An adaptive limited wide area differential protection for power grid with micro-sources

The operation mode of power grids with intermittent distributed generations (DGs) changes frequently due to the bidirectional power flow. In comparison with the conventional grids, the protection relays in power grids with micro-sources are more difficult to set. To tackle this problem, this paper proposes an extended bus differential protection (EBDP) strategy based on the limited wide area (LWA). In this method, the micro-grids are divided into several protection areas at the core of the bus. The whole protection areas are protected by the wide area current differential relays, which are also configured to protect each component in this protection area. Moreover, the protection areas can be changed adaptively according to the power flow direction. Finally, a micro-grid model with multiple DGs is developed using the PSCAD/EMTDC platform. The simulation results indicate that the proposed adaptive limited wide area differential protection (LWADP) has better performance than the traditional relaying protection in detecting the faulty area in micro-grids and isolating the fault, and can be widely utilized in larger micro-grids.