A communication-based strategy for protection of microgrids with looped configuration

One of the main issues associated with the microgrid implementation is to devise an appropriate protection strategy that is effective in both operational modes of the microgrid, that is, the grid-connected mode and the islanded mode. The problem gets even more complicated when the microgrid has a looped configuration. This paper proposes a communication-based strategy for protection of looped/meshed microgrids. The proposed strategy, which can be implemented by commercially available microprocessor-based relays, also offers a backup protection scheme to manage communication network failures. Transient time-domain studies are carried out to verify the effectiveness of the proposed protection strategy for a realistic distribution network simulated in the PSCAD/EMTDC software environment. (c) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.