter, features of inverse time OC relays
are briefly considered since they are commonly used in distribution networks. On the
other hand, distance type relays are commonly used to protect the transmission
networks where speed of operation and reliability are very important. Fundamentally,
MHO type distance relay are considered in this chapter. These existing OC and
distance relay protection schemes are compared with the proposed ITA relay to
demonstrate the performance of the ITA relay. The grading and coordination of
relays are explained. Furthermore, the effects of DGs on relay operation are
considered. The relay performances are validated by PSCAD/EMTDC simulations
and MATLAB calculations.
45
Chapter 4: Evaluation of ITA relay performance
4.2 Inverse time overcurrent relays

Most of the existing distribution networks are radial and they are employed
with OC protective devices because of their simplicity and low cost [4, 30].
Coordination of such protective devices based on current is relatively easy in the
radial networks. The IEEE Standard inverse time relay tripping characteristic is
given by [37]
A
tp = p
+ B TDS
M 1
(4.1)
where the constants A, B and p are used to select the relay characteristic curve and
time dial setting (i.e. TDS) is used for the coordination between several OC relays. M
is the multiple of pickup current and it is defined by
If
M =
Ip
(4.2)
where If is the fault current seen by the relay and Ip is the relay set current (i.e. pickup
current). Three inverse time OC relay characteristic equations are given in the IEEE
report [37]. They are moderately inverse, very inverse and extremely inverse. Each
relay curve has different constants values in (4.1).
To illustrate the grading of inverse time OC relays, a four bus bar radial feeder
is considered as shown in Fig. 4.1. Relays are located at BUS-1, BUS-2 and BUS-3
and are denoted by R1, R2 and R3 respectively. An upstream relay will provide the
backup protection for the adjacent downstream relay. A time margin, called
coordination time interval (discrimination), is kept between relays to achieve the
relay coordination by setting the TDS of each relay. Inverse time tripping
characteristic of the graded inverse OC relays for this radial system is shown in Fig.
46

4.2. The relay tripping time tp is shown with the fault location. Coordination time
intervals for R1-R2 and R2-R3 are denoted by t12 and t23 respectively. Lowest TDS
value is set to the furthest downstream relay R3. Then TDS for R2 is selected
appropriately such that coordination time interval between R2 and R3 to be t23.
Similarly TDS for R1 is selected. The relay nearest to the source (i.e. R1) will see the
highest fault current in the feeder. However, as a result of grading, this relay (R1) has
a higher TDS compared to the relays R2 and R3. Therefore R1 will take longer time to
clear faults near BUS-1. This is a disadvantage of OC relay grading, because faults
which have higher fault currents cannot not be cleared quickly.
Fig. 4.1 A radial distribution feeder with relays
Fig. 4.2 Inverse time overcurrent relay grading

The effect on OC protection is considered once a DG or DGs are connected to
a radial network. The fault behavior of the network will change considerably with the
change of fault current and fault current direction. As a result, several protection
issues can arise. Some of these issues are relay coordination, relay reach and relay
47

response in islanding operation. A DG can initiate problems related to the relay
coordination in a distribution feeder depending on the DG size, type, and location
[5]. Fault current seen by a relay at the beginning of a feeder will be reduced in the
presence of DGs in the system. As a result, a fault can remain uncleared for a longer
time. It has been shown that the OC relay reach can be reduced in the presence of
DGs in the feeder [29]. The adverse effects on the reach increase when the
penetration level of DGs increases. If the DGs are plug-and-play and may not be
connected to the system at all times, then their power output fluctuates. As a result,
the OC relays will respond differently. Moreover, in an islanded condition, the fault
current levels will be low if the supply is from current limited converters. The OC
relays may not operate satisfactorily under such a scenario. Therefore the protection
of a distribution network with OC relays is a difficult task, especially when several
DGs are connected to the system. The numerical comparison of performance
between OC and ITA relays is given in Section 4.5.
4.3 Distance relays

The basic operation and coordination of MHO type distance relay are
explained in this sub-section. The reach setting of this relay is carried out based on
the positive sequence impedance of the protected line. Each relay has a number of
protection zones, where it measures the impedance to a fault and checks whether the
measured value lies inside or outside the defined zones in order to make a tripping
decision. The apparent impedance seen by an earth element of the relay for ground
faults is calculated by using the standard equation [66]
Z LG =
V phase
(4.3)
I phase + K I 0
48

where I0 is the zero sequence current, K is the residual compensation factor for
apparent impedance (ZLG) calculation and Vphase and Iphase are the respective phase
voltage and current. Even though positive sequence impedance for a fault can be
calculated using (4.3), in most of the real distance relay applications, comparison of
two quantities called operating and polarizing are carried out to determine whether
the fault exists inside or outside a particular zone.
The MHO characteristic in R-X plane is shown in Fig. 4.3 assuming, for
illustration purpose, the relay has two zones of protection. The reach setting for the
zones can be established following the procedure described in [66]. For R1 settings,
Zone-1 covers 80 percent of the first protected line length and Zone-2 covers the
whole first line plus 50 percent of the adjacent line length. A 20 percent portion is
kept as a safety margin to mitigate errors caused by current and voltage transformers
and impedance calculations when selecting the Zone-1 reach. Similarly, zone settings
for the other relays can be performed. Zone-2 of R1 provides the back up protection
for R2. Time delay is set between Zone-1 and zone-2 to enable correct discrimination
as shown in the timing diagram in Fig. 4.4. As can be seen from the figure, the relay
tripping is the same if the fault is in a particular zone. For example, if the fault is
within the Zone-1, the relay will trip after a time period of t1. It does not consider the
distance to the fault for tripping within a particular zone (for example point A and B
in Fig. 4.4). Unlike an OC relay, the distance relay does not follow any inverse time
characteristic. The lack of inverse time characteristic is disadvantageous from the
point of view of coordinating with other inverse time protective devices such as
reclosers, fuses etc.
49
Fig. 4.3 MHO relay characteristic
Fig. 4.4 MHO relay zone settings and timing diagram

As mentioned before, distance relays are used primarily for transmission line
protection. Distribution networks are different from transmission networks. Most of
the distribution networks are radial and they have distributed three phase as well as
single phase loads. Moreover, it is expected that different types of DGs may be
connected at different locations along a radial distribution network. Therefore the
suitability of protecting such a network using the conventional distance relays has to
be analyzed.
The preliminary investigation of distribution network protection using distance
relays has been reported in [67]. It has been shown that distance relays having
negative sequence directional feature can be used to protect a distribution feeder that
has a single current limited converter connected DG at the beginning of the feeder.
50

This observation is valid both when this DG is operating either in islanded or gridconnected mode. However further studies are required to confirm the validity when
feeder is operated with several current limited DGs at different locations. A
numerical performance comparison between distance relay with proposed ITA relay
is given in Section 4.5.
4.4 ITA relays

The ITA relay characteristic is given in (3.2) and it is reproduced below.
t p=
Yr 1
+k
(4.4)
where A, and k are constants, while the tripping time is denoted by tp. To illustrate
the grading of ITA relays, the same four bus bar radial system shown in Fig. 4.1 is
considered. The ITA relays do not have a TDS setting as in the case of OC relays to
achieve coordination. These relays will make the tripping decision based on the
measured admittance to the fault location. The tripping characteristics of graded ITA
relays for the radial system are shown in Fig. 4.5. It has been assumed that each relay
has two zones of protection. The combined tripping characteristic of Zone-1 and
Zone-2 is shown in the figure. Coordination time intervals are denoted by t12 and t23.
In OC protection, the relay near to the source takes longer time to operate. However
in the case of ITA relays, the relay near to the source will take the same time to
operate as other relays do. The measured admittance is the only parameter that will
decide the relay tripping time. This is an advantage of the ITA relay over an OC
relay.
51
Fig. 4.5 ITA relay grading

To compare how the OC relay and ITA relay are different, a line segment as
shown in Fig. 4.6 is considered. The node R represents the relay location, while fault
point is denoted by node F, which is at a distance X from the relay. The current and
voltage seen by the relay for the fault is given by Ix and Vx respectively.
Fig. 4.6 Faulted line with a relay

The pick up current setting of an OC relay for this feeder protection is usually
calculated by taking the one third of minimum fault current at the end of feeder. The
calculated pick up current is denoted by Ip, while corresponding voltage at the relay
point for the current of Ip is represented by Vp. For the fault at point F, the multiple of
pick up current for the OC relay tripping characteristic can be calculated similar to
(4.2) by using
I
MI = x
Ip
(4.5)
52

To obtain the same sensitivity for the ITA relay, the total line admittance
should be set corresponding to the admittance which is given by Ip and Vp. Therefore,
the normalized admittance, which is the ratio between the measured admittance and
total admittance, can be given for the fault at point F as
Y
(I / V ) (I x / I p )
Yr = m = x x =
Yt
( I p / V p ) (Vx / V p )
(4.6)
From (4.5) and (4.6), normalised admittance Yr can be given by

Yr =
MI
MV
where M V =
Vx
Vp
(4.7)
Note that while MI is the multiple of the pick up current and MV can be defined as the
multiple of pick up voltage since it is the ratio between faulted voltage to the pick up
voltage. For a fault in the network, MI is greater than one. However, the magnitude of
MV is less than one when a fault occurs in the network. It can be seen from (4.7) that
ITA relay uses both current and voltage multiples instead of only current based
multiple in the OC relay. As a result, the ITA relay has the ability to detect the faults
effectively irrespective of the available fault current level in a network. This may
also result in fault detection under low fault current level environment, specially the
cases where current limited DGs are connected to the network.
To show how the ITA relay can be related to a distance type relay, real
imaginary (R-X) plane representation is considered with the relay tripping curve.
Zone-1 of the ITA relay is considered for this illustration. The ITA relay
characteristic can be represented in both distance-tripping time and R-X plane as
shown in Fig. 4.7. The tripping time characteristic curve of ITA relay can be mapped
into circles in R-X plane, in which each circle has a unique tripping time. For
example, point D on tripping time curve is considered. This point is corresponding to
53

a fault with tripping time t4. When the point D is mapped into R-X plane, the point
becomes a circle which gives the same tripping time of t4. In a similar manner, four
more circles are shown in R-X plane corresponding to fault points A, B, C and E on
tripping time curve of the relay. It can be concluded that infinite number of
concentric constant tripping time circles exist for Zone-1 of the ITA relay. Therefore,
the ITA relay can be identified as similar to a distance relay with infinite number of
zones to give different tripping times depending on the location of the fault point.
Fig. 4.7 ITA relay characteristic in R-X diagram
4.5 ITA relay performance

4.5.1 A radial feeder with DGs
In this section, the ITA relay performance is compared with the existing
protection schemes in a radial distribution feeder considering DG connections. The
major expectations of this study are to
54

show the relay grading performances
show the effect of a DG or DGs on relay sensitivity
illustrate the possibility of coordination with other protective devices
investigate the relay response under converter connected DGs in grid connected
and islanded mode operations.
Fig. 4.8 shows a radial distribution network with DG1, DG2 and DG3
connected at BUS-2, BUS-3 and BUS-4 respectively. The relays are located at BUS1, BUS-2 and BUS-3. The parameters of the considered system are given in Table
4.1. Several case studies are considered depending on the system configuration and
the type of protective devices employed.
The OC relay settings for the given system are calculated based on the
maximum and minimum fault current levels at each bus as illustrated in [68],
assuming the relays have moderately inverse OC characteristic [37]. The
discrimination time for the OC relays is chosen as 0.3 s. The calculated OC relay
settings are listed in Table 4.2.
Fig. 4.8 Radial distribution feeder with DGs

Table 4.1 System parameters
System data
Value
System frequency
50 Hz
Source voltage (Vs)
11 kV rms (L-L)
Source impedance
Zs = 0.078 + j 0.7854
Feeder impedance
Z12 = Z23 = Z34 = 1.47 + j 3.0159
55

Table 4.2 OC relay settings
Parameter
R1
R2
R3
CT ratio
200:5
150:5
150:5
Pick-up current (A)
4.5
TDS
0.65
0.35
0.1
The constants for the ITA relay characteristic, given in (4.4), are chosen
assuming that the relays have two zones of protection in which Zone-1 covers 120%
of the first line length and Zone-2 covers twice the length of the first line. The
selected constant values for Zone-1 and Zone-2 are given in Table 4.3.
Table 4.3 Zone characteristics of ITA relay
Zone number
Zone-1
0.0037
0.08
0.05
Zone-2
0.0037
0.1
0.1
The relay response is observed by creating three phase faults at different

locations along the feeder. Results are obtained through MATLAB calculation while
PSCAD simulation results are used to validate the calculations.
Case Study-1: Relay grading in a radial feeder
The grading of OC relays and ITA relays for the radial network of Fig. 4.8 is
shown in Fig. 4.9 without considering the DGs. It is clear that in the case of OC
relays, the relay near to the source takes long time to trip due to the discrimination
time and higher TDS values whereas ITA relays clear the fault quickly by
considering the distance to the fault (i.e. measured admittance). Therefore proposed
ITA relay grading is superior compared to the OC relay.
56
Fig. 4.9 OC and ITA relay grading
Case Study-2: Relay sensitivity

