Influence of inverter-interfaced renewable energy generators on directional relay and an improved scheme

Jia, Ke; Zhe, Yang; Fang, Yu; Bi, Tianshu; Sumner, Mark

Abstract

Renewable energy sources (RESs) are typically interfaced to the grid using power electronics which can cause their fault current characteristics to display significant low frequency harmonics and unbalanced sequence impedances. Such current characteristics can lead to the operation failure of fault component based directional relays. To demonstrate the influence of inverter-interfaced renewable energy generators (IIREGs) on directional relays in detail, analytical expressions for the IIREG equivalent positive- and negative-sequence superimposed impedances are derived in this paper. Considering various factors, the angular characteristics of the sequence superimposed impedances are investigated. Based on these attributes, it can be concluded that fault component based directional relays may be unable to operate in some circumstances. A novel high-frequency impedance-based protection scheme is proposed to manage the adaptability problem by determining the fault direction due to a stable impedance angle. The theoretical analysis and the proposed scheme are tested and verified through real time digital simulation (RTDS) simulation and field testing data.

Citation

Jia, K., Zhe, Y., Fang, Y., Bi, T., & Sumner, M. (2019). Influence of inverter-interfaced renewable energy generators on directional relay and an improved scheme. IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, 34(12), 11843-11855. https://doi.org/10.1109/tpel.2019.2904715

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Mar 7, 2019
• Online Publication Date: Mar 13, 2019
• Publication Date: Mar 13, 2019
• Deposit Date: Mar 27, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: Mar 28, 2019
• Journal: IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics
• Print ISSN: 0885-8993
• Electronic ISSN: 1941-0107
• Publisher: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 34
• Issue: 12
• Pages: 11843-11855
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/tpel.2019.2904715
• Keywords: Angular characteristics, Directional relay, High-frequency impedance, Renewable power sources, Sequence superimposed impedance
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1693187
• Publisher URL: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8666728
• Additional Information: © 2019 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works.