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LOSS OF MAINS DETECTION FOR EMBEDDED GENERATION BY SYSTEM IMPEDANCE MONITORING

P.OKane, B.Fox
The Queens University of Belfast, U.K.

Abstract: Embedded generators operating in parallel with the electricity supply network are required by law to fit loss of mains protection. T h ~ s paper presents a new technique for detecting loss of mains based on measurement of system impedance and overcomes the deficiencies of more popular relays. The units decision to trip is based on identification of the change in impedance that occurs at a private generators site when it becomes disconnected from the mains supply.
1. INTRODUCTION

2. LOSS OF MAINS The loss of mains (LOM) phenomenon is also referred to as islanding and occurs when a utility circuit-breaker opens, dsconnecting the utility from the embedded generator but leaving a section of network load connected to the generator, as shown in figure 1.
Tripped utility circuit-breaker
/

Inter-tie circuit-breaker

Since privatisation of the Electricity Supply Industry in 1992. a renewed interest has been shown in the installation of small and medium sized synchronous generators to operate in parallel with the distribution system. This renewed interest has been stimulated by a number of technical, commercial and environmental factors. These include the high overall thermal efficiencies possible with combined heat and power systems, the huge savings possible when using existing plant in peak-lopping mode and the continuing commitment of many governments to new renewable energy sources such as wind power. By the year 2000, the UK government plans to have 5,000 MW of CHP and 1,500 MW of renewable energy schemes in place. These and other forms of dspersed generation are known colloquially as embedded generation (EG) and their re-introduction into the transmission system poses a number of technical problems. One of the more prevalent is loss of mains detection. In order to coniply with the UK electricity supply regulations[,21, all EG plants rated greater than 150 kW and operating in parallel with the utility network require a rudimentary degree of protection, which must include under and over voltage and frequency, and loss of mains. Other forms of protection may also be required dependmg on the nature of the EG, such as neutral voltage Qsplacement, overcurrent, earth-fault and reverse power protection. ProviQng protection against the loss of mains condtion for private generators is one of the more Qfficult aspects of electrical system design. Several techniques are available to detect the condition, but they fail to activate under certain operating conditions and are prone to nuisance trips,
Developments in Power System Protection, 25-27th March 1997, Conference Publication No. 434, 0 IEE, 1997

6
Utility

... . .. . . .
Network

Load

Load
Embedded generator

i / Power island Industrialsite

Figure 1 - lndustnal site operating while islanded

IslanQng is undesirable, creating a hazard to personnel and the possibility of out-of-phase reclosure, resulting in a torque transient which can damage the machine. Out-of-phase reclosure occurs since many supplies are automatically restored within a relatively short period after a fault by auto-reclose circuit-breakers which are not fitted with synchronising equipment. Their deployment improves service continuity, since seventy to eighty percent of all utility distribution faults are non-persistent. Reclose periods can be as short as one second and the connected load quite small. In these circumstances network load is capable of being supported by the embedded generating plant.

Loss of mains detection enables the inter-tie circuitbreaker connecting the embedded generator to the utility to be tripped allowing re-synchronization when network conchtions permit. Specialist relaying techmques are required to detect LOM and their modes of operation can be divided into two fundamental groups: active and passive[31.
2.1 Passive Techniques

Passive devices function by nioiiitoring various system parameters and make their decision to trip without dxectly interacting with system operation. Typical passive techniques include rate of change of frequency (ROCOF) and sudden change of voltage vector or power factor.

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The ROCOF method is the most widely applied and assumes that for all practical purposes, when loss of grid occurs. some difference will exist between the island load and generator output, resulting in a frequency deviation over time (df/dt). The relay is set so that a rate of change of frequency greater than x Hz/s will cause operation. The value of x is determined by network characteristics and should be set slightly greater than the largest frequency excursion that would occur on the system during normal operating conditions, thus avoiQng nuisance tripping. However, if the load remaining on the island is approximately equal to the output of the generator at the time of LQM, the rate of change of frequency may not be sufficient to operate the relay. A compromise must be reached between the ability to detect the conQtion and the possibility of an erroneous trip, which adversely affects the relay's performance. The end result is that passive devices are susceptible to nuisance trips during network faults and grid frequency transients and can fail to operate when the island condition does not produce the required change in generator loaQng. Nuisance trips can occur as often as once a month, and generally do not cause the REC a problem since they isolate the EG plant (which trahtionally offered little in terms of system capacity) at a time when the system is weak. However, with increasing numbers and size of EG plant, many with little or no local load (such as windfarms), their dlsconnection from the network may result in unused capacity and excess load-shedQng. Passive devices remain, however, the preferred option of utilities since they do not impinge on or upset system operation.
2.2 Active Techniques

impedance and fault level. It provides a very effective means of detection, with the Qsadvantage of introducing a small voltage glitch at the zero crossover pint.
3. NEW METHOD FOR LOM DETECTION

