Identifier

etd-04092014-174606

Degree

Master of Science in Electrical Engineering (MSEE)

Department

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Document Type

Thesis

Abstract

The demand and use of renewable energy sources such as solar panels is steadily increasing in today’s world. Renewable energy sources in distribution networks effectively reduce the amount of load consumed by customers. Renewable energy sources are also a solution to many environmental concerns. However, when these sources of energy are added to downtown networks they interfere with the normal operation of the protective relays and impose challenges such as unexpected tripping of network protector relays. In this paper, the effects of network protector relay operation is studied as a function of increasing photovoltaic (PV) penetration within the secondary grid network. Additionally, network protector operation under faulted conditions within the primary feeder network or network transformer is investigated. Finally, a solution is proposed to detect abnormal or faulted conditions in the upstream network, and trip the associated network protector relay only for these conditions. The proposed method, when applied in the downtown distribution network, prevents the network protector relays from erroneously tripping during minimum loading conditions and during high levels of PV penetration within the secondary grid network.

Date

2014

Document Availability at the Time of Submission

Release the entire work immediately for access worldwide.

Committee Chair

Mehraeen, Shahab

DOI

10.31390/gradschool_theses.2647

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