Interaction of Grid Protection Systems with Power Electronic Interfaced Resources

This project’s focus is the interaction between inverter-interfaced renewable sources and protection systems.

The common grid-following inverters have a growing set of standards about how their low overcurrent capacity should be used in fault conditions. Grid-forming inverters, expected to become common in the near future, are still largely open for standardization.

The way that inverters react to a grid fault affects the protection operation, depending on current magnitude, phase-balance, control speed, etc. Correct protection operation is crucial to a reliable and robust grid.

This project will study situations with different types of inverter control, to investigate problems with operation of existing protection algorithms. It will then consider holistic options for future protection algorithms and inverter controls with good interoperation.

This is useful input for network operators, manufacturers of inverters and protection relays, and for standardization of new inverters.