Protection challenges facing Distributed Generation on rural feeders

Abstract

Experience with connecting farm biogas generation to rural distribution feeders in Ontario has revealed several challenges with electrical protection. The biogas projects are small (<500kW), synchronous, farm-based, and looking for an affordable protection solution involving the use of only low-voltage equipments. The utility feeders are generally at the 8.3kV and 12.5kV voltage levels, can involve long lengths and contain significant imbalance due to the presence of single-phase laterals. The main challenges arise from two requirements.