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Centralize
Centralize
Voltage DC Microgrids
Mehdi Monadi, Member, IEEE, Catalin Gavriluta, Student Member, IEEE, Alvaro Luna, Member,
IEEE, Jose Ignacio Candela, Member, IEEE, Pedro Rodriguez, Fellow, IEEE
Abstract— 1This paper presents a centralized protection inductance is also discharged through the freewheeling
strategy for medium voltage dc (MVDC) microgrids. The diodes of the VSCs. Subsequent to the fault occurrence, the
proposed strategy consists of a communication-assisted fault
detection method with a centralized protection coordinator
control scheme of the converter turns off the main switches
and a fault isolation technique that provides an economic, fast, of the VSC (e.g. IGBTs) to protect them against the
and selective protection by using the minimum number of dc overcurrent; hence, the VSC operates as an uncontrolled
circuit breakers (DCCBs). The proposed method is also full-bridge rectifier and the fault will be fed from the ac side
supported by a backup protection which is activated if of the VSC (through the freewheeling diodes paths) [7].
communication fails. The paper also introduces a centralized Therefore, fault currents in VSC-based dc networks will
self-healing strategy that guarantees successful operation of
zones that are separated from the main grid after the
have three different components, each with its special
operation of the protection devices. Furthermore, to provide a characteristics: i) the dc link capacitors discharge current, ii)
more reliable protection, thresholds of the protection devices the cable inductance discharge through the freewheeling
are adapted according to the operational modes of the diodes, and iii) the ac-grid current [8]. Given this fault
microgrid and the status of distributed generators (DGs). The current behavior, the conventional protection devices and
effectiveness of the proposed protection strategy is validated methods that are used in ac systems are faced with new
through real-time simulation studies based on the hardware in
the loop (HIL) approach.
challenges. For example, the electromechanical circuit
breakers (CBs) that are used in ac networks are not fast
Index Terms— Adaptive protection, centralized protection, enough to protect the vital and vulnerable components of the
smart dc microgrids. VSCs against the faults in dc networks [9]. This is due to the
fact that an adequate protection scheme for the dc
I. INTRODUCTION microgrids should be able to operate during the capacitor
discharge period to prevent the fault current from flowing
Due to the increasing penetration of DGs, especially in the
through the VSC components. In other words, the critical
form of renewable energy systems (RES), the concept of
operating time for the protection of a VSC is the beginning
microgrids has been proposed as a method for DG
of the second component of the dc fault current and before
integration into the electrical grids. Microgrid is a common
the fault current starts flowing through the freewheeling
concept in both ac and dc systems and is defined as a small-
diodes. As this time is given by the size of the dc-link
scale low or medium voltage grid consisting of loads and
capacitor, it will be typically very short (in the range of a
DGs. Such a system is capable of operating in both islanded
few milliseconds) [8]. Hence, a relatively faster protection
and grid-connected modes [1]. Because of the advantages
device is required for dc networks [10]. Different types of
of the dc networks over the ac grids, and also because of the
DCCBs can be found; however, they are more expensive
new developments in the technology of voltage source
than their ac counterparts, especially in the level of medium
converters (VSCs), nowadays there is a major interest in dc
voltage. Therefore, it is not economically feasible to use
grids in both research and industrial realms [2-5].
individual DCCBs for all the feeders of a microgrid.
At the present moment, protection is one of the most
Another important aspect is that, although overcurrent
important challenges in the development of dc microgrids.
relays (OCRs) can provide fast fault detection and fast
Protection issues mainly arise due to the particular behavior
tripping, coordination of theses relays and providing a
of the fault current in VSC-based networks [6]. When a fault
selective protection is a challenging task in VSC-based dc
occurs in a dc grid, firstly, the dc-link capacitor is
systems. This is mainly due to the reason that the dc line
discharged causing the voltage of the main dc bus to drop
reactance is fairly lower than the counterpart ac systems.
