See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/337828423

OC/OL Protection of Droop-Controlled and Directly Voltage-Controlled

Microgrids using TMF/ANN-based Fault Detection and Discrimination

Article in IEEE Journal of Emerging and Selected Topics in Power Electronics · December 2019

CITATIONS READS

0 5

4 authors:

Hamid Reza Baghaee Mojtaba Mirsalim

Amirkabir University of Technology Amirkabir University of Technology
120 PUBLICATIONS 1,075 CITATIONS 185 PUBLICATIONS 1,925 CITATIONS

SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE

Gevork B. Gharehpetian Ali Talebi

Amirkabir University of Technology Amirkabir University of Technology
540 PUBLICATIONS 6,339 CITATIONS 120 PUBLICATIONS 809 CITATIONS

SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE

Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:

Frequency Response Analysis View project

Control of Modern Smart Microgrids to Respond to Large-Signal Disturbances and Nonlinearities and its Real-time Implementation View project

All content following this page was uploaded by Hamid Reza Baghaee on 08 December 2019.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

IEEE JOURNAL OF EMERGING AND SELECTED TOPICS IN POWER ELECTRONICS
OC/OL Protection of Droop-Controlled and Directly
Voltage-Controlled Microgrids using TMF/ANN-
based Fault Detection and Discrimination
H.R. Baghaee, Member, IEEE, M. Mirsalim, Senior Member, IEEE, G. B. Gharehpetian, Senior
Member, IEEE, H.A. Talebi, Senior Member, IEEE
 power and prevent OL conditions [3]. Direct voltage control
Abstract—In this paper, we propose a generalized over-current
(OC) and overload (OL) protection scheme for droop-controlled
and directly voltage controlled (DVC) inverter-interfaced
distributed energy resources (IIDERs) to be used for protection
studies of alternating current (AC) islanded (autonomous)
microgrids, and provide a management strategy during and after
short circuit and consequent overloads. The fault is detected, and
its type is discriminated by a new method that takes the
advantages of both artificial neural networks (ANNs) and
transient monitoring function (TMF). By using the proposed
strategy, the output current magnitudes of DER units are limited,
and after fault clearance, the microgrid is restored to its normal
operating conditions. The proposed OC/OL protection scheme
limits the output power of distributed energy resources (DERs).
In this regard, a generalized fault model is presented, which
considers the effect of the control system of IIDERs. This model
exploits a current limiting strategy (CLS) that can be implemented
in different reference frames to enhance microgrid fault ride-
through (FRT) capability. Finally, to demonstrate effectiveness,
accuracy, authenticity, and feasibility of the proposed OC/OL
protection scheme along with TMF/ANN-based fault detection
method and their desirable performance, offline digital time-
domain simulations are done in MATLAB/ Simulink environment,
and the results are experimentally verified by using OPAL-RT
real-time digital simulator (RTDS).
Index Terms—Artificial neural networks, direct voltage-
control, distributed energy resources, fault detection, hierarchical
droop-based control, microgrid, over-current/overload protection,
transient monitoring function.
I. INTRODUCTION
D ESPITE inherent benefits of microgrids, they bring along
technical challenges regarding their power management,
control, and protection systems. Particularly, the microgrid
protection system is affected by the fault contribution of
directly-coupled and inverter-interfaced DER units [1].
The reported droop-controlled schemes almost employ inner
current control loops which improve stability margins and
provide better OC and OL protections, by adjusting the
reference set point of the current controller (especially when
hierarchical droop control (HDRC) strategies are used) [3]. So,
this loop not only enhances the FRT capability without
damaging or tripping out of IIDERs but also can limit the output
Authors are with the Department of Electrical Engineering, Amirkabir
University of Technology, Tehran, Iran. (Tel:66466009; Fax: 0098-66406469;
e-mails: hrbaghaee@aut.ac.ir, mirsalim@aut.ac.ir, grptian@aut.ac.ir, and
alit@aut.ac.ir).
Corresponding author: M. Mirsalim (mirsalim@aut.ac.ir ).
1
(DVC) method sometimes can provide good robustness [7];
however, it essentially cannot cope with the current limiting
during abnormal conditions and results in DER unit tripping out
and power electronic components damages. Besides, the DVC-
based DER units are also prone to dynamic OL conditions
because they lack the inner current controller [8]. A
complementary OL/OC protection scheme has been proposed
in [8], as an add-on feature to compensate drawbacks of the
DVC-based control strategy [7]. Before [8], this idea had been
discussed for microgrid OC/OL protection in autonomous and
grid-connected modes [9]. In recent years, communication-
assisted and centralized protection methods have been proposed
for AC and DC microgrids [10]. However, there are two
challenging issues in utilizing these techniques:
1) A backup system after for communication media (like the
power calculation method of [4], [11] that exploits the radial
basis function neural networks (RBFNNs) as a backup for
HDRC communication system in case of failure/interruption),
2) Researches aim to find direct analytical solutions that are
more compatible with recently proposed decentralized HDRC
and DVC schemes, especially for microgrids, including
nonlinear/unbalanced loads.
To address these issues, this paper presents a new generalized
OC/OL protection strategy for HDRC and DVC inverter-
interfaced microgrids. The proposed protection scheme exploits
capabilities of ANNs and TMF not only for fault detection but
also for discriminating between transient and permanent faults
and also the type of faults. The TMF has been used before in
[12] for fault detection in inverter-based microgrids. However,
in this paper, we combine the fault detection features of TMF
are combined with the classification features of ANNs. This
property of the proposed method inherently proves its
advantages and superiority in contrast with the conventional
fault detection strategies. By limiting the DERs’ output power
after the fault clearance, the proposed OC protection scheme
limits the output current magnitudes of DER units and restores
the microgrid to its normal operating conditions. Finally, to
show the effectiveness of the proposed OC/OL protection
scheme, offline digital time-domain simulations are performed
 IEEE JOURNAL OF EMERGING AND SELECTED TOPICS IN POWER ELECTRONICS 2

