2016 IEEE PES Asia-Pacific Power and Energy Conference - Xi'an - China
An Improved Pilot Protection for Distribution Network
With Inverter-Interfaced Distributed Generations
1.BowenHan
School of Electric Power,
South China University ofTechnology
Guangzhou, China, 510641
ephanbw@mail.scut.edu.cn
Abstract-Inverter-Interfaced Distributed Generation (IIDG)
connected to distribution network with a teed liDe may eause
protective relay tripping failure even using eonventional eurrent
differential protection, whieh is regarded as one of the most
effective protection for distribution network with distributed
generations. Therefore, the impacts of IIDGs on traditional
current differential pilot protection is analyzed firstly in this
paper. Next, the fauIt characteristics ofIIDG are introduced and
the fauIt model of IIDG is established, in which IIDG is viewed
as a current source controlled by the positive-sequence voltage
at the point of common coupling. Then, based on the three-phase
voItage and current on both sides of line, an improved pilot
protection is proposed, whieh consists of a negative-sequenee
current differential protection as an auxiliary eriterion for the
conventional pilot protection. Finally, the effectiveness of the
improved protection scheme is verified by a IOkV distribution
network with multi-IIDGs established in PSCAD/EMPDC. The
simulation results indicate that the proposed protection can
effeetively reduee or eliminate IIDG's impacts on eurrent
differential proteetion, particularly for an asymmetrie fauIt,
under various conditions involving different IIDG's output and
fauIt resistance, thereby improve its reliability significantly.
Index Terms--inverter-interfaced distributed generations; teed
lines; negative-sequenee eurrent; pilot protection
I. INTRODUCTION
The renewed interest in distributed generation, particularly
Inverter-Interfaced Distributed Generation (IIDG) including
photovoltaic and wind power, has resulted in a high
penetration in distribution system [I], [2]. However, those
grid-connected IIDGs have make distribution network become
a multi-sources power network, in which the distribution
characteristics of fault current will change significantly. In
addition, the output power of lIDO, particularly for those
mainly based on clean renewable energy, is volatile and
intermittent.
These characteristics would lead to a significant reduction
in the selectivity and sensitivity ofthe land 11 segment ofthe
conventional over-current protection relying on current setting
criteria, so the conventional three-step current protection is no
This work is supported in part by the National Natural Science Foundation
ofChina (No.51477057)
978-1-5090-5417-6/16/ $ 31.00 2016 IEEE
2555
2.0ang Wang,
3. Haifeng Li, 4.Dehui Zeng
School ofElectric Power,
South China University ofTechnology
Guangzhou, China, 510641
longer applicable for complex distribution system as a main
protection [3], [4].
Therefore, lots of research on the protection principle of
distribution neiwork with DO has been carried out so far [5] ~
[9]. In general, the proposed protection principle can be
divided into two categories: one is the improvement base on
the existing three-step overcurrent protection; while one is to
implant some new protection principle applied in transmission
neiwork. The improved three-step protection is mainly aimed
at the DG which is connected to the grid connected via bus. If
the DG is connected to the grid with teed lines, the proposed
protection would not meet the requirements of selectivity and
reliability.
Among those new protection principles, pilot protection is
generally regarded as one of the most effective protection
scheme for distribution network with distributed generations.
However, due to the great increase in line density and the
shortage in transmission corridor, T-connection mode has
appeared to be a preferred choice for lIDO connecting to
distribution network in practical engineering. Nevertheless,
neither the voltage at the point of common coupling (PCC) nor
the output currents of lIDOs in this grid-connection mode is
unknown to the protective relays installed at both sides of line,
which would make a further adverse impact on the protective
relays in distribution network. What's worse, multi-lIDOs
connected to distribution network with teed lines may cause
protective relay tripping failure in severe cases even using
current differential protection.
For this reason, some wide area protections based on IED
or Multi-Agent have been proposed in some papers [10], [11].
Wide area information collected by intelligent electronic
devices can provide comprehensive and synchronous data,
which helps the protection adapted to various fault conditions.
But this protection scheme may ask for a stricter requirement
on the automation level in distribution network, which is
difficult to achieve in the current distribution neiwork in China.
Hence, to reduce the rebuilding cost of protection system
for the distribution network with DOs, an improved pilot
protection scheme based on the existing protection device and
longitudinal communication system is proposed for the
distribution network T-connected with IIDGs in this paper.
The proposed scheme only needs to add a negative-sequence
current differential protection as an auxiliary criterion to
achieve full line high speed protection, thereby improve the
selectivity and reliability of protection.
The rest ofthis paper is organized as folIows: The impacts
of IIDG on distribution network are analyzed in Section 11.
The fault characteristics of IIDG are introduced Section III,
followed by the establishment of IIDG's fault equivalent
model. Section IV proposes an improved pilot protection
scheme. The proposed scheme is verified in PSCADIEMPDC
and the simulation results are presented in Section V. Section
VI concludes the paper.
11. ANALYSIS ON IIDG's IMPACTS ON CURRENT
DIFFERENTIAL PROTECTION