precipitously. Then, the energy stored in the cable
Therefore, considering the small length of distribution lines,
it is difficult to distinguish between faults that occur inside
This work was supported in part by the Spanish Ministry of Economy
and Competitiveness under Project ENE2013-48428-C2- 2-R. The work of or outside of a protected line [11]. In addition, because of
M. Monadi was supported by the Ministry of Science, Research, and the very fast increment in the dc fault current, it is very
Technology, Iran. difficult to coordinate the conventional time-inverse OCRs
M. Monadi is with Technical University of Catalonia (UPC) Barcelona,
Spain and Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz, Ahvaz, Iran (e-mail:
in dc networks. Also, the performance analysis of the OCRs
meh_monadi@yahoo.com). operating in dc networks shown in [7] illustrates that there
C. Gavriluta is with the Grenoble Electrical Engineering Laboratory is not enough time interval between the operation of series
(G2ELab), France (email: catalin.gavriluta@g2elab.grenoble-inp.fr). OCRs to guarantee their coordinated operation. Moreover,
A. Luna, J. I. Candela are with Technical University of Catalonia (UPC)
Barcelona, Spain. (e-mails: luna@ee.upc.edu, candela@ee.upc.edu) the connection of a DG to a distribution feeder can change
P. Rodriguez is with Technical University of Catalonia (UPC) the power flow and the fault current direction; this may
Barcelona, Spain and Abengoa research, Sevilla, Spain (e-mail: disturb the coordination of the consecutive OCRs.
prodriguez@ee.upc.edu). For these reasons, the protection of dc microgrids requires
faster, more reliable and more accurate methods. Moreover, in Fig. 1. The basic configuration and parameters of this
the necessity of a relatively faster protection scheme makes network are extracted from the benchmark proposed in [14]
it impossible to obtain useful data for fault location from the and re-designed to operate as a dc microgrid. The network
voltage and current waveforms [7, 12]. This aspect also is a VSC-based dc system consisting of: DGs which are
makes it difficult to use fault detection methods with time interfaced to the grid through VSCs, residential/industrial
consuming calculations. loads, and the dc feeders.
Compared to conventional protection strategies, AC Grid
Line167
A VSC
17
Line12
differential method can be implemented in the dc feeders. Line23
A
2 Line116 10 Line210 2 3
The differential protection is able to detect the exact faulty VSC A
16
Line29
part of the dc network, considering the high rising rate of
Line168
Line110
Line34
VSC
the dc fault current [13]. Also, the connection/disconnection 9 4 Line35
A
Line57
8
Line112
VSC
overcurrent relays and is able to detect high impedance
faults (HIFs) [1] . Line114
7
Line123
technique is proposed in this paper. The proposed protection
Diesel
VSC
strategy consists of: 1) a differential based relay which is Generator A
13
used for fault location and detection inside sub-microgrids;
2) an overcurrent-based relay to protect the VSCs connected Fig. 1. DC microgrid study case.
to the host network and the DGs; 3) a centralized protection
unit (CPU) which supervises the protection devices and Two-level ±10-kV VSCs are used to interface the
adapts them with the operational conditions of the connection to the ac network as well as the RESs to the dc
microgrid. This unit also executes a self-healing process to network. Hall-Effect current transducers (CTs) are installed
guarantee the supply-adequacy of the islanded microgrids on both ends of the dc lines. The data transfer amongst the
and on-outage sub-microgrids; 4) a combination of DCCBs dc buses and the centralized protection unit is made possible
and isolators to provide a fast and selective fault via dedicated communication links.
interruption with the minimum number of DCCBs. All the III. COMPONENTS OF THE PROPOSED PROTECTION
components of the proposed protection and self-healing SCHEME
strategy are coordinated together. In the first step, after the Protection systems must be able to detect and locate the
fault detection and location by the proposed relays, since various types of faults, interrupt the fault current and isolate
the common VSCs are not able to block the fault current, all the faulty zones before serious damage is inflicted on vital
the corresponding DCCBs will operate and interrupt the devices. The following subsections describe the method and
fault. Afterwards, the fault will be isolated by the associated devices that are used in the proposed strategy to achieve the
isolators. Finally, after the network restoration, the protection goals.
proposed self-healing method will be executed in order to A. Fault Interruption and Isolation
guarantee the stable operation of the isolated zones of the Since common VSCs are not capable of fault-blocking,
microgrid. the fault current should be interrupted by the appropriate
The proposed technique is also complemented by a DCCBs. However, due to the specification of these CBs,
backup protection mechanism which is activated when the they are more expensive than their counterpart ac breakers.
