Date of Award

2021

Document Type

Open Access Master's Report

Degree Name

Master of Science in Electrical Engineering (MS)

Administrative Home Department

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Advisor 1

Bruce A. Mork

Committee Member 1

Glen E. Archer

Committee Member 2

Leonard J. Bohmann

Abstract

Microgrids with penetration of renewables is imposing new challenges for system protection. Renewables are characterized with high source impedance which limit the short circuit current. The value of short-circuit current is limited due to converters used which limit the current to a maximum of 1.1 to 1.5 times maximum rated load current. This can result in faults during the islanded mode of microgrid to go unnoticed if the relay settings are not adapted to account for it. The presence of such uncleared faults in the microgrid can result in exposing it to overcurrent for a long time which can damage the equipment. One solution is to have different protection element pickup settings for different modes of operation. This report discusses the development of an algorithm to switch these settings upon microgrid state changes and test the algorithm using OPAL-RT hardware in loop real-time testing with SEL-351S relay as the hardware.

Share

COinS