2016 Next Generation Network Paper Competition

High penetration of distributed generation and more frequent changes in network topology are considered as new transmission system operation regimes which could introduce new challenges in maintaining security and dependability of the system protection. This study investigates the impacts of these new operation regimes on the dynamic behavior of the transmission system and protection coordination subsequently, and proposes effective setting coordination solution for maintaining the protection security and dependability. Advanced computation technique and machine learning algorithm are used to implement an intelligent adaptive protection scheme. It enables the distance relays in distinguishing between a possible protection coordination interference of multiple disturbances from real fault situations, which helps preventing potential mal-operations of the relays. The proposed method is implemented and tested on several IEEE test systems as well as Alberta realsized transmission operator system. Our method is compared with the methods currently used in practice. Numerous simulations are conducted on the test system and results are discussed in detail.