95

LOSS OF MAINS DETECTION FOR EMBEDDED GENERATION BY

SYSTEM IMPEDANCE MONITORING
P.OKane, B.Fox
The Queens University of Belfast, U.K.

Abstract: Embedded generators operating in parallel

with the electricity supply network are required by law
to fit loss of mains protection. T h ~ spaper presents a
new technique for detecting loss of mains based on
measurement of system impedance and overcomes the
deficiencies of more popular relays. The units
decision to trip is based on identification of the change
in impedance that occurs at a private generators site
when it becomes disconnected from the mains supply.

2. LOSS OF MAINS
The loss of mains (LOM) phenomenon is also referred
to as islanding and occurs when a utility circuit-breaker
opens, dsconnecting the utility from the embedded
generator but leaving a section of network load
connected to the generator, as shown in figure 1.
Tripped utility circuit-breaker

Inter-tie circuit-breaker
/

1. INTRODUCTION

Since privatisation of the Electricity Supply Industry in

1992. a renewed interest has been shown in the
installation of small and medium sized synchronous
generators to operate in parallel with the distribution
system. This renewed interest has been stimulated by a
number of technical, commercial and environmental
factors. These include the high overall thermal
efficiencies possible with combined heat and power
systems, the huge savings possible when using existing
plant in peak-lopping mode and the continuing
commitment of many governments to new renewable
energy sources such as wind power.
By the year 2000, the UK government plans to have
5,000 MW of CHP and 1,500 MW of renewable energy
schemes in place. These and other forms of dspersed
generation are known colloquially as embedded
generation (EG) and their re-introduction into the
transmission system poses a number of technical
problems. One of the more prevalent is loss of mains
detection.
In order to coniply with the UK electricity supply
regulations[,21,all EG plants rated greater than 150 kW
and operating in parallel with the utility network
require a rudimentary degree of protection, which must
include under and over voltage and frequency, and loss
of mains. Other forms of protection may also be
required dependmg on the nature of the EG, such as
neutral voltage Qsplacement, overcurrent, earth-fault
and reverse power protection. ProviQng protection
against the loss of mains condtion for private
generators is one of the more Qfficult aspects of
electrical system design. Several techniques are
available to detect the condition, but they fail to activate
under certain operating conditions and are prone to
nuisance trips,
Developments in Power System Protection, 25-27th March 1997,
Conference Publication No. 434, 0 IEE, 1997

... . .. . . .

Network

Load

Load
Embedded
generator

Utility

/
Power island
Industrialsite

Figure 1 - lndustnal site operating while islanded

IslanQng is undesirable, creating a hazard to personnel

and the possibility of out-of-phase reclosure, resulting
in a torque transient which can damage the machine.
Out-of-phase reclosure occurs since many supplies are
automatically restored within a relatively short period
after a fault by auto-reclose circuit-breakers which are
not fitted with synchronising equipment. Their
deployment improves service continuity, since seventy
to eighty percent of all utility distribution faults are
non-persistent. Reclose periods can be as short as one
second and the connected load quite small. In these
circumstances network load is capable of being
supported by the embedded generating plant.

Loss of mains detection enables the inter-tie circuitbreaker connecting the embedded generator to the
utility to be tripped allowing re-synchronization when
network conchtions permit. Specialist relaying
techmques are required to detect LOM and their modes
of operation can be divided into two fundamental
groups: active and passive[31.
2.1 Passive Techniques

Passive devices function by nioiiitoring various system

parameters and make their decision to trip without
dxectly interacting with system operation. Typical
passive techniques include rate of change of frequency
(ROCOF) and sudden change of voltage vector or
power factor.

