Assessment on the Impact of Distributed
Generation to the Distribution Network
Overcurrent Protection in Malaysia
Adlan Ali
Department of Electrical Engineering Technology
Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka
Malacca, Malaysia
adlan@utem.edu.my
Mohd Ariff Mat Hanafiah
Department of Electrical Engineering Technology
Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka
Malacca, Malaysia
ariff@utem.edu.my
AbstractDistributed Generation (DG) is the generation of
electricity from multiple renewable energy sources and is located
closer to the user, or load. These days DGs is developing rapidly
because of the advantages it could bring into the system such as
enhancing the transmission efficiency, securing distribution
reliability as well as reduction of climate change. However, the
penetration of DGs to the existing national grid system may
potentially contributes to several impacts, with the power system
protection being one of the major issues. In this assessment, Power
System Computer Aided Design (PSCAD) software is used to
simulate different scenarios related to the distribution network
without the presence of DG and with the presence of DG. The
results of this simulation is studied in order to identify the changes
of overcurrent protection relay performance that could leads to
several negative impacts which could jeopardize the effectiveness
of electrical supply security, the safety of consumers and the
lifetime of electrical assets and equipment.
KeywordsDistributed Generation (DG); national grid system;
Power System Computer Aided Design (PSCAD); distribution
network
I. INTRODUCTION
Distributed Generation (DG) is the generation of electricity
from small scale of generation and is located closer to the user
or customer, which is commonly at the distribution level [1]. DG
is believed to be the best way to get electricity and at the same
time could reduce the climate change effect. When DG has been
widely introduced in terms of generating electricity for
customers, careful consideration needs to be taken in order to
generate and supply the electricity to customers securely and
reliably. Power systems basic purpose is to provide electricity
in such a way to be economically and reliably, hence supply
security becoming top priority. This situation has made power
978-1-5090-2547-3/16/$31.00 2016 IEEE
Fazliana Ahmad Buderi
Department of Electrical Engineering Technology
Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka
Malacca, Malaysia
fazliana.ahmadbuderi@hotmail.com
Zikri Abadi Baharudin
Department of Electrical Engineering Technology
Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka
Malacca, Malaysia
zikri@utem.edu.my
system to be expensive due to critical investment to be made on
protection systems. This is because renewable energy (RE)
sources such as solar or wind-power generating systems produce
intermittent electrical energy that is not fully compatible with
existing grid protection systems [2]. Moreover, the intermittent
sources of DG could also contributes to vary the value of source
impedance, ZS, on the network [3]. This clearly shows direct
relationship between power systems and protection systems, it
is inseparable and surely it will involve significant cost for its
establishment.
Besides that, the level of fault current in the system could
change as the penetration of DG on the system eventually cause
several impacts on the protection systems such as false tripping,
protection blinding, loss of coordination, undesirable network
islanding and unsynchronized reclosing [4]. Nevertheless, some
problems will arise when new generation is connected to the
distribution network, because the distribution system is not
supplied by a single main power source and is no longer radial
in nature.
In general, all power systems is experiencing fault events
which possibly coming from an open circuits, short circuits,
unbalanced conditions or any undesirable conditions. Most of
fault events are contributed from lightning strike on overhead
lines and it is not a permanent faults, it is more likely can be
called as transient faults, therefore efficient protection systems
is needed in order to detect the faults, clear it with minimum
damage to the grid and customers electrical appliances, also
minimize the disconnection of healthy plant to provide
maximum security of supply to the customer. As a result,
maintenance cost can be reduced, systems operational behavior
is becoming more reliable and networks becoming more secure.
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 II. DISTRIBUTED GENERATION AND THE MOTIVATION OF
PENETRATION TO CONVENTIONAL GRID SYSTEM
A. Generation, Demands and Renewable Energy Scenarios in
Malaysia
Renewable energy has becoming more significant sources of
power generation in Malaysia. This can be supported by looking
at Fig. 1 showing the statistic for total primary energy supply by
fuel type between 1978 until 2013 where for an example solar is
starting to be listed in recent years and also keep increasing on
yearly basis [5].