For this case, it is assumed that only DG1 is connected to the radial feeder of
Fig. 4.8. The ratio between utility (source) fault current to DG1 fault current is
chosen as 5 (i.e. Is/IDG1=5). The OC and ITA relay responses are shown in Fig. 4.10.
In the case of OC relay, the sensitivity of R2 and R3 has increased while coordination
time interval between the relays has reduced due to the fault current contribution of
DG1. However for the ITA relays, the sensitivity of R2 and R3 remains the same with
or without the DG. The two curves, for both these ITA relays, overlap and therefore
they cannot be differentiated in Fig. 4.10. The only noticeable change for the ITA
relay is for R1 and this is due to the infeed from DG1. It can therefore be concluded
that the ITA relay coordination between downstream relays from DG1 remains as
same, irrespective of the fault current levels of the DG.
The same system is considered to compare the ITA relays with conventional
distance relays. It is considered here that distance relays have three zones which
Zone-1 covers 80% of the protected line length while Zone-2 and Zone-3 cover
120% and 200% of the protected line length respectively. The relay response is
57

shown in Fig. 4.11. The sensitivity of R2 and R3 remain the same for both the relay
types. However, the ITA relay shows an inverse time characteristic and it is an
advantage when coordination aspects are concerned.
Fig. 4.10 OC and ITA relay response when DG1 is connected
Fig. 4.11 Distance and ITA relay response when DG1 is connected
Case Study-3: Time-current relay characteristic

The relay operating time for different levels of fault current is important when
the relay is used for the coordination with other current sensing protective devices.
Relay R3 is considered in the system of Fig. 4.8 assuming that no DGs are present.
58

Fig. 4.12 shows the time-current characteristic for both OC and ITA relays. It is
evident that the ITA relay also has an inverse time characteristic curve. Since the OC
relays can be used for coordinating with other current sensing protective devices in
the network, this result confirms that the ITA relay can also be used for the same
purpose.
Case Study-4: Grid protection with converter interfaced DGs

In this study, it is considered that all the three DGs (DG1, DG2 and DG3) are
connected and are current limited during faults. The ITA relay response is shown in
Fig. 4.13. The fault current contribution of each DG is one 40th of the source fault
current (i.e. Is/IDG = 40). Let there be a fault at point A, which is between buses 2 and
3. Both relays R2 (in forward direction) and R3 (in reverse direction due to DG3) will
isolate the fault. Relay R1 provides a backup for R2. In this case, the protection
system of DG2 will disconnect it after a defined time if the fault persists. In this
manner, it can be seen that the ITA relays have the capability to isolate the faulted
segment from both the sides allowing both grid connected and islanded operations.
Fig. 4.12 OC and ITA relay time-current characteristic
59
Fig. 4.13 ITA relay response in grid connected mode
Case Study-5: Islanded protection with converter interfaced DGs

To investigate the relay response in islanded mode of operation, it is assumed
that the utility source is isolated from the rest of the system (upstream from BUS-1)
and the DGs together have the capability to supply the total load demand. All the
DGs are considered to be converter interfaced. To discuss the results, two terms are
introduced relay response and relay tripping characteristic. The latter is defined by
(4.4) using only the line parameters. It does not consider that DGs are present in the
system or the presence of any fault resistance. The relay response is calculated using
(4.4) considering all loads, fault resistance and DGs present in the system.
The relay response and the relay tripping characteristics are shown in Fig. 4.14
when all the DGs are connected to the system. The solid lines represent the forward
relay tripping characteristic, while dotted lines indicate the relay response to faults.
The relay response shows the capability of detecting the faults in islanded system
under low fault current levels. Fig. 4.15 shows the relay response obtained from
PSCAD simulation for a single line to ground fault (SLG) between BUS-2 and BUS3. The fault is created at 0.1 s and R2 (forward isolation) and R3 (reverse isolation)
60

operate after 0.111 s and 0.160 s respectively. It is to be noted that if OC relays are
used, they will fail to detect this fault in islanded condition due to the low current
level produced by the converters.
Fig. 4.14 ITA relay response in islanded mode
Fig. 4.15 ITA relay response for SLG fault in islanded operation
4.5.2 Effect of source impedance on relay response

In this study, the behavior of OC and ITA relays is compared when the source
impedance changes. For this purpose, a system with two parallel transformers
connected between buses A and B is considered as shown in Fig. 4.16. The supply
feeder starts at BUS-B. The impedance of each transformer is taken as 0.3 p.u., while
feeder impedance is chosen as 0.1 p.u. The relay response for faults between BUS-B
61

and BUS-C when only one transformer is connected and both transformers are
connected is shown in Fig. 4.17. The impedance between buses A and B is 0.15 p.u.
when both transformers are on, while it is 0.3 p.u. when only one is operating.
Therefore the fault current level is higher when both transformers are one. Since an
OC relay response time depends on the fault current levels, there are two different
curves for OC relay in Fig. 4.17. However, the ITA relay shows the same response
irrespective of the impedance change caused by transformer connections.
Fig. 4.16 System with two parallel transformers
Fig. 4.17 Relay response for impedance change
4.5.3 ITA relay response for different DG and load distribution profiles
A radial distribution feeder which has n number of buses as shown in Fig. 4.18
is considered. In this system, utility is connected at BUS-1 which does not have a
load or a DG. Either a DG or a load or their combination is connected to each of the
other buses. All the DGs considered in this study are connected through the current
62

limited converters. The ITA relays can be employed at different locations according
to the protection requirements. Three phase faults are considered under this study at
different locations. The DG penetration level is said to be 100% when the load
demand is equal to the DG generation at normal operating condition. Moreover, it is
assumed that DGs supply twice of their rated current in constant current control
mode during a fault. Two types of load and DG distribution profiles are considered to
investigate the relay response. These are uniform load and DG distribution and
random load and DG distribution.
Fig. 4.18 Distribution feeder with DGs and loads

To demonstrate the operation of the ITA relays, a 45 bus radial feeder is
considered. In this system, the ITA relays R1, R2, R3 and R4 are located at buses 1,
12, 23 and 34 respectively. It is to be noted that load demand is selected such that the
voltage at the end of the feeder is slightly higher than 0.95 p.u. when all the loads are
connected without any DG. This will be the maximum loading in the system. Results
are obtained using MATLAB for different values of fault resistance.
The parameters of the study system are listed in Table 4.4 assuming the DGs
and loads are distributed uniformly along the feeder and DGs can supply the whole
load demand (i.e. 100% of DG penetration).
63

System data
Value
System frequency
50 Hz
Source voltage (Vs)
11 kV rms (L-L)
Source impedance
Zs = 0.078 + j 0.7854
Feeder impedance
Z12 = Z23 = Zk(k+1)= 0.585 + j 4.3353
Each load impedance
Load1 =Load2= 4798.7 + j 3599.2
Each DG power output
DG1=DG2=0.0388 MVA
A. Uniform load and DG distribution

It is assumed that DGs and loads are distributed uniformly along the feeder.
Therefore, 44 DGs and 44 loads are connected from BUS-2 to BUS-45, which
implies a DG penetration level of 100%. The ITA relay response for three phase
faults along the feeder is shown in Fig. 4.19 for fault resistance of 0.05 . The relays
respond to isolate both the forward and reverse faults effectively by allowing
unfaulted segments to operate in islanded operation.
Fig. 4.19 ITA relay response when fault resistance is 0.05

The fault current seen by each relay for faults along the feeder is shown in Fig.
4.20. It can be seen that reverse fault current is significantly smaller compared to the
64

forward fault current. This is because the utility also feeds the fault current in the
forward direction, while the DGs, which operate in current limit mode, only feed the
reverse fault current. However, the ITA relays still have the ability to detect the
faults under this lower fault current level.
Fig. 4.20 Fault current seen by each ITA relay along the feeder
B. Random load and DG distribution

In this study, it is considered that the distribution of DGs and loads along the
feeder is not uniform. They are connected randomly while maintaining the total DG
penetration level as 100%. Different random distribution profiles are considered.
However, results are presented for only one study. The considered random DG and
load distribution profiles are shown in Fig. 4.21. The ITA relay response under these
distribution profiles is shown in Fig. 4.22. It can be seen that the relays will respond
both in the forward and reverse directions to isolate the faulted segment, thereby
increasing the system reliability.
65
Fig. 4.21 Random load and DG distribution profiles along the feeder
Fig. 4.22 ITA relay response for random load and DG distribution profiles
4.5.4 An application of ITA relays to IEEE 34 node test feeder

To illustrate the ITA relay reach settings, relay grading and relay performance
on a realistic system, the IEEE 34 node test feeder is considered [69]. The test feeder,
shown in Fig. 4.23, is modified by connecting three converter interfaced DGs at
nodes 838,840 and 862. Three ITA relays R1, R2 and R3 are assigned to the nodes
832, 834 and 860 respectively. In this example, two regions, Region-A and RegionB, are selected assuming that these regions have the capability to operate in islanded
66

mode with the aid of DGs. In the islanded mode, DG1 supplies the load demand of
Region-A, while DG2 and DG3 supply the load demand of Region-B. Each DG
capacity is chosen appropriately to enable the autonomous operation of each of these
regions. Furthermore, it is assumed that all the DG converters operate in a current
limited mode during the faults. Relay R1 provides the primary protection up to the
node 860 (covering nodes 858 and 864), while R2 and R3 provide the primary
protection for the Region-A and Region-B respectively. This protection example
(i.e., the protection downstream from node 832) is considered to illustrate the
efficacy of the ITA relays. The test system is modeled and simulated in PSCAD,
where the DGs are assumed to be ideal dc voltage sources. The converter structure
and control is given in Appendix-B. The converters are switched in output feedback
voltage control mode during normal operations and output feedback current control
mode [70] during the faults to limit the faults currents.
Fig. 4.23 IEEE 34 node test feeder with ITA relays

The forward and reverse reach settings of ITA relays are calculated using the
given system parameters of the IEEE 34 feeder and they are given in Table 4.5, in
which the lengths and impedance values are given. The forward and reverse relay
67

reach are different since lines have different lengths. The relay tripping
characteristics and zone settings are similar to those given in Sub-section 4.5.1.
Different types of fault are created at different locations to study the efficacy of
proposed scheme. However, a few cases are presented here. It is to be noted that a
DG should go into the current limiting mode as soon as a fault is detected to supply
the fault current such that the ITA relays can detect and isolate the fault. However, if
the fault persists for a longer period of time, the DG should isolate itself from the
supply in order to protect its power electronic switches. Therefore, a time interval is
defined for each DG for which it will supply the fault current.
Table 4.5 ITA relay forward and reverse reach settings
Parameters for forward reach settings
Relay Primary protection Length (m) Z1 ()
R1
Node 832-860
3825
10.4013+j5.1767
R2
Node 834-848
1740
4.7316 +j 2.3549
R3
Node 860-838
2346
3.9174 + j2.3131
Parameters for reverse reach settings

Primary protection Length (m) Z1 ()
R1
Not considered
R2
Node 834-832
3219
8.7535+j4.3565
R3
Node 860-832
3825
10.4013+j5.1767
Z1 - positive sequence impedance

A. Fault at Node 858
A SLG fault is created at 0.3 s. The relays R1, R2 and R3 operate at 0.410 s,
0.472 s and 0.458 s respectively to isolate the faulted segment. Note that R2 and R3
see this as a reverse fault. The ITA relay response is shown in Fig. 4.24. Note that,
once the fault is cleared, DG1 in the Regions-A and DG2 and DG3 in Region-B
continue to supply the loads, thereby increasing the reliability of the system.
68
Fig. 4.24 ITA relay response for SLG fault at node 858
B. Fault at Node 842
A SLG fault is initiated at 0.3 s. The relay R2 responds at 0.401 s as shown in
Fig. 4.25 to isolate the fault. The rest of the system except Region-A operates in grid
connected mode. Since there are no other protection devices between DG1 and the
fault point, DG1 is disconnected after the defined time interval.
C. Fault at Node 862
A SLG fault is initiated at 0.3 s and relay R3 operates at 0.490 s to isolate the
fault. The ITA relay response for this fault is shown Fig. 4.26. The rest of the system
except Region-B operates in grid connected mode.
69
The above results verify that the ITA relays have the ability to respond under
low fault current levels. These relays isolate the faulted segment from the network
allowing unfaulted segments to operate either in grid connected or islanded mode
operations. Also it is to be noted that proposed ITA relays have the ability to detect
the faults in islanded conditions as well. For example, if an islanded system is
created by opening the circuit breaker at Node 832, the rest of system operates with
adequate protection. However the fault current level will be significantly lower in
such a case.
4.5.5 ITA relays for mesh network protection