The schematic diagram of a distribution network with an
IIDG T -connected to line MN is depicted in Fig. 1.
DG 1
Figure.l Single-line diagram of distribution network with IIDGs
Because there is no CT installed at IIDG's branch in
generally, and unable to achieve communication with the
protective relays at both sides of line MN, the output current
of IIDG is unknown for the traditional current differential
protection, so it is similar to the unbalanced current in essence
from the perspective of current differential protection. Take
the direction that current flows from the bus to the protected
line as the positive direction. Kirchhoffs Current Law shows
the differential current between the currents at both sides of
line is IOG+lunb. According to the operation setting principle of
the conventional current differential protection, the pickup
current Ikset must be higher than IOG+Iunb. However, IIDG's
output current is not only related to the natural environment
conditions and the inverter capacity, but also directly affected
by its control strategy, so lOG is changing in real-time during
normal operation. In order to avoid the mal operation of the
protective relays, the pickup current must be higher than the
maximum value of IOG+Iunb. In practical engineering, IIDG
maximum output current is usually restricted to 2 times the
rated current of inverter [12], so the minimum pickup current
of differential protection must be set as:
where I n. OGl is the rated current of1IDG 1
(1)
As for the protection that is set in accordance with (1), it
can avoid the malfunction of the pilot protective relays in
normal operation or in the situation when an extern al fault
occurs. Hence, the pickup current hset can be set as a small
value if the capacity of IIDG is small enough, and the pilot
protection still have a high sensitivity for the internal fault.
However, the setting value will become higher with the
increase of the penetration of IIDG, and the sensitivity of the
2556
protection will decreased, which may cause relay tripping
failure particularly in the situation when an internal single-
phase grounding fault with high resistance occurs. Obviously,
the conventional current differential protection is also not
applicable for the complex distribution network with IIDGs T-
connected to feeder. Therefore, it is necessary to improve the
traditional protection principle.
111. FAULT CHARACTERISTICS OF IIDG
At present, most of the grid-connected IIDG is based on
the interface of voltage source converter (VSC). Besides, the
fauIt characteristic of the IIDG based on the interface of VSC
is mainly determined by its control strategy, so the impacts of
control strategy on fault current must be considered. PQ
control strategy is widely adopted in the IIDGs connected to
power grid to capture the maximum energy from wind and
solar energy, thereby realize the full use of clean energy [13].
PQ control is done by transforming three-phase to two-phase
d-q rotating reference frame aligning the d-axis with the
voItage at PCC. According to the PQ control system, IIDG can
track the reference value of active current and reactive current
respectively in real time, so as to output the reference power:
j ~ut = ~ef =
3
'2 U
3
pcc_d1d _re!
(2)
QOUI -- Qrej
--U
- 2
1
pcc_d q_reJ
where Pout and Qout are the output active power and reactive
power of IIDG respectively; Pref and Qref are the reference
value of active power and reactive power respectively; IdJej
and IqJet are the reference value of active current and reactive
current respectively; Upcc d is the d-axis component of the
voltage at PCe.
Besides, many grid codes worldwide, including Denmark
and Germany, have demanded that reactive current should has
a priority to be provided when voltage at PCC is lower than
the pre-determined setting value, namely active power is
encouraged to generate by the grid-connected IIDG (e.g. WTG,
PV, etc.) during voltage dip, which would affect the fault
current ofIIDG significantly [14]. Therefore, the low voltage
ride through (L VRT) control strategy have to be considered.
Taking the requirements of reactive current supply in
Germany as an example, the reference values of active current
and reactive current during the power grid faults can
respectively be expressed as :
u -u
l
/
I
qJerr
.... = /
-
q(O)
+
... K..
3.3 U?'cIJ
U
pcc(O)
pec(O)
peel
(3)
d_cer! -
pcc.{
where I q reff and Id reff are respectively the reference values of
reactive current and active current; Upcc(O) and U pcc/ are the
voItage amplitudes at PCC before and after a fault occurring;
Preffis the reference active power oflIDG in a fault; Iq(o) is the
reference reactive current before a fault occurring, and is set as
zero in general; K is the voltage support coefficient, which is
set as 2 when the voltage amplitude is lower than 0.9 p.u.,
otherwise is often set as O.
 Equation (3) states that a serious voltage drop may lead to Fig.2 indicates when an asymmetric fault takes place at the
a large increase of 1100's fault current, which would damage distribution network with lIDO, its negative-sequence network
the inverter in some severe cases. Therefore, the capacity is similar to the positive-sequence network of the traditional
constraint of inverter has to be considered in the actual grid without lIDOs, and namely the negative-sequence current
engineering, which usually requires 1100's maximum short differential protection will not be affected by the lIDO.
circuit current should not be more than two times the rated Therefore, negative-sequence component of fault current can
current [12]. So the output current oflIDO can is presented as: be used as a differential quantity for the distribution network
connecting lIDO with teed line. For unsymmetrical faults, the
jTq = Jq nf f (Tq <; J,mu)
protection criterion of negative-sequence current differential
(4)
lJd=min{Jd nff,~Jm",'-Jq nfI } protection can be expressed as folIows:

where I" and Id are the output values of the reactive current (5)
and active current of lIDO, respectively; I max is the acceptable
where lunb_negalil'e is the maximum negative-sequence current
maximum output current of inverter.
during normal operation or an extern al fault occurring.
In addition, to improve the output performance of inverter,
Since lIDOs does not provide negative-sequence currents,
a control strategy based on positive-sequence voltage at PCC
usually can be set as a smaller value far less than
lunh_negalil'e
is widely adopted in engineering so that the negative-sequence
hset shown in (1). So negative-sequence current differential
currents can be eliminated [15]. Accordingly, only a sym-
protection can detect an internal asymmetric fault with a high
metrical current is output by 1100 in theory even an
sensitivity. At the same time, the pickup current of negative-
asymmetric fault occurs, which is significantly different from
sequence current differential criterion is lower than the
conventional generator [16]. Therefore, all the voltages in the
maximum unbalance negative-sequence current, which can
equations mentioned above are their positive-sequence
avoid protection mal operation during normal operation or
components.
external faults occurring.
Equation (2)~(4) show 1100 can be viewed as a current
However, when a symmetrical fault occurs, the negative-
source controlled by the positive-sequence voltage at PCC,
sequence component of fault current is so small that the
namely jDG = f(U;cJ [16], [17]. When lIDOs are connected to protection criterion in accordance with (5) cannot operate,
distribution network with teed lines, different fault position or which will cause relay tripping failure if only a negative-
different types of faults would result in various positive- sequence current differential protection criterion is adopted.
sequence voltage at PCC, and the magnitude and phase ofthe Hence, another proteetion criterion is required in this case.
fault current of lIDO would change constantly. Obviously,
these fault characteristics of lIDO will reduce the selectivity The equivalent circuit of distribution network during a
and sensitivity of pilot protection, thereby causing some three-phase grounding fault occurs atf can depicted in Fig.3.
unneglectable impacts on the current differential protection.