Fig. 1. Total primary energy supply by fuel type.
Meanwhile Fig. 2 shows the trends, primary energy and final
energy consumption in Malaysia between 1990 until 2014 [6].
This data can be considered as a valid indicator that demand and
energy consumption is increasing every year.
Fig. 2. Trends in GDP, primary energy supply and final energy consumption.
Malaysia is also a signatory or party to the United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
Malaysia signed to UNFCCC on June 9, 1993 and subsequently
ratified on July 13, 1994. Recognizing the need to initiate early
action so as to prepare the nation to address climate change
issues, the government has established a National Climate
Committee (NCC) to formulate national policies and position as
well as to oversee and coordinate programs and activities to
mitigate climate change effects as well as adapting to climate
change. According to this establishment, Malaysia has
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deliberately presented its target to increase the use of renewable
energy [7].
On the other hand, during the 15th Conference of Parties
(COP 15) in Copenhagen, Denmark on December 17, 2009,
Malaysia has also announced its commitment by adopting an
indicator of a voluntary reduction of up to 40% in terms of
greenhouse gas (GHG) emission intensity of Gross Domestic
Product (GDP) by the year 2020, compared to 2005 level to the
UNFCCC [8]. In addition, Association of Southeast Asian
Nations (ASEAN) also has set its RE target for member
countries to achieve 30% of total installed RE capacity by year
2020 [9].
In a nutshell, the statistics clearly illustrate that the demand
of energy in Malaysia is increasing every year and this has
encourage the government to formulate some initiatives to
ensure the security of energy supply. In order to surmount this
challenge, in the 9th Malaysia Plan (2006-2010) Malaysia has
targeted the RE capacity to be connected to power utility for 300
MW in Peninsular Malaysia and 50 MW in Sabah. This initiative
is then continued in the 10th Malaysia Plan (2011-2015) whereby
the target for RE to account is 985 MW or 5.5% in 2015 and
2080 MW or 11% towards year 2020 of the countrys total
capacity mix as shown in Fig. 3 meanwhile Fig. 4 clearly shown
the countrys planned target towards year 2030 for its RE
installed capacity [10].
Fig. 3. Renewable energy action plan.
Fig. 4. Renewable energy installed capacity target towards year 2030.
B. Protection System Requirements
To achieve the purpose of having an efficient protection
systems on the grid, a few requirements or parameters has to be
considered so that reliable decision can be made when choosing
and deciding type of protection devices, relays and setting to be
set on the chosen grid location. These parameter cannot be taken
lightly as the performance of protective devices is relying on it.
The more efficient the protective devices, the safer and reliable
is the network to be used to transmit electrical energy to
customers in any conditions. Performance criteria or the relays, it will always important to begin at the tail end of the
requirements of protection system plays a vital role in order to system. The calculated theoretical setting for the overcurrent
enumerate certain general properties that a protective system relays is shown in Table 1 by assumption the overload is 25%,
should possess. According to [11], the main performance criteria relay type is 1 Ampere, plug setting (PS) is 100%. The
of any protection system are including: theoretical calculation to set up both of the relays based on the
model is completed. These value will also be used in the
1. Discrimination/selectivity - make decision whether to simulation for comparison.
operate or not for a given measured state. The most
important is only the relay closest to the faulted TABLE 1
CALCULATED THEORETICAL SETTING VALUES OF IDMT OVERCURRENT RELAYS
equipment should operate to ensure minimal
CT Operating
disconnection of healthy equipment. Relay ILMAX
Ratio
PS PSM TM
Time
2. Stability - the ability to remain inoperative under fault RB 100 A 100:1 1A 30 0.1 0.2 s
conditions where relay should not operate. It is RA 300 A 300:1 1A 10 0.26 0.77 s
important to ensure the relay that are not intended to
operate to do so, therefore minimizing the disconnection The theoretical calculation does not end here as the
of healthy equipment. parameter of the model such as impedance (Z), resistance (R),
3. Sensitivity - the ability to operate for a condition only inductance (L) and apparent power (VA) at a different location
marginally different to normal condition. It is important
of fault is also needed to be calculated based on the model.
