Analysis of a Major Electric Grid – Stability and Adaptive Protection

Protective systems of the electric grid are designed to detect and mitigate the effects of faults and other disturbances that may occur. Distance relays are used extensively for the detection of faults on transmission lines. Out-of-step relays are used for generator protection to detect loss of synchronism conditions that result from disturbances on the electric grid. Also, when a disturbance occurs and generators may tend to lose synchronism with each other, it is beneficial to separate the overall system into several independent systems that can remain stable. Unfortunately there have been cases, such as the 2003 Northeast blackout where the operation of protective relays, namely the zone 3 distance relay used for transmission line protection, contributed to the cascading effect of the blackout. It is the objective of this dissertation to propose adaptive relays for both distance protection of transmission lines and out-of-step protection of generators. By being adaptive, the relays are made aware of the system operating conditions and can adjust its settings accordingly. Inputs to the adaptive logic can come from system or environmental conditions. As a result of this effort, a new distance relay operating characteristic is proposed, referred to as a mushroom relay, which is a combination of a quadrilateral relay and a Mho relay. Also, a new criterion for determining if a power swing following a disturbance is stable or unstable is proposed.Distance protection of transmission lines is very important when discussing system responses to faults and disturbances. Distance relays are very common worldwide and although they offer great protection, there are limitations that need to be addressed. Parallel line operations (infeed effect) and the loadability limits are among the limitations that lead to improper response of relays. An Adaptive Distance Relays (ADR) offer great benefits to the protection scheme as their settings can be changed in accordance with prefault system conditions. This dissertation introduces a combination of quadrilateral and mho characteristics to create a distance relay with a mushroom shape in R-X diagrams. This new relay offers larger protective reach with a lower limitation on loadability.When major disturbances occur, the power balance between load and generation might be disturbed causing the generators to lose synchronism (to be out-of-step) with each other. Out-of-step protection against power swings is essential to provide supervising signals for distance relays to mitigate the effects of the disturbance. A new R-X criterion is proposed to identify out-of-step conditions for large and complex power systems, such as KEG. A proposed Adaptive Out-of-Step Relay (AOSR) will monitor power system conditions and adjust the relay reach accordingly for better power swing classification. When unstable swings are detected, controllable tripping signals are initiated and system separation will create small subsystems or islands of the power system. These smaller systems will be created to achieve a balance of load and available generation.The electric power system chosen to study and to illustrate the criteria for the proposed adaptive relays was that of the country of Kuwait. The small oil-rich country of Kuwait has been dealing with an electric energy crisis that started summer 2006. With a dry dessert climate and intensely hot summers, the 3.6 million residents of Kuwait depend on continuously operated A/C units for living. This is the major reason why the peak load in a summer month reaches almost 11,000 MW while the peak load in a winter month does not exceed 5,000 MW. The Kuwait Electric Grid (KEG) is modelled and analyzed using Power Analytics’ software known as Paladin® DesignBase™. Performance studies produce data to examine distance and out-of-step protection. Power Flow (PF), Short Circuit Analysis (SCA), and Transient Stability Analysis (TSA) are used to verify the model of KEG. These studies are the starting point when studying any large power system in order to investigate how the system operates during normal conditions and during abnormal conditions due to disturbances. Simulations showed that KEG is highly stressed, as major disturbances would cause instability.

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Philosophy

Level thesis:degree_level

doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Grantor dc:publisher

The Ohio State University

Year dc:date

2013

Author dc:creator

• Alanzi, Sultan

Contributors dc:contributor

• Kasten, Donald

• Electrical Engineering
• Power System Protection
• Distance Relays
• Out-of-Step Relays
• Power Swings, R-X Diagrams
• Loadability Limit

Statement dc:rights

• unrestricted
• This thesis or dissertation is protected by copyright: all rights reserved. It may not be copied or redistributed beyond the terms of applicable copyright laws.

Language dc:language

English

Repository record dc:identifier

http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1365969976

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:etd.ohiolink.edu:osu1365969976