Protection of LVDC Microgrids in Grid-Connected and Islanded Modes Using Bifurcation Theory

Abstract

Low-voltage dc (LVdc) microgrids facilitate the integration of renewable energy systems and modern loads. However, they suffer from the lack of a sensitive, selective, reliable, and fast protection strategy. The low fault current of high-resistance faults makes fault detection and faulty zone identification challenging tasks for protection engineers. This article proposes a protection scheme that is effective for both bolted and high-resistance faults at the LVdc feeders. The developed strategy relies on two intelligent electronic devices at both ends of the protected zone, calculating the normalized superimposed component of the line current. By adding this component to the input of the periodically forced harmonic oscillator (PFHO), both fault occurrence and fault direction can be simultaneously determined based on the oscillator state variable with only two possible values during the stable and unstable modes. It eliminates the need for the selection of various protection thresholds for different LVdc microgrid structures/topologies. The proposed protection strategy can classify pole-to-ground and pole-to-pole faults and is effective for both grid-connected and islanded LVdc microgrids. The reliable performance of the developed PFHO-based protection is assessed on the simulation model of a ±750 V meshed LVdc microgrid with the TN-S grounding system.