Transient phenomena analysis and protection evaluation in an industrial power system

Various catastrophic incidents and tripping events that have taken place in the electrical power system of an oil and gas plant in Libya have initiated the investigation of electromagnetic transient related phenomena in this site. A field survey was initially performed for this purpose. In addition, advanced measurement devices were installed in critical substation locations in order to monitor various routine switching operations that would help to properly model the electrical network under investigation in an Electromagnetic Transients Program (EMTP). On February 7th, 2010, a plant blackout occurred twice while the monitoring process was still in progress. Post-mortem analysis of the blackout event has been performed using both EMTP and protection coordination software, based on the received oscillographs and measurements data. The analysis, as well as the simulations and the derived results are presented in this paper. Corrective measures were proposed to address both the transient phenomena and the protection issues in this site.