An adaptive reactive power perturbation based hybrid islanding detection method for distributed generation systems

Abstract

The intentional islanding operation of distributed generation (DG) systems can bring many benefits to the DG owner, distribution network operators and customers. One of the requirements for intentional islanding operation is the successful detection of the grid events which can lead to islanding of the DG system. This paper presents the hybrid islanding detection method based on adaptive reactive power variation with a passive algorithm that relies on the transient response characteristics for facilitating islanding detection. The proposed method presented in this paper can overcome the problems in the reactive power variation based methods. Extensive studies are conducted for differentiating the transient characteristic features for islanded and non-islanded systems. In this study the adaptive reactive power sequence is modified to enhance the performance under sudden load changes. The proposed method proved to detect all probable islanding situations with minimum run-on time. The performance of the method is evaluated using simulation results obtained from MATLAB/SIMPOWERSYSTEMS software considering wind power based DG system.