Secondary Control Tertiary Control

(Grid Connected Mode) E*MGter

E*MG
(Islanded Mode)

+
Gd s 
1
Gf sec s  kpF 
- kiF Emax
1 Ts kiQg
GEter s  k pQg 
s -
+ QG
Emin s

Q*G
(Grid Connected Mode) ω*MGter ωmax
kiPg PG
Gfter s  kpPg 
-

Low-Bandwidth Communication System

ω*MG ωmmin s
+
(Islanded Mode)
P&Q
P*G
1 Calculations [10]
+
Gd s 
1
Gf sec s  kpF  iF
- k
1  s s 1 Ts
-
+
ωsync

Measurements from Microgrid

Complementary Control Loop

Primary/Inner Control kist P*

Gst s   k pst 
s ω*
-+ c
GP s  k pP 
kiP -+ P
Three Phase
-
s s  c
abc GI s   k pI 
k s ω
 2 rhI 2
h1, 5, 7,11 s   h 
+ G v s   k p V  
k rhV s
s   o h 
+ αβ Reference
αβ 2 2
- - -
o
i*αβ
h 1, 5 , 7 ,11
abc Generator
E.sin(ωt) c
GQ s kpQ
E +
+
Q
vviαβ +
-
- s  c

vvi  Rvi  io   Lvi  io E*

vcαβ Q*fu
vvi  Rvi  io   Lvi  io p  vc  io  vc  io
ilαβ q  vc  io  vc  io
ioαβ
X αβ αβ αβ
÷
abc abc abc

PWM

a)
Primary/Inner Control

Droop-based Power Sharing Control Unit

PDER f
pDER Voltage/Current Controllers,
LPF Droop Reference r e Plant
Control Scheme Generation Complementary Stabilizing yG
+

fc=10 Hz (Microgrid Model)

-

qDER Control Loop

QDER |V|

b)

c)
Fig. 1. a) and b) Improved HDRC structure of a microgrid [4], [11], and c) Schematic of DVC-DER unit and related control system [7] ("(c) IEEE from [4], [7]”).

in MATLAB/Simulink environment, and the results are

experimentally verified by OPAL-RT real-time digital
simulator. II. CONTROL STRUCTURE
A. Hierarchical Droop-based Control Structure
In [4], a modified HDRC scheme of [11] has been presented
IEEE JOURNAL OF EMERGING AND SELECTED TOPICS IN POWER ELECTRONICS 3

which includes self-tuning filter (STF), harmonic virtual VI ( s )G I s   11  G st s GV s 
Z o s    (5)
impedance (HVI), harmonic voltage compensator (HVC) and sC f 1  G st s GV s   G v s G I s 
power calculation based on harmonic power-flow (HPF)
realized by RBFNNs. The inner control loops, shown in Fig. B. Inverter Current Limiting
1(a) and (b), are incorporated for over-current protection and In [11], for the sake of improving small and, large-signal
enhance stability margins [8], [11]. The details of the stability margins and FRT capability of microgrid, the
hierarchical droop-based structure have been provided in [4]. hierarchical control scheme (briefly described in Subsection
B. Direct Voltage Control Scheme IIII.A) adds a complementary control loop. Thus, it is clear that
in this improved HDRC scheme, the Gst(s) affects the frequency
The control system of [7] includes general PMS, LCs, and
response of G(s) and Zo(s) in (4) and (5), and consequently, it
synchronization /frequency control scheme that synchronize the
results in having less short circuit level for IIDER. Based on the
independent oscillators of LCs to control microgrid frequency
idea of instantaneous saturation limit (ISL) and latched limit
in an open-loop manner by common time-reference signal
(LL) strategies [13]-[14], a current control strategy has been
based on global positioning system (GPS) (Fig. 1(c)). However,
presented in [3] for natural reference frame (NARF),
using GPS-based frequency control/synchronization is
synchronous reference frame (SYRF) and stationary reference
sometimes impossible or at least cumbersome. Moreover, the
frame (STRF) [15], using a current limiting function (CLF)
proposed hierarchical controller (Fig. 1(a)), can resolve
given by:
previously drawbacks of centralized control and conventional
droop-based controllers and require only a low-bandwidth ref i Lref, j .i ith i i 
i ' L , j  u ( I Lref, j  th )  u  th  I Lref, j ; j  a , b, c (6)
 2 
ref
communication system. More details for the hierarchical 2 I L, j 2
control structure are provided in [4], [11]. Here, the for NARF and,
instantaneous active/reactive powers of DER units and loads
i ref .i i i 
are transferred to the PMS and LCs via a low-bandwidth i ' L , j  L , j ithref u ( I Lref  th )  u  th  I Lref ; j  d  , q  ,0  (7)
ref

