Thesis
A study of adaptive protection methods for future electricity distribution systems
- Creator
- Rights statement
- Awarding institution
- University of Strathclyde
- Date of award
- 2013
- Thesis identifier
- T13507
- Qualification Level
- Qualification Name
- Department, School or Faculty
- Abstract
- The traditional transmission centric approach to generation connection using large-scale thermal units is evolving as the electricity supply industry and end users both move to play their part in tackling climate change. Government targets and financial incentive mechanisms have created a generation portfolio that is becoming more diverse as both large and small-scale distributed generation projects are commissioned. The net result of these events is that generation now appears across all voltage levels and is a trend that is almost certainly set to continue. Moreover, the manner in which networks are operated is also changing to become more flexible with novel management intended to facilitate the dispersed connection of generation, whilst at the same time improving the quality of supply for end users. As a consequence of the foregoing changes, new challenges emerge with regard to guaranteeing that the performance of power system protection is not degraded. This thesis documents research that has considered the myriad of issues arising throughout distribution networks. The concept of adaptive protection has been explored as a solution to many of these issues as a means of ensuring that protection better reflects the current state of the primary power system. Although adaptive protection has been a theoretical possibility for some time it has not generally been applied in practice. The emerging drivers that could change this have been considered along with the challenges of its application. It was concluded from this work that the concept and structure for adapting protection needs to be examined in abstraction from the underlying low level protection algorithms. A layered architecture has been proposed that helps to structure process of adaptation, define key functionality and ultimately clarify how it could be practically realised using currently available substation protection and automation equipment. To demonstrate the application of the architecture two examples have been used that cover both low and high voltage networks. The first considers a low voltage microgrid and the difficulties resulting from inverter interfaced microgeneration. As a second example, the problem of intentionally islanding an area of high voltage network is considered. Taken together, these two examples cover a range of future scenarios that could emerge within so called smart grids.
- Resource Type
- DOI
- Date Created
- 2013
- Former identifier
- 996232
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