communication link fails. Moreover, the hardware-in-the- Therefore, installing DCCBs in all the dc lines, although it
loop (HIL) approach is used to evaluate the performance of provides a selective and reliable protection, increases
the proposed strategy. Using this method we take into substantially the initial cost of the protection scheme. Hence
consideration errors and delays that do not appear in off-line it might not be applicable for most dc distribution systems
simulation, such as time delay in data transfer. and microgrids. Therefore, in this paper, a combination of
The paper is organized as follows: Section II describes the DCCBs and isolator switches are used to provide an
dc microgrid that will be used as study-case for the paper. economic and selective protection scheme.
The components and the steps of the proposed protection After a fault event, the fault is fed by the sources which
are explained in Section III and IV, respectively. The are connected to the microgrid. Of course, the contribution
operation of the proposed self-healing and adapting (SHA) of each source in the fault current is related to different
unit is explained in Section V. The HIL setup is introduced factors such as the source location and its capacity. As
in Section VI. Finally, in Section VII the performance of the shown in Fig. 1, VSCs are located in the microgrid at the
proposed scheme is illustrated for some case studies. point of connection to the host network as well as at the
II. DC-MICROGRID STUDY-CASE different connection points of the various DGs. Thus, in
The performance of the proposed protection technique is order to interrupt the fault current and to protect the VSCs
explained and evaluated, for a set of case studies in the and the network elements, it is necessary to install DCCBs
context of a hypothetical dc distribution network, as shown at the connection point of the microgrid to the host network
and at the connection point of DGs, i.e., the points labeled unlike the time-inverse OCR, their performance is not
“A” in Fig. 1. Solid-state CBs (SSCBs) are the fastest type impacted by the high rising rate of the dc fault current.
of DCCBs that can operate in less than 1ms [15, 16]; this Therefore, although differential-based methods need
type of DCCBs are considered in the paper. communication links and more current transducers than the
On the other hand, in order to provide a selective OC-based methods, they can provide a fast and selective
protection, the faulty line/busbar should be isolated and the protection that is not affected by the intermittent behavior of
rest of the network should continue its normal operation. DGs. It should be pointed out that the communication
This can be achieved by installing the appropriate isolator infrastructure and capabilities of the smart grids could be
switches on both ends of the main dc lines. These switches used for implementing the differential-based methods. By
are cheaper than DCCBs; however, they must be using this infrastructure no additional costs are required for
opened/closed only in the no-load condition. Therefore, constructing new communication links.
they isolate the faulty part only after the fault current was
interrupted by the DCCBs.
B. Forming Sub-microgrids (SMGs)
The use of a combination of DCCBs and isolators results
in a “cut and try” process. During this process, the entire
microgrid is disconnected from the sources and, after the
fault is isolated, the rest of the network is reconnected
again. In the proposed protection scheme, to prevent the
overall outage and to limit the negative effects of the cut
and try process, the microgrid is clustered into several sub-
microgrids. The sub-microgrids are connected together
using DCCBs. In other words, the boundaries of the sub-
microgrids are determined by the location of the DCCBs.
By use of this clustering, the cut-and-try process is done
only for the faulted sub-microgrid. It has to be noted that
determining the optimal placement of these CBs (i.e.,
optimal microgrid clustering) is out of the scope of this
paper; however, as mentioned in [17] factors such as
supply-adequacy can be considered to facilitate the
operation of the sub-microgrids even if they are
disconnected from the rest of the network. These DCCBs
also play an important role in the backup protection which
is executed when the communication link fails, as it will be
Fig. 2. Required data transmitted for differential and multi-terminal
explained in Section IV.B. differential protection for a typical SMG.
C. Fault Detection and Location
In the proposed method, each SMG is protected by a sub-
As mentioned above, the fault current is supplied through microgrid relay (SMR) which consists of several differential
the VSC stations of the host grid and of the DGs. These elements. Each differential element of the SMR receives the
VSCs are vulnerable against faults on their dc side; hence, measured current at both ends of a dc line and calculates the
fast fault detection is necessary for the VSC stations. This differential current of the protected line according to (1).
can be achieved by current monitoring at the connection
, | , , | (1)
points of the VSCs and microgrid, i.e., points labeled “A” in
Fig. 1. For this reason, VSC stations are equipped with an where , and , denote the measured current at both ends
overcurrent-based relay labeled as source protection relays
of the line, and is the sample number.