To demonstrate an application of ITA relays to a mesh network protection, a
system shown in Fig. 4.27 is considered. This system has a partly mesh network
containing BUS-1, BUS-2 and BUS-5. There are three DGs and three loads in this
system. All the DGs are connected through voltage source converters (VSCs). As
before, these VSCs limit their output current to twice of the rated current during a
fault. Eight ITA relays are employed for secure and reliable operation of the system.
The relay locations are shown in the figure. The one of the main aims of the ITA
relays is to isolate the faulted segment quickly in the event of a fault allowing
unfaulted sections to operate either in grid connected or islanded mode depending on
70

the fault location. In the case of an islanded mode operation, each DG or DGs in the
islanded section can operate in autonomous mode if there is sufficient generation to
supply the load demand. The system parameters are listed in Table 4.6. In this study,
no communication between relays is considered for a simple and cost effective
solution.
Fig. 4.27 Mesh network under study

System parameter
Value
Voltage
11 kV L-L rms
Frequency
50 HZ
Source impedance
(0.078 + j 0.7854)
Each feeder impedance
(0.585 + j 4.335)
The relays R12, R21, R15, R51, R52 and R25 which are located in the mesh
network have the directional blocking feature in which these relays only respond to
forward faults. This results in proper relay coordination within the mesh network.
For example, consider relay R15. It protects the line segment between BUS-1 and
BUS-5. Also it provides the backup protection for the line segment between BUS-5
71

and BUS-2. However, R15 is blocked for the reverse faults since R12 should operate
for the faults between BUS-1 and BUS-2. The relays R12 and R52 cover the line
segment between BUS-2 and BUS-3 in forward direction. On the other hand, the
relay R32 has the directional feature and thus it can detect faults in either sides of
BUS-3. The relay R43 is also a directional blocking relay which only responds for
reverse faults since it is located at the end of the feeder.
The relay reach settings and tripping characteristics of Zone-1 and Zone-2 are
the same as given in Sub-Section 4.5.1. The reach setting of Zone-3 is selected to
cover fault resistance of 50 . However, the grading of relays for Zone-3 is different
as explained in Chapter 3. In this system, R32, R52, R15 and R12 in the forward
direction and R51, R25, R21, R32 and R43 in the reverse direction should be coordinated
separately. When performing the ITA relay grading in Zone-3, tripping time for
forward faults should be increased, while it should be decreased for reverse faults
from downstream to upstream relays in the network. The graded Zone-3 tripping
characteristics of ITA relays are given in Table 4.7.
Table 4.7 Zone-3 grading of ITA relays
Relay grading for forward faults Relay grading for reverse faults
t Zone3F _ R32 =
t Zone3F _ R12 =
t Zone3F _ R52 =
t Zone3F _ R15 =
0.0037
Yr0.1 1
0.0037
Yr0.1 1
0.0037
Yr0.1 1
0.0037
Yr0.1 1
+ 0 .3
t Zone3R _ R43 =
+ 0 .4
t Zone3R _ R32 =
+ 0 .4
t Zone3R _ R21 =
+ 0 .5
t Zone3R _ R25 =
t Zone3R _ R51 =
72
0.0037
Yr0.1 1
0.0037
Yr0.1 1
0.0037
Yr0.1 1
0.0037
Yr0.1 1
0.0037
Yr0.1 1
+ 0 .5
+ 0 .4
+ 0.3
+ 0 .3
+ 0 .2

The system is simulated in PSCAD. A SLG fault is created at different
locations with different values of fault resistances at 0.2 s. The ITA relay fault
clearing times are listed in Table 4.8. In each line segment, two fault locations are
considered. As can be seen from the results, the relays respond to isolate the faulted
segment effectively. For example, in the event of a fault between BUS-1 and BUS-2,
the both relays R12 and R21 respond to isolate the faulted segment. In this case, the
rest of the system operates in grid connected mode after the successful isolation of
the faulted segment.
Table 4.8 Fault clearing time of ITA relays
Fault location
(between)
BUS-1 and
BUS-2
Fault clearing time of respective relay (seconds)

Rf = 0.05
Rf = 20
10% from BUS-1 R12=0.071,R21=0.137
R12=0.438,R21=0.774
90% from BUS-1 R12=0.137,R21=0.072
R12=0.443,R21=0.359
All the loads are supplied in grid connected mode without line Z12
BUS-1 and
BUS-5
10% from BUS-1 R15=0.071,R51=0.137
R15=0.540,R51=0.774
90% from BUS-1 R15=0.136,R51=0.073
R15=0.544,R51=0.251
All loads are supplied in grid connected mode without line Z15
BUS-2 and
BUS-5
10% from BUS-2 R25=0.072,R52=0.137
R25=0.348,R52=0.445
90% from BUS-2 R25=0.137,R52=0.073
R25=0.458,R52=0.443
All loads are supplied in grid connected mode without line Z25
10% from BUS-2
BUS-2 and
BUS-3
90% from BUS-2
R12=0.150,R52=0.158,
R12=0.459,R52=0.472
R32=0.082
R32=0.480
R12=0.410,R52=0.427,
R12=0.481,R52=0.494
R32=0.075
R32=0.509
Load3 is supplied in grid connected mode while Load1 and Load2

supplied in islanded mode without line Z23
10% from BUS-3 R32=0.074,R43=0.137
R32=0.345,R43=0.615
BUS-3 and 90% from BUS-3 R32=0.139,R43=0.072
R32=0.349,R43=0.913
BUS-4
Load1 and Load3 are supplied in grid connected mode while Load2 is
supplied in islanded mode without line Z34
73

Higher fault clearing time can be experienced for resistive faults due to the
relay grading and infeed effect of DGs. Within the mesh configuration, fault current
seen by relays are coming from different directions. Limitations of relay operation
due to the fault resistance and DG infeed are discussed in next sub-section.
4.6 Limitations of ITA relays

The limitations of ITA relay operation due to the fault resistance and DG
infeed are discussed in this sub-section. To explain the change of relay response with
the increase of fault resistance, a fault between relays R1 and R2 is considered in the
network shown in Fig. 4.28. The Thevenin equivalent line impedance between R1
and fault point is denoted by Zf, while that between R2 and fault point is denoted by
Zr. The fault current that is fed from the source be denoted by IS, while the fault
current fed from the downstream side DGs is denoted by IDG.
Fig. 4.28 Equivalent representation of the faulted network

The measured admittances seen by relays R1 and R2 in the presence of fault
resistance and DGs can be respectively given by
Ym( R1 ) =
Is
1
=
Z f I s + R f ( I s + I DG )
I
Z f + R f 1 + DG
Is
(4.8)
Ym( R2 ) =
I DG
1
=
Z r I DG + R f ( I s + I DG )
I
Z r + R f 1 + s
I DG
(4.9)
74

As per (4.8) and (4.9), an error occurs in the measured admittances due to the
fault resistance. This is the second part of the impedance (one which is multiplied by
Rf). If fault resistance is zero, the error becomes zero and relays can effectively detect
the faults. When fault resistance is present, the ratio between source current and DG
current (IS/IDG) also affect the measured admittance. For fault detection, the
measured admittance (Ym) should be greater than the total admittance (Yt). Generally,
IS >Idg since IS is fed by a utility with higher capacity than a DG. Therefore, for a
particular DG penetration level and a particular value of fault resistance, the error on
the measured admittance R2 (Ym(R2)) is greater than that of R1 (Ym(R1)). Thus it can be
seen that fault resistance will affect the downstream relay more than the upstream
relay. However, once the forward relay isolates the fault, source current Is becomes
zero and this will allow reverse relay to operate. As can be seen from (4.9), the error
due to the source current will become zero. However, the error due to Rf will remain.
The ability of the ITA relay fault detection depends on the system
configuration. The maximum value for a fault resistance which relay can reliably
respond can be calculated based on the relay settings, line parameters and DG
connections. One such study is carried out considering different fault resistance
values and source current to DG current ratios (denoted by IS/DG). The line
impedance between two relays in Fig. 4.28 is taken as 0.585+ j 4.335 . The results
are shown in Fig. 4.29. The total admittance setting of each relay (i.e. Yt) is shown
assuming this zone covers three times the length of the line segment. The measured
admittances seen by relays R1 and R2 are denoted by Ym(R1) and Ym(R2) respectively.
The measured admittance change of R2 due to the fault isolation by the forward relay
R1 is also shown in the figure. If the measured admittance of a relay is greater than
total admittance, that relay can successfully detect the fault.
75

It can be seen from Fig. 4.29 that when fault resistance becomes higher, the
measured admittance decreases reducing the relay ability of detecting faults. On the
other hand, when IS/DG becomes higher (i.e. DGs have less capacity), the fault
detection capability of forward relay has improved. The measured admittance of
reverse relay R2 is always below the total admittance. As can be seen from the figure,
the measured admittance of R2 becomes higher than Yt once forward relay isolates
the fault in the forward direction. Therefore the reverse relay does not detect the
faults until the forward relay operates.
Fig. 4.29 ITA relay response for different values of fault resistances and DG currents
The operation of the ITA relay may be affected by fault resistance and infeed
of DGs located downstream. As a result, the relay may take more time to trip than
expected. The values of line parameters, total admittance setting, fault location, fault
76

resistance and DG capacity will determine the amount of error on the measured
admittance and hence the tripping time of the ITA relay.
4.7 Summary
In this chapter, the ITA relay performances have been compared with the
existing relays. The relay grading and coordination, the effect of DGs on the relay
response and the effect of source impedance on the relay response for both ITA and
OC relays are considered. The ITA relay performances are evaluated in a radial
distribution feeder with DGs considering different DG and load distribution profiles.
Moreover, an application of these relays to IEEE 34 test node feeder has been
demonstrated. The protection of a mesh network which has several converter
interfaced DGs and loads are considered using the ITA relays. Both resistive and
non-resistive faults are simulated to see the efficacy of ITA relays. Finally, the
limitations of ITA relay protection due to the fault resistance and DG connections
have been addressed.
According to the relay performance analysis, it is clear that ITA relays have the
capability to isolate a faulted segment in a DG connected network allowing unfaulted
segments to operate either in grid connected or islanded mode operations. This
results in improving the reliability of a network since customer outages are reduced.
77
Chapter 5: Fold back current control and

system restoration
5.1 Introduction
Most of the faults around 80-90% in the power system are temporary and they
can be successfully removed by performing reclosing [47]. However, when DGs are
connected to the network, reclosing becomes more complicated. The current
approach is to disconnect all the DGs as soon as a fault occurs. However, the
disconnection of DGs even for temporary faults will reduce the system reliability.
Again, most of the temporary faults are arcing type. As long as current is supplied to
the fault, the arc is sustained. If a network contains DGs and these DGs are not
disconnected during these arc faults, then the DGs will supply fault current thereby
not allowing the arc to extinguish. Thus, reclosing and arc extinction can be
identified as two major protection issues in a DG connected network.
To overcome these problems, specifically in a converter based DG connected
network, a novel control strategy for a converter interfaced DG is proposed using
fold back current control characteristic. The main aim of this work is to restore the
system after a temporary fault without disconnecting the converter interfaced DGs
from the system while facilitating the reclosing effectively. Furthermore, DGs can
restore the unfaulted segments even for permanent faults if employed line protection
scheme can isolate the faulted segment effectively. The proposed fold back converter
79
Chapter 5: Fold back current control and system restoration

control will be explained in this chapter. Arc model selection for system simulation
with a DG is then considered. Simulation results of proposed converter control for
temporary arc faults and permanent faults will be presented considering automatic
reclosing.
5.2 Fold back current control characteristics

A fold back current control for a converter interfaced DG is proposed in this
section. This control strategy helps in the arc extinction and self restoration while
facilitating reclosing effectively. Moreover, the converter control can maintain
sufficient current level to aid fault detection if the protective devices in the network
are designed to respond to a limited fault current level. The converter nominally
operates in voltage control mode. Once a fault is detected, it switches to fold back
current control mode discussed in Section 5.2.1. The mode of operation is decided
based on the value of converter terminal voltage. The description of the converter
control characteristic is given below.
5.2.1 Fold back during contingency

