Methodology for faults diagnosis in transmission lines with high penetration of inverter-interfaced wind generators

Abstract

The climate impacts and the accelerated depletion of fossil fuel reserves have highlighted renewable generations as a solution for the sustainable supply of future energy demands. Thus, a massive integration of Inverter-Interfaced Wind Generators (IIWGs) has been noticed worldwide and in the Brazilian energy systems. In this new and growing scenario, the atypical operational characteristics of IIWGs have worried several researchers since the protection functions, and fault diagnosis methodologies were initially designed based on the predictable behavior of conventional generations, which now begins to be significantly affected by the presence of IIWGs in the system. Given such problematic issues, this project proposes, besides a detailed evaluation of the impact of IIWGs on conventional fault diagnosis methods and protection functions, to develop a complete methodology encompassing the detection, classification, and localization of faults in transmission lines, which is not impacted by the presence of IIWGs. In addition, the potentials of the developed methodologies for applications in electrical power system protection will be explored. To validate the developed methods, besides the modeling/simulation of power systems with high penetration of IIWGs, using PSCAD, RSCAD, and MATLAB software, it is intended to dispose of real oscillographs of occurrences obtained in the field. The computational modeling will also consider aspects related to IIWGs' converter controls, grid code requirements, and typical topologies for the interconnection of IIWGs to the grid. It is expected that this project will contribute to the areas of fault diagnosis and protection of transmission lines, bridging gaps observed in existing methodologies. (AU)