Review of the State of the Art on Adaptive Protection for Microgrids Based on Communications

Abstract

The dominance of distributed energy resources in microgrids and the associated weather dependence require flexible protection. They include devices capable of adapting their protective settings as a reaction to (potential) changes in the state of the system. Communication technologies have a key role in this system, since the reactions of the adaptive devices shall be coordinated. This coordination imposes strict requirements: communications must be available and ultrareliable with bounded latency in the order of milliseconds. This article reviews the state of the art in the field and provides a thorough analysis of the main related communication technologies and optimization techniques. We also present our perspective on the future of communication deployments in microgrids, indicating the viability of 5G wireless systems and multiconnectivity to enable adaptive protection.