Relay Coordinaation and Harmonic Anaalysis in a

Distribution Netwoork with over 20% Renew

wable Sources
Abraham Olatoke Mohamed Darwish
Brunel University, London Brunel University, London
Abraham.Olatoke@brunel.ac.uk Mohamed.DDarwish@brunel.ac.uk

Abstract-Distributed generation changes th he radial nature of

distribution systems and affects the peerformance of the
protection system. Power quality and sysstem protection are
interwoven and cannot be separated. Protecction engineers need
to be aware of the effects that power qualiity (PQ) has on the
distribution system and the power quallity engineer must
understand the effects the protective reelays have on the
distribution system. The ever increasing adddition of distributed
generation (DG) in the distribution system has
h complicated the
issue of the relay coordination and protectioon in general. The
addition of DG resources impacts on thee distribution relay
protection of the system.
This paper focuses on the impact of o the addition of
renewable energy sources (RES) into the distribution
d system.
One network is proposed to have less than 20% of the circuit
loading added to it by RES, while the second
d network has multi
renewable sources (>20%) added. Harmonicc analyses of the two
networks were carried out, supported by b ETAP analysis
software. First, it was shown that there were
w no appreciable
changes in the protection systems when the addition of the DG
was less than 20%. With Huge penetration of o DG, there is need
to determine new protection device loocations for relay
coordination and measure the different harm
monic contents.

Index Terms—Distribution network ks, Power-quality,

Harmonic analysis, Relay coordination, Renewable energy
resources.
I. INTRODUCTIO
ON

The increasing addition of distributed generation

g (DG) of
which renewable energy resources (RES S) are a part, has
changed the topology of the distributtion system (DS)
tremendously. Distributed generation is anny small or medium
size electricity generating technology installled by a customer,
the utility or independent power prooducer (IPP) and
connected to Distribution grid. The wordss RES and DG are
interchangeable in this paper. Distributionn System has now
changed from being passive networks madee up of power flow
of unidirectional relay system to transmisssion system type,
where generation takes place near the conssumers. The effects
of DG on voltage profile, short circuit cuurrent, line losses,
injected harmonics and system reliabilityy have become the
research projects.
High penetration of DG into the distributtion system
High penetration of more than 20% of distributed
generation also raises new problems inn the distribution
systems, because most of the distribution systems operate in
the radial configuration or loop circuits wiith adjustable open
points on the ring main unit (RMU) or circuuit breakers (CBs)
Fig. 1. The distribution circuit of 24 bus system. It is a (33 &11) kV radial
network, 100 MVAsc balanced system. Total load in the system is 10.9MW.
Four different types of DGs are connectted namely: solar panels, synchronous
generators, variable speed wind turbbine and fixed speed wind turbine.
Summation of all connected DGs is 10.45MW
as in figure 1. This means thaat the power flows only in one
direction. Installation of distribbuted resources will not alter
the configuration of the systemm, but the power will now flow
in multiple directions. The bigggest impact of this is on the
protection of distribution system
ms, since the present protection
schemes consist of fuses used foor protection of branch feeders
and are backed by recloser on thet main feeder and breaker at
the substation.
These schemes will not bee practicable with distributed
resources included in the circuiits. New advanced protection
schemes, which incorporate thee changing distribution system
configuration, would be essential. Relay coordination
becomes an important issue at a least for now before other
methods like information techhnology (IT) is developed to

