Some applications of phasor measurements to adaptive protection

The application of microprocessor-based phasor measurements to novel adaptive protection schemes is presented. The concepts of digital adaptive protection in which relay characteristics are modified in response to external signals and conditions in the system, are examined. The importance of real-time phasor measurements in adaptive protection systems is illustrated by two examples. The first involves obtaining synchronizing information about phasor measurements to be used for current differential protection of a multithermal line. By estimating the reference angles for the phasor measurements the effect of synchronized sampling can be obtained without the expense of synchronizing equipment. The second use is the adaptive setting of out-of-step blocking and tripping. Traditional approaches experience problems because the settings are, of necessity, compromises based on offline studies. By reacting to real-time phasor measurements from selected buses in interconnection, it is shown that improved out-of-step blocking and tripping is possible