communication system to provide the desired power-sharing 2 I L 2  2 

based on either DER unit cost functions and/or market signal, for SYRF and STRF, where, u(t) is the unit step function.
and moreover, control the magnitude and phase angle of DERi Here, i th is chosen equal to two times of the inverter rated peak
ref
connecting bus PCCi, respectively. Depends on the demand for current, i.e., 2 pu and I L is selected as, the maximum value of
ref
active and reactive power from microgrid and predefined load iL for all phases a, b, and c. This CLS is added to the HDRC
sharing strategy, PDER,i and QDER,i and also, magnitude and angle described in Subsection II.A. It is clear that the CLS will affect
set points of voltage for the connecting bus of each DER unit fault current coefficient and time delay assignment for
can be obtained from classical load-flow analysis as [4], [11]: microgrid protection system [3]. In this paper, we propose a
CLS that affects system performance and can reduce the fault
PDER ,i   Vi V j Yij cos i   k   ij 
N
(1)
level. Also, the fault model of the DVC- and HDRC-based
j 1
IIDERs can help us to effectively investigate the fault
QDER ,i   Vi V j Yij sin  i   k   ij 
N
(2) contribution of these resources which is the prerequisite of
j 1
OC/OL protection.
where, PDER,i and QDER,i are net injected active and reactive
powers to the ith bus, Vi and i are voltage magnitude and phase C. Directly Voltage-Controlled IIDER Units
angle at bus i, Yij and θij are magnitude and argument of the ijth Basically, the DVC-based IIDER units, do not use the current
element of the YBus matrix, N is number of buses, and YB is control loop and thus, to derive the fault model of these type of
elements of the YBUS matrix corresponding to the DC buses. IIDERs, it is enough to eliminate the terms regarding the virtual
The details of DVC scheme, microgrid data, and parameters of impedance and complementary stabilizing controller and set 1
robust controllers in LCs have been provided in [7]-[8]. for transfer function of the current controller in (4)-(5) as:
GV s 
G s   (8)
III. GENERALIZED FAULT MODEL OF IIDER UNITS sC f  Gv s 
In this section, we develop a fault model and investigate the 1
Z o s   (9)
sC f  Gv s 
effect of HDRC- and DVC-based strategies on the behavior of
IIDERs.
A. Droop-Controlled IIDER Units IV. PROPOSED FAULT DETECTION METHOD
Based on the model of HDRC system presented in [3]-[4], When symmetrical components of voltage and currents are
[11], the relationship of capacitor voltage is expressed in the
used for fault detection, the control system may face instability
complex frequency domain as follows:
while detecting these components and moreover, experience
V s   G s V * s   Z s I s 
c c o o
(3)
different situations based on the exploited reference frame,
where, CLS, and inverter topology [12]. On account of
GV s G I s  limitations/drawbacks of THD-based fault detection schemes
G s   (4)
sC f 1  G st s GV s   G v s G I s  especially when LL and ISL current limiting strategies are used,
 IEEE JOURNAL OF EMERGING AND SELECTED TOPICS IN POWER ELECTRONICS 4


 s1   cos 0 t    fundamenta l frequency
 s   sin  t   
 2  0  
S   s3   cos2 0 t  2 nd harmonic (11)
    
 s 4   sin 2 0 t   
      higher  order harmonics

So, (10) can be re-written as follows:
i t   c1 cos 0 t   c 2 sin  0 t   c 3 cos2 0 t 
(12)
 c 4 sin 2 0 t   
The current is sampled by a sampling period of Ts to form the
a) discrete form of (10) and the current measurement vector M as:
2N
mk   c k s k kT s  (13)
k 1

M it0  Ts  it0  2Ts   it 0  KTs 

T (14)
By applying OLS, the fundamental-frequency component of
the VSC current is estimated to re-express (13) in vector form
as:
M=S1C1 (15)
where, C1 = [c1, c2]T and S1 is the discrete form of the
fundamental-frequency components of (11) that is given by:
cos 0Ts  cos 0 2Ts   cos 0 KTs 
b) T
Fig. 2. a) Moving data window of VSC current waveform, and b) Actual and S1   
(16)
reconstructed signals of a VSC current waveform [12] ("(c) IEEE from [12]”).
 sin  0Ts  sin  0 2Ts   sin  0 KTs 
here the TMF method of [12] (which is briefly described here) The OLS solution Ĉ1 for estimation of coefficients is given
is used to accurately and quickly detect transients of the signal. by:

 
The moving data windows of microgrid operating signals 1 (17)
(especially current waveforms of voltage source converters C  ST S ST M
1 1 1 1
(VSC)) for pre-fault, during the fault and post-fault stages of ~
Based on (16), the reconstruction of the current samples M
TMF, are computed (Fig. 2(a)). When the length of the window
can be expressed from the estimated Ĉ1 as:
increases, the accuracy of the TMF increases, and the
processing speed decreases. As the first step, the fundamental-
~
M  S1Cˆ1  S1 S1T S1  
1
S1T M (18)
frequency component of the VSC current waveform is When the microgrid experiences abnormal conditions
estimated based on the orthogonal least square (OLS) method ~
(possibly caused by fault), M is far from M and the difference
[16]. The estimated fundamental component match is formed
is given by:
 
during normal conditions by the actual signal and its
reconstruction. When the SC fault occurs, the reconstructed
~ 1
R  M  M  S ST S ST  I M 1  1 1  (19)
1
signal differs from the original VSC current because the moving where, R = [r1, r2, …, rk] . Here, the TMF is defined as the
T