The converter control contains two separate characteristics; one for normal
operation and contingency (faulted) conditions and the other one for system
restoration. The voltage-current relation of the converter for normal and contingency
operation is shown in Fig. 5.1(a). During normal operating condition, the VSC
operates along the line segment AB under a voltage control mode. It is assumed that
when the VSC output voltage reaches V2, its output current reaches 2Ir, Ir being the
rated current. The operation of the VSC shifts to current control mode once the
output voltage falls below V2. This is shown in Fig. 5.1 (b), in which the output
current is gradually reduced with time along the line segment DE. This gradual
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decrease of current can help to trigger the protective devices for isolating the faulted
segment from the network. Especially, the protective devices which are located
downstream from the fault location can respond due to this fault current. If the
current is suddenly reduced, the protective devices may not have any information
about the fault. From point E, the current is reduced rapidly along the segment EF
until it reaches a value nIr, where n is a very small number. The number n is selected
to be very small since terminal voltage of the VSC is maintained to a very lower
value for a defined time period after the point F reaches.
It is to be noted that the line segment BC cannot be represented exactly in Fig.
5.1 (a) since converter voltage, in current control mode, may change with the system
parameters such as fault location and fault resistance. This is why the voltage current
relation in this case is shown with a dotted line in the figure. The time period t12 and
t23, shown in Fig. 5.1 (b), can be selected according to the protective devices
employed and their requirements. Especially, the time, t12 allows relays to detect the
faults. Therefore it should be long enough for successful fault isolation. The selection
can be done by calculating the maximum fault clearing time of a known relay
characteristic.
The VSC checks the terminal voltage continuously to identify whether the fault
is cleared or still persists. If the fault is cleared during the current fold back period,
the VSC will restore the system to its pre-faulted state by changing back to the
voltage control mode. For example, if the fault is cleared during fold back at the
point P shown in Fig. 5.1 (c), then the VSC restores through point M to the operating
point O. The load line is shown assuming the DG capacity is sufficient to supply the
load demand.
81
(a) During voltage control mode
(b) During current control mode
(c) During fault clearing

Fig. 5.1 Proposed fold back characteristics
After the fold back current time periods of t12 and t23, the VSC output current
has reached to nIr. The DG is then kept connected to the network for a pre-defined
time period in which it injects a very small current. This mode of converter operation
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can be called sleep mode and it allows for the arc faults to self-extinguish. The
required time period for sleep mode can be calculated based on the arc de-ionization
time which is given by [71].
t=
kV
+ 10.5 cycles
34.5
(5.1)
where kV is the line to line rated voltage and the unit of time t is cycles. During this
sleep time period, self extinction of arc faults is achieved without disconnecting DGs
from the network.
5.2.2 Restoration process

The self-recovery process of the DG starts after the defined de-ionization time
for the network. In the restoration process, a VSC is not allowed to exceed the rated
current Ir. Recovery characteristic of the VSC is along the points CKL as shown in
Fig. 5.2. The voltage-current characteristic of the VSC for the line segment CK can
be given by
v=
V2
nV2
i
I r ( 2 n)
( 2 n)
(5.2)
where v and i are the rms voltage and current magnitudes, Ir is the rated current, V2 is
the converter output voltage when it injects 2Ir and n is a small number. It is to be
noted that the rms magnitude is calculated by a moving average filter with a window
of one cycle. During transients, the filter will produce a time-varying output.
Therefore, from knowledge of the value of i at any instant, v can be calculated or
vice versa.
The VSC controller can calculate corresponding voltage/current for a particular
value of current/voltage using (5.2) during the restoration process through the line
CK. Three different cases are considered to explain the restoration process depending
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on the network conditions. Fig. 5.2(a) shows the restoration process when the load
demand is less than the DG capacity. At the start of the restoration process, the VSC
controller calculates the voltage using (5.2) for current at point C. The operating
point then shifts to point M on the load line based on the calculated value. At this
instant, the controller calculates the amount of current corresponding to the voltage at
point M. Then the rated current at point N is injected which will take the voltage to
point L. Thereafter the controller switches to voltage control mode and the system
operation will shift to point O on the load line. In this case, the DG has restored the
system successfully thereby increasing the reliability.
Next, the unsuccessful restoration processes of the DG are considered. These
can occur if the fault is not cleared or if the load demand becomes higher due to
some DG/utility tripping. Two such cases are considered to show the VSC response
to safeguard the system. A possible fault line for a ground fault with a fault
resistance is shown in Fig. 5.2(b), in which the voltage cannot rise above point O
until the fault is cleared. In the case of higher load demand, the load line will shift as
shown in Fig. 5.2(c). It is obvious that the operating point will reach point O through
the path as shown in this figure. The VSC will still remain in the current control
mode since the load demand is more than that the DG can supply. The restoration
process is carried out by the VSC for a defined time interval. If the VSC has not been
restored successfully within this time period, the DG will be disconnected from the
system by tripping the circuit breaker connected at the output of the DG.
84
(a) For low load demand
(b) For a fault
(c) For high load demand

Fig. 5.2 System restoration
It is to be noted that only constant impedance type loads are considered for the
illustration. For the low inertial loads, it is expected that loads such as induction
motors have reached zero speed during the sleep time of the DG and they behave like
85

constant impedance loads once the restoration process is started. The effect of load
mainly influences the recovery characteristic of the converter interfaced DG. The
control strategy checks the possibility of automatic system restoration by checking
the terminal voltage of the DG for particular injected current as mentioned. The rms
value of the DG terminal voltage at that current is the measure which determines the
possibility of system restoration. For example, if the load demand is high compared
to the DG generation then restoration will be unsuccessful due to the inadequate
terminal voltage level. Therefore, the shape of the load curve in voltage current graph
only changes the restoration path and ultimate operating point.
5.2.3 Coordination with reclosers

The total restoration time can be used to coordinate with the reclosers in the
system. Two methods can be introduced to synchronise a DG with a recloser. In the
first method, the DG takes the opportunity to restore the system before the operation
of any auto recloser. This method is advantageous, if DG penetration level is
significant and DGs have the ability to supply the load demand in autonomous
operation. The restoration process of DGs can be successful or unsuccessful
depending on the load demand and fault status as discussed earlier. After the defined
time interval of the restoration process, the auto recloser activates and this can result
in a live to live or live to dead reclosing depending on the result of DG restoration.
The auto recloser should be capable of checking for synchronism and make sure that
there is no phase mismatch, if it performs live to live reclosing. There is less
possibility to have a phase mismatch since DGs are not fully shutdown and they
maintain the original phases during the fault and after the restoration. However, the
DG is safeguarded during network contingency conditions and it is discussed in the
next sub-section.
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In the second method, an opportunity is given to the recloser to restore the
system before the DG start to restore the system. This method can be used for a
system when the DG capacity is not enough to supply the load demand. In this case,
the sleep time of the DG should be adjusted according to the recloser operating time.
The recloser may restore the system depending on whether the fault still exists or it is
cleared. If the system is successfully restored, then DG can start restoration process
which will then be successful. This results in maximising the DG benefits to the
customer. On the other hand, if reclosing fails to restore the system, then DG can
start the restoration process. Again, depending on the fault status and load demand,
the self restoration can be successful or unsuccessful. The DG will restore the
system, if fault clears and load demand is less than the DG capacity. However, DG
will disconnect from the network if restoration is unsuccessful due to higher load
demand or uncleared fault. A load shedding scheme can be implemented to restore
the system when load demand is high, however it is out of scope of this thesis.
5.2.4 DG protection
It is important to consider the consequences of out of phase reclosing when
DGs are not disconnected during the auto recloser open time. The risk of DG damage
due to the out of phase reclosing is lower, if DG is connected through a converter
[49]. In the proposed reclosing scheme, the recloser is capable of checking the
synchronisation which ensures there is no phase mismatch when it performs live to
live reclosing.
From the point of DG protection, the DG should be protected itself. To achieve
basic DG protection requirements, in the proposed method, a DG is employed with
several protective elements; fold back current control, reverse power flow, over
voltage and synchronism check. The proposed fold back control protects the DG
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from excessive current injection and unsuccessful system restoration. The reverse
power flow protection is activated to trip the DG when current flows towards the
DG. The over voltage element responds when terminal voltage of the DG rises above
a pre-defined limit. However, under voltage protection is incorporated with the
proposed fold back current control since the DG is usually allowed to operate under
the rated voltage in current control mode. The synchronised relay ensures a trouble
free connection to the feeder when it is being reconnected after any disconnection.
These protection schemes will minimise the DG safety risks associated with
reclosing.
5.3 Arc fault model selection for simulation

An accurate representation of an arc in simulation is difficult due to its random
nature. However, for studying the effects of DG on arc faults, a realistic arc model is
needed. The selected arc model should indicate whether the arc is sustained or
extinguished. One possibility is to choose a current dependent arc resistance model,
which represents the arc with a time varying resistance or a square wave voltage
source in phase with the arc current [54]. This model is valid when the fault current
level is high, i.e., when the utility is connected. However, once the utility is
disconnected and fault current is supplied by the DGs, the arc parameters change.
The new parameters are difficult to define accurately. Therefore, this model has not
been used.
Another possibility is to use both primary and secondary arc models for
simulation in the presence of DGs in the network. Most line faults are single phase to
ground and they are temporary arc faults. Therefore, the arc fault can be successfully
removed by performing the single-pole reclosing in high voltage (HV) lines [72].
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The primary arc exists in HV lines before the circuit breaker opens and a secondary
arc occurs due to hot plasma remaining from the primary arc after the circuit breaker
opens. The secondary arc is sustained by the mutual coupling (capacitive and
inductive) between the faulted phase and un-faulted phases [51]. However, reclosing
is usually three-pole in medium and low voltage systems. Therefore, in a way similar
to HV arcs, a secondary arc model can be used in the presence of the DGs to
simulate arc faults after the disconnection of the utility supply, where the DGs will
sustain the secondary arc. In [49], a similar arc fault study has been performed with a
wind power plant, where the measured arc voltage waveforms are compared with the
simulation results to validate the arc model.
The primary and secondary arc models are used for the simulation studies to
investigate the effect of DG on arc faults. The selected arc models are discussed in
detail below. These models indicate the arc behaviour during the fault. However, a
criterion to determine the arc extinction should be known and the selected criterion is
also given.
5.3.1 Primary arc fault

The theory of switching arc was recently proposed to model the long fault arcs
in air, both primary and secondary [73]. Heavy fault current flows during the primary
arc period. The arc column has a large cross sectional area since the system provides
a high input electrical power to the arc. It can be assumed that there is no elongation
of the arc length during this period. The dynamic arc characteristics can be written as
[51, 52, 73],
dg p
dt
1
Gp g p
Tp
(5.3)
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where, Tp is the arc time constant, Gp and gp are the stationary arc conductance and
the instantaneous arc conductance respectively. Gp and Tp can be expressed as,
Gp =
Ip
; Tp =
lp
Vp l p
(5.4)
where, |i| is the absolute value of the primary arc current, Vp is the arc voltage
gradient, lp is the primary arc length, Ip is the peak value of primary arc current and
is a constant.
5.3.2 Secondary arc fault

The secondary arc is usually self extinguishing, however its duration can
depend on many factors and it is mainly dependent on the secondary arc current [72].
The secondary arc length will vary over time. Wind velocity and the magnitude and
duration of the primary arc current are the two factors which effect the elongation of
the arc length. However, the total secondary arc voltage is practically proportional to
the arc length [73]. The low current secondary arcs can be expressed as [51]
dg s
1
= (Gs g s )
dt
Ts
(5.5)
where, Ts is the secondary arc time constant, Gs is the stationary arc conductance and
gs is the instantaneous secondary arc conductance. Gs and Ts can be given by
Gs =
i
Vs ls (t r )
; Ts =
I s1.4
(5.6)
l s (t r )
where |i| is the absolute value of the secondary arc current, tr is the time from
initiation of secondary arc, ls(tr) is the time varying arc length, Is is the steady state
peak secondary arc current and is a constant.
90
5.3.3 Arc extinction

