Operation of the System of Coupled Low-Voltage Feeders during Short-Circuit Faults

As a technique to control the voltage drop at network peak periods and voltage rise at middays when a high number of rooftop photovoltaic systems exist in a low-voltage feeder (LVF), two or more neighboring LVFs can be coupled. To add voltage controllability to the coupling point, a distribution static compensator (DSTATCOM) can be installed. An important issue for such a system is its operation under short-circuit conditions in one of the LVFs and relevant protection aspects. This paper investigates the performance of such a system under fault conditions and presents a protection scheme that can achieve the desired operation of the system, under short-circuit faults in either of the LVFs. The performance of the system of coupled LVFs is investigated by numerical analysis in MATLAB while the dynamic feasibility of the proposed technique is validated by simulation studies in PSCAD/EMTDC.