data window includes either pre-fault and post fault data (Fig. sum of the absolute values of rk over one cycle namely,
2(a)). Also, the signal model in the OLS method does not K
TMF   rk 
n
contain the added components of the SC current owing to fault (20)
k 1
clearance. Thus, the transient between normal operation and
fault condition is easily discriminated. In this paper, dissimilar to [16], the exponent n is assumed to
~
be 2 to give more emphasis on high variation levels of M from
A. Transient Monitoring Function
M.
Assuming that the current of VSC is as measured follows:
2N B. Proposed Fault Detection Scheme
i t    c s t 
k k
(10)
When the inverter current changes as a result of SC fault, the
k 1
reconstructed samples of its output current depart from their
One possible choice for the signals sk(t) are expressed as:
actual values. Consequently, the data window consists of both
pre-fault and pot-fault information, and the TMF increases. For
authenticity and accuracy of SC fault transient detection, the
maximum value of the TMF for phases a, b and c is used as:
J  max TMFa , TMFb , TMFc  (21)
 IEEE JOURNAL OF EMERGING AND SELECTED TOPICS IN POWER ELECTRONICS
When this index exceeds its predefined threshold value Jth,
the fault is detected. The key point in applying this method is
discriminating the SC fault from the load transient switching
event, which highlights the importance of choosing a suitable
threshold value. In the proposed fault detection method,
because in three-wire VSC configuration, the TMF values of
output current cannot be discriminated clearly in SYRF or
STRF, iL,abcref is used in NARF. For the four-wire VSC
configuration, the io,abc is used. The next challenging issue is
discriminating the permanent and transient fault and in fact,
proposing an ANN-based adaptive single-phase auto-reclosing
scheme.
C. ANN-based Single-Phase Auto Reclosing Scheme
An n-input adaptive linear neuron (ADALINE) whose output
is a linear summation of its inputs and is used for online
following the harmonic content of signal which is expressed as:
N
v t   Adc e  t   Vn sin nt  n 
n 1
The signal v(t) is expressed in discrete form as follows [16]:
N
v t   Adc 1   kT s     An sin nt k   Bn cosnt k 
n 1
The first term of (22) includes the first two terms of Taylor
expansion of the decaying DC component, and Ts equals 2π/ωK,
and t(k) is kth sampling time. Similar to (16), for harmonic
extraction, the input vector of ADALINE-ANN is chosen as:
X k   [sin  tk  cos tk  sin 2 tk  cos2 tk  
(24)
sin n tk  cosn tk  1  kT s ]T
Thus, the W(k) is Fourier transform coefficients of the input
signal. The weighting factors shall be chosen so that the
difference between the reference signal and ADALINE-ANN
output is minimized. So, the Widrow-Hoff learning rule is used
for training based on least square error (LSE) minimization
using the following weighting factor updating law [17]:
ek  X k 
W k  1  W k    T
X k  X k 
In (25), W(k) and W(k+1) are weighting factor vectors in kth
and (k+1)th sampling period, respectively. When the tracking
error e(k) is brought to zero, perfect learning is achieved. Thus:
y k   y d k   v k   W0T X k 
where W0 is equaled to:
W0  A1 B1  AN BN Adc Adc 
After obtaining the weighting factor’s vector, the harmonic
content of the signal is achieved by the following equations:
V  w2n   w2n  1 (28)
2 2
n researches of the authors. The training procedure of ADALINE
 w2n  12 
n  cos 1  ; n  1,2,3,  , N

(29)
 Vn  detection will not make the whole process slow and can
The proposed ADALINE-ANN-based scheme is used for the
online estimation of harmonics in the voltage waveforms of the
microgrid. In contrast to the Furrier analysis method proposed
in [18], this method is more accurate, requires fewer
calculations, and its implementation is more convenient. Also,
the results presented in [19] reveal that the convergence time of
5
the harmonic estimation process using the proposed scheme is
less than half of a cycle. But, at least one complete period is
required in the Furrier transform method. Also, the sampling
rate is 32 samples in each cycle. This rate is suitable for
practical implementation using a very low-cost A/D chip. But,
if an advanced A/D chip is available, the higher sampling rate
can be chosen.
When a fault occurs, the voltage waveform of the faulted line
changes considerably compared to its pre-fault condition and
result in having non-zero coefficients in (22). This issue is the
key idea for the successful calculation of the fault period. The
hth voltage harmonic and its magnitude are calculated as:
2 N 1   k 2h   k 2h  
Vh    v k cos   jv k cos
 N   N 
(30)
 ; j  1
N k 0 
Vh  V h  Re 2 V h   Im 2 V h  (31)
and two proposed harmonic indices (HIs) are defined as:
1
(22) HI 1  5 2  100 %
hV (32)
V1
h2 h
5
(23) HI 2  100   V h (33)
h 1
The above-mentioned proposed indices can discriminate
between transient and permanent faults (by calculating HI1) and
also specify the type of fault (by calculating HI2. By performing
many simulations, the average value of the indices of different
types of faults and transient phenomenon has been obtained. As
cases in points, the values of HI2 for different types of faults are
roughly equal to the following values: single phase to ground
(SLG): (a-g): 8, (b-g): 9, (c-g):13.5
 Double line to ground (DLG) (a-c-g or a-b-g): 16-17.
 Line to line (LL) (a-b or a-c): 15-16.
 Three-phase fault: 12-12.5.
 Commutation Error, misfire error, and fire-through error of
VSCs: 3.5-5.5.
(25)
The proposed protection scheme exploits the capabilities of
ANNs and TMF not only for fault detection but also for
discriminating between transient and permanent faults. In fact,
we combined the transient detection features of TMF, and
classification features of ADALINE ANN for detection. So, the
(26) proposed method can help the system operator to discriminate
between transient and permanent faults and also improve the
(27) system performance for adaptive single-phase auto-reclosing.
These capabilities make our proposed method interesting,
attractive, and practical. By the way, finding an analytical
solution for determining these thresholds is the subject of future
is fast and does not require so much training data and can be
trained in an online manner. So, the proposed TMF/ANN fault
effectively and authentically detect the fault and discriminate
between transient and permanent faults and also improve the
system performance for adaptive single-phase auto-reclosing.
The TMF/ANN-based fault detection only takes the locally-
measured signals and does not depend on the communication
system. The algorithm can be programmed in fast high-
IEEE JOURNAL OF EMERGING AND SELECTED TOPICS IN POWER ELECTRONICS 6