Defining the arc extinction condition is a challenging task in arc modelling.
The arc self-extinction action depends not only on the fault current magnitude, but
also on the transient recovery voltage rate after successful arc extinction at current
zero crossing. Furthermore, the arc extinction time is proportional to the arc time
constant. In [51], the arc extinction is proposed based on dielectric breakdown. The
arc model in (5.5) only considers the thermal re-ignition, while dielectric re-strikes
are not considered. In [72], the secondary arc extinction is determined, if the
derivative of arc resistance is higher than the value in (5.7) and the instantaneous
conductance is lower than the value in (5.8).
dr 'arc
= 20 M /( s m)
dt
(5.7)
g 'min = 50 S m
(5.8)
However, this criterion only considers the thermal extinction of the arc and
there is a probability of dielectric re-ignition of the arc. This has not been considered
in this study.
5.4 Simulation studies

Several case studies have been carried out to investigate the effect of DGs on
both permanent and transient arc faults. For this purpose, a four bus radial
distribution feeder is considered as shown in Fig. 5.3. All the DGs considered in this
study are connected to the feeder through the converters and they all are employed
with the proposed fold back current control strategy. The converter structure and
basic control used in this simulation is given in Appendix-B. DG1, DG2 and DG3
are connected to the feeder at BUS-2, BUS-3 and BUS-4 respectively. Load1, Load2
and Load3 have the same power consumption. The System parameters of the
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simulated system are given in Table 5.1. The capacity of each DG is selected such
that it can supply the load connected to its bus in autonomous mode.
Fig. 5.3 Simulated radial feeder with DGs

Table 5.1 Simulated system data
System data
Value
System frequency
50 Hz
Source voltage (Vs)
11 kV rms (L-L)
Sbase
10 MVA
Vbase
11 kV
Utility source impedance (Zs)
0.00645 + j 0.06491 p.u.
DG source impedance (Zdg)
0.03223 + j 0.32455 p.u.
Feeder impedance (Z12=Z23 =Z34)
0.09669 + j 0.35830 p.u.
Load impedance (ZL)
18.59 + j 12.39 p.u.
DG power output
0.5 MW
The performance of proposed ITA relays in the presence of fold back current
control DGs are also investigated for both permanent and arc faults. Therefore the
ITA relays R1, R2 and R3 are employed to protect the feeder as shown in the figure.
The relays are assumed to have two zones of protection in which Zone-1 covers
120% of the first line and Zone-2 covers twice the length of the first line. The
following constants are chosen for the tripping characteristics of the relays.
For Zone-1: A = 0.0037, p = 0.08, k = 0.005
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For Zone-2: A = 0.0037, p = 0.1, k = 0.01
The relays are located just before the BUS-1, BUS-2 and BUS-3. With this
arrangement, the infeed effect on relays which are located downstream from the fault
can be minimised. All the circuit breakers connected to the relays are considered to
have reclosing capability, since part of this study is to demonstrate the compatibility
of proposed protection and control strategy on reclosing.
5.4.1 Results for permanent faults

Three phase permanent faults are simulated along the feeder of Fig. 5.3 to
evaluate the relay response. Fig. 5.4 shows the ITA relay characteristic curves and
relay response which have been obtained by MATLAB calculation. The combined
Zone-1 and Zone-2 forward characteristics are shown for each relay in Fig. 5.4. It is
assumed that each DG injects a constant current of 0.06 kA during the fault and there
is 0.05 ohm of fault resistance at the fault point.
Results show that ITA relays can respond to isolate faults from both the
upstream and downstream sides of the feeder effectively. Each relay also provides
backup protection for the adjacent relay. For example, for a fault at point A shown in
the figure between BUS-2 and BUS-3, R2 will trip first to isolate the fault from the
upstream side while R3 responds next to isolate the fault from downstream side.
However, if R2 fails to trip, R1 will trip by providing the backup protection. Further
backup protection for relay R2 can be provided, if a 3-zone protection scheme is
chosen for R1.
93
Fig. 5.4 Calculated ITA relay response for a three phase fault
The system shown in Fig. 5.3 is simulated in PSCAD for different system
configurations since all the DGs and loads may not be connected at all the time. A
SLG fault is created at 0.305 s at different locations. Different case studies are
considered by changing the DG and load connectivity to the network.
Case study-1: When DG generation is more than load demand

In this study, it is considered that all three DGs and three loads are connected
to the feeder of Fig. 5.3. A SLG fault is created between BUS-1 and BUS-2, at a
point that is 10% of the line length away from BUS-1. The DGs switches from
voltage control mode to current control mode soon after the fault. The DGs then start
to reduce the current gradually in current control mode according to the fold back
characteristic. Relays R1 and R2 respond to isolate the faulted segment at 26 ms and
51 ms respectively after the initiation of fault (i.e. R1 operates at 0.331 s and R2
operates at 0.356 s). As a result of successful faulted segment isolation, the islanded
system, beyond BUS-2, can operate in autonomous mode. The voltage, output
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current and output real power of DG1 is shown in Fig. 5.5. Once R2 opens at 0.356 s,
the DGs are switched back into the voltage control mode before they reach the sleep
mode. This results in fast system restoration without disconnection of any of the DGs
from the network. The response of the other two DGs is similar and is not shown
here. In this case, faulted segment isolation and fast system restoration have been
achieved by using the proposed ITA relay protection scheme and fold back current
control of the DGs. These result in maximising the DG benefits to the customers by
increasing the system reliability. On the other hand, if DGs are disconnected after the
fault, customers beyond BUS-2 experience a power outage since this is a permanent
fault.
Fig. 5.5 DG1 response (a) output voltage (b) output current (c) real power output
Case study-2: When DG generation is less than load demand

To simulate this scenario, only DG1 and DG3 are assumed to be connected to
the system with three loads. A fault is created at the same time mentioned in the case
study-1. The relays R1 and R2 respond 26 ms and 51 ms respectively to isolate the
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faulted segment. Once the relay R2 responds to isolate the faulted segment, DG1 and
DG2 supply the power to the loads in the islanded section beyond BUS-2. The output
voltage, output current and real power of DG1 are shown in Fig. 5.6. At the moment
R2 opens, the DGs try to restore the system, which can be seen from the voltage
transient at 0.360 s. However, since load demand is higher than the power generation
from DGs, the system restoration is not possible. Therefore, the system does not
recover at the instant of fault clearing and DGs further decrease the output current
until it reaches the sleep mode. The DGs remain in sleep mode for a defined time
period (note that it is 100 ms in this simulation) without disconnecting from the
system. After this time duration, the DG restoration process starts, during which the
controller calculates the output voltage as per Fig. 5.2(c). This causes an increase in
voltage as evident from Fig. 5.6(a). However, this voltage is insufficient to restore
the system and after a further 50 ms, the DGs are disconnected due to unsuccessful
restoration. The DG circuit breakers then open to isolate the DGs from the system.
Load shedding on the basis of the restoration attempt is not addressed in this study.
Moreover, only one attempt of DG restoration is considered. However, several
attempts can be considered to restore the system since it may increase the system
reliability for temporary faults.
In Fig. 5.6, it can be seen that the voltage and current becomes zero at 0.554 s,
while the power exponentially reduces to zero. This apparently strange behaviour is
caused due to the low-pass filter used in the power measuring circuit. This prevents
power measurement to become zero instantaneously. However, since both voltage
and current become zero at 0.554 s, the DG output power also becomes zero at the
same instant.
96
Fig. 5.6 DG1 response (a) output voltage (b) output current (c) real power output
5.4.2 Results for Arc Faults

The radial feeder of Fig. 5.3 is again considered to investigate the effect of fold
back current on arc faults and the response of ITA relays. The simulated arc
parameters are shown in Table 5.2.
Table 5.2 Arc model parameters
Arc parameters
Primary arc model
(including numerical values)
Secondary arc model
(including numerical values)
Value
dg p
dt
gp
2.85 10 5 I p 15l p
lp
i
dg s
l s (t r )
=
gs
dt
2.5110 3 I 1s .4 75 I s 0.4 l s (t r )
primary arc length (lp)
0.5m
secondary arc length (ls)
10lpt (t is time)
The arc fault is initiated at the peak of a voltage waveform. A high fault current
flows in the beginning since both utility source and DGs feed the fault. At this stage,
the arc is modelled as a primary arc. Once the relay responds to isolate the fault from
97

the utility side, the rest of the system becomes islanded and the fault current reduces
due to the current limit applied by the VSC controllers. During the islanded
operation, the arc is modelled as secondary arc. The simulated results are shown in
the following sub-sections.
Case study-3: Arc fault on the line between BUS-1 and BUS-2
An arc fault is created at 0.305 s. The primary arc has high arc current, low arc
voltage and low arc resistance as can be seen from Fig. 5.7. The relay R1 responds at
0.332 s as shown in Fig. 5.7(d) to isolate the arc fault from upstream (i.e. utility
side). After the response of R1, the arc resistance increases due to the secondary
arcing, as evident from Fig. 5.7(c). The DGs start to reduce the output current
gradually with the initiation of the fault. The response of DG1 is shown in Fig. 5.8.
The relay R2 responds at 0.349 s to isolate the fault from the downstream side. The
isolation of the faulted segment results in the islanded mode of operation containing
all the three DGs. Thereafter, the system recovers successfully when DGs are
switched to the voltage control mode. Fig. 5.8(b) verifies the sinusoidal current
limiting and gradual current decrease in fold back characteristic. It is to be noted that
a hardware current limiter is employed for the VSCs to limit the instantaneous peak
output current to the value 100 A. The fold back current limit is applied once the
hardware limit is reached.
The results reveal that the proposed ITA relay scheme can isolate the faulted
segment from the feeder. It leads to fast restoration of the system. The DGs restore
the system without disconnecting from the feeder thereby increasing the reliability
for even temporary faults.
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Fig. 5.7 System behaviour for an arc fault (a) arc voltage (b) arc current (c) arc
resistance (d) relay response
Fig. 5.8 DG1 behaviour for an arc fault (a) output voltage (b) output current
Case study-4: Arc fault on the line between BUS-1 and BUS-2, assuming relay R2
fails to operate
The same scenario as Case study-3 is considered here to illustrate the effect of
DGs on arc extinction. However, in this case, it is assumed that the downstream relay
R2 fails to detect the fault. Once R1 responds to the fault, DGs feed the arc in
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secondary stage. The output voltage and current of DG1 are shown in Fig. 5.9. The
DGs decrease the output currents according to the fold back characteristic as can be
seen in the figure. Then DGs reach to sleep mode and inject very small currents. As a
result of low current injection during the sleep mode, the arc extinguishes at 0.412 s.
The DGs then start to self-restore the system at 0.490 s after remaining in the sleep
mode for 100 ms. The system is restored completely at 0.520 s since arc fault is
cleared by the time DGs starts the restoration process. This study confirms that the
DGs can self-restore the system without sustaining the arc. It is to be noted that only
thermal arc extinction is considered in this case. However the DGs are kept in the
sleep mode for 100 ms, a sufficient time required for dielectric arc extinction.
Fig. 5.9 DG1 behaviour when downstream relay fails (a) output voltage (b) output
current
5.4.3 Auto reclosing

Reclosing can be considered as one of the major protection issues when DGs
are connected to distribution networks. Therefore an effective method is proposed to
coordinate a recloser with a converter connected DG in the feeder. It is assumed that
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the feeder is protected by either ITA relays or conventional overcurrent relays.
Therefore two separate cases are considered to explain the reclosing possibilities
based on the employed protection scheme. The radial feeder as shown in Fig. 5.3 is
considered here as well. The circuit breakers associated with the relays have the
reclosing capability. Moreover, synchronism check element is incorporated.
Therefore the recloser element senses the voltages on the two sides of a breaker in
exact synchronism before performing the reclosing operation.
A. With proposed fold back current control and ITA relays

The restoration of the faulted segment by coordinating the DGs and the
reclosers in the system is performed based on the identification of fault direction.
Reclosing opportunity is given to the relay which sees the fault as forward. For
example, a temporary arc fault is considered on the line between BUS-1 and BUS-2.
The fault occurs at 0.305 s, which is subsequently cleared by relays R1 and R2 at
0.332 s and 0.349 s respectively. After the faulted segment isolation, DGs operates in
autonomous mode supplying the load power.
Now R1 tries to close the circuit breaker first (live to dead reclosing) by
identifying this fault as forward after a pre-defined delay-time period 0.3 s (this predefined time is denoted by Td). The relay R2 waits till the upstream side is restored
before performing the reclosing operation. Therefore in this case, R2 performs live to
live reclosing after further time delay of 0.1 s. The DG1 response is shown in Fig.
5.10. The smooth transfer between utility and islanded feeder section at 0.732 s
validates the suitability of proposed reclosing scheme. The DG supplies the increase
of real power demand during the islanded operation and after successful reclosing the
real power output has reduced to the value before the fault as shown in Fig. 5.10(c).
101
Fig. 5.10 DG1 response during fault and system restoration