(SPR). The first stage of the fault current, i.e., capacitor
In normal conditions the calculated value for should
discharge current, has a high increasing rate. Hence, the
be close to zero; however, to prevent the relay’s mis-
SPRs can detect the fault after several microseconds.
operation, the threshold of the differential elements of the
Settings of these relays are determined based on the critical
SMRs are adjusted considering a restrained current ( ). In
time of the corresponding VSCs and the load current. Other
specifications and tasks of the SPRs are explained in other words, we assume that the differential element of
Section IV. an SMR operates if , , . The restrained current
Monitoring the currents at the “A” points however, does of each element can be determined according to the smallest
not determine the exact location of the fault and cannot current required for the operation of that element; e.g.
provide a selective protection. Moreover, in the case of HIF , , . In which is a reliability coefficient with a
occurrence, the SPR may not even detect the fault. For these value that can be set to 0.1...0.25 and , is the nominal
reasons, in the proposed strategy, the fault location is current of the line [18]. After a fault occurrence in the
handled by the current-differential-based method. The line, the corresponding differential element detects the
differential relays are more accurate than OCR and are able fault and issues a trip signal. The fact that the difference in
to identify the exact faulty line/busbar [1, 18]. Moreover, (1) is taken in absolute value shows that bi-directional
power flows caused by DGs cannot impact the performance Fig. 3. This figure illustrates that the differential-based unit
of the differential scheme. of SMRs consists of several differential elements. Each of
As shown in Fig. 2, the current measured by the CTs these elements, i.e., Diff_i, protects one of the differential
located inside a SMG are transmitted to the corresponding zones of the associated SMG. In addition, the multi-
SMR through the communication links. By use of these terminal differential element is embedded in the
communication links not only the required data for the differential-based unit that is able to detect faults that
differential elements are collected, but also a multi-terminal occurred inside the SMG. Each of these differential
differential protection can be formed. Indeed, using the elements is also equipped with an RSG unit to improve its
measured currents of the SMG’s boundaries, transmitted performance. The trip command of the differential-based
through the red communication links in Fig. 2, the unit of an SMR is sent to the related DCCB if each of the
differential current of each SMG can be calculated as shown differential elements detect a fault. Moreover, Fig. 3 shows
in (2). that the SMR is equipped with overcurrent directional
elements as well; these elements operate as a backup unit
, (2) when the communication link fails. The features and
specifications of this backup system are explained in
where is the sub-microgrid current as shown in Fig. 2, Section IV.B.
, denotes the measured currents at the SMG’s It should be noted that SMRs that are located at the
boundaries, and n is the number of the SMGs boundaries. borders of two SMGs, are designed to protect both of the
The trip command of the SMR can be generated by the SMGs. For example, in Fig. 4, SMR4 receives the measured
two-terminal differential as well as by the multi-terminal current from the dc lines of SMG2 and SMG4. This SMR
element. Thus, the SMRs can provide a more stable and sends the trip command to CB9 if it detects a fault in any of
reliable protection when they are equipped with this multi- these sub-microgrids.
terminal differential element.
It is worth noting that one of the issues related to the Differential-based
implementation of the differential protection is that the unit
Diff_1
current of external faults may lead to CT saturation. This
Diff_2
issue happens mostly when a high-fault current occurs
outside the protection zone of the relay. CT saturation, in
turn, leads to the inaccurate measurement of dc currents and Diff_i
CB DC Breaker
TDF= tf+2TM
1
SMR1 VSC Borders of SMGs
SMG4 VSC
17 SMG2
CB1 SPR1 CB5 SPR5
2 DIS 10 F4 2 3
CB9
CB8
VSC CB2 DIS DIS DIS2 DIS1 DIS DIS DIS DG6
SPR2 DIS DIS CB11 SMR5
SMR4 SMR2 DIS
TDR= tf+2TM
DG2 F5 DIS F1 F2
TDF= tf
TDF= tf TDF= tf+TM
TDR= tf+2TM TDR= tf+TM VSC
TDR= tf+2TM
DIS TDF= tf 8
SMG3 VSC
DIS
Diesel
VSC CB4
Generator
13
DG4 SPR4
F7
A. Main Protection Step 5) after the fault isolation, the opened DCCBs are
Fig. 4 shows the placements of the protection devices reclosed by the appropriate commands from the SMRs and
presented in Section III into the study microgrid. According the rest of the network is restored.
