Testing of IEC 61850-based protection and control schemes for a refinery electrical system

Abstract

Several IEC 61850-based protection and control schemes were recently implemented for the new electrical system at a North American oil refinery. IEC 61850 GOOSE messaging was used for several schemes including transfer tripping, breaker failure, islanding detection, remote synchronizing, automatic restoration, manual transfer, and load shedding. Site acceptance tests validated operation of the protection and control schemes. Bench testing was also performed for the load shedding scheme using a power system simulator. All of the testing focused on verifying scheme operation during normal operation and failure modes. Lessons learned during testing early on in the project influenced the design and testing of subsequent schemes. This paper describes the bench testing and site acceptance testing approaches. Example tests will be described along with test results of interest and lessons learned.