Since utility impedance is considerably smaller than the impedance of a power island, the impedance of a section of network will increase when that section becomes disconnected from the utility. The change of impedance that occurs results in a correspondng change of system fault level and is suitably demonstrated in figure 2, whtch shows a typical 2MVA embedded generator connected through two transformers and two cables to a site substation with a 250-MVA fault level. The component impedances are shown in figure 2b, in p.u. values to a base of 10 MVA.

CO)

Figure 2a - Embedded generator, single line diagram 2b - Component impedance diagram

With the utility circuit-breaker closed, the impedance of the EG network at the site substation is approximately 0.04p.u., and with the circuit-breaker opened (islanded), the impedance increases to over 1p.u. Any step increase in system impedance, when synchronised to the utility, greater than an increase that would occur under normal operating conditions, is attributed to loss of mains and will cause the unit to trip. The method is independent of generator loadlng, and will not cause nuisance trips during network faults or grid frequency transients.
3.1 An Impedance Sensitive Device

Active devices function by Qrectly interacting with the system under consideration, and the two main methods are reactive error export dete~tion'~] and fault level monitoring[51. The reactive error export detector controls the embedded generator excitation current so that it generates a known value of reactive current, which cannot be supported unless the generator is connected to the mains. It provides a highly reliable means of detecting LOM but takes several seconds to operate, which is longer than the reclose period of many autoreclose breakers. Despite its slow operation, reliability enables it to be used as a backup for faster methods. Fault level monitoring provides a very fast response to the condition with detection possible in half a cycle. Using point-on-wave thyristor switchmg, triggered near the voltage zero point, it measures the current through a shunt inductor, enabling calculation of system

Since there is generally a considerable Qfference in system impedance when synchronised to and operating in isolation from the network, an impedance measuring device need not be particularly accurate. One way of measuring impedance, where accuracy is not a prime consideration, is by exploiting the characteristics of the voltage divider. Application of a signal to the voltage dwider circuit shown in figure 3 will result in a voltage V,, at the output.

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Variation of the value Z2 will result in a change of output voltage, V,,,. By configuring a circuit with the system impedance as Z2, then the variation of that system impedance will result in a change of Vout,from whch an informed decision can be taken as to whether the system is operating as an island or not. Operation will cause the relay to: Trip the inter-tie circuit breaker. Trip the input to the voltage chvider, causing the hf ripple to cease, enabling the embedded generator to continue its operation with an undstorted waveform.
Vout v

system impedance

volts

*T

n
03
05

Figure 3 - The voltage divider

The magnitude of Vou,depends on V,, Z1 and Z2:

7

01

07

09

11

13

15

17

19

Reactance (&I)

Figure 5 - Voltage dvrder response

A small high frequency (hf) signal is used as the input lo the voltage &vider and coupled to the mains via a coupling capacitor. The coupling capacitor is thus incorporated into the dwider circuit and acts as Z,. It enables the small hf signal to be superimposed onto the mains as shown in figure 4. The hf signal is generally a few volts at a frequency in the low lcHz range.

The hf signal only appears on the mains during the period between LOM and identification of the condhon. During this time a small ripple will be apparent on the 50-Hz waveform. which attenuates with &stance from the transmitter. It can be eliminated totally, if necessary, with the use of a line trap but its momentary presence on the system should be acceptable. Also, since the carrier signal is a low frequency sine wave it does not contribute to system rado-frequency interference.