If the fault is between BUS-2 and BUS-3, the relays R2 and R3 respond to clear
the fault. Since DG1, still supplies the fault, it is disconnected from the system after a
time period (this includes current fold-back time, sleep mode time and selfrestoration time of DG1), which is less than the delay-time period Td. Then, R2 will
try to reclose and if that is successful, R3 will be connected once the system settles
down. Note that, in this case, DG1 needs to be manually reconnected after fault is
cleared since no automatic procedure is proposed for the DGs that are totally
disconnected.
B. With proposed fold back current control and conventional protection scheme
In this sub-section, the coordination of reclosers and converter interfaced DGs
are discussed assuming the relays employed in the radial feeder shown in Fig. 5.3 are
overcurrent type. Therefore these relays only clear the forward faults from the feeder.
To explain the sequence of operation, a fault on the line between BUS-1 and BUS-2
at 0.305 s is considered. The forward relay R1 detects the fault and isolates it from
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utility side at 0.332 s. However, in this case, DGs feed the arc fault since R2 has not
responded. As a result of fold back current control, DGs reduce the output current
gradually and reach to the sleep mode at 0.39 s as shown in Fig. 5.11. It results in arc
extinction at 0.41 s. The DGs then restore the system and supply the loads in
autonomous mode. The reclosing of R1 starts after the restoration time. The recloser
successfully connects the utility and islanded section at 0.632 s. The response of
DG1 terminal voltage verifies the smooth transfer between islanded and grid
connected mode operation. The output current of DG1 is more during the islanding
mode than the grid connected mode since total load demand is supplied by the DGs.
Fig. 5.11 DG1 terminal voltage and output current

If there are motors and generators in the system, the first recloser may be time
delayed. Circuit checking is needed before any time delayed recloser action to ensure
that either synchronism exists or one circuit is dead.
103
5.5 Summary
A novel control strategy based on fold back current control is proposed for a
converter interfaced DG to overcome the challenging protection issues in a DG
connected distribution feeder. The control strategy enables the fast arc extinction,
system restoration, and reclosing without disconnecting the DGs. The arc extinction
is achieved by reducing the DG output current to a small value, while automatic
system restoration is obtained if DG power generation is sufficient enough to supply
the load demand. Recloser coordination with DGs is considered without any explicit
communication. It can be seen that the reclosing is possible with converter connected
DGs. The only requirement is to determine a sequence of operations with appropriate
time delays between each recloser and DG depending on the system configuration.
The results reveal that the DG benefits can be maximised by increasing the reliability
of the system if fold back current control is employed with converter interfaced DGs.
104
Chapter 6: Experimental results

6.1 Introduction
In the previous three chapters, the proposed ITA relay characteristic and its
application on DG connected distribution networks are discussed. The discussions
are presented in these chapters with the help of numerical results. However, practical
implementation of the relay should be considered to verify the suitability of the relay
for realistic protection applications. Therefore the main aim of this chapter is to
present the experimental work which involves building a software prototype of the
ITA relay to evaluate the performance in a distribution test feeder. The experimental
results are then used to validate the calculated and simulated results. This chapter
begins with a brief description of the test feeder arrangement used in the laboratory.
Then relay performance is examined by changing the source impedance to illustrate
the robust operation of the relay. Furthermore, relay deterioration factors are
analysed.
6.2 Test feeder arrangement

The ITA relay characteristic is examined in a laboratory test feeder to compare
the experimental relay performance with the calculated and simulated results. A
photograph of the test feeder is shown in Fig. 6.1 where each line segment consists of
a resistor and inductor. A single line diagram of the experimental setup is given in
105

Fig. 6.2. In this test feeder, the source voltage can be controlled according to the
requirement. The circuit breaker CB1 provides the protection for the entire circuit.
Fig. 6.1 Experimental test feeder
Fig. 6.2 Single line diagram of experimental setup

The NI PXI-1042Q chassis shown in Fig. 6.3 is used to implement the relay
algorithm and to acquire data. The NI chassis has a PXI-8187 windows XP
Embedded card, two analog input cards and an output relay card. The voltage and
current signals at the relay location are acquired to analog cards using the voltage
and current transducers respectively. One of the switches in the output relay card is
used to create faults. One typical fault location is shown in Fig. 6.2. The fault
106

location however is changed to study the relay performance. This switch can be fully
controlled by the LabVIEW software. A SLG fault is created at different locations
along the test feeder. The fault is created at a random time by closing the switch of
the output relay card, while the ITA relay sends fault clearing signal to the same
switch. It is to be noted that CB1 provides back up protection in case the switch does
not operate to clear a fault. The system parameters of the test system are given in
Table 6.1.
Fig. 6.3 NI PXI-1042Q chassis

The ITA relay characteristic is implemented on LabVIEW software. The
detailed LabVIEW program is given in Appendix-C. A block diagram of the
software model is shown in Fig. 6.4. The voltage and current signals are sampled and
these samples are held in data buffers. The samples of one cycle are used to extract
the fundamental component. Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) is used for this purpose.
The measured admittance is then calculated using the extracted fundamental voltage
and current. The measurement and control blocks used to calculate measured
admittance on LabVIEW software is shown in Fig. C.1, Appendix-C. The relay reach
setting is manually entered according to the line parameters. The relay algorithm
issues the fault detection signal and calculates the tripping time when a fault occurs
107

in the network based on the measured admittance. Fault clearing signal is then
obtained through an integrator. The LabVIEW implementation of ITA relay
algorithm is shown in Fig. C.2, Appendix-C.
Table 6.1 System parameters of the experimental setup
System parameter
Value
Source
0 - 230 V rms (L-G), 50Hz
Feeder impedance
R = 1.12
L = 0.01H ( j 3.15 )
Load impedance (ZL)
125
CB1 rated current
1A
Hardware specifications
NI chassis
PXI-1042Q
NI controller
PXI-8187 windows XP Embedded
Transducers
Voltage
Differential amplifier
Current
LEM LTSR 6-NP
Data acquisition
Analog inputs
PXI-4070 FlexDMM
Digital outputs
PXI-2565 relay switches
Sampling rate
3200 samples per seconds
Fig. 6.4 ITA relay implementation on LabVIEW
108
6.3 Relay performance evaluation

A simplified single line diagram of the test feeder is shown in Fig. 6.5. The test
feeder has five buses. A resistive load is connected at BUS-5. The ITA relay is
located at BUS-1 and it has three zones of protection. In the experiment, it is
assumed that the relay will protect the line segment from BUS-1 to BUS-5. Zone-1
covers the 120% of the line length between buses 1 and 5 while Zone-2 covers twice
the line length. Zone-3 has been employed to achieve the relay operation in the
presence of resistive faults. Therefore, the relay reach setting of Zone-3 is set to
cover three times of the line length. The selected relay tripping characteristics and
reach settings of each zone are given in Table 6.2.
SLG faults are created at different buses to observe the ITA relay response. A
digital oscilloscope is used to capture the faulted phase voltage at relay location and
the current flowing through the relay. It is to be noted that two differential probes are
used for the isolation purposes when measuring the voltages and currents by the
oscilloscope.
Fig. 6.5 Simplified single line diagram of the test feeder
109

Table 6.2 Relay reach setting and tripping characteristic in each zone
Relay zone
Tripping characteristic and reach
Zone-1
Yt1 =
t=
Zone-2
Zone-3
1
1.2 (4.48 + j 12.6)
0.0037
Yr0.2 1
+ 0.02
Yt1 =
1
2 (4.48 + j 12.6)
t=
0.003
Yr0.04 1
Yt1 =
t=
+ 0.02
1
3 (4.48 + j 12.6)
0.0025
Yr0.02 1
+ 0.02
The calculated relay response using MATLAB for SLG faults along the feeder
is shown in Fig. 6.6. In this calculation, the fault resistance is considered as zero. The
calculated theoretical tripping times are used to validate the experimental results. As
can be seen from Fig. 6.6, the relay tripping characteristics are selected appropriately
for different zones. For example, consider Zone-1 and Zone-3 tripping
characteristics. Zone-3 should always give higher tripping time than Zone-1 for
faults if tripping characteristics of the zones are properly selected. Otherwise, Zone-3
can give lower tripping time than Zone-1 for bolted faults (i.e. zero resistive faults) if
same tripping characteristics are selected for these zones, since reach setting of Zone3 is higher.
110
Fig. 6.6 Calculated relay response in different zones for bolted faults
The ITA relay has been designed to operate for different fault current levels in
a network. Specifically, when a converter interfaced DG is connected to the network,
different voltage levels can be seen during the faulted condition. However, the ITA
relay response should be same irrespective of the network fault current level/fault
voltage level. Therefore, a number of test runs are carried out under different test
feeder configurations to evaluate the relay performance.
6.4 Relay response for different fault locations

In this sub-section, the ITA relay response for faults is investigated by
changing the fault location and the source impedance to demonstrate the robustness
of the relay operation. The relay should give higher tripping time when the fault
point moves away from the relay location due to the inverse time characteristic. Also,
the relay should respond in the same manner irrespective of source impedance, since
the ITA relay tripping time does not change with the fault current level. To observe
these features, several tests are carried out. The source rms voltage is adjusted to 30
111

V. Then SLG faults are created at different buses using the software control switch as
mentioned earlier. The fault is initiated at a random time. Relay response time, which
is the time relay algorithm calculates based on the measured admittance, is observed.
The voltage and current seen by the relay are captured and actual fault clearing time
is obtained using these two captured waveforms. It is to be noted that actual fault
clearing time is longer than the relay response time. Once the relay issues the trip
command, the hardware switch can take up to 10 ms to open [74]. The theoretical
tripping time of the relay is calculated using Fig. 6.6 for comparison purposes. The
test results are discussed in the subsequent sub-sections.
6.4.1 Fault at BUS-2

The relay response time for a SLG fault at BUS-2 is shown in Table 6.3.
Several tests are carried out for the same fault location. However, the results of only
three tests are shown here. Comparing the data listed in Table 6.3, it can be seen that
the relay response time is close to the calculated theoretical values. The actual fault
clearing time is slightly higher than the relay response time values due to the fault
clearing time taken by the hardware switch.
The captured voltage and current signals at relay location during the fault for
test runs 1 and 2 using the digital oscilloscope are shown in Fig. 6.7. The source
current lags the voltage before the fault. The current increases rapidly after the
initiation of the fault while the voltage reduces. During the fault, the normalised
admittance becomes higher than 1.0 and it causes the relay to initiate the trip signal.
The tripping time is decided based on the value of the measured admittance. It is
obvious from Fig. 6.7 (a) and (b) that the points on the voltage (or current) cycle at
the faults occur are different. However, the relay response time is the same for test
runs 1 and 2 (Table 6.3).
112

Table 6.3 ITA relay response for faults at BUS-2
Test
Theoretical
Relay
response Actual
run
tripping time (ms)
time (ms)
fault
clearing time (ms)
30
29
30
30
29
29.2
30
30
32
(a) Test run-1
(b) Test run-2

Fig. 6.7 The variation of voltage and current for SLG faults at BUS-2

The relay response time and the actual fault clearing time for a SLG fault at
BUS-3 are given in Table 6.4. According to the theoretical fault calculations, the
relay should clear the fault after 40 ms. The relay response time is very close to the
113

theoretical value as can be seen in the table. The variation of voltage and current for
Test run-1 and Test run-2 is also shown in Fig. 6.8 to demonstrate the actual fault
clearing time. The fault has created at different points on the current waveform and
the relay isolates the fault approximately within two cycles.
Test
Theoretical
Relay
response Actual
run
tripping time (ms)
time (ms)
fault
clearing time (ms)
40
38
39.2
40
37
38
40
39
41
(a) Test run-1
(b) Test run-2

114

The fault point is further moved to downstream side along the feeder. A SLG
fault is created at BUS-4. The main aim of changing the fault location is to check
whether the tripping time follows the ITA tripping curve. For this fault location,
calculated theoretical tripping time is 58 ms. The relay response time and fault
clearing time are listed in Table 6.5. The variation of voltage and current for two of
the tests is shown in Fig. 6.9. As can be seen from the figure, the fault current has
reduced compared to the fault currents at BUS-2 and BUS-3. On the other hand, the
faulted voltage has risen. However, the ITA relay response is accurate as expected
from the calculation.
Test
Theoretical
Relay
response Actual
run
tripping time (ms)
time (ms)
fault
clearing time (ms)
58
57
62.4
58
58
64
58
59
64.2
(a) Test run-1
115
(b) Test run-2


