Overcurrent Protection in Electrical Distribution Systems Through Probabilistic Approach

This work describes the study of distribution system overcurrent protection through a probabilistic approach. Conventional approaches for overcurrent protection do not consider the probabilistic nature of the main variables involved, such as fault location, fault type and fault impedance for faults involving the ground. In this case, for instance, it is very difficult to assess the impact of situations where full coordination cannot be attained for some reason. The probabilistic approach, on the other hand, allows quantifying the risk of two adjacent protective devices operating in a non-coordinated way. This information is extremely valuable for electrical engineers at design level. In this work, the proposed methodology is illustrated through a few detailed application studies, including various sensitivity analyzes for assessing the influence of model parameters on the coordination of protective devices.