IV. IMPROVED PILOT PROTECTION SCHEME N

In order to facilitate the analysis, the line MN in the Es jlX~l ZT! Z"~d
distribution network system shown in Fig.l is taken as an
i/x"
example, and both two sides of !ine MN are equivalent to two
system based on the Thevenin's theorem. As shown in Fig.l, Figure.3 Equivalent circuit for distribution network during a fault occurs att
Es is the system voltage; z~ and Z'oad are the system impe-
dance and load impedance respectively; ZM1; Z11, and ZjN are As shown in Fig.3, the fault current seen by the relay
the line impedance. installed at bus M and bus N can be obtained:

When an asymmetric fault occurs at f, the negative-

sequence network can be depicted in Fig.2, where jM and _0

jN _" respectively are the negative-sequence currents seen by

(6)
the relays installed at both sides of line MN, and U; is the
negative-sequence voltage atf As the aforementioned analysis
in section III, 1100 can be viewed as a current source So the differential current between bus M and bus N is
controlled by the positive-sequence voltage at Pcc. So the . . . E- Zlf iDGI i
Zioad DG2 (7)
negative-sequence network does not contain lIDO. M = I'f + I v = + ---'!:!!!!...~'--
Zy + ZM) + Zlf ZjV + Z/oad
Equation (7) shows if there is no 00 connected at the
downstream of the line MN, the differential current M will be
[fr equal to jM , obviously which would reduce relay's sensitivity
compared to the situation when one or more lIDOs are
Figure.2 Negative-sequence network of distribution network with
embedded at the downstream of the line MN. Thus, it is
unbalanced fault occurring necessary to discuss this worst case firstly.

2557
 The grid code in China requires the penetration of DG
should not exceed 25% ofthe total load capacity [9], and the
maximum output current ofllDG can be described as:
. 1 E of DG] ~DG4 are set as 2MW, 1.5MW, 3MW, and 3MW. Ji
/ -
DG_m,,, - 4 Z, + Z,IV + Z/oad
From (1) we know if the current differential protection
can detect the symmetrical fault, it must meet the requirement
as follow:
E-Zlf.. j DG > 2jnc
max
Z, + Z,rr + Zr; , Impedance
Combining with (7)~(9), we can obtain
2Z, + ZMl + 3ZjN + Z '"N + 4Z/oad > 0 (10)
Clearly, it is easy to meet the requirement shown in (10)
when a symmetrical fault occurs in line MN. From another
perspective, due to the constraint of DG's penetration and
inverter capacity , the fault current provided by system is far
greater than DG's fault current when a three-phase grounding
fault occurs. So the current flowing through the bus M is
much greater than the current of bus N, and the differential
current can be greater than the pickup current even if the
operating criteria is set in accordance with (1). Consequently,
as for an internal symmetrical fault, which is viewed as the
most serious fault type, the conventional current differential
protection can detect it effectively in vast majority of cases.
Therefore, the diagram of the tripping logic for the
improved proteetion can be shown in FigA.
2:1
Trip
The transmission grid is represented by GRID, and its
short powers is set as 500 MV A. And there are four IIDGs
embedded within the distribution network. The rated capacity
(8) and .12 are the faulty points at line MN and line ND
respectively. The line data and load data ofthe test system are
given in table I.
TABLEL LINEAND LOAD DATA
Parameter Value
(9)
01 18+jO 356 Q/km
Length of Line Section AB 1.5 km
Length of Line Section BC 1.5 km
Length of Line Section AM 1.5 km
Length of Line Section MN 2.5 km
Length ofLine Seetion ND 1.0 km
Total Load Capacity 20MVA
Power Factor 0.9
The improved protection scheme is verified based on the
protective relays installed at both sides of the line MN. The
operating current of the negative-sequence current differential
protection is set as 0.05kA, while the operating current of
conventional current differential protection is set as 0.693 kA
by the operating criteria shown in (1) according to the rated
capacity ofDG4. Three possible cases are considered:
Case 1 is a single-phase (phase-A) grounding fault occurs
atJi with different resistance and power output of DG4.
Case 2 is a two-phase (phase-B&C) grounding fauIt occurs
atJi andJ2 respectively with different resistance.
Case 3 is a three-phase grounding fauIt is simulated at./i
andJ2 respectively with different power output ofDG 4 .
The EMTDC/PSCAD is employed for power system fauIt
simulation, and the proposed protection is implemented in
MATLAB. The simulation results of the protective relays
operation are listed in Table 11, Table III, and Table IV,
respectively. "T" and "NT" in the tables below represent
tripping and Non-tripping, respectively.

