Protection Technology

Challenges of protection power grids with distributed generating units

Technical Article
The energy transition changes power grids
Challenges of protecting power grids
with distributed generating units
The energy transition implies a paradigm shift in the energy system and has an impact on the
generation, transmission and distribution of electricity. An increasing number of distributed
generating units based on renewable energies have to be integrated. Wind energy and
photovoltaics systems are the fastest growing suppliers. This calls for a protection concept that is
tailored to the new conditions, the selection of appropriate protection devices including the
functions and protective settings adjusted to the changed grid conditions. This essay presents
possible consequences for the protection technology.
As the energy transition is being put into Guidelines for generating units at the The contribution of
practice, energy is generated at all voltage medium-voltage grid 2008; EEC converter-controlled generating units to
levels which entails a change of classic grid generating units at the high- and extra the short-circuit current is low and is
tasks. A distribution grid contributes high-voltage grid 2004 and their within the range of the generating
significantly to the generation of electricity update in the technical connection unit's rated current (1 Irated) and in
and assumes transport tasks. The protection conditions TAB [2, 3] some cases even below, for example
system makes a major contribution to the System service provision ordinance on under weak wind conditions. This has
supply security. wind energy farms (SDLWindV) [4]. an impact on the selection of protection
principles and protective settings. It is
Marginal conditions General requirements for the recommended to make sample
protection technology calculations to distribute the
Distributed generating units have to short-circuit fault during a fault.
observe guidelines and they are subject to Power grid studies found the following: In case of unbalanced faults, the fault
certification. The following guidelines have current contribution depends on
to be complied with: Existing protection principles and control procedures of the inverter or
schemes are basically suitable. frequency converter (for example only
Gridcode (for example transmission However, protective settings have to be feed-in of a positive-sequence
code TC 2007) which specifies the adjusted to the changed grid current). To cope with unbalanced
feed-in conditions (for example, also conditions. faults, a negative-sequence current
feed-in during a fault fault ride
has to be injected. The inverter
through, reactive power provision for
voltage stabilization)) [1] operating principle has to be inquired
with the manufacturer.
Due to the distributed feed-ins, the
distribution grid's topology and tasks
are similar to the transmission grid. For
example, there are multi-end feed-ins
or intermediate feed-ins. This requires
established protection concepts and
graded protection principles from the
transmission grid to be implemented.
In addition to protection tasks, grid
disconnection and load shedding have to be
implemented, taking the feed-in conditions
into account.

Digital protection devices are the

optimum solution for many
applications

The multifunctional digital device

technology and the functions including
state-of-the-art communication features are
designed to enable solutions tailored to the
application.
Figure 1. single-pole earth fault and no infeed of short circuit through wind farm

