2017 4th IEEE Uttar Pradesh Section International Conference on Electrical, Computer and Electronics (UPCON)
GLA University, Mathura, Oct 26-28, 2017
A fuzzy logic based controller for Loss of Mains detection
Himanshu Jyoti Saikia
Department of Electrical Engineering
National Institute of Technology Rourkela
Odisha, India
saikia.h24@gmail.com
Abstract—Islanding occurs when a part of the distribution
system turns out to be electrically disconnected from the rest of
the power system, yet keeps on being energized by DG associated
with the subsystem. The IEEE 1547 Standard for Interconnecting
Distributed Resources with Electric Power Systems directs that
for avoiding islands in power systems the protection equipment’s
and measures must be in order. Even if islanding occurs the
duration of the situation must be decreased as much as possible.
In order to achieve this detection, various methodologies have
been proposed. This work is based on the development of a
passive islanding controller for Loss of Mains detection. The
developed controller has been simulated using the MATLAB
SIMULINK software package and comparison has been done
with the ROCOF Relay and ROCOP Relay.
Keywords—Islanding detection; fuzzy logic; ROCOP; ROCOF
I. INTRODUCTION
In recent years the demand for power has increased and
hence there has been a growing interest in renewable energy
generating units such as the wind, water, photovoltaic and fuel
cell units. While the central power system remains crucial to
the load utility, their flexibility is limited. Large power
generation facilities require immense transmission and
distribution network to transmit power. The DG provides a
relatively low capital cost in response to incremental changes
in power while avoiding transmission and distribution losses
by placing the power source within the already existing
network and sending power back to the grid when needed. It is
more resilient since it serves low power demands
continuously. The recent interest for the installation of DG
into the consumer end has put forward unique engineering
challenges to DG interconnection. Thus, the traditional
protection systems need to be reconfigured and redesigned for
islanding in DG systems. The island formed is an unregulated
power system and is considered as undesirable as it poses a
danger to the utility equipment’s and deterioration in the
power quality. Islanding operation can be permitted owing to
the consumer power reliability by means of providing power
to the facility where DG is located. However, such
arrangements require considerable engineering efforts to
enable such island operation which includes a portion of
primary systems. Both active and passive islanding detection
methods are used for designing controllers for islanding
detection in distributed energy systems. The passive islanding
detection method has an advantage compared to the active
978-1-5386-3004-4/17/$31.00 ©2017 IEEE
Sanjeeb Mohanty
Department of Electrical Engineering
National Institute of Technology Rourkela
Odisha, India
sanjeeb.mohanty@nitrkl.ac.in
islanding detection methods since it does not introduce any
disturbances in the system. The passive islanding detection is
carried out by monitoring certain system parameters. During
the event of island formation, these parameters vary and their
variations from nominal values assist in the detection process.
Of recent works, techniques for islanding detection have been
reviewed for and the ROCOP [7], ROCOF [5] relays are some
that have almost been used in all Electrical Power Systems
(EPS). Some intelligent detection methods such as ANN, PLL,
Data Mining Techniques and Fuzzy Logic [10] have also been
accounted for by researchers contributing to different
islanding detection methods. The work also contributes to
developing the traditional ROCOP and ROCOF Relays. Work
on investigation of ROCOF Relays performances for
embedded generation islanding detection by analysis of factors
that impact the operation of a ROCOF relay[5][7] have also
been presented. Relay design incorporating factors such as the
frequency measuring techniques, measuring window and time
delay have also been taken into consideration [9]. With respect
to the power measurements, a work on development of an
algorithm based on the rate of change of power, rate of change
of frequency monitored at the generator terminals have also
been put forward [10]. The Voltage Unbalance is a unique
feature of the DG and hence any abnormality in the system
produces spikes in Voltage Unbalance. Moreover, the
proposed technique efficiently distinguished between
islanding and load change. The purpose of installation of anti-
islanding devices is to detect the islanding situation quickly
and efficiently which has encouraged the application of
Artificial Intelligence techniques. Many research works have
been presented on the application as such intelligent detection
methods for islanding detection. Intelligent detection methods
such as ANN, PNN, and wavelet transform, fuzzy logic [9],
DT applied fuzzy logic [10] have also been explored for
design of anti-islanding devices. The passive islanding
detection techniques are comparatively have a faster detection
time in comparison to active islanding detection methods.
Moreover unlike active islanding detection methods the
passive islanding detection methods do not introduce
perturbation to the system.
In this work, a fuzzy logic based islanding detection
controller have been proposed. For the analysis of islanding
detection, a power distribution network has been taken and the
controllers have been employed to detect islanding. A
comparison of the traditional relays and the developed
controller has been done herewith. The proposed controller
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also takes into account load changes so as to avoid false
tripping during sudden load change operation.

