2013 International Conference on Renewable Energy and Sustainable Energy [ICRESE’13]
Impact of Distributed Generation on
Protective Relays
Sujo P George
Department o Electrical Engineering Department o Electrical Engineering
NIT Calicut NIT Calicut
Kerala, India Kerala, India
sujop709@gmail.com ashoks@nitc.ac.in
Abstract— The current power system is working under
sustaining energy shortages. The distributed generation (DG) can
be a solution for the energy shortage. Distributed generation
refers to generation of power using a set of small sized generators
that produces power at low voltage levels. The distributed
generators are mainly designed to be connected directly to the
distribution network near load centres. The distributed
generation have some negative impacts in the power grid. DG is
connected to the grid through power converters. These power
converters results in power quality problems. The power quality
problems include frequency fluctuation and harmonics which
results in maloperation of relays. Many of the DG sources like
wind, solar etc are intermittent in nature. The source impedance
is varying in nature due to these intermittencies. The fault current
characteristics are changing in the presence of distributed
generation. Existing relay settings will not sense these change,
which leads to maloperation of relays. The adaptive relaying can
be a solution for the malfunction of relays. Adaptive relaying
means the relay has to adapt to the changing environment. The
decision making capability is to be incorporated with existing
relays. The intelligence capability must be added to the relays.
Index Terms—: Distributed Generation (DG), Power Quality,
Adaptive Relaying and Fault Current.
I. INTRODUCTION
The earliest electric power systems were distributed
generation (DG) systems intended to cater to the requirements
of local areas. [1] Subsequent technology developments resulted
in the development of large centralized grids connecting up
entire regions and countries. The design and operating
philosophies of power systems have emerged with a focus on
centralized generation. Centralized generation alone is not
necessary to meet the power requirement. To avoid sustaining
energy shortage, distributed generation (DG) can be a solution
method. DG can be defined as the installation and operation of
electric power generation units connected directly to the
distribution network or connected to the network on the
customer site. The various types of distributed generation
includes wind power, solar power, biomass power generation,
fuel cell, micro turbine etc. Promotion of energy conservation
and increased use of renewable energy sources are the twin
planks of a sustainable energy supply. [2]
The various issues associated with the incorporation of
distributed generation in existing network are summarised in [3]
and [4]. The addition of generation could influence power
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Ashok S M N Bandyopadhyay
Director
NIT Calicut
Kerala, India
director@nitc.ac.in
quality problems, degradation in system reliability, reduction in
the efficiency, over voltages and safety issues, increase in short
circuit level, co-ordination problems in relays, poor voltage
regulation, sag and swells, harmonics, voltage flicker, voltage
dips, sustained interruptions and voltage unbalance. The change
in fault current level (FCL) can in turn alter device
discrimination; reduce reach of over current relays and distance
relays, cause sympathetic tripping, force unintentional islanding
etc.
The correct behavior of protective relays is important to
assure three main functions 1.) Prevent possible failures,
reducing economical losses resulting from equipment
destruction. 2.) Mitigate the destructive consequences of
possible failures (faults) and avoiding its propagation.
3.) Prevent relay maloperation which cause unnecessary
disconnection of the healthy parts of the network and could
potentially lead to system instability. [5]
II.ISSUES ON POWER QUALITY DUE TO DISTRIBUTED
GENERATION
The protective relays are affected by power quality
problems because of poor wave quality. The main steady-state
disturbances that can affect the performance of protective
relays are frequency variation and harmonics. [5] - [7]
Frequency Variation: The relay magnitude measurement
is based on input signal sampling. The input module takes a
predefined number of samples in each cycle of fundamental
frequency. In case of 12 samples per cycle, sampling period is
equal to Ti = 20 ms/12 = 1.66 ms. If an increase of frequency
takes place but the sampling period is fixed (1.66 ms, in this
case) the resulting RMS value will be erroneous. The error
appears in this case due to the fact that the RMS value
calculated on the basis of 12 samples takes into account more
than one cycle of the waveform. When power system
frequency differs from 50Hz, the calculated current RMS value
is erroneous, resulting in magnitude fluctuations. Due to these
fluctuations, the RMS value measured by the relay is not
constant, oscillating around the mean value which is close to
the actual value. This behavior can potentially lead to incorrect
operation of the relay. Thus, if the fluctuation magnitude
exceeds the relay over current setting, the relay maloperate,
resulting in an incorrect trip. The solution method suggested is
the adaptiveness of relay sampling frequency.
 Harmonic Distortion: Harmonic distortion causes the
working of relay incorrectly. Depending on the characteristics
