Review of adaptive protection methods for microgrids

Abstract

Microgrids have gathered a significant amount of attention within the past decade and becoming an essential asset in the energy industry. The ability to integrate sustainable energy generation methods into the distribution network is one of the main reasons for microgrids popularity. A wide variety of Distributed Generation (DG) including wind and other micro-turbine generation, photovoltaic generation along with energy storage, makes the microgrid viable in both grid-connected and islanded modes while reducing the power losses. There are various technical challenges to be tackled in order to harvest the full potential of microgrids, and protection is one of them. Various solutions were introduced, driven by the development of protection techniques. One of the most promising approaches for microgrid protection is adaptive protection. This paper contains a systematic review on adaptive protection of microgrids, including a wide range of applicability variants, their strengths, and drawbacks. It also explores the state-of-the-art researches that utilize computational intelligence to achieve adaptive protection. These solutions are currently at the verge of totally redefining protection solutions with a more flexible and reliable system that will be applied globally.

Keywords

• microgrid protection
• adaptive protection
• protection schemes
• distributed generation
• power system protection