Adaptive System Protection Scheme using Generalized Pattern Search

Due to physical limitations of power network and ever growing power demands from customers, utilities are facing the challenge of providing a high quality and continuous electricity supply. In order to maintain the stability of the network, increasing the infrastructure capacity becomes necessary. Alternatively, utilities can implement SPS (System Protection Schemes) as a short-term cost-effective solution. SPS are custom tailored schemes dealing with specific events to prevent system deterioration. SPS are usually designed for predefined conditions and their respective pre-calculated actions are based upon the worst case scenario. This paper proposes an intelligent SPS design scheme that adapts to different load scenarios by using state estimation results to update the necessary control actions to prevent the network from collapse due to loss of synchronism. The study results indicate that the proposed algorithm can prevent angular instability and enhance network reliability. The continuous update scheme proposed can optimize the controls required in a time frame for fast actions to prevent system instability.