2013 First International Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Modelling & Simulation
An Improved Protection Scheme for Smart Distribution Grid
Hana A. Halim, Melaty Amirruddin, Nur S. Noorpi, Nurhakimah M. Mukhtar
School of Electrical Systems Engineering
Universiti Malaysia Perlis (UniMAP)
Perlis, Malaysia
hanahalim@unimap.edu.my, melaty@unimap.edu.my, nursabrina@unimap.edu.my, nurhakimah@unimap.edu.my
Abstract—This paper presents an implementation to enhance
the protection scheme of smart distribution grid. In order to
improve the existing protection scheme used in Malaysia that is
“Current Differential Protection”, to a new level of protection
that used the idea of combining the “Current Differential
Protection” and “Fast Current Protection”. This project was
developed to increase the efficiency of protection, decrease any
unnecessary cost regarding the protection maintenance or
equipment used, and space used for installing a particular
protection scheme. Besides that, neither “Current Differential
Protection” nor “Fast Current Protection” has their own
advantages and disadvantages for their perspective protection
scheme. The results were proven by simulating the design
using PSCAD software, which the new design, combined both
theories of “Current Differential Protection” and “Fast
Current Protection”. The building cost for the new design can
be reduced in installation or maintenance.
Keywords-Fast Current Protection; Differential Current
Protection; protection scheme
I. INTRODUCTION
A. Background of Project
If we speak the common term of grid, it is used for an
electric system that can support neither all or selective
operation, the operation include electricity generation,
electricity transmission, electricity distribution, and
electricity control [1]. It generally used to carry power from
a few central generators to a large number of user customer.
But, in this project we used smart grid, which use two-way
flows of electricity and information to create an automated
and distributed advanced energy delivery network.
The protection scheme of smart distribution grid was
developed with the purpose to improve the existing
protection scheme used in Malaysia which is “Current
Differential Protection” to a new level of protection which
uses the idea of combining the “Current Differential
Protection” and “Fast Current Protection”. Furthermore, the
improved protection scheme was developed to increase the
efficiency of protection, decrease any unnecessary cost
regarding the protection maintenance or equipment used,
and space used for installing a particular protection scheme.
“Current Differential Protection” and “Fast Current
Protection” has their own advantages and disadvantages for
978-1-4799-3251-1/13 $31.00 © 2013 IEEE
DOI 10.1109/AIMS.2013.62
their perspective protection scheme. For example, fast
current protection was at high speed action [2], which is
good for protection system purpose but despite this
advantage, the traditional fast current protection cannot
protect the whole line [3]. While the differential current
protection was the most ideal selection for protection
scheme, but the cost for making one was high due to
requirement of breaker and current transformer to be
installed on both side of a line. To achieve Smart Grid label,
there are several characteristic that been included in Title
XIII of the recently signed Energy Independence and
Security Act of 2007 included the use of digital control and
information technology in the current real time, the
operability must be dynamic optimization, the demand side
response inclusion and also smart metering deployment
[4].Table 1 shows the different between common grids with
smart grid [5].
TABLE I DIFFERENCE BETWEEN COMMON GRID AND SMART
GRID
Common Grid Smart Grid
Electromechanical Digital
One-way communication Two-way communication
Centralized generation Distributed generation
Few sensors Sensors throughout
Manual monitoring Self-monitoring
Manual restoration Self-healing
Failures and blackouts Adaptive and islanding
Limited control Pervasive control
Few customer choices Few customer choices
B. Problem Statement
The improved protection scheme that was often been used
is current differential protection which required circuit
breaker and current transformer to be installed in both sides
of line. By combining differential current protection and fast
current protection, the reliability can be increased, save cost
and also save space. To acknowledge the results, PSCAD
was used to simulate the combination between the
differential current protection and fast current protection.
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 II. FAST CURRENT PROTECTION IV. APPROACH AND METHOD

A. Introduction
A new type of protection emerges and develops which is
fast current protection. After the traditional protection was
developed, there is a tension of conventional energy sources
and increasingly serious environmental problems, the
Distributed Generation (DG) technologies using renewable
energy for electricity generation are developed rapidly. DGs
are allowed to be connected with network in order to take
full advantage of their strengths. For convenience DGs are
often connected to local medium or low voltage distribution
system [6].
This protection was developed because it is necessary for
distribution grids to maintain network operation during
normal fault clearing time. Improving the speed of
protection is conducive can reduce the damage to
distribution grids. The fast current protection proposed a fast
current protection scheme for distribution network with
distribution grid by adding communication channel. This
scheme could not only solve most of the problems caused
by DGs, but also effectively improve the speed of protection
[6].
III. DIFFERENTIAL CURRENT PROTECTION