performance digital signal processing (DSP) or field- component of the instantaneous current, which is not
programmable gate array (FPGA) chips with redundant fail- considered by the dynamic phasor analysis. Based on a large
safe CPU and redundant power supply with the highest possible number of case studies, ctran = 3 has selected which results in a
reliability. However, if the ANN unit interrupts for any reason, satisfactory performance even under worst-case conditions. In
the TMF can detect the fault without discriminating transient this case, to determine whether the VSC apparent power in pre-
and permanent faults. fault and post fault conditions are the same or not, the relative
difference between the fault current during the fault in the case
V. OC/OL PROTECTION SCHEME that we have the voltage regulation by IIDER, Irs and pre-fault
current [8]:
A. Over-Load Protection Scheme
The OL protection scheme limits the output power of IIDER ReI   ReI   ImI   ImI 
rs pf
2
rs pf
2
(41)
I 
unit. In the DVC-based IIDERs, the inner current control loop I rs
is not included in the control structure. The instantaneous three- When ΔI is greater than its predefined threshold value, and
phase apparent power of DER unit is given by: the abovementioned conditions for discriminating between
* *
VVSC  V PCC V permanent and transient fault obtained by TMF/ADALINE-
S  3VI  3V
*
 3V (34)
R f  jX f R f  jX f
ANN algorithm is satisfied, the overcurrent protection scheme
operates, and the CBs open the faulted line.
The maximum magnitude of voltage difference ΔVmax is
calculated from the maximum generation capacity of DER unit VI. SIMULATION RESULTS
as:
In this section, a multi-DER microgrid (Fig. 3(a)), is
S max R  jX
V max  (35) simulated in the MATLAB/Simulink software environment and
3V the results are verified by OPAL-RT RTDS (Fig. 3(b) and (c))
If |ΔV| > ΔVmax, the overload has occurred, and the OL [20]. The parameters of the microgrid have been obtained from
protection will be activated. In this case, the VSC output [7]. As shown in Fig. 3(a), the LCs and the rest of microgrid
voltage is adjusted so that the distance between the VSC output systems are simulated by using CPU1 and CPU2, respectively.
voltage and PCC voltage is minimized; for example, in SYRF, Here, the microgrid is simulated with the proposed hierarchical
we have: control scheme that exploits DVC-based control of [7]-[8] in its
  VVSC , q  V PCC , q   inner voltage control loop.
VVSC , d  V PCC , d  V max cos tan 1   (36)
 V 
  VSC , d  V PCC , d   A. Case 1: Offline Time-Domain Simulations - Performance
 of HDRC- and DVC-based IIDERs for Motor Starting
 VVSC , q  V PCC , q  
VVSC , q  V PCC , q  V max sin  tan 1   (37) In this part of the analysis, a three-phase 132-kW, 4-pole,
 V 
  VSC , d  V PCC , d   400-V, 50-Hz induction motor with DOL starting method under
Based on the generalized fault model of IIDERs mentioned nominal load is started at t=0.8 sec in bus 2. The motor
in [3], we have: parameters are chosen the same as ones mentioned in [7]. The
 ref

VVSC , d  G s i ' L , d    I o , d    C f v o , q   
1
sC f
results of the time-domain simulation for motor starting in an
autonomous microgrid for hierarchical droop-based control
(38) scheme of [11], proposed hierarchical scheme with current
  VVSC , q  V PCC , q  
 V max cos tan 1   limiting and DVC-based control strategy of [7]-[8], are
 V  V 
  VSC , d PCC , d   illustrated in Figs. 4-6 for microgrid bus voltages, active and
 
VVSC , q  G s i L , q     I o , q      C f v o , d  
' ref 1
sC f
reactive powers, respectively. It can be observed that the
proposed CLS can minimize the transient effects of the motor
(39) starting in the microgrid. Also, as shown in Fig. 4, after a
  VVSC , q  V PCC , q  
 V max sin  tan 1   momentarily droop, the voltage immediately returns to its
 V  V  nominal value. It should be noted that as mentioned in the
  VSC , d PCC , d  
previous works of the authors [11], by exploiting the
B. Over-Current Protection Scheme complementary stabilizing control loop, the hierarchical droop-
The overcurrent condition is detected based on the proposed based control scheme of [11], can always show better
TMF/ANN-based fault detection method. Then, the output VSC performance in contrast with the conventional droop-based
voltage of IIDER unit should be adjusted so that we have [8]: controllers [4], [5]. On the other hand, as mentioned above, the
VVSC  V PCC  R f  jX f 
I pf HDRC schemes have less contribution to the fault compared to
(40)
c trans the DVC-based schemes, on account of their inner current
In this condition, the Ipf is obtained by PMS [7] or RBFNN- control loops. So, by making a simple analogy, there is no need
based power-flow algorithm [4] to keep the system operating to compare the conventional droop-based controllers with the
point as close as possible to the pre-fault conditions and DVC-based and hierarchical droop-based scheme of [11]
minimize microgrid transients after the fault clearance. The described in Section II and the improved one having the current
constant c > 1 is used to compensate for the decaying DC limiting scheme described in Subsection III.B.
tran
 IEEE JOURNAL OF EMERGING AND SELECTED TOPICS IN POWER ELECTRONICS
a)
FPGA Set points of the controllers
RBFNN-based Power
Flow Algorithm
System Measured Values
Controller
c)
Fig. 3 a) Schematic diagram of study microgrid system [7], and b) OPAL-RT eMEGAsim real-time digital simulator in the lab, and c) The controller-hardware-in-the-loop
real-time simulation shceme.
B. Case 2: Offline Time-Domain Simulations - OL Protection
To evaluate the performance of the proposed overload
protection scheme, the microgrid is subjected to overload at
bus2. At t =1.5 sec, the power setpoints change from 0.70 p.u.,
0.53 p.u., and 0.35 p.u. apparent power at 0.95 lagging power
factor, respectively for DER1, DER2, and DER3. Load of Bus
1 is decreased by 20% of its initial value at t =1.5 sec and
increased to its nominal value at t =2 sec. Fig. 7 shows the
changes in the active and reactive powers of DER units. The
output power of the DER units cannot be changed without a
command from the PMS. However, since DER3 reaches its
maximum generation capacity, the overload protection scheme
is activated and limits the apparent output power of at its
maximum capacity, 0.75 p.u. Thus, because DER3 fails to meet
microgrid net load, the voltage drops to 0.9 p.u. while during
this process, the DER2 output power remains unchanged. It can
be observed that the proposed OL protection scheme can
effectively limit the output power of DERs in OL conditions.
Here, the setpoints of active and reactive powers and voltage
magnitude and phase angles are provided based on the RBFNN-
based power flow of [4], [11]. At t = 2.5 sec, the new setpoint
is calculated and assigned by PMS to provide balance for power
generation and load demand and restore voltage to 1pu.
C. Case 3: Offline Time-Domain Simulations - Fault Response
of Isolated IIDER for different Reference Frames
The next study deals with the time domain simulations for
7
b)
Real-time Digital Simulator
Control Loops Plant
(CPU No. 1) (CPU No. 2)
the fault response of an isolated IIDER in MATLAB/Simulink
environment. Different tests can be performed to evaluate the
fault response of IIDERs. However, as cases in points, the
output voltage, actual inductor current, output current, and
limited inductor current waveforms have been illustrated in Fig.
8 in line-line to ground fault (a-b-g) in bus 2, respectively.
These waveforms show that the proposed CLS can lead to less
fault current and improved voltage waveform and
consequently, better power quality and FRT capability.
D. Case 4: Real-Time Verification using RTDS-Three Phase
Fault, OC Protection and Improvement of FRT Capability
Hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) simulation, is a technique that is
used in the development and test of complex real-time
embedded systems. HIL simulation provides an effective
platform by adding the complexity of the plant under control to
the test platform. The complexity of the plant under control is
included in test and development by adding a mathematical
representation of all related dynamic systems. These
mathematical representations are referred to as the “plant
simulation.” The embedded system to be tested interacts with
this plant simulation.
The controller hardware-in-the-loop (CHIL) simulation is an
appropriate real-time simulation methodology that combines
numerical simulations with software modeling approaches and
classical hardware testing in laboratories. The CHIL scheme of
real-time simulation is illustrated in Fig. 3(c). As shown in Fig.
3(c), the control loops, and the plant are simulated using central
 IEEE JOURNAL OF EMERGING AND SELECTED TOPICS IN POWER ELECTRONICS 8