The fault is created at the end of the feeder. According to the calculations, the
relay should issue the trip commend after 120 ms after the fault initiation. Table 6.6
shows the relay response results for this fault. Since the line impedance is
significantly high between the relay location and fault location, the fault current is
comparably low while the voltage is significantly high during the fault as shown in
Fig. 6.10. However, the relay isolates the fault effectively. The results show the
ability of ITA relay to detect and isolate the faults according to the designed inverse
time tripping characteristic.
Test
Theoretical
Relay
response Actual
run
tripping time (ms)
time (ms)
fault
clearing time (ms)
120
119
122
120
118
121
120
116
118
116
(a) Test run-1
(b) Test run-2

It can be seen that in all the cases presented above, the relay response time for
the faults is lower than the theoretical tripping time. This error may be due to the
voltage and current transducers. These transducers give an output which has a dc
offset and lower magnitude compared to the input signals. Therefore, the relevant
mathematical operations have been performed on acquired signals to match the
values with original signals.
6.4.5 Relay response for source impedance change

The source impedance of the existing line model has been changed by adding a
series impedance of (4.6+ j 3.14). The main aim of increasing the source impedance
117

is to weaken the source which will result in lower fault current levels in the feeder.
Therefore this study can be considered similar to the case where a DG is connected
to the feeder.
The experimental results for this study are shown Table 6.7. The actual fault
clearing time for randomly selected tests at different fault locations is shown from
Fig. 6.11 to Fig. 6.14. According to the figures, the fault inception angle is different
for different fault locations. However, the fault clearing times are within the
acceptable limits and they are very similar to the values which are obtained before
adding the additional source impedance. The results reveal that the relay response is
not affected by the value of the source impedance. Therefore it can be concluded that
the ITA relay response is not sensitive to source impedance.
Table 6.7 ITA relay response for SLG faults with higher source impedance
Fault
Theoretical
location tripping time
Relay
response Actual
time (ms)
fault
clearing time (ms)
BUS-2
30
30
34
BUS-3
40
39
42
BUS-4
58
60
61.6
BUS-5
120
118
120
Fig. 6.11 Voltage and current for a fault at BUS-2
118
119
6.5 Analysis of ITA relay degradation factors

The ITA relay detects a fault in a feeder if the value of calculated normalised
admittance of a particular zone increases beyond the value 1.0. The required tripping
time is then decided based on the value of the normalised admittance. In the case of a
three zone protection relay, all the zones of the relay may detect the fault. However,
in such a case, the tripping time of each zone is different and the minimum tripping
time is selected to issue the trip command. The calculated value of the normalised
admittance for a particular zone will depend on the measured admittance since the
total admittance setting for that zone is constant. Therefore, the calculated relay
tripping time based on normalised admittance can deviate from the expected value if
the calculated measured admittance is not accurate. Thus, the factors which can
affect the measured admittance should be considered and they should be minimised
to improve the relay performance. Typically, two types of errors which can affect the
measured admittance are identified. The first type of error occurs due to the fault
resistance and downstream sources (infeed). This is due to the network configuration
and the nature of the fault. The maximum DG penetration level of a particular
network can be known in advance. However, the fault resistance cannot be predicted.
The calculated measured admittance errors due to the fundamental extraction can be
considered as the second type of error. Current transients, harmonics, and decaying
dc magnitude and time constant can cause errors in the fundamental extraction. Both
the error types will be explained in following two sub-sections.
6.5.1 The effect of fault resistance and infeed

The same experimental setup as shown in Fig. 6.2 is used to test the relay
performance in the presence of fault resistance and infeed. Zone-3 has been
120

introduced into the ITA relay to compensate the fault resistance. The selected Zone-3
reach setting and tripping characteristic are the same as those shown in Table 6.2.
In the first phase of the test, the resistive faults are considered without any
infeed source. The ITA relay performance is tested for faults at different locations by
inserting a 10 resistor between the fault point and the ground. Both the calculated
and the experimental results are given in Table 6.8 where measured admittance and
normalised admittance are given by Ym and Yr respectively. The tripping time of the
ITA relay is shown by tp. This table also includes these values calculated for a bolted
fault (Rf=0). According to the data in Table 6.8, the normalised admittance is always
greater than 1.0. Also, the measured admittance decreases when fault point moves
downstream along the feeder. The normalised admittance values for resistive faults
are lower compared to the zero resistive faults. This results in higher relay tripping
times for resistive faults as can be seen from Table 6.8. However, it can be concluded
that experimental test results are very similar to that of the calculation results
obtained from MATLAB.
Table 6.8 Relay parameters during a resistive fault
Fault
Calculated results
location
Rf=0
Ym
Yr
Experimental results
Rf=10
tp (ms)
Ym
Yr
Rf=10
tp (ms)
Ym
Yr
tp (ms)
BUS-1
0.299 12.0
0.069
0.086 3.471
119
0.087 3.49
117
BUS-2
0.149
6.0
0.088
0.072 2.914
135
0.072 2.88
136
BUS-3
0.099
4.0
0.108
0.061 2.451
158
0.059 2.37
162
BUS-4
0.075
3.0
0.132
0.052 2.090
188
0.050 2.01
197
The variation of the measured admittance and the normalised admittance

during the fault at BUS-2 is shown in Fig. 6.15. The measured admittance has
increased with the initiation of the fault. It results in an increase of the normalised
admittance during the fault as can be seen from Fig. 6.15(b). The value of the
121

normalised admittance will determine the relay tripping time. The calculated tripping
time by the ITA relay algorithm for this fault is shown in Fig. 6.15(c), where the
tripping time is 117 ms.
(a) measured admittance
(b) normalised admittance
(c) tripping time

Fig. 6.15 Change of parameters during a resistive fault at BUS-2
In the second phase of the test, the effect of both the fault resistance and infeed
on relay operation is considered. The test feeder is modified by connecting another
source at BUS-5 to represent the infeed as shown in Fig. 6.16. The source impedance
(Zs2) of infeed is selected as 14 times greater than the main source impedance (Zs1).
122

This test feeder configuration is similar to a system where a DG is connected at
BUS-5. The ITA relay response is obtained for the faults at BUS-2, BUS-3 and BUS4 with a fault resistance of 10 . The calculated and the experimental relay
parameters during the faults are given in Table 6.9. It can be seen that experimental
results are close to the calculated results. However, the relay tripping time has further
increased compared to Table 6.8 due to the infeed effect.
Fig. 6.16 Test feeder with an infeed

Table 6.9 Change of relay parameters due to fault resistance and infeed
Fault
location
Calculated results
Ym
Yr
Experimental results
tp (ms)
Ym
Yr
tp (ms)
BUS-2
0.0709 2.8442
138
0.07
2.8
138
BUS-3
0.0500 2.0071
198
0.049 1.97
201
BUS-4
0.0354 1.4218
374
0.035 1.41
380
The variations of measured admittance and normalised admittance, and

calculated tripping time during the fault at BUS-2 are shown in Fig. 6.17. The
measured admittance increases during the fault resulting normalised admittance to
rise beyond the value 1.0. The relay algorithm calculates the tripping time as 138 ms
based on the value of normalised admittance.
123
(a) measured admittance
(b) normalised admittance
(c) tripping time

Fig. 6.17 Change of parameters for a fault at BUS-2 with fault resistance and infeed
6.5.2 The effect of fundamental extraction

In this sub-section, practical issues related to the admittance calculation are
experimentally investigated. The ITA relay calculates the measured admittance based
on the fundamental voltage and current at the relay location. Therefore, the process
of fundamental extraction from the voltage and the current signals is very important
124

in the presence of transients, noises, harmonics and decaying dc component. In this
experiment, FFT is used to calculate the fundamental rms magnitudes of sampled
voltage and current signals.
A 415 V three phase synchronous generator connected test feeder as shown in
Fig. 6.18 is considered for this analysis. A SLG fault is created at the end of line
segment as shown in the figure. Several tests are conducted to investigate the ITA
relay behaviour during the fault. However, two results are presented below.
Fig. 6.18 A SLG fault at synchronous generator connected feeder

The faulted voltage and current captured during a SLG fault is shown in Fig.
6.19. It can be seen that the current waveform has decaying dc component during the
transient period. Also the voltage has harmonics during the faulted period. The
values of extracted current and voltage using FFT during each cycle are shown in
Fig. 6.20 (a) and (b) respectively. The extracted rms current is higher than the steady
state fault current during the first three cycles. It can be seen that the current has a
decaying dc component that lasts for three cycles. However, the extracted rms
voltage almost reaches the steady state within two cycles. Also note that depending
on the instant at which a fault occurs, the first cycle of the rms calculation may
contain a part of unfaulted voltage/current samples. Therefore it is always expected
that the first cycle will have transient data.
The measured admittance and the tripping time calculated in each cycle are
shown in Fig. 6.20(c) and (d) respectively. It can be seen from Fig. 6.20(d) that the
tripping time reduces slightly with the change of measured admittance. However, in
125

these tests, the fault duration is intentionally maintained for a defined time period to
observe the relay parameters for few cycles. Otherwise, if relay is allowed to clear
the fault, the change of parameters for few cycles cannot be investigated. For
example, consider the test results shown in Fig. 6.20. The relay issues the trip
command around 43ms after the fault. If relay clears the fault, approximately two
cycles of fault period can be only seen.
Fig. 6.19 Current and voltage during a SLG fault
126
Fig. 6.20 Values of relay parameters during a SLG fault
127

Fig. 6.21 shows another test results captured during a SLG fault. This test has a
different fault inception angle compared to the previous test. The decaying dc
component of the current can be seen clearly from the figure while harmonics
associated with the faulted voltage can be also visible. The calculated fundamental
components of current and voltage using LabVIEW FFT blocks and the measured
admittance and the tripping time calculation in each cycle are shown in Fig. 6.22.
The results show that the relay tripping time is slightly higher at the beginning of the
fault while it reduces with the time. The FFT has successfully extracted the voltage
fundamental in the presence of harmonics.
Fig. 6.21 Faulted current and voltage during a SLG fault
128
Fig. 6.22 Values of calculated relay parameters during a SLG fault
129

According to the results, the FFT can extract fundamental in the presence of
harmonics and signal noises. However, the FFT is not immune to the decaying dc
component. Therefore, the calculated tripping time of the relay can vary slightly. The
amount of error on fundamental extraction depends on the network configuration
since the magnitude and time constant of the decaying dc component can vary. To
improve the accuracy of the relay tripping time, one of the methods mentioned in
Section 3.7, Chapter 3 can be used to accurately calculate the fundamental
components. However, the speed of the calculation and burden on the processor
should be considered when selecting a particular algorithm.
6.6 Summary
Several experimental tests are carried out at different fault locations and
different system configurations. The results demonstrate that the ITA relay follows
the inverse time characteristic curve as designed based on the measured admittance.
The relay response time closely matches the calculated results. The source voltage
and source impedance do not affect the relay operation. Moreover, the relay can
respond in the same manner with different fault current levels in the feeder. The fault
resistance and infeed may cause delay in the relay operation. The decaying dc
component can also change the relay tripping time slightly during the transient
period of the fault.
130
Chapter 7: Conclusions and recommendations

In this chapter, the general conclusions of the thesis and recommendations for
future research are presented.
7.1 Conclusions
The general conclusions of the thesis are:
(1) The connections of DGs or microgrids to a distribution network are gaining
importance with the increase of electrical power requirements and
environmental concerns. However, these DG connections can create challenging
protection issues. It is identified that new protection strategies are required to
overcome these challenges.
(2) Protective devices based on current sensing are usually used to detect the faults
in distribution networks. The connections of DGs change the fault current level
and fault current direction. Moreover, if DGs are connected through intermittent
sources, the fault current contribution from DGs cannot be exactly identified to
set the tripping parameters of current sensing protective devices. Furthermore,
protection with converter interfaced DGs in islanded operation is difficult with
current sensing protective devices due to the lower fault current levels. Unless
viable solutions can be found for the protection issues, DGs have to be
disconnected from the grid after a fault, thereby affecting reliability.
131

