Line Distance Protection in Power Grids with Variable Renewable Energy Sources : An Investigation on Time Domain Distance Protection via Parameter Estimation

Sammanfattning: Variable renewable energy sources typically connect to the power grid through power electronic interfaces. Increased use of such sources can cause issues for conventional distance protection. The purpose of distance protection is to detect transmission line faults and trip circuit breakers accordingly in order to maintain power system stability and power quality, and to ensure the safety of equipment and humans. Conventional distance protection solutions work satisfactorily in grids dominated by synchronous generators, but it has been recognized in industry and academia that new solutions may be needed in power grids dominated by power electronics interfaced generation due to the non-linear system impacts introduced by such sources. It was the aim of this thesis project to investigate the performance of alternative solutions used toward this end, specifically time domain distance protection solutions which are immune to the dynamics of power electronics interfaced sources. Short-circuit simulations for different fault scenarios have been performed in PSCAD, utilising models with a wind farm connected via a single overhead transmission line to a grid represented by a voltage source and impedance. The PSCAD line voltages and currents were processed in Matlab where both a more conventional phasor-based algorithm and a time domain differential equation based algorithm were implemented and simulated. A tripping logic based on detecting stable fault distance estimates within the primary protection zone was used. The implemented algorithms were compared for 96 scenarios in their ability to identify the faults and fault types, estimate the fault distances, and in their tripping speed. The results show an overall better performance for the differential equation algorithm compared to the conventional phasor-based algorithm, with more successful trips, faster tripping speed and superior distance estimate convergence on the correct fault distance. Some limitations have also been identified for the differential equation algorithm such as a fault impedance trajectory in the impedance plane which can lead to incorrect trips during external faults when using conventional tripping logic. It is suggested that more research be done regarding the differential equation algorithm with the next step being further algorithm development and testing when using fault impedance estimates and a tripping zone in the impedance plane.