IEC 61850 based smart distribution protection: Solutions for sympathetic tripping

IEC 61850, which is the leading standard for the substation automation, can be used to develop smarter schemes of automation and protection for the other areas of power systems. This paper presents an approach of using GOOSE to address the distribution protection problem in a smart grid. It is shown that how an adaptive overcurrent element setting of a healthy distribution feeder can be used to solve the sympathetic tripping problem caused by faults on the other feeders. Detection of relay operation due to a fault on the adjacent feeder is used to adjust the relay sensitivity settings during current inrush. The appropriate Logical Nodes are introduced. A logic equation to avoid sympathetic tripping along with an editable logic solution and a PLC based logic diagram are also provided.