SBIR-STTR Award

Electrical power systems routinely experience disturbances or faults. Protective relays and controllers are used to take corrective action by isolating the faulted equipment and stabilizing the system. The analysis and design of these protection and control systems require simulation of the power grid. However, present day simulation tools are relatively simplistic, as they model current protection and control devices that mainly utilize local sensor input. For example, power system engineers study fault conditions and disturbances via two independent software tools: (1) transient stability programs that simulate the dynamics of the electrical grid, but do not model the thousands of protective relays in the system; and (2) protection simulation programs that model the relays, but do not simulate the dynamic behavior of the grid. This project will develop a new program that combines these simulations, enabling the modeling, analysis, design, and testing of a large variety of next-­generation protection and control systems.

Commercial Applications and Other Benefits as described by the awardee:
In its report on the analysis of the August 14, 2003 blackout, the US-­Canada Task Force concluded that present day design methods had overlooked the operation of zone 3 impedance relays, a key factor in causing an initially small ­area outage to cascade to a large area affecting 50 million people. With the proposed technology, it would become possible and practical to tune the settings of relays and controllers to operate the grid closer to its limits, while still protecting the electrical equipment

To ensure the reliable operation of the electric grid when subject to disturbances, tools are needed for the design and analysis of wide-area control and protection algorithms. This project will develop a new platform that that will enable power system engineers to study the impact of protective relay switching on the overall dynamic behavior of the system. This new tool combines the much-used electromechanical transient stability function with a detailed protection system simulation. It will enable the study of different contingencies and scenarios, some of which may lead to cascading outages. For those that do, the engineers will be able to tune the relay settings to confine their effect to a small area. Phase I established a link between a commercial protective relay simulation program and a transient stability analysis program. Via this link, the effect of protective relay operation on the dynamic behavior of the electric grid was simulated. It was shown that, by modifying relay settings or introducing additional protection components, system behavior could be altered. Phase II will consolidate this link and integrate the two simulation programs to operate fast and efficiently as one simulation tool. A user interface for this new simulation will be developed to enable engineers to design and analyze smart grid applications.

Commercial Applications and Other Benefits as described by the awardee:
The analysis and simulation capability should be of great value to the industry in evaluating and improving the reliability of the electric grid