3.2 Power Factor Correction

In its present form the device can fail to operate when located near power-factor correction equipment. Shunt capacitors will appear as a low impedance to the hf signal and, if they are close to the device, can cause the system impedance to appear constantly low, even while islanded. One method of eliniinating the low impedance effect of power factor correction equipment is to use a line trap. Line traps were first used in the 1930's in carrier pilot relay systems to confine the carrier power to a protected section of transmission line. They typically consist of a parallel induclor/capacitor combination tuned to g v e a high impedance at the carrier frequency and negligible impedance at SOHZ. We can use a line trap in this situation to 'weight' the impedance of the EG network at the carrier frequency, making it appear much larger than it is and removing the apparent low impedance introduced by power-factor correction.
4. TESTING OF THE DEVICE

Figure 4 - Small hf signal superimposed onto the mains

A response for a typical voltage dvider circuit is shown in figure 5 and shows that when the device is correctly , , can be obtained for tuned a considerable change in V a small change in system impedance. V,, is measured using a high-pass filter connected across the mains, removing the 50-Hz waveform and returning a value for the magnitude of the hf signal, which will vary with change in system impedance.
It is usual to choose component values for Z1 such that the ripple on the mains will be negligible when synchronised to the utility. When LOM occurs Z z will increase and a small hf ripple will appear, superimposed on the 50-Hz waveform. The detection circuit will sense the magnitude of the signal and when it exceeds a predetermined value the unit will trip.

Digital simulations were employed to test the validty of the technique and a micromachine system used as a

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practical test bed. The micromachine system consisted of a 3-kVA synchronous generator, tied to a busbar through a transformer and artificial transmission line. Setting of the new unit requires a knowledge of the synchronised and island impedances at the particular busbar to whch the unit will be connected. A bus close to the low impedance infinite bus should be chosen. This serves to place as many transformers (which act as impedance buffers) between the embedded generator and the unit, ensuring the ratio between island and synchronised impedances is a maximum. The system setup is shown in figure 6. these methods cannot, at present. be guaranteed to operate in the required time under all condltions. Active techniques provide a more reliable approach to identlfication of loss of mains, but traditionally at the expense of dlrectly influencing either the quality of supply or the performance of the power system. As a result they have generally not been implemented. The new method presented here provides fast identification of loss of mains, incorporating the advantages of active devices with the compatibility of passive techniques. It correctly identlfies LOM during operating condltions in whch more established forms of protection fail to operate and remains stable during system dlsturbances.

Auho-amp

\I

Cncut-breaka - O U p h g

= T

In terms of spinning reserve, embedded generation has tradltionally been considered negative reserve. Ths is due to the probability of erroneous trips from ROCOF relays during gnd frequency transients, isolating the private generator at a time when its capacity is required. Since the proposed method remains stable under all frequency and fault conditions, it presents the opportunity of using embedded generation to contribute to spinning reserve.
6.

Fjgure 6 - System setup

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

When the system is synchronised Z2 is small and when correctly tuned the ripple is negligble, as indlcated by the oscilloscope waveform in figure 7a. Islandmg results in an increase in Zzand a ripple becomes apparent at the output of the high pass filter circuit as shown in figure 7b, enabling the relay to trip.

The authors wish to express their gratitude to E Swidenbank and D Flym for their assistance with the micromachine system at the Queens University of Belfast.

7.

REFERENCES

[ 11 ELECTRICITY ASSOCIATION: Recommendations for the connection of embedded generating plant to the distribution system. Engineering recommendation G59/1, Northern Ireland, 1993.

[2] ELECTRICITY ASSOCIATION: Notes of guidance for the protection of embedded generating plant up to 5 M W for operation in parallel with public electricity suppliers dishbution systems. Engineering Technical Report No. 113,
1994.

Figure 7a - Synchronised

Figure 7b - Islanded

The unit was subjected to the various range of fault conditions available on the micromachine and in all cases remained stable.
5. CONCLUSION

[3] Redfem; M A, Usta, 0 and Fielding, G: Protection against loss of utility grid for a dispersed storage and generation unit. IEEE Trans. Power Delivery, Vol.8, No.3,

July 1993, pp.948-954.

[4] Warin, J W: Loss of mains protection. ERA Cod. on Circuit Protection for Industrial and Commercial Installations, London, 1990.

Power companies are continuously striving to ensure that the presence of embedded generation on their system does not have an adverse effect on the quality of supply to its customers. They attempt to solve the loss of mains problem by the application of passive techniques such as rate of change of frequency. but

[ 5 ] Cooper, C B: Standby generation - problems and prospective gains from parallel nmning. Power System Protection 89, Singapore, 1989.