Enhanced distance-based protection for high impedance faults considering dynamic load modelling

Abstract

The load can be represented by different models, including static and dynamic representations; each has different responses when analysing a power system, which also impacts the protection system's performance. For instance, in the distance relay, the estimated impedance can present overreach or underreach, affecting the selectivity of the protection and causing malfunction of triggering schemes. Under fault conditions, the load modelling effect can be magnified by the fault resistance effect, where the combination of both effects has not been addressed in the revisited bibliography. The present paper analyses the effect of load modelling for non-bolted faults in the distance relay impedance estimation. Distance relays are of interest due to their wide use in transmission systems and the emerging applications in distribution systems and microgrids. The fundamental contribution of the present paper is to propose a countermeasure for the effects of four different load types and fault resistance. The results demonstrate that the distance estimation is correctly enhanced, and then a close to the real positive sequence impedance is estimated from the relay point to the fault point. The proposal can be included in distance relays without requiring additional hardware, allowing countermeasure of the load type and fault resistance effects.

Keywords

• System protection
• Distance relay
• Load model
• Fault resistance