The differential is indeed very reliable method of

protection system that generally protect generator or
transformer by using current transformer and circuit breaker
in both side because each current transformer and circuit
breaker can only protect one line. The current on both sides
will be measured by current transformer to be compared.
Fig. 1 shows connection for one phase, the theory remain
the same for their phase because the similarity on each Fig. 2: Design and Analysis for the Combining of Fast Current Protection
phase of protected equipment. and Differential Current Protection Flow Chart

A systematic approach, tools, and techniques were

Fig 1: Theoretical Differential Protection of a Generator
Under normal conditions, or for a fault outside of the
protected zone, current I1 is equal to current I2. Therefore
the currents in the secondary’s current transformers are also
equal, i.e. i1 = i2 and no current flows through the current
relay. If a fault develops inside of the protected zone,
currents I1 and I2 are no longer equal, therefore i1 and
i2 are not equal and there is a current flowing through the
current relay.
applied in order to achieve the project objectives. Fig. 2
shows the step by step flow chart in executing this project
based on designing a circuit of Fast Current Protection and
Differential Current Protection. The results were based on
the voltage and current behavior before and during fault on
various places in the circuit.
A simple circuit was selected to simulate the result for
protecting the distribution system from fault or overcurrent.
The circuit only requires two circuit breakers to protect both
transmission lines three-phase voltage source, and four
positions of fault in the circuit to analyze each behavior of
current and voltage during and before fault occurrence.
When a fault occurred, the circuit breaker will be opened,
thus theoretically make the current became stable.

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B. PSCAD Simulation
The simulation is to achieve the three results which are:
i. Simulation waveform of circuit breaker before and during
fault.
ii. Simulation waveform of current behavior before and
during fault.
iii. Simulation waveform of voltage behavior before and
during fault.
For this work, Power System Computer Aided Design
(PSCAD) tool was used. This software is both dominant and
undemanding to the user [7, 8]. Using PSCAD, it can make
use of intelligent techniques to computerize the power
quality evaluations for improved accuracy and efficiency
which the manual analysis takes considerable time and
would require special knowledge [9].
A. Analysis of Protection System During No Fault
Condition
During no fault condition, the voltage and current
waveform are stable which show no disturbance in the
waveform. Same thing happened to circuit breaker, where
the breaker has not seen any abnormal condition which
result unnecessary requirement to operate. This situation can
be seen in Fig. 4. Furthermore, the reason for the graph to
start from 0 V because to minimize any harmonic
interference, compared to high value from the start.

V. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Using PSCAD/EMTDC, the protection system can be

simulated according to the desire outputs and circumstances.
The power system comprises of three phase voltage source
at both ends of line consisting 230kV with 100MVA using
100 km transmission line between them. The behavior of Fig. 4 Voltage Waveform during No Fault Condition
voltage, current and breaker were been studied by
Fig.5 shows the voltage waveform was initially started
simulating the fault at different location.
Due to same action characteristic between circuit from low voltage input and begins to stabilize at 0.15 sec.
breaker 1 and circuit breaker 2 before, during or after fault, There was no interference until the end of graph because the
fault was not triggered.
this report will only focused on analysis on characteristic in
circuit breaker 1 only. Fig. 3 shows the circuit design used,
while Table 2 shows the symbol for each measurement
used:

TABLE II SYMBOL AND MEASUREMENT USED

Symbol Measurement Subscript

V1a Voltage During No Fault
V1b Voltage During Fault at Part A
I1a Current During No Fault
I1b Current During Fault at Part A
Br1a Breaker 1 Condition at Part A During No Fault
Br1b Breaker 1 Condition at Part B During Fault
Fig.5 Current Waveform during No Fault Condition

Fig. 3 Circuit Simulation Design

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 through to ground during fault at part A connected to
ground, but as the distribution line been open during circuit
breaker detect the fault, the voltage become unstable during
the period. After that, the voltage reached 162kV to its
original peak voltage.