The energy transition changes power grids / Energy Automation 08-2015

x
Figure 2. example of additional infeed of synchronous generator into the medium-voltage grid
a) situation of infeed and failure; b) impedance trajectory depending on duration of failure
They are supported by a powerful
engineering tool (for example Digsi 5 from
Siemens). Siprotec 5, the new family of
protection devices from Siemens, combines
protection, control, automation,
measurement, regulation and
communication in one device [5] and has
the following typical properties:
A modular hardware and software
concept enables the devices to be
tailored to the grid conditions (for
example free selection of the measuring
points, of the I/O quantity structure, the
protection functions and the
communication infrastructure).
Identical functions are used in various
devices, increasing the flexibility of
application (communication of
protection data between the devices).
High-precision measurements (class 0.2
for U, I and class 0.5 for P, Q, S) make
additional measuring transducers
redundant and additionally enable a
wide setting range of the protection
functions.
Powerful fault recording and evaluation
tools support fault recovery.
Different protocols and communication
infrastructures provide for the optimal
connection to the substation control and
protection system. The devices support IEC
61850 Edition 1 and 2.
Applications
We have selected some representative
examples from the application options.
They give an overview of possible
changes:
Feed-in of a wind farm
Figure 1 shows a wind farm connected to
the grid with a phase-to-ground fault
occurring in the grid. The individual wind
energy units feed energy to the grid
through the frequency converter. No
zero-sequence system is transmitted in case
of a transformer in the star delta vector
group. A phase-to-ground fault at the star
side results in a 2-phase short circuit with a
distinct negative-sequence current. But
since the wind farm in its present design
does not feed in any negative-sequence
current (no negative-sequence impedance
available), the wind farm neither supplies a
fault current. This is equivalent to an open
circuit breaker in the wind farm. The fault
current is solely fed through the remaining
grid. The behavior (open circuit breaker at
the transformer delta side) is known as the
Bauch phenomenon in protection
technology. Figure 1 depicts the situation
and shows the currents and voltages at the
measuring point at the transformer star
side. The distinct zero-sequence current in
all three phases is typical of the Bauch
phenomenon. A distance protection must
recognize this situation, select the proper
measuring loop and trip selectively.
As feed-ins through inverters or frequency
converters will increase, these also have to
be capable of supplying a
negative-sequence current during a fault
from a protection perspective [6, 7].
Simulations have shown that when inverter
controllers are not set correctly, inverters
are capable of delivering harmonics during
a fault as a result. When the setting is
correct, the feeding quantities are
sinusoidal (fundamental component). As
faults cannot be ruled out entirely, the
protection has to be resistant towards
harmonics.
The energy transition changes power grids / Energy Automation 08-2015
Additional feed-in of synchronous
generators in a medium-voltage grid
In this example, a synchronous generator
(biomass, hydro-electric power plant)
additionally feeds energy into the grid. The
grid connection design is depicted in Figure
2a. The busbar is fed through a strong grid.
The protection in the outgoing feeders is
implemented as a directional time
overcurrent protection. The selected delay
time t results from the grading time. Now if
a short-circuit occurs on the line of
protection equipment A, this fault is fed
both by the grid and by the synchronous
generator. Upon fault inception, a forward
fault is recognized in A and timing element t
is started. Protection device B, in contrast,
recognizes the reverse direction. In the
event of a fault, the synchronous generator
is relieved in terms of active power, causing
the generator to accelerate and the angular
displacement to change. The
current/voltage vector will thus offset over
time.
In line B that is feeding the fault current, the
protection device will recognize the reverse
fault as a forward fault after a certain period
of time and also start the timing element.
Depending on the fault duration and the set
grading time, the outgoing feeder B may
also trip. To prevent this non-selective
tripping, the tripping time in outgoing
feeder A has to be reduced. This can be
achieved by replacing the so far directional
overcurrent protection with a distance
protection.