Voltage Mag. (pu)

1
0.8 Vload 1
0.6 Vload 2
0.4 Vload 3
Voltage Mag. (pu) 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2 2.2 2.4 2.6

0.9

0.8
0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2 2.2 2.4 2.6
Voltage Mag. (pu)

1.05

0.95

0.9
0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2 2.2 2.4 2.6
Time (sec)
Fig. 4 Time-domain simulation for motor starting in islanded microgrid: microgrid voltages for a) hierarchical droop-based control scheme of [11], b) proposed
hierarchical scheme with CLS, and c) DVC-based control strategy of [7].
P1
1 P2
P3
P (pu)

0.5

0
0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2 2.2 2.4 2.6

0.8
0.6
P (pu)

0.4
0.2
0
0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2 2.2 2.4 2.6

0.8
0.6
P (pu)

0.4
0.2
0
0.6 0.8 1 1.2
Fig. 5 Time-domain simulation for motor starting in islanded microgrid: microgrid active powers for a) hierarchical droop-based control scheme of [11], b) proposed
hierarchical scheme with CLS, and c) DVC-based control strategy of [7].
processing unit (CPU) No. 1 and No. 2 of the RTDS,
respectively. In the presented CHIL scheme, the initial
conditions required for the setpoints of the controllers in
primary and secondary control levels are determined in a real-
time manner, by doing a power-flow algorithm based on
RBFNN implemented on FPGA.
In the next study, although the experimental real-time
verification can be done for other cases, here a large
disturbance, namely three-phase occurs in the middle of the line
between DER1 and DER2 buses and eMEGAsim OPAL-RT
RTDS is used to verify the results [20]. The initial conditions
of microgrid are obtained by the RBFNN-based power-flow
algorithm of [4], [11] that has been implemented on a Xilinx
Virtex 7 FPGA. The microgrid control system (either
hierarchical droop-based or DVC-based scheme) is simulated
by the CPU1, and the rest of the microgrid is simulated by
CPU2 of RTDS. The Measured microgrid operational signals
are downloaded back into MATLAB for immediate plotting
and analysis. The fault happens at the moment t=0.8 sec, and it
1.4 1.6 1.8 2 2.2 2.4 2.6
Time (sec)
clears after six cycles (Figs. 9-10). It is seen that after fault
clearing voltage becomes stable and power-sharing continues
without any problem when HDRC scheme of [11], proposed
hierarchical scheme with current limiting and DVC-based
controller of [7] is used. However, using the proposed CLS can
result in having less voltage droop and better power-sharing
curves.
Also, to show the performance of the proposed fault
detection index for discriminating permanent and transient fault
that happens in the previous location, i.e., in the middle of the
line between DER1 and DER2 buses, the system has been tested
for two types of three-phase faults. First, for a transient fault
(that its secondary arch flash is quenched after t = 0.76 sec),
which is illustrated in Fig. 11(a) and the permanents fault so
that the fault happens again in the middle of the line between
DER1 and DER2 buses with a complex impedance of Z = 5 +
10 Ω (Fig. 11(b). The results show that the proposed HI1 index
can effectively discriminate permanent and transient faults and
help the microgrid protection system.
 IEEE JOURNAL OF EMERGING AND SELECTED TOPICS IN POWER ELECTRONICS 9

Fig. 6 Time-domain simulation for motor starting in islanded mode: microgrid reactive powers for a) hierarchical droop-based control scheme of [11], b) proposed
hierarchical scheme with CLS, and c) DVC-based control strategy of [7].