978-1-4799-3254-2/13/$31.00
manage the system protection. This technology will depend
on measurement of data at strategic locations and
communicating these data to intelligent relays for protection
of the feeders.
Therefore, protection coordination will become an integral
part of distribution automation (DA). Large numbers of
distributed generation could also lead to stability and
frequency control problems. The problems that were only
relevant to transmission systems will become relevant to
distribution systems too. Therefore, new technologies to
operate and manage the DG at the distribution system will be
needed. Distribution automation is the evolving computer
and communications technology to improve operating
performance of distribution systems, that is, the evolution of
supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems,
which have been in use for monitoring the generation and
transmission systems, will also be used in the field of
distribution automation. Distribution systems are a
significant part of power systems, but distribution control
technology has never been used as in generation and
transmission systems [1].
The following three scenarios have to be considered in the
analysis of any DG interconnection to the distribution system.
They are its rated power production capability, the
technology used in the connection and mode of control and
operation. The problems of the protective device
coordination include:
• In-feed and bi-directional current flow
• Issues related to ground fault detection
• Unintentional islanding in the system which causes
voltage variations and contributing to poor power
quality to the consumers.
• Synchronizing and auto-reclosing problems
Among the merits of DG, THD reduction, loss reduction
and voltage profile improvement are of importance, if the
optimal locations and optimal sizes of DG are properly
coordinated through studies before installation. Non-optimal
locations and sizes can lead to poor power quality, i.e.
increase in losses, bad effect on voltage profile and harmonics
[2]. It is necessary to determine the new distribution
protection device locations such that outages are reduced,
power system reliability is enhanced. In the conventional
distribution systems, the non-linear loads are the sources of
harmonic currents and therefore of voltages. Such sources of
harmonic generators in the distribution system include
inverters, rectifiers, variable speed drives, arc furnaces,
compact florescent lamps (CFL), etc. With the introduction
of DG into the distribution systems, there is need to study the
interaction of the interfaces with the already existing sources
of harmonic, since DG interfaces are harmonic producing
sources. Harmonic current flows are now bi-directional
(from source to the line and from the load to the line). The
net distortion must be within the limits of international
regulations e.g. IEEE 519: 1992 limits [3]. Other power
quality issues include:
• Voltage variations (sags and swells)
• Frequency variations
• System phase balance
• Supply reliability
These issues are needed to be given special attention due to
the stochastic (intermittent) nature of the RES.
II. TYPES OF DISTRIBUTED GENERATION
Different types of DGs include:
• Synchronous generators,
• Photovoltaic generators
• Asynchronous generators
There are different types of transformer connections
interfacing between the DGs and the distribution
systems. They include:
o Delta(HV)/Delta(LV);
o Delta(HV)/Wye-Gnd(LV);
o Wye-Ungnd(HV)/Delta-Ungnd(LV);
o Wye-Gnd(HV)/Delta;
o Wye-Gnd(HV)/Wye-Gnd(LV) [4].
Asynchronous generators, two types are commonly used in
wind generators:
• Squirrel Cage Induction generator (Fixed Speed
Wind Turbines),
• Doubly fed Induction generator Model
Synchronous generator
Synchronous generator has the capability of producing
active and reactive power on site. This is considered to be an
advantage over capacitors (capacitors produces reactive
only). The external field control makes it possible for it to
produce and absorb reactive power which has always been
the exclusive privilege of Transmission system. But the
energy production is limited to a few MW. Micro gas
turbines, combined heat and power (CPH) turbines,
Diesel/gas engines and Run-of-flow hydro fall into this
category.
Photovoltaic generator
The photovoltaic generator (PV) is stochastic in nature,
collecting power from the direct sunlight and converting it
electric power, usually direct current (DC). Power converters
(Inverters) convert the dc to ac through the use of high power
electronics to the desired output. Most inverters do the
conversion at unity power factor. Other DGs that use these
converters include micro-turbines, fuel cells and wind
turbines with doubly-fed, variable speed induction generators
having insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) converter in
their rotor circuit. This latest development has helped to
reduce the harmonic inherent in wind turbines to near zero.
Asynchronous generator
These are the induction motors made to run at above the
synchronous speed, thus becoming a generator. The external
prime mover is the wind turbine. Induction machines are
very cheap, so most wind turbines use induction machines as
their mode of generation. They are either squirrel cage type
(fixed speed), or doubly-fed type (variable speed). As
mentioned above the new development of IGBT has helped to
solve virtually all the harmonic problems (flicker) generated
by the wind turbine at fixed frequency of 50Hzs. In exchange
these power electronic equipments introduce their own
harmonic problems into the system.
III. PQ & PROTECTIVE RELAY IN THE
PRESENCE OF DGS
High level of power quality is very important to any
equipment that is sensitive to micro-second agitations in the
flow of electricity, in order to avoid damages and downtime.
What constitute poor power quality includes voltage sags and
surges, harmonics, flicker, frequency deviations and phase
imbalance. Poor power Quality can negatively affect the
performance of protection systems. Generally, problems that
massive addition of DGs causes in the distribution systems
include:
False tripping of feeders,
Protection blinding,
Changes in short circuit levels,
False tripping in generation units,
Unnecessary circuit islanding,
Problems in Reclosers [4].
