Development of a FPGA-based Protective Relay in Active Distribution Networks

Integration of distributed electric resources in distribution network brings many challenges in protection. In this paper, we develop a FPGA-based protective relay suitable for active distribution networks. The overall scheme design and implementation details of the relay are described. The relay is implemented on Xilinx Spartan-6 FPGA programmed in Verilog HDL. To enhance real-time, FPGA parallel processes SV and GOOSE conforming to IEC61850 standard, with which the relay will become smarter to meet the requirement of active distribution networks. The relay simultaneously realizes such functions by FPGA: analog-to-digital converting, digital filter and voltage & current measurement, communication and protection functions. The effectiveness of the proposed design is verified by a closed-loop test method. Compared to DSP-based protective relay, the proposed design is a more cost-effective solution.