Implementation and Dynamic Validation of an Adaptive Protection System during Microgrid Restoration

Abstract

Over the last years more attention has been turned towards microgrid operation as a possibility to increase resilience in the context of power system collapse. Microgrids are considered suitable to support the reduction of outage times and system restoration strategies. However, the restoration and operation process of island grids brings out several challenges, for example decreased short-circuit current level. Therefore, the focus of this paper is to address the challenge of the protection system’s behavior within an exemplary microgrid, to integrate adaptive setting control for employed intelligent electronic devices, and to validate the performance with a short-circuit analysis. The short-circuit analysis has been performed statically in DIgSILENT/PowerFactory and dynamically in MATLAB/Simulink. The dynamic study was found to be necessary due to the behavior of inverters influencing the actions of protection devices during faults and to be beneficial for considering post-fault operation.