An Incremental Negative Sequence Admittance Method for Fault Detection in Inverter-Based Microgrids

TL;DR

This paper introduces an incremental negative sequence admittance method for detecting unbalanced faults in inverter-based microgrids, enhancing protection reliability in active distribution networks.

Contribution

It proposes a novel superimposed negative sequence admittance approach validated through simulations, improving fault detection in microgrids with distributed generation.

Findings

Effective fault detection in various scenarios

Improved protection scheme reliability

Validated through MATLAB/Simulink simulations

Abstract

Superimposed sequence quantities have been relied on for years to provide pure fault components for various applications in protection schemes. In more recent times, they have been employed in various solutions to the challenges introduced by integration of distributed generation in distribution systems. To improve the overall reliability of protection schemes deployed in such active distribution networks, this paper evaluates a new approach for detecting unbalanced faults using negative sequence quantities. A proposed superimposed negative sequence admittance element is validated using simulation tests on a modelled community microgrid. The performance of the method is tested for various fault scenarios in MATLAB/Simulink.