Passive method-based islanding detection of Renewable-based Distributed Generation: The issues

Abstract

In response to the Clean Energy Act, the penetration of Renewable-based Distributed Generators (RDGs) into the electric power grid is expected to continue to increase, resulting in reduced system losses, reduced transmission congestion and improved system efficiency; however, the intermittent nature of RDGs introduces significant variability that complicates the development of islanding detection schemes compared to conventional or non-renewable-based distributed generators (DGs). This manifests in the form of degraded reliability and power quality. Active methods where disturbances are injected into the grid for detecting islanding operations are not suitable for RDGs because they lead to power quality degradation. On the other hand, passive methods using local measurements do not introduce disturbances into the grid and are inexpensive; however, their performance may be compromised when operating in distorted environments. This paper presents a comprehensive survey of passive-based islanding protection schemes that have been proposed in the literature. The paper investigates the performance of the islanding detection schemes in the context of degraded power quality that will occur with the increased penetration of RDGs into the electric grid.