to ensure that any fault will not remain undetected for a
Without the penetration of DG, Table 2 shows the calculated
long period of time. The smaller the fault current it can
detect, the more sensitive the protection system is. value with an assumption VS = 33 kV, IFatA = 4000 A, IFatB =
4. Operating Time - it is important to be fast when fault 3000 A and IFatC = 1500 A.
level and risk of physical damage may be high. The
TABLE 2
longer the time for a protective device to operate, the CALCULATED THEORETICAL MODEL VALUES WITHOUT DG
larger the damage to the system and the higher Fault VS IFMAX S ZS RS XS LS
possibility for the system to lose stability. location (kV) (A) (MVA) () () () (H)
Bus A 33 4000 229 4.75 0.18 4.75 0.01
III. THEORETICAL MODELLING OF THE SCENARIOS Bus B 33 3000 171 1.60 0.06 1.59 5.1m
To have a theoretical model to analyze the impact of DG on Bus C 33 1500 86 6.35 0.24 6.34 0.02
overcurrent protection system, a simple model is built. The area
that is intended to be analyzed at will be an application of Inverse
IV. SIMULATION MODELLING OF THE SCENARIOS
Definite Minimum Time (IDMT) overcurrent relay on a
distribution feeder, therefore the model will be consisting of a At this stage, simulation model of a radial distribution feeder
grid supply, three busbars and two overcurrent relays. See Fig. complete with IDMT overcurrent relay is developed using
5 for the illustration of the theoretical model. Power System Computer Aided Design (PSCAD) software. The
model is shown in Fig. 6.

Fig. 6. PSCAD model of a radial distribution feeder with IDMT overcurrent relay
without DG.
Fig. 5. A theoretical model of the scenario. The simulation model is then conducted based on two scenarios,
The supply voltage VS is coming from a standard grid during fault at different location without the presence of DG as
generator. Every line has its own impedance and this value is illustrated in Fig. 7 and during fault at different location with the
depending on the type of cable used and also the line length. The presence of DG as illustrated in Fig. 8.
source impedance is represented by RS and LS. RAB and LAB are
representing line AB impedance and RBC and LBC are
representing line BC impedance. The values of these impedance
will be used later to perform the simulation.
There are two IDMT overcurrent relays protecting line AB
and BC. The purpose of relay RB is to provide main protection
to line BC without having to consider any other factors. The
purpose of relay RA is also to provide main protection to line AB Fig. 7. Illustration of a PSCAD model during fault at different location without
the presence of DG.
but it has also function to provide backup protection to line BC,
in case relay RB failed to operate. When it comes to setting up

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Fig. 8. Illustration of a PSCAD model during fault at different location with the
presence of DG.
V. RESULT AND DISCUSSION
Theoretical modelling is conducted via calculation and the
values is shown earlier in Table 1 and Table 2. In order to proof
those theoretical data is accurate and reliable, simulation via
PSCAD is conducted and the data is gathered and compared.
A. Simulation Results Without DG
Simulation is done by starting from Bus A to Bus B, with
fault just after relay A, RA, followed by fault after the line
impedance, ZA. The simulation works then continued from Bus
B to Bus C, with fault just after relay B, RB, then ended with
fault after the line impedance, ZB. This simulation is done purely
without the presence of DG on the network.
TABLE 3
DATA OF RA AND RB OPERATING TIME AGAINST VARIOUS FAULT LOCATION
WITHOUT DG
Without DG
DG
Parameter Fault A1 Fault A2 Fault B1
(MVA)
0 IRA (A) 4012.91 2999.37 2999.37
0 IRB (A) 0.0559 41.9023 2999.68
0 topRA (s) 0.6837 0.7724 0.7724
0 topRB (s) -0.1006 -0.8118 0.1989
Table 3 shows the simulation results according to the
magnitude of fault current and operating time of both relays, RA
and RB on distribution network without DG. When compared,
the theoretical data and the simulation data are almost identical
to each other, and this proves the initial modelling stage is
successful. The breakthrough then can be conducted by applying
the same simulation method but this time, with a penetration of
DG. The detailed information comparing the simulation model
and the relay operating time versus fault current is shown in Fig.
