Superimposed Adaptive Sequence Current Based Microgrid Protection: A New Technique

In this paper, an adaptive directional overcurrent relaying technique based on the positive-sequence (PSQ) and negative-sequence (NSQ) superimposed currents is proposed for microgrid protection. Due to the change in mode of operation of microgrid, the level and direction of prefault current are altered. On occurrence of a fault in any line section of the microgrid, coordination between the primary and backup overcurrent relays is lost due to variations in level and direction of fault current. With inception of faults, the current contributed by the inverter-based distributed energy resource is in the range of 2 p.u. To solve protection coordination issue, this paper presents an adaptive overcurrent relay settings using PSQ and NSQ superimposed currents those are contributed during fault conditions. Further, the direction of the fault is obtained using the new phase change between prefault and superimposed sequence fault currents. The proposed technique is implemented on a dSPACE processor board, which is connected to a real-time digital simulator to carry out the hardware-in-the-loop test. Extensive simulation and hardware results obtained for several microgrid operating modes indicate the effectiveness of the proposed technique. This proposed approach is independent of the voltage information.