Software Assisted Development of Protection Coordination Concepts in Nationwide Power Systems

This paper is dealing with an urgent task of protection coordination in nationwide power systems. The coordination of overcurrent protection is strongly depending on the network configuration in contrast to distance or differential protection. Proposed concepts should be evaluated applied to the network. Nowadays numerical simulation tools like PSS™SINCAL provide the possibility of a holistic simulation of network and protection behaviour. Different overcurrent protection concepts for transmission networks are analysed on their feasibility. The software assistance and the visualisation of the enormous amount of output data are described. The evaluation shows clearly the difference and pros and cons between the discussed protection concepts. Generic network configurations leading to maloperation can be clearly found. Further on the possibility of the development of systematic solutions covering the identified practical constraints is provided.