IEC 61850-based adaptive protection system for the MV distribution smart grid

The installation of protection systems on the Medium Voltage (MV) network is probably the most pragmatic topic of the smart grid in those contexts where the regulation of distribution systems includes output-based incentives to Distribution System Operators (DSOs) related to the quality of service. One of the main obstacles to the diffusion of such a solution is related to the MV network configuration - e.g. the relation between the feeding primary substation and fed secondary substations - which is altered for various reasons, requiring different settings for the protection devices placed along the network. The present work describes an innovative approach to the dynamic reconfiguration of protection devices used to implement advanced fault location, isolation and service restoration solutions. The proposed solution, realized during the activities of the FP7 European Project IDE4L, has been implemented based on the IEC 61850 standard adoption, in order to assure the interoperability, modularity and scalability of the proposed approach. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.