Fig. 7 Time-domain simulation for overload protection in islanded microgrid: active and reactive powers for a) hierarchical droop-based control scheme of [11], b)
proposed hierarchical scheme with CLS, c) DVC-based control strategy of [7], and d) variation of voltage magnitude of PCC2.

efficiency of the proposed TMF/ANN-based fault detection

VII. DISCUSSIONS
The objective of this paper was to introduce an OC/OL
protection scheme based on a generalized fault model for
hierarchical droop-based and DVC-based IIDER units. The
fault response of different IIDERs in different reference frames
was simulated based on the analytical models. Also, we tested
the proposed OC/OL protection strategy for motor starting and
also three-phase fault in islanded AC microgrid and showed the
algorithm to enhance the interesting features of the proposed
OC/OL protection strategy for DVC- and HDRC-based
IIDERs. The analytical model and equivalent phase networks
were verified by using offline time-domain simulations in
MATLAB/Simulink software environment and experimentally
validated by real-time tests using OPAL-RT RTDS based on
CHIL real-time time simulations. The obtained CHIL real-time
simulation results can effectively prove the authentic and
IEEE JOURNAL OF EMERGING AND SELECTED TOPICS IN POWER ELECTRONICS 10

Phase A
1 Phase B

vo (pu)
Phase C
0

-1
0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3 0.35
2
iL (pu)

0
-2
0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3 0.35
2
io (pu)

0
-2
0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3 0.35
1
i'L (pu)

-1
0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3 0.35
Time (sec)
Fig. 8 Microgrid in line to line fault (a-b-g): a) output voltage, b) inductor current, c) output current and d) limited inductor currents.

1
P1
P (pu)

0.5 P2
P3

0
0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6
1
P (pu)

0.5

0
0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6
1
P (pu)

0.5

0
0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6
Time (sec)
Fig. 9 Real-time simulation for three phase fault in islanded microgrid: microgrid active powers for hierarchical droop-based control scheme of [11], proposed
hierarchical scheme with current limiting and DVC-based control strategy [7].

efficient operation of the proposed fault detection algorithm and

protection strategy. Although this validation is performed for
three-phase SC fault, this verification can be performed for
other cases to evaluate the performance of the proposed system
large-signal disturbances.
There are some reported grid-fault detection strategies based
on other artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning tools
such as [21]-[24]. By the way, the extension of the proposed
strategy for grid-connected operation modes is the subject of
the future research of the authors.
VIII. CONCLUSION
A generalized OC/OL protection scheme was proposed for
droop-controlled and directly voltage-controlled IIDERS. A
current limiting strategy was added to a hierarchical droop-based
structure that can be implemented in different reference frames
and used especially for droop-based systems for improving FRT
capability of islanded (autonomous) AC microgrid. Also, a new
fault detection method was proposed based on TMF and
ADALINE-ANN. Then, based on the developed model and
IEEE JOURNAL OF EMERGING AND SELECTED TOPICS IN POWER ELECTRONICS 11

Voltage Mag. (pu)

1.5
V1
1
V2
0.5 V3

0
0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2 2.2 2.4 2.6
Voltage Mag. (pu)

1.5

0.5
0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2 2.2 2.4 2.6
Voltage Mag. (pu)

1.5

0.5

0
0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2 2.2 2.4 2.6
Time (sec)
Fig. 10 Real-time simulation for three phase fault in islanded microgrid: microgrid voltages for hierarchical droop-based control scheme of [11], proposed
hierarchical scheme with current limiting and DVC-based control strategy [7].

Fig. 11 Real-time simulation for three phase fault in islanded microgrid: microgrid: Value of HI1 index for a) transient fault, and b) permanent fault.

proposed TMF/ANN-based fault detection method, the OC/OL
protection scheme was proposed. Finally, the fault model was
tested for three-wire and four-wire inverter topologies, and
various types of balanced, unbalanced SC faults. Also, the
performance of the proposed fault detection method and OC/OL
protection scheme was verified by offline time-domain
simulations in MATLAB/Simulink environment and then,
validated by experimental investigation through real-time digital
simulations using OPAL-RT RTDS. Simulation results
effectively showed that either with or without exploiting the
proposed current limiting strategy, the current control loop of
hierarchical droop-based control schemes could reduce the total
fault level of microgrid. Based on this fault model, special
recommendations were proposed for OC/OL protection of
DVC-based IIDER units. Based on the obtained simulation
results, we concluded that in comparison with other reported
researches, the proposed method has the following advantages:
 The proposed protection strategy can offer a current
limiting strategy for HDRC schemes which can be
implemented either in NARF, STRF, or SYRF. The
previous CLSs are not applicable in all of these
reference frames.
 The proposed TMF/ANN-based fault detection
strategy not only can detect permanent and transient
faults but also can provide an accurate and authentic
adaptive single-phase auto reclosing for microgrids.
 Based on a generalized fault model for HDRC- and
DVC-based control strategies, and also a
TMF/ANN-based fault detection, a generalized
OC/OL protection scheme was proposed for HDRC-
and DVC-based DERs. The previous protection
strategies do not include fault detection algorithm
and so, cannot authentically protect the microgrids.
IX. REFERENCES
[1] H.R. Baghaee, M. Mirsalim, G. B. Gharehpetian, H.A. Talebi “A
generalized descriptor-system robust H∞ control of autonomous microgrids to
improve small and large signal stability considering communication delays and
load nonlinearities”, International Journal of Electrical Power & Energy
Systems, vol. 92, no. 1, pp. 63-82, November 2017, DOI:
10.1016/j.ijepes.2017.04.007.
IEEE JOURNAL OF EMERGING AND SELECTED TOPICS IN POWER ELECTRONICS 12

