Abstract
The energy grid becomes more complex with increasing penetration of renewable resources, distributed energy storage, distributed generators, and more diverse loads such as electric vehicle charging stations. The presence of distributed energy resources (DERs) requires directional protection due to the added potential for energy to flow in both directions down the line. Additionally, contingency requirements for critical loads within a microgrid may result in looped or meshed systems. Computation speeds of iterative methods required to coordinate loops are improved by starting with a minimum breakpoint set (MBPS) of relays. A breakpoint set (BPS) is a set of breakers such that, when opened, breaks all loops in a mesh grid creating a radial system. A MBPS is a BPS that consists of the minimum possible number of relays required to accomplish this goal. In this paper, a method is proposed in which a minimum spanning tree is computed to indirectly break all loops in the system, and a set difference is used to identify the MBPS. The proposed method is found to minimize the cardinality of the BPS to achieve a MBPS.
Highlights
The power grid is rapidly becoming more complex due to the integration of distributed energy resources such as solar, wind, and distributed generators and diverse loads such as electric vehicle charging stations
The overall objective of this paper is to develop a fast, optimal algorithm which quickly identifies a minimum breakpoint set (MBPS)
The MBPS is computed for the IEEE 14, IEEE 30, and IEEE 57-bus test systems
Summary
The power grid is rapidly becoming more complex due to the integration of distributed energy resources such as solar, wind, and distributed generators and diverse loads such as electric vehicle charging stations These complex sources and loads are often controlled and managed locally within a microgrid which may be coupled or decoupled from the main grid at any given time. Microgrids are typically set up so that feeders are radially connected [2] The purpose of this is to limit fault paths and allow for simple coordination of inverse time overcurrent relays [3,4]. In the case of remote outposts, the microgrid must be meshed to avoid loss of service when under emergency situations [6] In such cases, simple nondirectional inverse time overcurrent protection may not be feasible for some connections. Directional protection, which accounts for both the magnitude and direction of the fault current phasor, may be required for a portion, if not all, of the microgrid network [7]
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