Application of wide-area protection concepts in microgrids

In this paper wide-area protection is discussed in microgrids. Firstly, the opportunities that the microgrids propose for the enhancement of protection of the lines are presented. The main focus is on the communication capabilities that the microgrids inherently propose. The paper discusses the smart distribution microgrids, as this would refer to a communication infrastructure within microgrids that promotes the performance of the protection decisions. It is supposed that the sample microgrid has the required communication links to make a decision based on the local measurements and also the status of the adjacent relays. In this case logic-based protection is considered for the sample network. It is proposed instead of giving the authority of tripping the circuit breakers to different individual relays, the protection to be performed semicentrally by collecting the situational data in a wider area, identifying the fault location based on the wide-area collected data and then intelligently make the trip decision. The contributions are presented on a sample microgrid.