Fault tripping of feeders
Fig. 2. is a hypothetical case, where a fault happens in
distribution feeder 1, the fault seen by the feeder protection
relays is shown below. The addition of DG requires that time
coordination is maintained between protective devices on
adjacent circuits as the effects of DG on coordination is not
limited to the feeder to which it is connected. Faults on an
adjacent feeder can cause protective devices, the recloser on
the DG circuit to operate. This is undesirable because service
can be interrupted to customers who would normally be
unaffected by this scenario.
Fig. 2. The fault on distribution feeder 1 gets contributions from both the
substation (Xamps) and the DG (Yamps) [5].
The Recloser and the DG fuses may likely operate first before
the CB 1 if their relay settings are not properly coordinated
and if the relay setting of CB 1 is too low. This is also called
nuisance tripping.
Protection blinding
Fault tripping of feeders leads to protection blinding
especially if the DG is close to the substation. The
contribution to the fault current by the DGs leads to the
reduction of fault current from the substation, this leads to
protection blinding of the CB protection from the substation.
IV. HARMONIC ANALYSIS IN DISTRIBUTION SYSTEMS
There are two major analyses that are performed in Harmonic
analysis. They are Harmonic load flow analysis (HLFA) and
Harmonic frequency scan
According to IEEE standards, harmonics in the power
distribution system should be limited by two different
methods; there should be a limit of the injected harmonic
currents into the utility system by the consumer and the
second harmonic limit is the amount of harmonic voltage that
the utility can supply to any consumers, all measurement are
taken at the point of common coupling (PCC).
In this project, the harmonics issues are considered and
analysed with different DGs located in a selected 23bus
distribution system. It is a (33 & 11kV) radial network,
100MVAsc balanced system with 3main feeders, connected
radially with open points on the loop. This is an easy circuit
chosen to visualise the impact of distribution generator
sources on the harmonics with less than 20% penetration
(total load in the system =10.9MW) and more than 20%
penetration. Four different types of DGs are considered
namely: solar panels, synchronous generator, variable speed
wind turbine and fixed speed wind turbine. A number of
simulations were carried out for the harmonic analysis and
possible filter locations to mitigate the harmonic effects.
The performance of relays has been shown not to be very
significant in the presence of less than 20% of total harmonic
distortion (THD). The high increase of non-linear loads these
days, makes the THD exceed the 20% limit. This high
percentage causes the current transformers of the relays to be
saturated, causing the resultant waveform of the distorted
current to make the overcurrent relay to malfunction. High
harmonic contents cause CTs to become saturated and
saturated CTs will not produce an equal corresponding
current in the secondary and false tripping of the relay results.
Time delays in relay systems are distorted by harmonic
waveforms especially in electromechanical relays (these types
are being faced out now). But in digital relays, filters are
incorporated in the design to filter out the harmonics. Current
and voltage amplitudes are measured by relays and these
waveforms are distorted by the harmonics which
consequently affect the relays’ operations [6].
Relay coordination
 The normal electric distribution systeems are radial in
nature, with the supply coming from a maiin source, (main or
slack bus). Simple protection system consisting of over-
current relays, line reclosers and fuses are used in the
distribution system. The main relay coordiination problems in
distribution systems are therefore:
1. Over-current relay - Recloser coorrdination,
2. Recloser – Fuse coordination,
3. Fuse – Fuse coordination.
The introduction of DGs has brougght in protection
coordination problems among these elem ments, because the
system is no more unidirectional in nature.. Few additions of
DGs will not change the relay coordinationn significantly, but
heavy penetration reverses the power flow and the network is
no more passive circuit, unidirectional, but active. The
voltage profile, loading limits and the reacttive power margins
of the distribution system will also changee. The presence of
such generation units leads to losingg coordination of
protection devices. Experiments were perfo formed that showed
that DG causes mal-operation in reclosers anda transient faults
are not cleared. Synchronisation is not n possible after
islanding operation when trying a recllosure and heavy Fig. 4. Harmonic Analysis showinng the Bus voltage (RMS) and the
damages could result when trying a reclosure in an operating voltage.
asynchronous network. [4].
The plot of the comparison of the
t harmonic voltage spectrum
of the slack bus and bus 23 of thhe PV generator were made in
V. CASE STUDY
figure 3. The 11th and 13thh harmonics were the worst
The harmonic analyses with different typpes of DGs located individual harmonic distortions (IHD) in the case study. The
in the 24bus radial distribution system werre carried out. The %, but it was upto 3.31%. The
distortions should not exceed 3%
total installed load in the circuit was 10.9MW;
1 carrying harmonic voltage Analysis of the bus voltages and the
6.99MW at peak, and the total DG load waas 10.45MVA with operating voltages are displayeed in figure 4. Table I gives
maximum generation of 3.54MVA. Fourr different types of the value of the total harmonicc distortion THD (5.07%) for
DGs were connected to the circuit. A num mber of simulations the same bus 23. The internatioonal recommended figures are
were carried out for the harmonic analysiss and the effects of supposed to be 3% for the IH HD, and 5% for the THD, all
excluding and including the Fixed-turbine wind generator on measured at the point of comm mon coupling (PCC) [2]. The
bus 20 on the relay coordination were noteed and analysed to inverters of the solar paneels are responsible for the
distortions. The installation of
o the single tuned harmonic
study the miscoordination.
filters at bus 23 will reduce the
t harmonic contents in the
voltage waveform.

