Protection of Power Systems with High Penetration of Renewable Energy Generation

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The global response to rapidly unfolding climate change is dominated by an unprecedented growth in the use of renewable energy, especially wind and solar energy, for electricity generation. Both wind and solar generation is interconnected to utility grids through power electronics converters with advanced control and fault ride through capabilities. During grid faults, these converters limit fault currents almost to the rated value to protect semiconductor devices, causing many challenges for network protection devices that rely on elevated currents for fault detection.*******At the distribution level, interconnection of small-scale renewable generation transforms networks into active distribution systems. Limited fault current contribution hinder the fault detection and discriminating capabilities of traditional overcurrent protection used at the distribution level. False operation of protection, creation of unintentionally energized isolated network sections or islands, and unsynchronized reconnection of these islands are some other issues. Uncertainty in the topology of active distribution networks with high penetration of private owned small-scale generators is a crucial challenge for various adaptive protection solutions proposed for active distribution systems.*******Large-scale wind and solar farms are interconnected at the transmission level. Limited fault current contributions from wind and solar generation often necessitate the use of more expensive communication assisted line protection schemes. Still, backup protection may fail since the fault currents from solar/wind plants are not sustained over long enough period. The impact of converter interfaced sources on modern protective relays that use negative sequence quantities in many functions is a concern. Traditional protection coordination software used by protection engineers cannot accurately capture the fault current behaviour of converter interfaced generation.*******In this research program, I aim to explore protection solutions that facilitate high penetration of renewable energy resources into power networks. I will particularly investigate the use of time domain protection techniques and wide area phasor measurements for implementing adaptive protection strategies, capitalizing on the recent advances in deep learning and big data analytics. Real time implementation and hardware-in-loop testing for evaluating the potential solutions will be an integral part of the research. I will also explore the development of hybrid phasor and time domain analysis tools for protection coordination. The outcomes of the research will enable relay manufacturers and utilities to develop cost effective grid protection solutions. The HQPs participating in the research program will gain expertise in power system simulation, algorithm development, and relay testing, which are highly sought skills by the industry.*********