II. PASSIVE ISLANDING DETECTION METHODS

A. Rate of change of output power (ROCOP)

The rate of change of output power, at the DG side, is
greater than the rate of change of output power before the DG
is islanded. This method is effective for load and generation
mismatch. [8]

B. Rate of change of frequency (ROCOF)

During islanding, the rate of change of frequency is very
high. The rate of change of frequency [5] is given by

df Δp
= *f (1) Fig.1: Studied power system network.
dt 2 HG
The circuit breaker 1(CB1) when opened at 0.5 seconds,
Where creates a Loss of Mains situation initiating Major Island
formation. Also, the circuit breakers CB2 and CB3 were
ȴP = power mismatch at DG side
opened to initiate a minor island formation. In order for the
H = moment of inertia
controller to differentiate between load change and islanding,
G = rated generation capacity load changes have also been introduced.
f = frequency
Parameters of the system components are as follows
C. Rate of change of frequency over power
a. Generator(G1): f= 60Hz, Rated kV=120, Vbase = 120
The rate of change of frequency over power in a small
kV.
generation system is larger than that of the power system with
larger capacity. This concept is utilized for islanding detection
[8].
b. DG1, DG2: 9MW wind farm, six turbines, each of 1.5
D. Voltage Unbalance MW.
The voltage unbalance is one of the methods of islanding
as disturbances in voltage waveforms are observed. However,
c. Transformer (T1): rated kV= 120/25, rated MVA= 47,
this method is not completely reliable owing to the fact that
Vbase=25kV, f =60 Hz, R1 =0.00267 pu, L1= 0.08 pu,
distribution loads are single phase and disturbances are very
R2 = 0.00267 pu, L2 = .08 pu, Xm= 500 pu, Rm= 500
small. pu.
E. Harmonic Distortion
If the power system has inverter based DG, harmonics are
introduced in the system parameters. Monitoring the THD of
the voltage waveform [13] after and before islanding can be d. Transformer (T2,T3): rated kV= 5kV/575V, rated
done to identify the changes. When DG is islanded, MVA= 10, f= 60Hz, R1 = 0.0008 pu, L1= 0.025 pu,
monitoring of the third harmonic of voltages of DG provides R2= 0.0008 pu, L2= 0.025pu , Rm= 500 pu, Xm= 500
an insight for islanding detection. pu.

III. POWER SYSTEM NETWORK STUDIED

The following system has been taken for the
implementation of the islanding detection controller. The
system is comprised of 120kV grid transferring power through
two 25kV, 30km feeders to local loads of 6MW each. The DG
is a wind farm of six 1.5MW wind turbines. The system has
been simulated in MATLAB SIMULINK software package.
The simulation time is 1 seconds and islanding has been
initiated at 0.5 seconds by operating CB1 to open.
e. Distribution line (DL1,DL2): Three phase PI section,
30 km, Rated kV= 25, Rated MVA= 20, Vbase=25 kV,
R1= 0.1153 ohms/km, R0= 0.413 ohms/km, L1= 1.05e-
3 H/km, L0=3.32e-3 H/km, C1= 11.33e-9 F/km, C0
=5.01e-9 F/km.
f. Load L1, L2: Resistive load 6MW.