to this figure, the following steps are performed after the According to the above process, faults are isolated in
fault occurrence: Step 4 by opening the isolators at all sides of the faulty
Step 1) the fault is detected by the differential elements of zone. Thus, the network restoration of Step 5 is done only
the corresponding SMR. At the same time, the SPRs of the when the associated isolators operated successfully.
DGs which are inside the faulted sub-microgrid detect the However, isolator failure may impact this operation. For
fault. Moreover, according to the type and the location of instance, if an isolator in one side of the faulty line fails in
the fault, the other SPRs which are outside of this sub- opening, then the line is not isolated and hence the fault will
microgrid may detect the fault as well. remain in the system. To prevent this issue, an isolator-
failure-backup function is introduced for the CPC. Based on
Step 2) the SMR sends the trip signal to the corresponding this function, when the “open” command is sent to an
DCCB. It also reports the fault detection to the CPC by isolator, the CPC monitors the status of the isolator. If the
sending an appropriate signal. In this stage, the CPC isolator fails to open within a predetermined time, then the
identifies the faulty sub-microgrid. Simultaneously, the CPC will send the open command to the neighboring
SPRs which detected the fault send the trip signal to the isolators.
corresponding CBs if the fault current is not interrupted
Based on the requirements of the proposed method, the
before the critical time of the related VSC. Since the SMRs
flowchart of the SPR’s operation is shown in Fig. 5.
use the differential-based protection, they can also detect
the HIFs which might not be detectable by SPRs. Therefore, B. Backup Protection
the SMR will send the trip command to the related SPRs as Communication-based protection methods are vulnerable
well. to communication failures. Therefore, the proposed method
Step 3) the DCCB(s) that received the trip signal operate is supported by overcurrent directional elements to back up
and interrupt the fault current. Hence, the faulty sub- the differential protection in case the communication
microgrid is separated from the microgrid. The CBs status network fails. This paper follows the overcurrent directional
then will be reported to the CPU. protection which has been introduced in [14] for active ac
microgrids.
Step 4) the open command is sent to the isolators in both
The proposed SMRs switch to the overcurrent
ends of the faulted line. Theses isolators are opened when
directional-based backup protection if the communication
their flowing current decays to zero.
network fails. It should be noted that, according to the
specifications of the industrial protocols, the protective predetermined time settings. Simultaneously, the SPRs send
devices are equipped with communication failure detection the trip command if the fault was not cleared before the
capability and switch to the backup protection without the critical time of the related VSCs.
requirement of any signals from the external supervisory Step 3) the faulted sub-microgrid is isolated and remains
systems [20]. The communication failure detection is separated from the rest of the microgrid.
handled by exchanging an identification signal between the
protection devices. Therefore, if an SMR does not receive
the associated identification signals after a predefined
period time it will switch to the backup mode,
automatically.
As mentioned in Section III.B, based on the location of
the DCCBs, the microgrid is divided into several sub-
microgrids. Each sub-microgrid can be considered as a zone
of the backup protection; hence, the directional definite-
time overcurrent units are embedded into the SMRs.
As it is shown in Fig. 4, the overcurrent directional
element of the SMRs has two operating times for forward
and reverse faults, i.e., and , respectively. If the
communication network fails while a forward fault is
detected, a trip command is generated after a time delay
( ); while, for the reverse faults, the trip signal is sent to
the corresponding CB after .
The operating time of these relays should be determined
according to: 1) requirements of the selective protection by
relays coordination and 2) the critical time of the main VSC
station. Moreover, to provide a selective protection and
prevent relay miscoordination, each relay should operate as
a backup for its neighboring relay if the fault was not
cleared after a time margin (TM). For example, as illustrated
in Fig. 4, the maximum operating time of the most upstream
relay, i.e., SMR1, is 2TM. Therefore, assuming that the
critical time of the main VSC is , the maximum value of Fig. 5. The proposed algorithm for the SPRs.