(3) DGs should be kept connected to the unfaulted segments of a network once a
fault occurs since they can supply the loads in unfaulted segments either in grid
connected or islanded mode operations. This results in maximising DG benefits.
However, the protection system should be capable of isolating the faulted
segment and providing adequate protection for the islanded network.
(4) A new relay - the ITA relay - has been designed to provide protection to a DG
connected distribution network or microgrid. The relay is employed with
different fault detection elements, such as earth element, phase element and
directional element, to respond to different faults. The ITA relay senses both the
current and voltage at the relay location. This results in effective fault detection
irrespective of the network fault current level. The relay is also capable of
isolating the faulted segment, thus allowing the unfaulted segments to operate
either in grid connected or islanded mode operations supplying the load
demand. In the islanded operation, these relays provide the adequate protection
for the network even when current limited converters are connected. The fault
resistance and infeed may affect the relay operation. However, the system
configuration and relay settings will determine the maximum fault resistance for
which the relay can effectively detect faults.
(5) The reclosing can be identified as one of the major protection challenges in a
DG connected distribution network. The DGs are usually disconnected before
performing the reclosing in the network. The fault arc will not extinguish if DGs
remain connected to the network. Also, the coordination of the recloser with
DGs is a challenging task. Therefore, new control and protection strategies are
required to overcome these problems.
132

(6) In this thesis, a novel control strategy based on fold back current control has
been proposed for a converter interfaced DG. The control strategy has the
ability to extinguish the fault arc, to restore the system quickly if possible, and
to perform the reclosing in a converter interfaced DG connected network. In this
proposition, DGs are not required to disconnect immediately after a fault. The
DGs are allowed to supply the load demand either in grid connected or islanded
mode operations. The self extinction of arc is achieved by reducing the DG
output current to a small value, while automatic system restoration is obtained if
DG power generation is sufficient to supply the load demand. The coordination
between reclosers and DGs in the network is obtained by appropriately defining
a sequence of operations with suitable time delays.
(7) In this research, implementation of protection and control strategies for DG
connected distribution networks without communication is considered since the
solutions based on communication are still expensive. However, with the
development and spread out of cheaper communication methods in future,
communication can be used to improve the protection of the DG connected
distribution networks. The use of communication between DGs and protective
devices in the network either centralized or decentralized manner can improve
the efficacy of protection and control strategies. For example, if a relay has the
DG connectivity information, it can then detect the faults minimising the error
coming from infeed effect. Also, system reclosing can be performed much faster
having the information of DG status.
133
7.2 Recommendations for future research

The scope for future research are:
7.2.1 Consideration of rotary type DGs for protection

In this research, all the DGs are considered as converter interfaced DGs for the
protection analysis. However both rotary and converter type DGs can be considered
for fault detection, fault isolation and system restoration in future research.
7.2.2 Fold back type current control for rotary type DGs
The fold back current control strategy is implemented for a converter
interfaced DG in this research. This fold back strategy cannot be easily implemented
for rotary type DGs which will continuously supply large fault currents. Therefore,
suitable fold back type control strategies are required for these rotary DGs to achieve
fast arc extinction and system restoration and will be the subject of future research
and development.
7.2.3 The effect of single phase converters

In this research, DGs connected to the network through three phase converters
are considered. However, there may be single phase converter connected DGs which
can cause system unbalance. The effect of these single phase converters on network
protection and system restoration can be considered in future works.
134
References
[1]
J. C. Gmez and M. M. Morcos, "Coordination of Voltage Sag and

Overcurrent Protection in DG Systems," IEEE Transactions on Power
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Publications arising from the thesis

Conference papers
(1) M. Dewadasa, A. Ghosh and G. Ledwich, Line protection in inverter
supplied networks, Australian Universities Power Engineering Conference,
Sydney, Australia, 2008
(2) M. Dewadasa, A. Ghosh and G. Ledwich, Distance protection solution for a
converter controlled microgrid, National Power Systems Conference,
Mumbai, India, 2008
(3) M. Dewadasa, A. Ghosh and G. Ledwich, Foldback current control for a
DG to achieve fast arc extinction in a distribution network, 3rd biennial
Smart Systems Postgraduate Student Conference, Queensland University of
Technology, Brisbane, 2009
(4) M. Dewadasa, A. Ghosh and G. Ledwich, An inverse time admittance relay
for fault detection in distribution networks containing DGs, IEEE AsiaPacific Region-10 Conference TENCON09, Singapore, 2009.
(5) M. Dewadasa, R. Majumder, A. Ghosh and G. Ledwich, Control and
protection of a microgrid with converter interfaced micro sources, Third
International Conference on Power Systems, Kharagpur, India, 2009.
Journal papers
(1) M. Dewadasa, A. Ghosh and G. Ledwich, Fold back current control and
admittance protection scheme for a distribution network containing DGs,
IET Generation, Transmission and Distribution, Vol. 4, pp 952-962, 2010.
143
Appendix-A
Positive sequence admittance seen by ITA relay
The faulted network for single line to ground (SLG) fault shown in Fig. A.1 is
considered. The relay location is denoted by node R while fault point is at node k.
The fault impedance is represented by Zf. The admittance between the relay and fault
point is denoted by YRK. The voltage and current seen by the relay in faulted phase A
are taken as VRa and Ifa respectively. Negative and zero sequence source voltages are
also considered assuming the source is unsymmetrical during the fault. Moreover, the
zero, positive and negative sequence Thevenin admittances between the relay point
and faulted point are considered as YRk0, YRk1 and YRk2 respectively. The sequence
network for this SLG fault can be represented as shown in Fig. A.1(b).
(a)
(b)
Fig. A.1 SLG fault representation (a) faulted network (b) sequence network
145
The sequence voltages at the relay point can be expressed as,

VRa1 = v1 + (I Ra1 / YRK1 )
VRa 2 = v2 + (I Ra 2 / YRK1 )
VRa 0 = v0 + (I Ra 0 / YRK 0 )
(A.1)
Voltage seen by relay is given by

VRa = VRa1 + VRa 2 + VRa 0
(A.2)
Assuming fault resistance to be zero,

v1 + v2 + v0 = 3Z f I fa1 = 0
(A.3)
From (A.1), (A.2) and (A.3),

VRa = (I Ra1 / YRK1 ) + (I Ra 2 / YRK1 ) + (I Ra 0 / YRK 0 )
(A.4)
Also it can be written,

YRK1 = YRK 2
(A.5)
I Ra1 + I Ra 2 + I Ra 0 = I Ra
Using (A.4) and (A.5), positive sequence measured admittance YRK1 can be written
as,
I Ra + I Ra 0 RK1 1
YRK 0
YRk1 =
V Ra
(A.6)
where IRa is the line fault current through the relay while IRa0 is the zero sequence
fault current seen by the relay and VRa is the faulted phase rms voltage.
146
Appendix-B
Converter structure and control
(A). Converter structure
The three phase structure of the converter which is used in PSCAD simulation
is shown in Fig. B.1. It contains three single phase H-bridge converters that are
supplied a common dc bus containing the DG. Three single-phase transformers are
connected to the three converters to provide isolation and voltage boosting. In this
figure, Lf is the leakage reactance of the transformer, Rf is the transformer losses and
L0 is the output inductance of the DG-converter system. The filter capacitor Cf is
used to bypass the switching harmonics. The advantage of the converter structure
shown in Fig. B.1 is that each phase of the converter can be controlled
independently.
Fig. B.1 The converter structure

(B) Converter control
The converter has two control loops. It can either operate in voltage control or
current control modes depending on the network operating conditions. During the
normal operating condition, the converter is controlled using output feedback of the
147
converter output voltage maintaining the rated voltages at the terminals. The voltage
reference is chosen such that the power demand can be met. The converter switches
into output feedback current control mode during a fault in the network. In this case,
the reference current is chosen to have a magnitude that is twice the rated current of
the converter. Also in current control mode, the magnitude of the output current can
be changed with time according to the user requirement. However, the defined
currents are only injected in faulted phases. The voltage control mode of the
converter is explained in detail below.
The equivalent circuit of one phase of the converter is shown in Fig. B.2. In
this, uVdc represents the converter output voltage, where u = 1. The main aim of
the converter control is to generate u.
Fig. B.2 Equivalent circuit of one phase of the converter

From the circuit of Fig. B.2, the state space description of the system can be
given as,
x& = Ax + Buc
(B.1)
where uc is the continuous time control input, based on which the switching function
u is determined. The discrete-time equivalent of (B.1) can be given by
x(k + 1) = Fx(k ) + Gu c (k )
(B.2)
148
Let the output of the system given in (B.2) be vcf. The reference for this voltage is
given by the instantaneous peak and phase angle of each phase. Let this be denoted
by v*. The input-output relationship of the system in (B.2) can be written as,
vcf ( z )
uc ( z )
M ( z 1 )
(B.3)
N ( z 1)
The control is computed from

uc ( z ) =
S ( z 1 ) *
v ( z ) vcf ( z )
R( z 1)
(B.4)
The closed-loop transfer function of the system is then
vcf ( z )
v* ( z )
M ( z 1 ) S ( z 1)
N ( z 1) R( z 1 ) + M ( z 1 ) S ( z 1)
(B.5)
The coefficients of the polynomials S and R can be chosen based on a pole

placement strategy [B.1]. Once uc is computed from (B.5), the switching function u
can be generated as
if uc > h then u = +1
elseif uc < h then u = 1
(B.6)
where h is a small number. The control in (B. 4) is computed based on the reference
voltage v and the feedback of the capacitor voltage vcf. The reference voltages are
given by
va* = Vnsin(t )
vb* = Vn sin(t 120o )
(B.7)
vc* = Vnsin(t + 120o )

where Vn is the peak voltage magnitude.
149
A similar control strategy is also used for current control. The control in (B.4)
is calculated based on the output current ioa and reference currents. The reference
currents for faulted phases are chosen based on the converter rating.
To illustrate how the switching pulses are selected in each mode of operation,
Fig. B.3 is considered. The converter in both voltage and current modes is operated
in output feedback pole shift voltage/current control mode to select R1, S1, R2 and
S2 [B.2] as explained above. Each phase is controlled according to its output voltage
(vcf) or current (ioa). These signals are sampled at 10 s. The output sampled signals
are then used in the discrete-time output feedback controllers shown in this figure.
The controller mode change operations are also indicated in this figure. The
switching pulses are generated either in voltage control mode or current control
mode depending on the selected mode of operations.
Fig. B.3 Single line diagram of the converter structure and control
150
[B.1] A. Ghosh, Performance study of two different compensating devices in a

custom power park, Proc. IEE Generation, Transmission & Distribution,
Vol. 152, No. 4, pp. 521-528, 2005.
[B.2] A. Ghosh, K. Jindal and A. Joshi, Inverter control using output feedback for
power compensating devices, Proc. IEEE Asia-Pacific Region-10 Conference
TENCON, Bangalore, 2003, pp. 49-52.
151
152
Appendix-C
LabVIEW Program
153
Fig. C.1 Measured admittance calculation on LabVIEW
155
Fig. C.2 ITA relay implementation on LabVIEW

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Protection of distributed generation

A Thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for

Faculty of Built Environment and Engineering

to some of the existing protection schemes. The relay performance is evaluated in

List of symbols and abbreviations

Chapter 1: Introduction ............................................. 1

Chapter 2: Literature review ..................................... 7

Chapter 3: Protective relay for DG connected

Chapter 4: Evaluation of ITA relay performance . 45

Chapter 5: Fold back current control and system

Chapter 6: Experimental results ........................... 105

6.5.2 The effect of fundamental extraction ............................................ 124

Chapter 7: Conclusions and recommendations ... 131

Publications arising from the thesis

List of principle symbols and abbreviations

Relay tripping constants

Discrete Fourier transform

Fast Fourier transform

Distributed generator current

Current in faulted phases A and B

Rated current of converter

Inverse time admittance

Primary arc length

Secondary arc length

Multiple of pickup current

Point of common coupling

Single line to ground

Time dial settings

Voltage source converter

Positive sequence measured admittance

Source impedance of distributed generator

Statement of original authorship

1.2 Aims and objectives of the thesis

analysing the protection issues related to a microgrid and a distribution network

determining the applicability of the existing protection strategies

determining the new protection strategies that are required to achieve

addressing the protection issues associated with system restoration, arc

1.3 Significance of research

1.4 The original contributions of the research

1.4.1 A novel relay characteristic for DG connected networks

1.4.2 A new DG control strategy for fast system restoration

1.5 Structure of the thesis

Chapter 2: Literature review

Chapter 2: Literature review

2.2 Protection issues and solutions

Chapter 2: Literature review

2.2.1 Islanding operation and anti-islanding protection

Chapter 2: Literature review

Chapter 2: Literature review

Chapter 2: Literature review

2.2.2 Coordination between protective devices

Chapter 2: Literature review

Chapter 2: Literature review

Chapter 2: Literature review

Chapter 2: Literature review

Chapter 2: Literature review

2.2.3 Protection in the presence of current limited converters

Chapter 2: Literature review

Chapter 2: Literature review

Chapter 2: Literature review

Chapter 2: Literature review

2.2.4 Reclosing, re-synchronization and arc faults