Figure 3. load shedding by taking into account infeed conditions
But there are other approaches to reducing
the tripping time:
Using the line differential protection
that needs an additional backup
protection to respond when the
upstream protection device fails.
Possible backup protection functions
include a time overcurrent protection
(also directional depending on the
application) and a distance protection
at higher voltage levels [8].
Expanding the directional time
overcurrent protection to ensure
protection data communication and
implementation of directional
comparison protection. The latter has to
be designed so as to require no infeed
from the remote end. This means that if
the infeed side protection device picks
up and the opposite side is not blocked,
the device will trip short time [9].
Load shedding
If consumed and generated active power
are out of balance, the previous solution
has been to shed loads with
underfrequency based on a fixed frequency
stage plan (5-stage plan [1]). If, however,
distributed generating units supply at the
grid connection point, these are lost. This
exacerbates the situation between
generation and consumption. Therefore,
the international and national guidelines
were adapted accordingly without any
further development towards more
flexibility [8].
If there are distributed feed-ins besides
loads at the grid connection point, the
circuit breaker must not open when energy
is fed back (Figure 3). The frequency
protection has to be connected to the
power directional protection.
This automation environment in particular
contains modern, digital devices that offer
various possibilities, such as the function
itself, high-precision measurements and
flexible communication. Adaptive load
shedding becomes reality.
Grid disconnection
Given the rapid increase of distributed
feed-ins (in particular type 2 according to
[1]), the disconnection strategy has
changed over the years. The goal is to keep
generating units connected to the grid for
as long as possible. Besides grid
disconnection specifications, the guidelines
also define marginal conditions for the
feed-in behavior. For example, the fault
ride-through capability is required. This
means that during a 3-pole short-line fault
generating units have to stay connected to
the grid for at least 150 ms and feed in
again once the fault has been cleared by the
protection device (e.g. the differential
protection). Moreover, the systems have to
contribute to voltage stabilization resulting
from the requirement to inject reactive
power in the event of a fault.
A pragmatic approach was chosen for the
definition of the disconnection criteria. In
addition to overfrequency and
underfrequency (f>, f<), overvoltage and
undervoltage (U>, U<) are required. The
directional reactive power function with
additional undervoltage release in all three
phases is a new feature (evaluation of the
phase-to-phase voltage). This function aims
to prevent the voltage from being reduced
further when reactive power is imported.
The selectivity of the disconnection
functions is implemented by different
threshold values and timer settings.
The energy transition changes power grids / Energy Automation 08-2015
Figure 4 shows a connection example, the
most important protection and
disconnection functions and their settings.
Other well-known disconnection criteria
such as the phase angle jump of the voltage
vector (vector jump) and the frequency rate
of change function df/dt) are not
recommended, because they require
complex settings (grid calculations with
variant consideration) and involve the risk of
over- or underfunctioning (practical
experience). The threshold values of the
frequency functions correspond to the
requirements from [1] and are identical to
those of conventional power plants
(type 1 acc. to [1]).
Different variants of the plant design and
special cases to be considered were
discussed in detail in [10]. For this reason,
we will go into Figure 4 by way of example.
It depicts a typical constellation: Supply to a
medium-voltage grid and connection to the
high-voltage grid through a radial-line
connection.
The solutions to protect the tapped line on
the high-voltage side are sufficiently known.
There is one special aspect in this
application. If faults occur in the
high-voltage grid, the circuit-breaker in the
radial-line connection remains closed.
But the circuit-breaker of the feed-in into
the medium-voltage grid will be
intertripped by distance protection A. The
goal is to assure the supply reliability of the
consumers in the medium voltage, since
most faults in high voltage can be cleared
by automatic reclosing. In medium-voltage
faults, distance protection A assumes the
function of a backup protection.
Distance protection B fulfils the same
function with the reverse zone. The forward
zone of distance protection B clears faults
on the line towards the generating unit. It is
crucial for the distance protection setting
that fault currents inside or below the rated
current range have to be mastered. A U/I
and Z pickup is a mandatory requirement.
The overvoltage disconnection function
protects a grid against overvoltage and in
doing so contributes to the power quality.
The undervoltage function protects the grid
against inadmissible undervoltage and is
the backup protection of the distance
protection if the latter fails to pick up.
The grid connection U< stage assures the
grid disconnection and it is the backup
protection for the undervoltage protection
of the generating unit.
The U< stage assures the grid disconnection
in the event of undervoltage conditions and
simultaneously assumes a backup function
for the short-circuit protection of the
generating unit (for type 2) and the U<<
stage. The U<< stage is the main protection
for low-current faults. The QU protection
monitors the appropriate post-fault
behavior and performs the separation at the
grid connection point.
Summary
We have used examples to show that the
energy transition with its distributed
generating units has an impact on the
protection technology. Existing protection
principles still have a right to exist. The
significant changes in the feed-in situation
call for a reassessment of existing
protection concepts and settings. Hence, it
is insufficient to simply connect the
generating unit (as certified). A holistic
consideration of the system has to be
performed at any rate.
In this context, generating units are not all
the same. Type 1 units, feed-in via
synchronous generators, behave in the
well-known way. In contrast, type 2 units,
such as feed-in via frequency
converter/inverter, exhibit a different
behavior. In particular, the low short-circuit
current has to be coped with in the event of
a fault. As a result, distance or differential
protection schemes and modified settings
(pickup and rated current) are required.
Modern digital protection devices have the
potential to tackle the new challenges.
Future solutions will be based not only on
the implementation of new functions, but
also on flexible communication features
including high-precision measurement
technology. It is crucial that both grid
operators and device manufacturers
exchange their experiences and work
together on developing a new and reliable
electrical energy system.
References Author
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The energy transition changes power grids / Energy Automation 08-2015