Selecting, Implementing and Overcoming Challenges when Selecting Coordination Criteria for Wide Area Applications

There is an increasing demand for utilities to define a relay settings process and check relay coordination which is driven by regulatory requirements such as the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) PRC-027-1 standard. Developing apt criteria to address all the pertaining elements requiring coordination is a crucial phase in performing any Wide Area Coordination (WAC) study. This paper discusses the methods to come up with coordination criteria by taking different scenarios and system configurations into consideration. This paper also reviews various challenges that may arise when implementing the adopted coordination criteria. Recommendations to overcome those challenges are also presented in this paper. Recommendations presented in this paper would be of help to utilities and consultants in avoiding issues when enforcing the determined coordination criteria.