Real-time control and protection of the NEPTUNE power system

The NEPTUNE power delivery system faces several challenges in serving the needs of the oceanographic community. Two major challenges, operating the system under normal conditions and protecting it against faults, require the development of new approaches unfamiliar to power engineers. In particular, the power management system must cope with several modes of potential system instability, and the protection system must operate in a deliberately weak system. Furthermore, it is likely that communications will be disrupted in the event of a fault. The approach taken to address these challenges is described.