of the measured signal, in practice four types of harmonics can
be found, quasi-stationary harmonics, fluctuating harmonics,
rapidly changing harmonics and inter harmonics, apart from
other spurious components. For protective relays rapidly
changing harmonics have the worst effect. When the harmonic
level is less than 20% the correct operation of relay is not
affected. Harmonics can distort or degrade the operating
characteristics of protective relays depending on the design
features and principles of operation. Due to increase in non
linear loads, total harmonic distortion (THD) level more than
20% is expected. Over current relays have to operate with
current transformers (CT) which may saturate and distort the
current waveform causing a malfunction in over current relays.
Voltage fluctuations or Flicker: Variation in power
generation of distributed generators based on irregular primary
sources like wind turbines, photo voltaic etc cause voltage
fluctuation or flicker. All relays in the power system have fixed
operating voltage. The variation in the voltage causes
maloperation of relays.
Voltage sag and Voltage swell: A sag is a decrease to
between 0.1 and 0.9 pu in rms voltage or current at the power
frequency for durations from 0.5 cycles to 1 minute. A swell is
an increase to between 1.1 and 1.8 pu in rms voltage or current
at the power frequency for durations from 0.5 cycle to 1
minute. Both sag and swell causes the deviation of voltage
from the actual relay setting voltage level which results in
malfunction of relays.
III.PROBLEMS DUE TO INTERMITTENT NATURE OF
DISTRIBUTED GENERATION IN PROTECTION LEVEL
The following are the different problems due to intermittent
nature of distributed generation in protection level. [8]
Fault Level: The connection of a DG to a distribution
network will inevitably result in some local changes to the
characteristics of the network. Connecting a generator to a
distribution network has the effect of increasing the fault levels
in the network close to the point of connection. The connection
of distributed generation to the network could cause a
distribution network, which happens to be close to its fault
level limit, to exceed it. The risks when fault levels are
exceeded will cause damage and failure of the plant, with
consequent risk of injury to personnel and interruption to
supplies. The new fault current and setting should be calculated
for the protection equipment in the system.
Reverse Power Flow: Radial distribution networks are
usually designed for unidirectional power flow, from the in
feed downstream to the loads. This assumption is reflected in
standard protection schemes with directional over current
relays. The load flow situation may change with a generation
on the distribution feeder. If the local production exceeds the
local consumption, the power flow will change the direction.
Reverse power flow is problematic if it is not considered in the
protection system design.
Islanding: Islanding occurs when a portion of the
distribution system becomes electrically isolated from the
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remainder of the power system, yet continues to be energized
by DG connected to the isolated subsystem. Distribution
networks with DG are presently not designed to operate in
island mode. If unplanned islanding occurs it presents a
number of hazards and thus need to be avoided.
Protection Coordination: Faults are eliminated in the
smallest possible time, isolating the smallest part of the system
containing the cause of the fault. The presence of distributed
generation may cause coordination problem, such that more
area will be isolated.
Blinding of Protection: Blinding of protection is also
called protection under reach. The distributed generation is
supplying energy locally to load. As a result the fault current
seen by the relay is reduced. The result is that the relay fails to
trip.
Sympathetic Tripping: Sympathetic tripping is an
expression given to the case at which one of the protection
devices trips instead of the other. This tripping occurs due to
one device detecting the fault while it is out of its local
protection area and tripping before the required tripping device.
The protective device operates unnecessary for faults in
another protection zone. As a result the healthy feeder gets
tripped.
The approaches based on adaptive relaying are proposed in
[9]–[10] is used to face the above situations. Adaptive relaying
is defined as a protection philosophy which permits and seeks
to make adjustments to various protection functions in order to
make them more attuned to prevailing power system conditions
in [10]
IV.SIMULATIONS AND RESULTS
The IEEE 14 bus test system is used to demonstrate the
impact of distributed generation on protective relays. The
Fig.1. IEEE 14 bus system
Electrical transient and analysis program (ETAP) software is
taken for simulation purpose.
 The IEEE 14 bus test system has 2 generators, 3 synchronous indicated for LLG and LG faults in figures 2 and 3
condensers and 9 load buses. The system has 20 transmission respectively.
lines. The details of IEEE 14 bus system is given in [11]. Increase in fault level with increase in DG penetration - LLG fault
77.85
. The capacity of wind turbine generator is set to be 10 MW.
The three phase short circuit fault is inserted to bus number
77.8
4.The two over current relays are connected in between bus 2
to 3 and 3 to 4.The two over current relays are made such that
77.75
it is supposed to with stand the fault. Due to non availability of

