Automated verification of power system protection schemes - Part I: Modelling and specifications

Power system protection schemes are verified today using Monte-Carlo simulation and manual interpretation of results. The limitation of such verification technique is uncertainty of complete coverage of all possible operating conditions due to the time complexity of simulation. In this two part paper, an automated simulation based verification technique is proposed to verify correctness of protection settings efficiently using hybrid automata-temporal logic framework. In Part I, hybrid automata models of protection schemes and temporal logic assertions for desired relay operations are presented. An example is provided to demonstrate the automated verification technique in details. Its companion Part II presents a technique for test case generation to ensure early detection of design errors.