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 IV. PASSIVE ISLANDING DETECTION BASED RELAYS

B. ROCOP Relay
A. ROCOF Relay

Start
Start
Measure V and I from
Measure Frequency DG terminal
from DG terminal

Calculate Power
Calculate Rate of Change of Frequency
(df/dt)

Measure Terminal Voltage Calculate deviation in Power(ǻP )

from DG terminal

Is Calculate ROCOP N
df/dt > threshold N
(Hz/sec)

Y
N
Is ROCOP>Threshold
Is N
Vterminal >Vthreshold
Y
Y
Islanding Detected
Islanding Detected

Stop
Stop

Fig.4: Flowchart for the Rate of change of output power relay

Fig.2: Flowchart for the Rate of change of frequency relay
The relay measures two inputs namely the frequency
and the terminal voltage respectively from the DG
terminal. The second input voltage signal is monitored to
avoid islanding detection during machine startup. The
frequency is fed to a ‘Discrete Derivative ‘block which
calculates the rate of change of frequency with time. This
value is passed through an absolute value block and then
compared with the ROCOF threshold setting. If the
threshold setting is exceeded upon by the input signal then
the relational operator value ‘true’ or 1 is sent to the first
input of the AND gate. Henceforth, the trip signal is
initiated by this logic value.
Fig.3: Simulink model for the ROCOF relay
Similar to the rate of change of frequency relay, the DG
terminal voltage and current are measured. The 3-phase
instantaneous power block is used for calculating real and
reactive power output. The output active power is then passed
through the subtract block and relative change in output power
is obtained. Then it is passed through a derivative block thus
the rate of change of output power is obtained. If the measured
value of output power exceeds the threshold value, then the
relay trips indicating islanding detection.
V. PROPOSED FUZZY LOGIC BASED CONTROLLER
The fuzzy classifier based approach is more practical in
comparison to the crisp classifier as the dynamics of the
system change frequently. The detection of island formation is
assisted by three parameters that are monitored from the DG
terminal, namely Frequency Deviation, Rate of change of
Deviation in Frequency and Rate of Change of Deviation of
Output Power. In accordance to the response of these
parameters subjected to changes in power system conditions,
islanding detection has been done.

378
 Start membership functions formed, the boundaries have been
skewed to a certain limit by heuristic tuning. The final
trapezoidal MFs formed are as follows.
Measure V and I from
DG terminal TABLE I. MEMBERSHIP FUNCTIONS OF THE DEVELOPED
CONTROLLER

Parameter Range Membership Functions

[-0.28 -0.28 -0.03 -0.03] P1
Calculate Rate of Calculate x1 [-0.03 -0.03 0.064 0.069] P2
Calculate
Change of Change in [0.0667 0.067 3 3] P3
Frequency
Frequency Output
Deviation(ǻf) [-12 -11.8 -3.3 -3] Q1
deviation(ǻf/ǻt) Power(ǻP/ǻt )
[-3 -2.68 3.7 3.7] Q2
x2
[3.7 3.8 7.7 8.97 ] Q3
[8.6 9.3 12.5 12.5] Q4
Rule Base for [-9 -9 -3.8 -3.8] R1
Islanding Detection x3 [-3.8 -3.78 3.7 3.81] R2
[3.81 3.79 8.59.7 9.8] R3

Fuzzy Interference [0 0 0.5 0.5] N

System Output x4 [0.5 0.5 1 1] LC
[1 1 1.5 1.5] I

N
Is
FIS> 0.5
Y TABLE II. RULE BASE FOR THE DEVELOPED CONTROLLER
No Islanding Output
Y Sl. No. x1 x2 x3
(x4)
1 P2 Q2 R2 N
N 2 P1 Q1 R1 LC
3 - Q1 R3 LC
Is 4 P3 Q3 R3 I
FIS> 1.0 5 P3 Q4 - I
6 P2 - R3 I
Load Change
Y

