Radial distribution system characterization based on the probability of wind turbine sustainable islanding

Local distribution companies (LDCs) aim at preventing sustainable islanding in their territories to protect electric equipments and the public. To contribute to the characterization of the LDC system, in this paper, the probability of sustainable islanding in an actual radial distribution system equipped with a large penetration of wind turbines (WTs) is explored to provide the worst case probability value based on demand-generation matching events. The impact of varying the load and the WTs power factors, as well as the WTs installed capacity on the probability value is investigated. Due to the uncertainty of wind characteristic variations and the WTs generation, actual demand power measurements were used along with a calculated WTs power generation based on actual wind characteristic measurements for three consecutive years. The calculated three years probability values were compared with a fourth-year probability estimated from actual installed WTs measurements. The obtained probability results are presented and discussed.