As necessity for improvement in system operation demands the implementation of distribution automation, design of the protection system becomes more involved. Several goals of distribution automation -- improved customer reliability, reduced systems losses, and balancing of substation loading -- are dependent on the ability to perform automatic circuit reconfigurations. A prerequisite for implementing automatic circuit reconfiguration is that the protection system design must operate properly for all configurations. An integrated expert system for the protection system design of interconnected distribution circuits has been developed using the DANE engineering workstation. The expert system incorporates the basic requirements and guidelines as specified by IEEE for protection system design. The expert system uses a relational database management system, integrates system data, and provides a graphical user interface. The expert system incorporates both procedural and declarative, or query, operating modes. Rules dealing with the coordination, placement and selection of protective devices are presented that are used to dynamically, incorporate expert knowledge into the knowledge base. The protection system designer controls which rules are implemented in the design. An example protection system design is presented using the integrated expert system developed for DANE. The example problem consists of three interconnected distribution circuits. Dynamic knowledge, created by the expert system from the rules and system data, is used in the design. System data is presented pertaining to the circuits along with the created dynamic knowledge. The implemented rules dealing with the coordination, placement and selection of protective devices are presented, along with all associated parameter values. The final protection system design and results are presented in a research report. / Ph. D.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 1982. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ENGINEERING. / Bibliography: leaves 328-332. / by Marcel Coderch i Collell. / Ph.D.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 1981. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ENGINEERING. / Includes bibliographical references. / by Sherman Man Chan. / Ph.D.

Thesis (M.S.)--Mississippi State University. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. / Title from title screen. Includes bibliographical references.

This research addresses some of the difficulties faced when operating voltage controlled inverters with synchronous generators in microgrids. First, an overview of microgrid value propositions is provided, and the problems faced when attempting to use microgrids to provide improved power quality are discussed. Design considerations for different types of microgrids are provided to enable microgrids to deliver the desired functionality without adding unnecessary cost. The main body of this research investigates the poor transient load sharing encountered between voltage controlled inverters and synchronous generators in islanded operation. Poor transient load sharing results in high peak inverter rating requirements and high cost. The tradeoff between power quality and power sharing is highlighted, and methods to improve transient load sharing are proposed. The use of current limiting to protect inverters during faults and overloads is also investigated. Stability problems are identified when using simple inverter current limiting methods when operating in parallel with synchronous generators. Virtual impedance current limiting is proposed to improve transient stability during current limiting. The methods proposed in this thesis for mitigating inverter overloads and faults will allow for more reliable and cost effective application of inverter based distributed energy resources with synchronous generators in microgrids.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hong Kong, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 127-140) Also available in print.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hong Kong, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 127-140) Also available online.

This work concerns the addition of the few critical elements of a protection system to the Electromagnetic Transients Program (EMTP). The EMTP is one of the most widely used programs for the simulation of transients in power systems. The EMTP contains models for almost every major power system component. A protection system consists of instrument transformers, relays, and circuit breakers. Models for current transformers and capacitor voltage transformers are developed, validated, and incorporated in EPRI/DCG EMTP Version 2.0. The user can define the values of the current transformer and capacitor voltage transformer parameters. Total Fortran capability has been added to EMTP; new subroutines and an inbuilt structure to allow the linking of user defined Fortran subroutines with the main EMTP are explained. This capability is necessary to simulate computer relay algorithms. The outputs of the algorithms can be passed to the EMTP, which enables the study of the dynamic interaction between the power system and the protection system. Models of specific relays for line protection (SLY12C) and transformer differential protection (BDD15B) are also available. The relay models can be used with different settings. These new features in EMTP together constitute the critical elements of a protection system. Thus, it is now possible to simulate the dynamic interactions between a power system and a protection system. / Ph. D.

published_or_final_version / Electrical and Electronic Engineering / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

M.Com. (Informatics) / Critical Infrastructure is the term used to describe assets that are of utmost importance, or in other words, essential in the functioning of an environment. Societies depend on their critical infrastructure in order to maintain and continuously improve on their population’s standard of living. The creation of more self-sustainable methods of energy consumption and generation drives towards the creation of a better and more efficient evolution of the power grid critical infrastructure, named the smart grid. The introduction of the smart grid brought in a paradigm shift towards the practices used to manage the generation and distribution of electric power. The introduction of highly capable information systems to intrinsically work with current power grid technologies provided the ability to enhance economic and environmental efficiency of power systems. Although providing a wide variety of benefits, such information systems also created new points of vulnerabilities, which if exploited, place the smart grid at risk of disruptions. In order to address the security issues that occur at the application and data exchange level of smart grid information systems, the dissertation proposed the use of a security model to protect the smart grid. The Multi-Agent Smart Grid Security (MA-SGS) model is based on the use of multiple autonomous intelligent software agents which attempt to create operational stability and efficiency in the smart grid...