Optimization Protection Coordination for Smart Microgrid

Optimization Protection Coordination for Smart Microgrid

Presenter(s)

Uchenna Nwaichi

Comments

Presentation: 10:45 a.m.-12:00 p.m., Kennedy Union Ballroom

Description

The increasing penetration of renewable energy resources into the power grid presents many challenges in terms of optimizing grid performance and ensuring effective operation. In the particular case of islanding microgrids, the coordination of microgrid protection schemes to provide adequate system protection during grid-connected fault conditions and to seamlessly accommodate the transition to islanded operation is of significant interest. Several recent studies have explored this problem characterizing the different fault regimes evident in islanded operation, and numerous approaches to resolving these challenges have been proposed ranging from adaptive protection methods, differential current methods, voltage droop and harmonic distortion approaches, and phasor-based and travelling wave methods. New approaches to this problem continue to be explored and some recent reports have demonstrated effective operation on model systems. In a robust microgrid with multiple sources, optimization of the microgrid protection scheme is necessary to avoid miscoordination due to the possibility of changes in microgrid load or power flow. In this work a smart approach of fault isolation and system protection using circuit segmentation is proposed. A mathematical model of the protection scheme is developed, and a coordinated protection system is designed with redundancies to ensure protection in the event of device failure. Optimization methods are explored where an objective function is minimized using, water cycle, particle swarm, genetic, simulated annealing and pattern search optimization algorithms. The design approach seeks to minimize the protection response time, minimizing the time from fault detection to system segmentation and isolation. A comparative assessment of the overall performance of the listed optimization approaches is presented based on performance metrics such as operating time and solution convergence.

Publication Date

4-20-2022

Project Designation

Graduate Research

Primary Advisor

Robert J. Brecha, Malcolm W. Daniels, Jitendra Kumar, Raul E. Ordonez

Primary Advisor's Department

Chemical and Materials Engineering

Keywords

Stander Symposium project, School of Engineering

United Nations Sustainable Development Goals

Affordable and Clean Energy

Optimization Protection Coordination for Smart Microgrid

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