TABL
LE I
HARMONIC FLOW ANALYSIIS VIEW OUTPUT REPORT

Fig. 3. Harmonic Voltage Spectrum (comparing swinng bus and bus 23 of the
PV generator). The 11th & 13th harmonics are the worst
w of the 50 IHDs.
 that of the IG, but has largger steady state RMS fault
contribution. Power electronics interface, static power
converter (SPC) disconnects thhe DG instantaneously when
the fault current contribution is higher than 20% of rated
current [10].

Fig. 5. Frequency Scan of all the 5 DG busses in the circuit

It is of interest to note that the harmonicc voltage Spectrum

of all the 10 buses connected to the stepup transformers
t of the
5 DGs were within the required IEEE Internnational Standards Fig. 6. Harmonic voltage Spectrum of o all the 5 DG buses. The bus 23 for
except the bus 23. The bus 23 is a 0.415kV bus and the the PV is the worst at 11th harmonic of all the 50 Individual harmonics.
associated transformer is 2.5MVA, 333/0.415kV stepup
transformer T4. Figure 6 gives the clear sppectrum for bus 23
C Sequence-of-Operation excluuding the wind turbine generator
as worst of all the buses (the red spectrum m), and the 11th and
th
the 13 individual harmonics are higher thaan the set values.
The bus 15 on the 33kV branch line feeding the lump load 9
was faulted with a 3-phase shortt circuit when the wind
VI. SEQUENCE OF OPERATION IN THE RELAY
R SYSTEMS
turbine generator was in the opeen position as shown in Fig. 7.
A. Protection requirements The only source of supply to thiis load is from the grid
through the circuit breaker CB445. It could be noticed that the
The mandatory minimum Distribution SystemS Protection tripping sequence was 39, 45 annd 46 in the orders 1st, 2nd and
Policy (DSPP) requires that: 3rd respectively. The breaker 466 was the source of power
a) Primary protection operation time to clear MV from the PV (not shown in the figure
f 7) to the bus 16 shown
(110kV-33kV) line feeder fault should
s be 0.5secs below.
or less
b) Backup protection operation time should be
2.0secs or less
c) For busbars with voltages in thhe range of 38kV
and 10kV, primary protectioon clearance is
0.5secs, while the backup clearaance time should
not be more than 1.7secs.
d) To guarantee selective operationn co-coordinating
margins should be 0.4secs

These are for the safety of people and equipments in the

distribution systems in Ireland [7]. The UKU laws states that
the DG units must remain connected for 0.55secs for a phase to
phase under-voltage of -20% and 2.5secs forfo a phase to phase
under-voltage of -13% before disconnectinng the DG from the
distribution circuits to prevent unnecessary islanding [9].

B. Fault level contributions by differeent types of DGs

Induction Generators (IG) contributes minimally

m to fault
level RMS voltage, as the voltage quicklyy collapses when it
loses magnetic excitation due to loss of grid supply. But the
peak fault level RMS voltage becomes higgher. Synchronous
Fig. 7. Protective Device Sequence-of-Operation (with WTG2) opened
generator’s (SG) type of fault current contrribution is less than
 VII. CONCLUSIONS
S

The effect of false tripping of the distribbution feeders, and

protection blinding have been presented.. When the total
harmonic distortion (THD) in a distributed circuit is more
than 20%, it will cause mal-operation off the relay. Relay
performance is mainly dependent on the level of the THD.
The THD in this case study is well below the 20% and
therefore the overcurrent circuit relayss (OCR) did not
malfunction. The addition of DGs to the 33kV distribution
network has turned the simple radial unidirectional to
bidirectional current network. The consequuence of this is that
relays in the protection system becomes unnder-reach or over-
reach, therefore a detailed study of the actual characteristics
of the DG types must be undertaken before interconnection.
The contribution of the DGs especiaally during fault
conditions can cause unnecessary sympathetic tripping, when
customers that should not lose their suppply are put out of
supply. The solution to this problem wouldw be the relay
system resetting and sometimes upgrading them.
t

Fig. 9. The TCC curves of the affected parts of the circuit connected with the
Wind Turbinee Generator2

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Fig. 8. Protective Device Sequence-of-Operationn (with WTG2) closed.