Hardware-in-the-Loop Validation of a Protection Performance Analysis Platform

The validation of a methodology for power system protection performance analysis using the Real Time Digital Simulator (RTDS (TM)) and an actual numerical relay is presented in this paper. The validation was accomplished through a software named DAPPE (Disturbance Analysis and Protection Performance Evaluation), developed by the authors to give support to Sao Francisco's Hydroelectric Utility Company (CHESF) crew during the preparation of short-circuit reports, which must be sent to regulatory organizations whenever a transmission line (TL) fault occurs. Functions such as distance and overcurrent protection routines, phasor estimation, circuit breaker opening detection, fault detection, classification and location techniques, among others are embedded in DAPPE, which has an open and modular architecture where new protection functions can be easily added. The obtained results show that methodology embedded in DAPPE is reliable and quite useful for protection performance evaluations.