A New Digital Twins-Based Overcurrent Protection Scheme for Distributed Energy Resources Integrated Distribution Networks

This paper presents a novel overcurrent protection scheme based on digital twins for a distribution network with distributed energy resources. A coordination protection standard is employed to perform settings and coordinate intelligent electronic devices, evaluating the effects of distributed energy resources. In addition, some integration criteria for distributed energy resources are proposed to identify the impact on overcurrent protections. The power hardware-in-the-loop (PHIL) scheme is designed to develop digital twins (DT) that connect the real relays to the simulated network. Moreover, a standard for substation automation is employed to define the communication protocol for reading Generic Object-Oriented Substation Events (GOOSE) messages. Furthermore, the IEEE 13-node test feeder is employed to validate the method and model in the real-time simulation software. The results show a miscoordination of the overcurrent protection scheme installed in the distribution network with the action of different distributed energy resources.