Fig. 6 Circuit Breaker Condition during No Fault Condition

Fig. 6 shows a low stable reading because the circuit

breaker was not initialized. This is due to the circuit breaker
did not detect any fault or any abnormal activities in
distribution line.
Fig. 8 Current Waveform during Fault Condition

B. Analysis of Protection System During Fault at Part A

Connected to Ground Condition Fig. 8 shows the current, I1b waveform where the
current value turned zero during 0.32 sec to 0.37 sec
For analysis for fault current and voltage analysis during because of the open circuit at circuit breaker. During fault,
fault, this paper will focused only on fault between the the current will become unstable due to interference from
source and first breaker. The reason behind this action is fault. For the current to reach back its normal value, it takes
because every graph will remain the same due to same about 0.3 sec.
action if the breaker detects fault or any abnormal activities.
The same thing happened in the beginning of graph where
the graph starts from zero, which is lays in minimizing
harmonic interference problem.
The different was from 0.2 sec to 0.45 sec time. The
other time on the graph remain the same as no fault
condition graph. The fault that has been set in the simulation
was at 0.2 sec and continued for 0.12 sec, thus ended at 0.32
sec as the circuit breaker open at 0.32 sec as shown in Fig.
8. The breaker have been set to hold for 0.05 sec, thus it
ended at 0.37 sec.

Fig. 9 Circuit Breaker Condition during Fault Condition

Fig. 9 shows a low stable reading because the circuit

breaker was not initialized until 0.32 sec to 0.37 sec. The
circuit breaker was only initialized because it detects the
fault in 0.32 sec due to relay that been set.

Fig. 7 Voltage Waveform during Fault Condition
Fig. 7 shows the graph explains voltage, V1b
characteristic during fault. The fault start at 0.2 sec then the
voltage become zero because all the voltage have been
C. Cost Effective
The project was developed to reduce cost whether on
building cost or maintenance cost. For this project, it can
protect the whole line without any different set of protection
system even if in a long line, compared to fast current
protection. This will make the maintenance simpler than fast
current protection. Besides that, it does not required two sets
of current transformer and capacitor voltage transformer to
protect a line, compared to differential current protection.
This prove that the building cost were cheaper because of

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this two sets of equipment. This two factors can be made
significant different to industrial used for saving cost.
D. Discussion
The paper has shown one way of protection system to
protect distribution system from fault or overload. The
results show how important the protection system to
distribution system by simulates the value of current and
voltage during fault, while connected to breaker. The
breaker will be opened if it detects fault or any abnormal
activities in distribution system, with the purpose to protect
distribution system from damage because of the fault or any
abnormal condition.
The purpose of this project was to improve distribution
protection system by referring on the combination of fast
current protection and differential current protection. This
mean that the project want to take both advantages, and
eliminate the disadvantages of the fast current protection
and differential current protection by dismissing the current
protection in both sides and also to protect the whole line of
protection by using one set of protection system.
Thus this simulation results proved that the new type of
protection design is able to protect a whole line using one
set of protection only compared to fast current protection,
and the new type of protection does not need two current
transformers to detect any fault or abnormal activities and
give the circuit breaker signal to open like differential
current protection.
This method can be used in future if our country decides
on using smart grid as our main distribution system, which
logically is a better choice when comparing the benefit and
function.
VI. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
The existing protection scheme used in Malaysia which
is “Current Differential Protection” can be improved to a
new level of protection which used the idea of combining
the “Current Differential Protection” and “Fast Current
Protection”. The objectives are to increase the efficiency of
protection, decrease any unnecessary cost regarding the
protection maintenance or equipment used, and space used
for installing a particular protection scheme.
Thus, the combination of fast current protection and
differential current protection can be upgraded by
dismissing the current protection in both side and also can
protect the whole line of protection by using one set of
protection system even if in a long line, compared to fast
current protection. Besides that it does not required two sets
of current transformer and capacitor voltage transformer to
protect a line, compared to differential current protection.
These two factors can be make significant different to
industrial used.
For long term, this enhanced protection scheme can
change the distribution system in Malaysia because of its
low cost building and low cost maintenance.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to thank Universiti Malaysia
Perlis for providing the technical and financial support for
this research. We also wish to express my appreciation to all
School of Electrical Systems Engineering staffs for helping
us throughout the research project. Special thanks to the
families for the constant encouragement. To all of them, the
success of this project is partly due to your support and
blessings. Thank you.
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