In the future electrical distribution system, it can be predicted that local power generators such as photovoltaic panels or wind turbines will play an important role in local distribution network. The local energy generation and local energy storage device can cause indeterminable power flow, and this could cause severe protection problems to existing simple overcurrent coordinated distribution protection system. An accurate, fast and reliable protection system based on pilot protection concept is proposed in this thesis. A comprehensive protection design specialized for the FREEDM system - the intelligent fault management (IFM) is presented in detail. In IFM, the pilot-differential protective method is employed as primary protection while the overcurrent protective method is employed as a backup protection. The IFM has been implemented by a real time monitoring program on LabVIEW. A complete sensitivity and selectivity analysis based on simulation is performed to evaluate the protection program performance under various system operating conditions. Followed by the sensitivity analysis, a case study of multiple-terminal model is presented with the possible challenges and potential limitation of the proposed protection system. Furthermore, a micro controller based on a protection system as hardware implementation is studied on a scaled physical test bed. The communication block and signal processing block are accomplished to establish cooperation between the micro-controller hardware and the IFM program. Various fault cases are tested. The result obtained shows that the proposed protection system successfully identifies faults on the test bed and the response time is approximately 1 cycle which is fast compared to the existing commercial protection systems and satisfies the FREEDM system requirement. In the end, an advanced system with faster, dedicated communication media is accomplished. By verifying with the virtual FREEDM system on RTDS, the correctness and the advantages of the proposed method are verified. An ultra fast protection system response time of 4ms is achieved, which is the fastest protection system for a distribution level electrical system.

This paper presents a theoretical model for evaluating flashover performance of insulators under contaminated conditions. The model introduces several new features when compared with existing models such as, the formation of dry bands, variations in insulator geometry and surface wettability. The electric field distribution obtained from software for 3-Dimensional models along with form factor are used to determine the dimensions of the dry bands and the onset of arcing. The model draws heavily from experimental measurements of flashover voltage and surface resistance under wet conditions of porcelain and composite insulators. The model illustrates the dominant role played by the insulator shape and housing material on the flashover performance.

This research work illustrates the use of software packages based on the concept of nu-merical analysis technique to evaluate the electric field and voltage distribution along composite insulators for system voltages ranging from 138 kV up to 1200 kV ac. A part of the calculations was made using the 3D software package, COULOMB 8.0, based on the concept of Boundary Element Method (BEM). The electric field was calculated under dry and wet conditions. Compo-site insulators experience more electrical stress when compared to porcelain and are also more prone to damage caused by corona activity. The work presented here investigates the effect of corona rings of specific dimensions and bundled conductors on the electric field along composite insulators. Inappropriate placement or dimensions of corona rings could enhance the electric field instead of mitigating it. Corona ring optimization for a 1000 kV composite insulator was per-formed by changing parameters of the ring, such as the diameter of the ring, thickness of the ring tube and the projection of the ring from the high voltage energized end fitting. Grading rings were designed for Ultra High Voltage (UHV) systems that use two units of composite insulators in pa-rallel. The insulation distance, which bears 50% of the total applied voltage, is raised by 61% with the grading ring installed, when compared to the distance without the grading ring. In other words, the electric field and voltage distribution was found to be more linear with the application of grad-ing rings. The second part of this project was carried out using the EPRI designed software EPIC. This is based on the concept of Charge Simulation method (CSM). Comparisons were made be-tween electric field magnitude along composite insulators used for suspension and dead end configuration for system voltages ranging from 138 kV to 500 kV. It was found that the dead end composite insulators experience significantly higher electrical stress when compared to their suspension counterpart. It was also concluded that this difference gets more prominent as the system voltage increases. A comparison made between electric field distribution along composite insulators used in single and double dead end structures suggested that the electric stress experienced by the single dead end composite insulators is relatively higher when compared to double dead end composite insulators.

Composite insulators on overhead lines are frequently subjected to corona discharges due to increased electric field intensities under various conditions. These discharges can cause localized heating on the surface and affect the hydrophobicity of the insulator. A study has been undertaken to quantify and evaluate the thermal degradation that composite insulation is subjected to from corona discharges. This has been conducted primarily at the power frequency (60 Hz) and at the low frequency range (37 kHz). Point to plane corona discharge experiments have been performed in the laboratory at both the frequencies and varying levels of thermal degradation has been observed. The amplitude and the frequency of current spikes have been recorded at different voltage levels. A temperature model based on the amplitude and the frequency of current data has been formulated to calculate the maximum temperature attained due to these discharges. Visual thermal degradation has been found to set in at a low frequency range while there is no visual degradation observed at power frequency even when exposed to discharges for relatively much longer periods of time. However, microscopic experiments have been conducted which revealed degradation on the surface at 60 Hz. It has also been found that temperatures in excess of 300 Celsius have been obtained at 37 kHz. This corroborates the thermo gravimetric analysis data that proves thermal degradation in silicone rubber samples at temperatures greater than 300 Celsius. Using the above model, the maximum temperature rise can be evaluated due to discharges occurring on high voltage insulation. This model has also been used to calculate the temperature rise on medium voltage distribution equipment such as composite bushings and stand-off plugs. The samples were subjected to standard partial discharge tests and the corresponding discharge magnitudes have been recorded. The samples passed the tests and the corresponding temperatures plotted have been found to be within thermal limits of the respective insulation used on the samples. The experimental results concur with the theoretical model. A knowledge of the maximum temperatures attained due to these discharges can help in design of insulation with better thermal properties.

