Deployment of System Protection Schemes for enhancing reliability of power system: Operational experience of wide area SPS in Northern Regional Power System in India

System Protection Schemes (SPS) are widely accepted as an effective tool for increasing the utilization of power networks by enhancing the resilience of the power system towards rare contingencies. These schemes are considered as 2^nd generation protection philosophy after the unit protection philosophy. In the last few years several SPS have been designed and implemented successfully in the Indian Power System. This paper discusses the need for SPS in Indian power system and provides a brief description of the major System Protection Schemes deployed in the Northern Regional Power System in India. The performance of these SPS post-commissioning has also been analyzed briefly. In the end the paper highlights the major issues associated with the deployment of SPS in the Indian context and also suggests the future scope of work in this area.