Integrated Wide Area Protection and Control Systems Based on Advanced Communication Network

Abstract

As a new protection, wide-area protection enables protective relaying, and automatic control based on electric power system network communications and comprehensive judgment of multi-point information, which plays an increasingly important role in the secure and stable operation of electric power system. The recent development in power system protection and control is firstly reviewed in this paper, with more concentration on the wide-area and integrated protection. Then the principle of integrated wide area protection and control is introduced, in which a hierarchical protection and control system provides the protection and control of wide area or regional power substations/plants and their associated power network. There are three levels in this system, which are the local, the substation/plant and the wide area/regional protection and control. The integrated functions at each level are described in details so as to develop an optimal coordination mechanism between the levels. Besides, This paper introduces the newest communication technology (Packet Transport Network), which can provide high speed and reliable communication network for integrate wide area protection and control. The network layer model and equipment architecture of PTN is presented in this paper, relevant analysis and discussion are stated in detail.