Investigation of transmission line protection performance in an electric grid with electronically coupled generation

Generation connected to the transmission system via inverters (electronically coupled generation) is a growing. Utility protection engineers conventionally use impedance matrix algorithms to determine fault current magnitudes and angles, perform coordination studies, and guide relay settings. In transmission protection studies, it has thus far been common practice to exclude the fault current contributions from electronically coupled generation. With an increase in penetration levels of electronically coupled generation there is an increasing need to investigate how growth of this particular type of generation may impact dependability and security of transmission protection systems. The differences between conventional synchronous generation and electronically coupled generation are considered as it relates to modeling for electrical power system impedance based fault programs. In addition, considerations for the application of transmission protection for interconnections of electronically coupled generation are analyzed.