An adaptive protection infrastructure for modern distribution grids with distributed generation

The presence of renewable energy resources and conventional distributed generation (DG) in modern distribution networks challenges the traditional protection schemes, since the radial single-fed concept is no longer adopted. In this paper, a new adaptive protection system, which takes advantage of multiple relay setting groups (SGs) and optimisation techniques, is introduced. Moreover, a hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) configuration appropriate for testing adaptive protection systems is presented. A distribution test system with large DG penetration is used to demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed solution, and simulation results are thoroughly discussed.