Micro-grid Protection using MR Sensors and Super Imposed Reactive Energy /

Abstract

With the increasing demand of energy in a far-reaching complex network, integration of DER’s is getting popularity due to limited available energy resources in meeting the demands of consumers. Introduction of DG’s leads to challenges in the formulation of protection scheme for micro-grids which includes varying fault current levels during transformation from grid connected mode to islanded mode. To encounter this issue a new protection mechanism is formulated based on Magneto restive (MR) sensor and super imposed reactive energy (SRE) for short circuit faults in microgrids. A highly sensitive MR sensor are employed to obtain the magnetic field at both ends of the distribution lines. The magnetic field is used to calculate the total harmonic distortion to detect the faults in the microgrids. After detection of faults, the proposed scheme uses SRE to identify the faulty zone in the microgrids. Next, superimposed components of current are extracted for fault classification. To validate the accuracy of the presented protection scheme massive simulations have been performed using MATLAB/Simulink. Results showed that proposed scheme can effectively detect, classify and isolate different faults in grid connected and islanded mode with varying fault location and resistances for radial as well as looped configuration of micro-grid.