Superimposed current based differential protection scheme for AC microgrid feeders

Abstract

Legacy protection schemes face numerous challenges with the emergence of microgrids. Due to the complex controls, the fault responses in microgrids differ from conventional behaviour and vary with the operation mode. In this paper, a differential protection scheme based on fundamental frequency superimposed current phasors is proposed for microgrid feeders. The phasors are extracted using dq components instead of conventional Fourier algorithms. The performance of proposed method is tested for different fault scenarios by carrying out simulations in MATLAB/SIMULINK software. The results confirm that internal faults are detected in a few milliseconds. At the same time, the scheme remains insensitive to external faults with CT saturation and other system disturbances. The proposed scheme is unaffected by the microgrid mode of operation, direction of power flow and DG type.