On Improving Differential Protection of Lines Interconnecting Inverter-Based Resources

Inverter-based renewable resources, such $as$ wind and solar sources, provide a quite different performance during faults compared to synchronous generators. Indeed, their transient response depends on the control scheme established by the grid code requirements, which may lead to traditional protection schemes' misoperation. This paper presents improvements in the differential protection function applied to transmission lines interconnecting inverter-based resources (IBRs) using a current mapping strategy (CMS) on the alpha plane. The performance of the proposed solution was assessed using a wide variety of simulations on electromagnetic transients program (EMTP) software. The obtained results reveal the CMS improves the protection sensibility and leads to a more stable trajectory on the alpha plane, ensuring the dependability and security of the protection system $as$ a whole.