Overarching Preventive Sympathetic Tripping Approach in Active Distribution Networks Without Telecommunication Platforms and Additional Protective Devices

Abstract

Nowadays, distributed generation (DG) has made it possible to generate electricity close to the consumption site, resulting in improved efficiency, less environmental pollution, and higher economic profit. These advantages have led to increased penetration of DGs in the distribution system. Protective devices in a distribution system are set by considering the main substation as the only source for feeding short circuit current. However, with the increased influence of DGs as the second main source of short circuit current in distribution systems the short circuit level changes, which leads to false tripping of protective devices, including overcurrent relays. A sympathetic trip, occurring due to a fault in the adjacent feeder, is one of the most serious challenges. This paper analyzes the sympathetic trip in the presence of synchronous based DGs. The equations related to the participation of DGs and upstream network in feeding the short circuit current are obtained. The effect of different parameters on the probability of occurrence of a sympathetic trip is also investigated. Moreover, a novel fast solution is presented for overcoming the sympathetic trip of synchronous based DGs. The proposed method is introduced using the positive-sequence currents of the DGs and main substation. The sympathetic trip is predicted by adopting this prediction index and its occurrence is avoided. The proposed methodology is independent of telecommunication platforms and additional protective devices and can be applied to various short circuits. The method is tested on a network by simulating in DIgSILENT PowerFactory software. Simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed methodology in predicting and preventing sympathetic trips.