A Novel Earth Fault Detection Scheme to Empower Distance Protection during Asymmetrical Power Swings with Inverter based Resources

Although it is commonly assumed that the power swing is a symmetrical phenomenon which have identical effects on all three-phase voltages and currents, there is another type of power swing, which is asymmetrical and mainly occurs during single-pole tripping (SPT), the impact of which on power systems integrated with the inverter-based resources (IBRs) has not been investigated so far. Since the likelihood of the occurrence of asymmetrical power swing is increasing in today’s heavily loaded transmission lines (TLs), this paper investigates the impact of IBR integration on the performance of distance protection during single-pole tripping. Furthermore, a new scheme is proposed to detect earth faults that occur during asymmetrical power swings to enhance the performance of the power swing blocking (PSB) functions. To do so, the superimposed component of the zero-sequence current during SPT is extracted. Then, the moving average window is used to calculate the average of both zero-sequence current, as well as its superimposed component. Further, to enhance the security of the proposed scheme, a new technique based on the phase angle shift between the three-phase currents is devised to detect asymmetrical power conditions. The paper shows that as the penetration level of IBRs increases, the standard reclosing dead-time needs to be revisited otherwise it can create an unstable power condition even during SPT. Moreover, the paper shows that the proposed earth fault detection scheme can efficiently detect all SLG faults occurring during SPT.