TM is calculated as shown in (3).
Step 4) some of the SPRs may operate even though their
⁄2 (3)
VSCs and DG stations are not located inside a faulty sub-
where denotes the delay associated with current microgrid. In this step, these stations are reconnected after
transducers and their corresponding A/D converters (several the fault isolation. The flowchart of the proposed SPRs,
microseconds); is the fault detection time of the displayed in Fig. 5, shows that in the case of
directional overcurrent relay; and denotes the operating communication failure, they will try to reconnect the DGs
time of DCCBs. The operating time of the definite-time by use of the following methods:
overcurrent relays for the backup protection are shown in a) Voltage check: when the DCCB of a DG station is open,
Fig. 4. the SPR monitors the voltage of the grid-side busbar and
On the other hand, the threshold of the overcurrent reconnects its DG if this voltage returns to an acceptable
element of the SMR, , , is determined according to the range (0.8 of the nominal voltage is selected in this
nominal current flowing through the corresponding DCCB; paper).
i.e., , , , in which can be set to values ranging
from 1 to 1.2. This current may change after any change in b) Auto-reclosing: in some cases it is not possible to detect
the operational conditions of the microgrid; hence, the relay the fault isolation by monitoring the grid-side voltage.
threshold should be changed by a self-regulation method For example, when SMG1 of Fig. 4 is impacted by a
that is explained in Section V. fault and isolated, SMG5 will become separated from
The backup strategy, based on directional overcurrent, is the rest of the grid as well. Assuming that the
implemented as described in the following steps: protections of all the DG stations inside this SMG
disconnect their DGs, the voltage of this grid cannot
Step 0) the SMRs are switched to the backup mode and
return to the acceptable range. Consequently, the DGs
the CPC is disabled. This step is done once the
are not reconnected again and a healthy SMG will
communication failure is recognized by each relay.
remain de-energized. To prevent the occurrence of this
Step 1) the fault is detected by SPRs and SMRs. In this problem and to facilitate the network restoring, the auto-
step not only the relays of the faulty zone, but also the reclosing ability is embedded into the SPRs. As, shown
relays outside of this zone may detect the fault. in Fig. 5 the SPR recloses the corresponding DCCB
Step 2) the SMRs send the trip signal to the corresponding after a time delay. The DCCBs will remain closed if the
DCCBs if the fault current was not interrupted before their faulty sub-microgrid was isolated.
It should be noted that the above two methods are Step 2) The appropriate signals are sent to the loads that
executed on all the SPRs; hence, the re-closing process will are selected in Step 1.
be executed for those DCCBs which are inside the faulted Step 3) The DDGs are re-dispatched and the settings of
SMG as well. This can cause an automatic network- the SPRs are adapted based on the new output current of the
restoring, in case of temporary faults, and enhance the corresponding VSCs.
reliability.
occurs at the point labeled with F3 in Fig. 4 while the Trip signal to
CB8
communication link fails. In this case, SPR5, SPR6, SPR7,
and SMR5 detect the fault and SMR5 sends the trip
Trip signal to
command immediately. Consequently, SMG5 is isolated CB10
from the rest of the network after 1.1ms. Furthermore,
Trip signal to
according to the critical time of the corresponding VSCs, CB1
SPR5, SPR6 and SPR7 are going to send the trip command 0.95 1 1.05 1.1
after 2.8ms, 2.5ms, and 3.1ms, respectively. However, due
to the separation of the SMG5 before the operating time of Fig. 8. The operation time of the protection elements for case study1.
SPR5, this relay will not send its trip command. By the
operation of CB6 and CB7, DG6 and DG7 are disconnected
in around 4ms after the fault occurrence. It is clear that,
Table 1. Operating times of the main and backup protection for selected fault scenarios.
Backup Protection
Main Protection
(Communication Failure)
Fault Fault
Type Location Operated Operating Faulty SMG Operated Operating For Temporary Faults,
Relay(s) Time (ms) Restored After Relay(s) Time (ms) Faulty SMG Restored
(ms) After (ms)