A transient based protection technique for future DC grids utilising travelling wave power

This study presents a novel time-domain protection technique for application to DC grids. The technique utilises the power developed by the forward and backward travelling waves produced by a fault to distinguish between internal and external faults. For an internal fault, the calculated travelling wave power must exceed a predetermined setting; otherwise the fault is external. The ratio between the forward travelling wave power and the backward travelling wave power provides a directional comparison. For a forward directional fault, this ratio is less than unity, whereas the ratio is greater than unity for reverse directional faults. To improve the sensitivity of the protection scheme for long-distance remote internal fault, a second element utilising the concavity of the forward travelling wave power is proposed. The proposed technique is time domain based and does not require complex mathematical burden; moreover, as such can be easily implemented since it will require fewer hardware resources. Simulations were carried out in power systems computer-aided design/electromagnetic transient simulations, and the results presented considering wider cases of fault scenarios including 500 Ω remote internal fault shows the suitability of the proposed scheme as all fault scenarios indicated were identified within 500 µs following the application of the fault.