Protection of converter dominated MV microgrid using changes in current's phase angle

Converter interfaced distributed generations in a microgrid feed the modulated current of limited magnitude during fault conditions. The protection design and its operation are thus challenging due to limited fault current which is further reduced by Petersen coil grounding in medium-voltage (MV) level. This paper aims to address this challenge by developing a current-only directional relay algorithm for the protection of converter dominated MV microgrid with Petersen coil grounding. The relay's operating principle is based on the sign of the change in phase angle of the fault current with respect to the prefault which indicates the direction of fault. The negative and positive changes in current's phase angle determine the fault in forward and reverse direction, respectively. The tripping decision is derived by comparing the binary output of the relay at both ends of the line segment under protection. This requires a simple, flexible and low bandwidth communication channel. Both theoretical analyses and simulation studies have been performed on a typical distribution grid intended to be operated as microgrid. The proposed protection method is suitable for microgrid having the converters with and without reactive power support. Various operating conditions are evaluated, including bidirectional power flow, high resistance fault, different fault types, loading conditions and signals with noise.