A Hybrid DC Fault Primary Protection Algorithm for Multi-Terminal HVdc Systems

Jingfan Sun, Suman Debnath, Matthieu Bloch, Maryam Saeedifard

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

13 Scopus citations

Abstract

Protection against dc faults is one of the main technical hurdles faced when operating converter-based HVdc systems. Protection becomes even more challenging for multi-terminal dc (MTdc) systems with more than two terminals/converter stations. In this paper, a hybrid primary fault detection algorithm for MTdc systems is proposed to detect a broad range of failures. Sensor measurements, i.e., line currents and dc reactor voltages measured at local terminals, are first processed by a top-level context clustering algorithm. For each cluster, the best fault detector is selected among a detector pool according to a rule resulting from a learning algorithm. The detector pool consists of several existing detection algorithms, each performing differently across fault scenarios. The proposed hybrid primary detection algorithm: i) offers superior performance compared to an individual detector through a data-driven approach; ii) detects all major fault types including pole-to-pole (P2P), pole-to-ground (P2G), and external dc faults; iii) identifies faults with various fault locations and impedances; iv) is more robust to noisy sensor measurements compared to existing methods; v) does not require exhaustive simulation and sampling for training the model. Performance and effectiveness of the proposed algorithm are evaluated and verified based on time-domain simulations in the PSCAD/EMTDC software environment. The results confirm satisfactory operation, accuracy, and detection speed of the proposed algorithm under various fault scenarios.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1285-1294
Number of pages10
JournalIEEE Transactions on Power Delivery
Volume37
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Apr 1 2022

Keywords

  • Dc-side faults
  • Fault detection
  • Multi-terminal HVdc systems

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