Detection tools for disturbances and protective relay operations leading to cascading events

The power system cascading outage is quite often a complex phenomenon, which may finally result in a large area blackout. Detecting and preventing cascading blackouts is crucial to maintaining the power system reliability and security. This paper discusses implementation of a method used to detect the cascading events by coordinating the system-wide and substation-wide monitoring and control tools. The framework of the implementation is given first. The data requirements for the proposed system-wide and local substation algorithms are investigated in detail. Obtaining and handling data through integration of traditional Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system and modern Intelligent Electronic Devices (IEDs) is outlined. Case studies based on a real power system model shows the proposed algorithms are feasible. These detection tools could work as decision-making support for system operators to deal with cascading event situations.