Technological development for protection, analysis, supervision and automation of electrical power systems of the future

Abstract

The economic and social development of a country depends strongly on the efficiency of its electrical sector as this sector has great influence on the productive capacity of the country in a globalized market, as well as on the welfare of the population. The electrical sector in this project must be understood as areas that involve generation, transmission, distribution and consumption of electrical energy. Although this sector is more than a century old, it has recently experienced significant technological, economic and structural changes leading to a complete shift of its paradigms. This reorganization requires new equipment and techniques involving operation, analysis, supervision and system protection to be developed. It must be outlined that due to the flaws of the Brazilian system, the simple importation of techniques and devices of developed countries is sometimes not justified. Moreover, a new type of professional is needed to work in the electrical sector due to the multidisciplinary areas required by the current market. This new professional does not only need general knowledge of the classic areas of engineering, but he must also understand techniques that involve economy, computing, telecommunication, mathematics (optimization), chemistry, etc. Clear evidence of these changes has been coined by the term "smart grids" which, in a simplified form, describes the in-depth use of measurement and communication to deal with protection, analysis, supervision and automation of electrical systems in a unified way. Thus, the main objective of this project is to develop new methodologies and technologies for the electrical systems of the future. These developments focus on the main topics, such as: o Development of methodologies for digital protection with intelligent, hybrid and self-adaptive characteristics; o Development of methodologies for power quality analysis based on digital measurements; o Development of methodologies for real time analysis in power systems; o Development of unified methodologies for protection, analysis, supervision and automation based on the use of Intelligent Electronic Devices (IEDs). (AU)