Allocation of Centrally Switched Fault Current Limiters Enabled by 5G in Transmission System

The allocation of fault current limiters (FCLs) is increasingly challenging in transmission systems these days. Specifically, the utilized deterministic expected short-circuit fault (SCF) scenarios are prone to cause over-configuration of FCLs. Moreover, the well-established local switching framework (LSF) renders inappropriate FCL switching and may further harm the system safe operation. Aiming at the above deficiencies, a novel 5G-based centralized switch FCL (CSF) framework as well as a method to allocate such flexible FCLs optimally is proposed in this paper. In the proposed CSF, the FCLs are switched by a FCL dispatching (FD) model considering system security constraints of both fault current and voltage sags. By exploiting the fast communication capability of 5G network as well as an off-line fault scanning strategy, the FD model is enabled to give online FCL switching schemes to meet the fast requirement of power system protection. Moreover, considering the probabilistic characteristic of SCFs, a bi-level FCL allocation model is established, in which the upper-level model sites and sizes FCLs considering the installation and expected switching costs while the lower-level model determines the optimal switched FCLs under each specific SCF scenario. Finally, numerical results are provided to verify the proposed allocation model, including its defending effect against SCFs in terms of fault current limiting, voltage sags relieving, as well as its cost-effectiveness.

Automated summary

This paper proposes a 5G-based centralized switch FCL framework and an optimal allocation method for flexible FCLs. By using the FD model, online FCL switching schemes are provided to meet the fast requirement of power system protection. Furthermore, a bi-level FCL allocation model is established, considering installation and expected switching costs, to determine the optimal FCL allocation strategy.