FigureA Schematic diagram ofthe improved protection tripping logic TABLE H. PROTECTNE RELA YS OPERATION F OR SINGLE-PHASE
GROUNDING FAULT

V. SIMULATION VERIFICATION
Fault conditions Current differential value (A) Relayoperation
To verifY the proposed estimation method, a test case of a Output Fault M. . M M. Improved Traditional
lOkV distribution network connected with two IIDGs shown of DG4 resistance ..\JAJJegatJve A ( relay relay
in Fig.5 is established in PSCADI EMTDC for simulation. 00 1.674 4.909 0.119 0.118 T T
IMW
100 0.184 0.505 0.058 0.049 T NT
70 0.266 0.628 0.173 0.166 T NT
3MW
100 0.187 OAOI 0.171 0161 T NT

TABLEIIL PROTECTNE RELAYS OPERATION FOR TwO-PHASE

GROUNDING FAULT

Fault conditions Current differential value (A) Relay operation

Fault Fault M M M. Improved Traditional
position resistance .MN negative .1 C relay relay
Internal 70 1.726 0.171 0.626 0.634 T NT
fault ji 100 0.187 0.168 OA04 0.394 T NT
Figure.5 Diagram ofa 10kV distribution network with IIDGs
External 10 0.0001 0.289 0.286 0.288 NT NT
fault j2 100 0.0065 0.167 0.168 0.170 NT NT

2558
 TABLE IV. PROTECTIVE RELAYS OPERATION FOR THREE-PHASE
GROUNDING FAULT
Fault conditions Current differential value (A) Relay operation
Fault Output of Me Improved Traditional
position DG4 lHA'_lIegative /'Y.,.[4. relay relay
Internal IMW 0.0008 4.949 4.949 4.950 T T
fault ji 3MW 0.0001 4.950 4.950 4.950 T T
External IMW 0.0015 0.226 0.224 0.225 NT NT
fault fi 3MW 0.0011 0.330 0.328 0.329 NT NT
The simulation results shown in Table 11 and Table III
indicate that with the occurrence of an asymmetrie fault, the
improved protection can operate correctly and cut off the
faulty lines reliably with a high sensitivity under different fault
conditions including fault resistance, fault types, and DG's
output power. However, the conventional current differential
relay may run into a problem particularly in some fault cases
with high grounding resistance or large power output ofOG.
The simulation results shown in Table IV indicates the
negative-sequence current differential protection cannot detect
a symmetrie fault, but the traditional relay is sensitive enough
to operate because of the high differential current in three-
phase grounding fault current that is mainly provided by the
Grid. In addition, the improved protection is also able to
ensure no maloperation ofrelays when an external fault occurs.
VI. CONCLUSION
The three-step current protection based on the traditional
fault characteristics is no longer applicable for the distribution
network connected with DGs. In addition, the sensitivity and
reliability of conventional current differential protection are
still significantly affected by IIOG's output power and fault
resistance. Therefore, the fault characteristics of IIDG
considering its control strategy was analyzed and the fault
equivalent model eliminating negative-sequence current
component was established. On this basis, this paper proposed
an improved pilot protection scheme for the distribution
networks connected with IIDGs by teed lines. The proposed
protection scheme only needs to add a negative-sequence
current differential protection as an auxiliary criterion for the
conventional current differential protection. When an asym-
metrie fault takes place in the internal protected zone, the
improved protection can operate depending on the auxiliary
criterion that uses negative-sequence current as a differential
quantity. For the internal symmetrie fault, the conventional
current differential relays can also operate reliably.
Simulation results indicate the proposed proteetion scheme
can achieve the fuH line high speed protection under various
types of short-circuit faults, and ensure relays no maloperation
with the occurrence of extern fault, which helps to improve
the selectivity and sensitivity of the conventional proteetion
significantly. Moreover, the improved pilot protection is easy
2559
to be implemented because it does not need the electrical
parameters at PCC but only use the three-phase currents and
voltages at both sides line. The proposed method is simple and
effective, and has a good practicability in engineering.
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