Optical Instrument Transformers (OIT) have been developed as an alternative to traditional instrument transformers (IT). The question "Can optical instrument transformers substitute for the traditional transformers?" is the main motivation of this study. Finding the answer for this question and developing complete models are the contributions of this work. Dedicated test facilities are developed so that the steady state and transient performances of analog outputs of a magnetic current transformer (CT) and a magnetic voltage transformer (VT) are compared with that of an optical current transformer (OCT) and an optical voltage transformer (OVT) respectively. Frequency response characteristics of OIT outputs are obtained. Comparison results show that OITs have a specified accuracy of 0.3% in all cases. They are linear, and DC offset does not saturate the systems. The OIT output signal has a 40~60 μs time delay, but this is typically less than the equivalent phase difference permitted by the IEEE and IEC standards for protection applications. Analog outputs have significantly higher bandwidths (adjustable to 20 to 40 kHz) than the IT. The digital output signal bandwidth (2.4 kHz) of an OCT is significantly lower than the analog signal bandwidth (20 kHz) due to the sampling rates involved. The OIT analog outputs may have significant white noise of 6%, but the white noise does not affect accuracy or protection performance. Temperatures up to 50oC do not adversely affect the performance of the OITs. Three types of models are developed for analog outputs: analog, digital, and complete models. Well-known mathematical methods, such as network synthesis and Jones calculus methods are applied. The developed models are compared with experiment results and are verified with simulation programs. Results show less than 1.5% for OCT and 2% for OVT difference and that the developed models can be used for power system simulations and the method used for the development can be used to develop models for all other brands of optical systems. The communication and data transfer between the all-digital protection systems is investigated by developing a test facility for all digital protection systems. Test results show that different manufacturers' relays and transformers based on the IEC standard can serve the power system successfully.

An advantage of doubly fed induction generators (DFIGs) as compared to conventional fixed speed wind turbine generators is higher efficiency. This higher efficiency is achieved due to the ability of the DFIG to operate near its optimal turbine efficiency over a wider range of wind speeds through variable speed operation. This is achieved through the application of a back-to-back converter that tightly controls the rotor current and allows for asynchronous operation. In doing so, however, the power electronic converter effectively decouples the inertia of the turbine from the system. Hence, with the increase in penetration of DFIG based wind farms, the effective inertia of the system will be reduced. With this assertion, the present study is aimed at identifying the systematic approach to pinpoint the impact of increased penetration of DFIGs on a large realistic system. The techniques proposed in this work are tested on a large test system representing the Midwestern portion of the U.S. Interconnection. The electromechanical modes that are both detrimentally and beneficially affected by the change in inertia are identified. The combination of small-signal stability analysis coupled with the large disturbance analysis of exciting the mode identified is found to provide a detailed picture of the impact on the system. The work is extended to develop suitable control strategies to mitigate the impact of significant DFIG penetration on a large power system. Supplementary control is developed for the DFIG power converters such that the effective inertia contributed by these wind generators to the system is increased. Results obtained on the large realistic power system indicate that the frequency nadir following a large power impact is effectively improved with the proposed control strategy. The proposed control is also validated against sudden wind speed changes in the form of wind gusts and wind ramps. The beneficial impact in terms of damping power system oscillations is observed, which is validated by eigenvalue analysis. Another control mechanism is developed aiming at designing the power system stabilizer (PSS) for a DFIG similar to the PSS of synchronous machines. Although both the supplementary control strategies serve the purpose of improving the damping of the mode with detrimental impact, better damping performance is observed when the DFIG is equipped with both the controllers.

After a power system blackout, system restoration is the most important task for the operators. Most power systems rely on an off&ndashline; restoration plan and the experience of operators to select scenarios for the black start path. Using an off&ndashline; designed restoration plan based on past experience may not be the most reliable approach under changing network configurations and loading levels. Hence, an objective restoration path selection procedure, including the option to check constraints, may be more responsive in providing directed guidance to the operators to identify the optimal transmission path to deliver power to other power plants or to pick up load as needed. After the system is subjected to a blackout, parallel restoration is an efficient way to speed up the restoration process. For a large scale power system, this system sectionalizing problem is quite complicated when considering black&ndashstart; constraints, generation/load balance constraints and voltage constraints. This dissertation presents an ordered binary decision diagram (OBDD) &ndashbased; system sectionalizing method, by which the splitting points can be quickly found. The simulation results on the IEEE 39 and 118&ndashbus; system show that the method can successfully split the system into subsystems satisfying black&ndashstart; constraints, generation/load balance constraints and voltage constraints. A power transfer distribution factor (PTDF)&ndashbased; approach will be described in this dissertation to check constraints while restoring the system. Two types of restoration performance indices are utilized considering all possible restoration paths, which are then ranked according to their expected performance characteristics as reflected by the restoration performance index. PTDFs and weighting factors are used to determine the ordered list of restoration paths, which can enable the load to be picked up by lightly loaded lines or relieve stress on heavily loaded lines. A transmission path agent can then be formulated by performing the automatic path selection under different system operating conditions. The proposed restoration strategy is tested on the IEEE&ndash39; bus system and on the Western region of the Entergy system. The testing results reveal that the proposed strategy can be used in real time.