F a u lt L e v e l in k A
wind, the wind generator capacity is changed to OFF mode. In
77.7
that case the circuit breaker in line connecting the buses 2 and
3 is tripped. (Fig.3) The wind turbine generator capacity is
changed to 20 MW due to good availability of wind. When
77.65

there is a fault in bus number 4 the circuit breaker connected

in line between the buses 3 and 4 will trip. Therefore the
77.6

existing relays malfunctions in the presence of distributed

generation. Due to intermittent nature of wind we cannot 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25
Increase in DG penetration
provide an ideal setting for the relays. Table I gives the
increase in fault level with increase in DG penetration for three Fig. 2 Increment of fault level with increase in DG
penetration –LLG fault
phase short circuit fault and the variation is graphically
Increase in fault level with increase in DG penetration - LLG fault
TABLE I. INCREAMENT OF FAULT LEVEL WITH INCREASING DG 71.98

DG 10 15 20
0 MW 5 MW
71.96

Capacity MW MW MW
71.94

Bus No Increase in Fault Ampere

F a u lt L e v e l in k A

71.92

1 206.1 208 210 211.9 214 71.9

71.88
2 205.7 207.7 209.7 211.6 213.6
71.86
3 201.8 203.8 205.8 207.8 209.8
71.84
5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25
4 204.3 206.3 208.2 210.2 212.1 Increase in DG penetration

5 204.2 206.2 208.1 210 212

Fig. 3 Increment of fault level with increase in DG penetration –LG
fault
6 84.81 84.91 85.01 85.11 85.21
V. ADAPTIVE RELAYING
7 85 85.11 85.21 85.31 85.41
Adaptive protection concepts were introduced in 1980s to
8 83.39 83.49 85.59 83.69 83.78 fulfil the requirement of absolute selectivity, high sensitivity
and adequate severity. Adaptive Relaying means protective
9 85.47 85.57 85.68 85.78 85.88 settings should be automatically adjusted to make the
protective relays more attuned to prevailing system conditions.
10 85.1 85.21 85.31 85.41 85.51 There are different types of adaptive protection like adaptive
distance protection, adaptive current differential protection
11 84.62 84.72 84.82 84.92 85.02
and adaptive power differential protection. Recently
increasingly more distributed generators (DGs), being
12 83.59 83.69 83.79 83.89 83.98
connected to the grid. The implementation of DG can create
difficulties for the existing power system protection schemes
13 84.48 84.58 84.68 84.78 84.88
and cause protection devices to operate incorrectly. Adaptive
14 84.32 84.43 84.53 84.63 84.72 relaying can be a solution to these problems. [9]

CAPACITY – THREE PHASE SHORT CIRCUIT FAULT

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 Fig.4. IEEE 14 bus with a DG on third bus and a three phase short circuit fault on fourth bus
Relays are used to protect electric power systems in a
predetermined manner. The relay settings are selected after
studying most of the critical power system conditions. It is
difficult and impossible to identify and analyze all operating
conditions of concern in advance and to determine relay settings
that would the optimum for all normal and abnormal operating
conditions. The scenario has been changed with the
development of microprocessor-based relays, because they can
collect information, handle complex logic and communicate
with other relays and control devices. It is possible to
continuously monitor the state of a power system, analyze it in
real-time, and change the relay settings to most appropriate at
that time. Microprocessor based relays forms an adaptive
approach which reduces the relay operating times and provides
proper relay coordination at all operating conditions. [12]
The architecture of adaptive relaying is given in Fig.5. The
relays sample bus voltages and line currents via voltage and
current transducers, auxiliary transformers, analog to digital
converters and multiplexers. Each relay processes quantized
samples and calculates voltage and current phasors. During
normal operating conditions, each relay provides phasor
measurements to its station control computer at regular
intervals. The relays check the status of local isolators and
circuit breakers and provide the information to the station
computers. In addition to communicating with the relays, the
station computers pass on the collected information to the
central computer which estimates the system state and decides
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whether the relay settings should be changed or not. If it
decides to change the settings, it calculates them and conveys
them to the relays via the station control computers. The relays
implement the new settings and send confirmation messages to
the central computer via the station computers. If the central
computer decides not to change the settings, the decision is
communicated to the relays for sharing information and
confirming that communication facilities are working properly.
Adaptive relaying provides lower relay operating times and
maintains proper relay coordination. A change of system
configuration affects the selectivity adversely unless relay
settings are changed. The adaptive relaying is a key
requirement for smart grid operation which includes distributed
generation. [12]-[15]
Central Computer
Substation Control
Computer
Relay
Substation
Fig.5. Adaptive Relaying Architecture
 VI. CONCLUSIONS International Journal of Electrical Power & Energy Systems,
Volume 43, Issue 1,December2012, Pages1460-1466
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