Hybrid Control and Protection Scheme for Inverter Dominated Microgrids

Abstract

With the high penetration of various sustainable energy sources, the control and protection of Microgrids has become a challenging problem considering the inherent current limitation feature of inverter-based Distributed Generators (DGs) and the bidirectional power flow in Microgrids. In this paper, a hybrid control and protection scheme is proposed, which combines the traditional inverse-time overcurrent protection with the biased differential protection for different feeders with different kinds of loads. It naturally accommodates various control strategies such as P-Q control and V-f control. The parameter settings of the protection scheme are analyzed and calculated through a fast Fourier transform algorithm, and the stability of the control strategy is discussed by building a small signal model in MATLAB. Different operation modes such as the grid-connected mode, the islanding mode, and the transitions between these two modes are ensured. A Microgrid model is established in PSCAD and the analysis results show that a Microgrid system can be effectively protected against different faults such as the single phase to ground and the three phase faults in both the grid-connected and islanded operation modes.