9.
Fig. 9 shows the relationship of relay operating time and
fault current based on the results obtained from the simulation in
Table 3. It can be clearly seen when a fault occurred at bus B or
bus C, RB operating time is the fastest as it plays the role as the
primary protection to bus B and C while relay RA take much
longer time to operate because it needs to wait for relay RB to
operate first and if relay RB fails to operate then relay RA will
operate and play its role as the backup protection to the relay RB.
Moreover, the relay nearer the source need to delay so that
they are selective with relays downstream and this is the reason
why the relay nearest the source is the slowest. Theoretically, the
primary protection operating time is quicker than the backup
protection operating time and the data obtained from the
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simulation showed the same results as the theoretical
calculation. Note that the setting of the relay is started from the
relay which is at the tail end of the system, so relay at the tail
end is the first to operate as it acts as the primary protection to
the faulted area and also as backup protection to the front end,
which can also be called unit protection and non-unit protection.
Fig. 9. Relay operating time versus fault current without DG.
The simulation for ideal scenario for distribution network
without DG shows that both relays were operating in a correct
discrimination with an acceptable grading margin of 0.7. RB
remains inoperative during fault at line AB. This is because RB
never sees the fault current as it only travel from the utility
supply to the fault location. During fault at line BC, RB quickly
operates as primary protection and RA operates as backup
protection after about 0.7 seconds. When fault is moved to the
of line BC, fault current has become lesser to be detected by RA
Fault B2
1500.24
hence it operates slower than before, which mean increasing the
1495.02 grading margin of both relays to around 0.8 seconds. This
1.1126 situation is still acceptable and both relays is considered to be
0.2519 working correctly.
B. Simulation Result With DG
At this stage, the results of relay operating time versus fault
current is recorded when DG is connected to the system. As
expected, when DG is connected to the distribution network it
will increase the level of fault current and eventually jeopardize
the effectiveness of the unit protection and non-unit protection
in the system.
Fig. 10 shows the response of relay A during fault at B with
DG sizing of 1-500 MVA at Bus B. It can be seen clearly that
the higher the penetration of DG, the slower RA takes to
operates. This is because the fault current contribution from the
utility has decreased due to higher fault current contribution
from the DG. There is a possibility that if this situation is not
overcome, it could lead to slow operation or also non-operation
of relay A during fault at B for backup operation. RA will never
see the fault current hence therefore it will remain inoperative
and this is very dangerous to human and equipment. This
phenomenon can also be called as protection blinding.

Fig. 10. Protection blinding when DGs value reaching 500 MVA.
VI. CONCLUSION
Penetration of DG contributes to lower grid infeed and
higher fault current, sees by the overcurrent relays. DG could
cause IDMT relay element becoming less sensitive hence high-
set element could probably is required. DG could also affect the
grading margin between relays, for example in the simulation
scenario in this paper the higher the penetration of DG, the
slower the operation of RA which leads to non-operation or
called protection blinding.
In general conclusions, penetration of high magnitude of DG
to the distribution network could cause the total fault current
magnitude to increase. This scenario could also cause the
network to lose its radial power flow characteristics hence
affecting the reliability of power transfer.
Future assessment and investigation will be planned in
finding another possible impacts of DG penetration on
distribution networks as mention earlier in this paper. Possible
mitigation approach could also be assessed and investigated to
avoid RA becoming inoperative to fulfill its backup function
when fault is occur at Bus B and DG is also connected at Bus B
at higher magnitude.
VII. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
A. Ali, F. A. Buderi, M. A. M. Hanafiah and Z. A. Baharudin
gratefully thanks to Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka
(UTeM) for providing support for this paper via a grant funding
PJP/2015/FTK(3A)/S01399. The authors would also thanks to
the Energy Commission, Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) and
Sustainable Energy Development Authority (SEDA) for their
uncountable support in providing relevant information for this
paper.
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