Islanding Detected The following conditions were simulated-

• The circuit breakers CB1, CB2, CB3, CB4 and CB5

Stop
Fig.5: Flowchart for proposed fuzzy logic based controller
The simulation was exercised for normal healthy operating
conditions and then re-simulated for islanding at 0.5 seconds.
The CB1 was forced open causing a Loss of Mains condition
and hence a Major Island formation taking place. Based on the
analysis of the monitored parameters fuzzy membership
functions and the rule base have been formed.
The initial membership functions have been modified in
accordance with the data analyzed and the rule base
configured in order to exclude to make it less redundant. The
parameters ǻf, ǻf/ǻt, ǻP/ǻt are taken to be x1, x2 and x3 and
the output as x4. Based on the simulation data and respective
variations of the parameters during islanding, classification
boundaries have been setup and based on these boundaries
fuzzy membership functions have been developed. The data
obtained have been taken into analysis and membership
functions have been formed. To add fuzziness to the
are in closed condition, indicating normal operation
(N).
• The circuit breaker CB1 is opened at 0.5 seconds and
remaining circuit breakers closed throughout. This
situation is the loss of mains or major island
formation (I).
• The CB1, CB2, CB3, CB4, CB5 are in closed
condition and a sudden load change in DG1occurs to
50% (LC).
VI. SIMULATION RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
To demonstrate the controller operation, the simulation
studies were carried out as per the conditions mentioned for
normal operating conditions, load change and islanding
operation. The waveforms of the parameters pertaining to
conditions for load change and islanding were compared. The
ROCOF relay, ROCOP relay and the proposed controller
detection speeds were compared.

379

Fig.6: Voltage at DG terminal during islanding at 0.5 seconds
Fig.7: Current at DG terminal during islanding at 0.5 seconds
Fig.8: Comparison of parameter x1
Fig.9: Comparison of parameter x2
Fig.10: Comparison of parameter x3
380
TABLE III. DETECTION TIME OF RELAYS FOR MAJOR ISLAND
FORMATION
Islanding occurrence time Detection
Relay
(sec) time (sec)
ROCOF Relay 0.5 0.5080
ROCOP Relay 0.5 0.5075
Fuzzy
0.5 0.5064
Controller
TABLE III. DETECTION TIME OF RELAYS FOR LOAD CHANGE
OF 50% AT DG1 TERMINAL
Load change occurrence Detection
Relay
time (sec) time (sec)
ROCOF Relay 0.5 0.5056
ROCOP Relay 0.5 -
Fuzzy
0.5 0.5041
Controller
The figures Fig.2 to Fig.5 have been used to arrive at the
simulation results. The Fig.1 depicting the power system
network have been simulated for 0.8 seconds on the
mentioned conditions for islanding and load change have been
simulated. The DG terminal voltages and current monitored
exhibit a drop-in voltage and rise in current during islanding.
The waveforms of the extracted parameters as shown in
figures Fig.8 to Fig.10 exhibit deviation of parameters from
nominal values during load change and islanding. The
comparison shows the parameter values returning back to
nominal state during a load change. In case of a major island
formation, there occurs large variations in the values. These
variations are measured by the developed controller and the
controller initiates the trip signal upon fulfillment of the
prerequisite condition. The table III corresponds to the
detection time by the proposed controller in comparison with
the other relays during island formation at 0.5 seconds. The
islanding detection time of the proposed controller is at 64
milliseconds. Similarly table IV shows the detection time of
the relays with load change at 0.5 seconds. The ROCOP relay
fails to initiate the trip signal and detect the change in
parameter value during load change. However the traditional
ROCOF relay interprets the condition as an islanding
situation, the proposed controller differentiates between load
change and islanding. Hence a false trip operation is avoided
by the proposed controller. Compared to crisp thresholds and
boundaries as in the case of traditional relays, the fuzzy
detection algorithm is superior. The developed controller is
configurable to meet the very uncertainties during islanding
detection. This brings in the flexibility of data rendering
during real-time applications. Also, the developed MFs can be
further reconfigured in order to reduce the redundancy of the
system and an adaptive weight approach can be used for real-
time implementation without changing the classifier sets.
 VII. CONCLUSION
In this work a fuzzy rule-based controller for passive
islanding detection is proposed. The controller is developed by
monitoring parameters from the DG terminal. The system is
simulated and during islanding, the characteristics of the
monitored parameters change. The controller uses fuzzy
membership functions and rule base that are developed by
analyzing the characteristics of the monitored parameters
during an event of islanding. The controller is faster in terms
of detection speed with respect to traditional relays and its
easy fuzzy rule-based approach.
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