Transient Phenomena Analysis and Protection Evaluation in an Industrial Power System

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