[2] T.N. Boutsika, S.A. Papathanassiou, “Short-circuit calculations in tied microgrid setting,” in IEEE Power & Energy Society General Meeting
networks with distributed generation”, Electric Power Systems Research, vol. (PESGM). Portland, OR, USA: IEEE, Aug. 2018, pp. 1–5.
78, no. 1, pp. 1181–1191, Dec. 2007.
[3] H.R. Baghaee, M. Mirsalim, G. B. Gharehpetian, H.A. Talebi “A new
current limiting strategy and fault model to improve fault ride-through
capability of inverter interfaced DERs in autonomous microgrids”, Sustainable
Energy Technologies and Assessments, vol. 24, part C, pp. 71-81, December
2017, DOI: 10.1016/j.seta.2017.02.004.
[4] H.R. Baghaee, M. Mirsalim, G.B. Gharehpetian, H.A. Talebi, “Nonlinear
load sharing and voltage compensation of microgrids based on harmonic
power-flow calculations using radial basis function neural networks", IEEE Sys.
Journal, vol. PP, no. 99, pp. 1-11, January 2017, DOI:
10.1109/JSYST.2016.2645165.
[5] J.M. Guerrero et al “Advanced Control Architecture. al.es for Intelligent
MicroGrids – Part I: Decentralized and Hierarchical Control”, IEEE Trans. Ind.
App., vol. 60, no. 4, pp. 1254 - 1262, April 2013.
[6] S. Dasgupta, S. Mohan, S. Sahoo, S. Panda, “Lyapunov function based
current controller to control active and reactive power flow from a renewable
energy source to a generalized three-phase microgrid system” IEEE Trans. Ind.
Elect., vol. 60, no.2, pp.799–813, Feb. 2013.
[7] A.H. Etemadi, E.J. Davison, R. Iravani, “A generalized decentralized
robust control of islanded microgrids”, IEEE Trans. on Power Sys., vol. 29, no.
6, pp. 3102-3113, Oct.2014.
[8] A.H. Etemadi, R. Iravani, “Overcurrent and overload protection of
directly voltage-controlled distributed resources in a microgrid”, IEEE Trans.
Ind. Elect., vol. 60, no. 12, pp. 5629 - 5638, June 2013.
[9] H. Nikkhajoei, R.H. Lasseter, “Microgrid protection”, in Proc. IEEE PES
General Meeting, Tampa, Florida, USA, 24-28 June 2007, pp. 1-6.
[10] T.S. Ustun, C. Ozansoy, A. Zayegh, “Fault current coefficient and time
delay assignment for microgrid protection system with central protection unit”,
IEEE Trans. on Power Sys., vol. 28, no. 2, pp. 598 - 606, May 2013.
[11] H.R. Baghaee, M. Mirsalim, G. B. Gharehpetian, “Power calculation
using RBF neural networks to improve power sharing of hierarchical control
scheme in multi-DER microgrids”, IEEE Journal of Emerging and Selected
Topics in Power Electronics, vol. 4, no. 4, pp. 1217-1225, December 2016,
DOI: 10.1109/JESTPE.2016.2581762.
[12] I. Sadeghkhani et. al. “Transient monitoring function–based fault
detection for inverter-interfaced microgrids”, IEEE Trans. Smart Grid, vol. PP,
no. 99, pp. 1-11, September 2016.
[13] N. Bottrel, T.C. Green, “Comparison of current limiting strategies during
fault ride-through of inverters to prevent latch-up and wind-up”, IEEE Trans.
Power Elect., vol. 29, no. 7, pp. 3786- 3797, July 2014.
[14] C.A. Plet, M. Brucoli, J.D.F. McDonald, T.C. Green, “Fault models of
inverter-interfaced distributed generators: experimental verification and
application to fault analysis “, in Proc. IEEE Power & Energy Society General
Meeting, Detroit, Mich., USA, 2011, pp. 1-8.
[15] P. Krause, O. Wasynczuk, S. Sudhoff, Analysis of Electric Machinery and
Drive Systems, 2nd ed. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2002.
[16] A.G. Phadke , J.S. Thorp. Computer Relaying for Power Systems. J. Wiley
& Sons, 2009.
[17] R.E. Shatshat, M. Kazerani, M.M.A. Salama, “Modular active power-line
condition”, IEEE Trans. on Power Delivery, vol. 16, no. 4, pp. 700–709,
October 2001.
[18] N.I. Elkalashy, H.A. Darwish, A.M.I. Taalab, M.A. Izzularab “An
Adaptive Single Pole Autoreclosure Based on Zero Sequence Power”, Electric
Power System Research, vol. 77, no. 5-6, pp. 438-446, April 2007.
[19] Z.M. Radojevic, J.R. Shin “New One Terminal Algorithm for Adaptive
Reclosing and Fault Distance Calculation on Transmission Lines” IEEE Trans.
on Power Delivery, vol. 21, no. 3, pp. 1231-1237, July 2006.
[20] J.-F. Cécile, L. Schoen, V. Lapointe, A. Abreu, J. Bélanger, “A
Distributed Real-Time Framework for Dynamic Management of
Heterogeneous Co-simulations”, 2006, available online at: http://www.opal-
rt.com/sites/default/files/technical_papers/scs_article.pdf .
[21] H. R. Baghaee, D. Mlakic, S. Nikolovski, and T. D. Dragicevic, “Support
vector machine-based islanding and grid fault detection in active distribution
networks,” IEEE Journal of Emerging and Selected Topics in Power
Electronics, vol. PP, no. 99, pp. 1–19, May 2019.
[22] M. Mishra and P. K. Rout, “Detection and classification of micro-grid
faults based on HHT and machine learning techniques,” IET Generation,
Transmission & Distribution, vol. 12, no. 2, pp. 388–397, Jan 2018.
[23] J. Moshtagh, M. Jannati, H. R. Baghaee, and E. Nasr, “A novel approach
for online fault detection in HVDC converters,” in 12th International Middle-
East Power System Conference. Aswan, Egypt: IEEE, Mar. 2008, pp. 307–311
[24] S. A. Morello, H. A. A. Hassan, B. G. Campbell, R. J. Kerestes, and G. F.
Reed, “Upstream fault detection using second harmonic magnitudes in a grid

View publication stats