Adaptive protection scheme for optimally coordinated relay setting using modified PSO algorithm

Abstract

With growing power demand and heightened concern about the use of fossil fuels in conventional power plants, the integration of distributed energy resources into power networks is gaining attention due to their ability to cater for localized energy needs, putting the concept of the Smart grid center stage. Network protection systems, faced with a gradual increase in complexity, will have to develop responses to the changes brought about by ever greater penetration by distributed generation and sophisticated network topologies. The main goal of this paper is to provide optimal relay coordination of an adaptive protection scheme. Designed software based on a Modified Particle Swarm Optimization (MPSO) algorithm is implemented to solve the relay coordination problem. In this study, the 14 IEEE bus system is tested across a range of power system scenarios to validate the suggested technique. The results obtained show that optimal relay settings are achieved by the proposed algorithm regardless of the prevailing network topology.