An island detection demonstration on a laboratory sized power Grid (LabGrid)

A trend away from large conventional electrical power generation stations such as hydro, coal-fired, and nuclear toward smaller Distributed Generation (DG) has both benefits and complications. While DG can capitalize on renewable energy and can reduce transmission losses by being closer to local loads, the intermittent availability of some power sources coupled with the current lack of a “smart grid” creates conditions when small sections of the grid need to be disconnected, or islanded, from the main grid due to disturbances or outages. Published techniques for detecting the conditions for islanding exist and are briefly discussed in this paper. This paper introduces a Laboratory sized power Grid (LabGrid) as a physical model for testing islanding techniques, together with a first demonstration of one of these techniques.