The methods used in the microprocessor protection of electrical equipment for forming orthogonal components of input currents ensure their reliable isolation after changing the mode followed by one or more periods of the fundamental frequency. This is due to the inertia of the functional elements, in particular, digital frequency filters, as well as the saturation of the steel magnetic cores of current transformers. To increase the speed of the selection of orthogonal components of the input currents, it is proposed to form them as equivalent ones in terms of the cosine and sine components obtained using digital Fourier filters by multiplying by the resulting coefficient. The method that has been developed for determining the specified coefficient provides compensation for the delay caused by the inertia of digital filters, as well as the saturation of the steel of magnetic cores of current transformers. The proposed method of forming orthogonal components is highly effective in the modes of strong saturation of the magnetic core with a complex input action in the presence of an aperiodic component with a large damping time constant. The evaluation of the efficiency of the proposed method was performed using a complex digital model implemented in the dynamic modeling environment MatLab-Simulink. As a result of the performed studies, it was found that in the absence of saturation of the magnetic core of current transformers, as well as in the presence of a small and medium degree of saturation, the proposed method for forming equivalent orthogonal components of input currents has dynamic properties close to the ones of those that had been previously proposed. With a strong saturation of the magnetic core of current transformers, the speed of obtaining reliable values of these components is increased by 1.5–2 times.

The development and implementation of a digital current measurement element for proper operation during current transformer (CT) magnetic core severe saturation are considered. CT transient performance is often accompanied by primary current transformation to secondary one with great errors. In this case the secondary CT current which is an input signal of the digital measurement element differs from the ideally transformed CT current both in shape and magnitude. This causes impermissible signal settling time at the standard digital measurement element output. As a result, main requirements to the protection devices such as reliability and fast operation are violated, that in some cases makes the high-speed protection device ineffective. To solve this problem, it is proposed to form the output signal of the digital current measurement element in depending on the input signal total harmonic distortion (THD) coefficient value. Moreover, it is worthwhile to form the output signal so that for a low CT saturation conditions this output signal slightly differs from the secondary current RMS value, and for a severe CT saturation conditions it exceeds this value. Digital current measurement element model has been developed and implemented in the MatLab-Simulink environment using the following blocks: a digital filter block responsible for the input signal fundamental frequency component magnitude calculation; a digital filter block responsible for the input signal RMS value calculation; and, also, a standard blocks for basic mathematical calculations needed for proper functioning of the proposed measurement element. The functional testing of the proposed digital current measurement element model was carried out using the signal, that was similar in form to the waveform of the secondary current of the severe saturated CT. The tests that had been performed confirmed that the proposed digital current measurement element in comparison with the standard current measurement element ensures stable functioning and enhanced operation time during transients.

The technique is proposed to improve the performance of the measuring element of microprocessor-based protection and its implementation is considered at the software level. Two factors mainly influence on the performance of the measuring elements of microprocessorbased protection of electrical installations. The first one is associated with the appearance of aperiodic and harmonic components in the measured signals due to transients and nonlinearity of the electrical installation elements, and the second–with the inertia of information processing algorithms, in particular–with analog and digital filtering. This leads to the fact that the signal determining time at the output of the measuring element is delayed to unacceptable values that in some cases makes the high-speed protection of electrical equipment ineffective. To solve this problem, it is proposed to form the output signal of the measuring element in the form of special equivalent signals, which are a function of the pre-calculated correction factor and orthogonal components of the controlled signal. In the MatLab-Simulink dynamic modeling environment a mathematical model of the developed measuring element has been implemented, as well as a model of the elements of the power system. Checking the functioning of the model of the measuring element was carried out with the use of 2 types of test effects, viz. a sinusoidal signal with a frequency of 50 Hz (idealized effect), as well as a signal close to the real secondary current of the current transformer in case of short circuit. Computational experiments carried out in relation to the current measuring element using harmonic and close-to-real test effects made it possible to reveal a significant (up to 2 times) increase in the performance of the proposed measuring element as compared to existing ones based on the implementation of the discrete Fourier transform.

The implementation of information support for PC-based and hardware-software based sets for digital overcurrent protection devices and their models testing using MatLab-Simulink environment is considered. It is demonstrated that the mathematical modeling of a part of the power system – viz. of the generalized electric power object – could be based on rigid and flexible models. Rigid models implemented on the basis of mathematical description of electrical and magnetic circuits of a power system can be considered as a reference model for the simulation results that have been obtained with the aid of another simulation system to be compared with. It is proposed to implement flexible models for generalized electric power object in the MatLabSimulink environment that includes the SimPowerSystems component library targeted to power system modeling. The features of the parameters calculation of the SimPowerSystems component library blocks that the power system model is formed of are considered. Out of the Simulink standard blocks the models of a wye-connected current transformers were composed as well as the digital overcurrent protection, missing in the component library. A comparison of simulation results of one and the same generalized electric power object implemented in various PC-based software packages was undertaken. The divergence of simulation results did not exceed 3 %; the latter allows us to recommend the MatLab-Simulink environment for information support creation for hardware-software based sets for digital overcurrent protection devices testing. The structure of the hardware-software based set for digital overcurrent protection device testing using the Omicron CMC 356 has been suggested. Time to trip comparison between the real digital protection device МР 801 and the model with the parameters which are exactly match the parameters of the prototype device was carried out using the identical test inputs. The results of the tests demonstrated a close coincidence of results (the divergence of not more than 8 %), that confirms the possibility of using the suggested hardware-software based test set during the development and debugging of new digital relay protection devices.

In microprocessor protections of electric power systems, the controlled information parameters of input signals are determined using their orthogonal components. To form these components, digital Fourier filters which have inertia are most widely used. As a result, transient modes of orthogonal components formation are accompanied by the appearance of a dynamic error. It consists of dynamic amplitude and phase errors, which can significantly affect the functioning of the corresponding measuring elements and cause the possibility of their excessive triggering during external short circuits and slowing down the triggering during internal short circuits. The reduction of the influence of these factors on the behavior of measuring elements is ensured by the use of high-speed shapers to isolate orthogonal components, as well as by compensating for dynamic phase error. The proposed method of forming orthogonal components of a signal with compensation for dynamic phase error is based on obtaining orthogonal Fourier components, followed by determining from their samples the calculated components that coincide or are shifted in phase relative to the orthogonal Fourier components, respectively, in steady-state and transient modes. The resulting orthogonal components with minimal dynamic phase errors are calculated in accordance with samples of calculated orthogonal components and Fourier components. The efficiency of the proposed solution was evaluated by a computational experiment using a digital model implemented in the MATLAB-Simulink dynamic modeling environment. At the same time, both sinusoidal input signals and complex ones with an aperiodic component and higher harmonics were used as test actions. As a result of the studies carried out, it has been found that the proposed method of compensation for dynamic phase error in the formation of orthogonal components is workable and effective for both sinusoidal and complex input signals. The developed compensation method reduces the dynamic phase error of digital Fourier filters by three to four times.