96
The ROCOF method is the most widely applied and
assumes that for all practical purposes, when loss of
grid occurs. some difference will exist between the
island load and generator output, resulting in a
frequency deviation over time (df/dt).

impedance and fault level. It provides a very effective

means of detection, with the Qsadvantage of
introducing a small voltage glitch at the zero crossover
pint.
3. NEW METHOD FOR LOM DETECTION

The relay is set so that a rate of change of frequency

greater than x Hz/s will cause operation. The value of x
is determined by network characteristics and should be
set slightly greater than the largest frequency excursion
that would occur on the system during normal
operating conditions, thus avoiQng nuisance tripping.
However, if the load remaining on the island is
approximately equal to the output of the generator at
the time of LQM, the rate of change of frequency may
not be sufficient to operate the relay. A compromise
must be reached between the ability to detect the
conQtion and the possibility of an erroneous trip,
which adversely affects the relay's performance. The
end result is that passive devices are susceptible to
nuisance trips during network faults and grid frequency
transients and can fail to operate when the island
condition does not produce the required change in
generator loaQng.
Nuisance trips can occur as often as once a month, and
generally do not cause the REC a problem since they
isolate the EG plant (which trahtionally offered little in
terms of system capacity) at a time when the system is
weak. However, with increasing numbers and size of
EG plant, many with little or no local load (such as
windfarms), their dlsconnection from the network may
result in unused capacity and excess load-shedQng.
Passive devices remain, however, the preferred option
of utilities since they do not impinge on or upset system
operation.
2.2 Active Techniques

Active devices function by Qrectly interacting with the

system under consideration, and the two main methods
are reactive error export dete~tion'~]
and fault level
monitoring[51.
The reactive error export detector controls the
embedded generator excitation current so that it
generates a known value of reactive current, which
cannot be supported unless the generator is connected
to the mains. It provides a highly reliable means of
detecting LOM but takes several seconds to operate,
which is longer than the reclose period of many autoreclose breakers. Despite its slow operation, reliability
enables it to be used as a backup for faster methods.
Fault level monitoring provides a very fast response to
the condition with detection possible in half a cycle.
Using point-on-wave thyristor switchmg, triggered near
the voltage zero point, it measures the current through
a shunt inductor, enabling calculation of system

Since utility impedance is considerably smaller than the

impedance of a power island, the impedance of a
section of network will increase when that section
becomes disconnected from the utility. The change of
impedance that occurs results in a correspondng
change of system fault level and is suitably
demonstrated in figure 2, whtch shows a typical 2MVA embedded generator connected through two
transformers and two cables to a site substation with a
250-MVA fault level. The component impedances are
shown in figure 2b, in p.u. values to a base of 10 MVA.

CO)

Figure 2a - Embedded generator, single line diagram

2b - Component impedance diagram

With the utility circuit-breaker closed, the impedance of

the EG network at the site substation is approximately
0.04p.u., and with the circuit-breaker opened
(islanded), the impedance increases to over 1p.u.
Any step increase in system impedance, when
synchronised to the utility, greater than an increase that
would occur under normal operating conditions, is
attributed to loss of mains and will cause the unit to
trip. The method is independent of generator loadlng,
and will not cause nuisance trips during network faults
or grid frequency transients.
3.1 An Impedance Sensitive Device

Since there is generally a considerable Qfference in

system impedance when synchronised to and operating
in isolation from the network, an impedance measuring
device need not be particularly accurate. One way of
measuring impedance, where accuracy is not a prime
consideration, is by exploiting the characteristics of the
voltage divider. Application of a signal to the voltage
dwider circuit shown in figure 3 will result in a voltage
V,, at the output.

97
Variation of the value Z2 will result in a change of
output voltage, V,,,. By configuring a circuit with the
system impedance as Z2, then the variation of that
system impedance will result in a change of Vout,from
whch an informed decision can be taken as to whether
the system is operating as an island or not.

Operation will cause the relay to:

Trip the inter-tie circuit breaker.
Trip the input to the voltage chvider, causing the hf
ripple to cease, enabling the embedded generator to
continue its operation with an undstorted
waveform.
Vout v

system impedance

volts

*T

Figure 3 - The voltage divider

The magnitude of Vou,depends on V,, Z1 and Z2:

7

01

03

05

07

09

11

13

15

17

19

Reactance (&I)

Figure 5 - Voltage dvrder response

A small high frequency (hf) signal is used as the input

lo the voltage &vider and coupled to the mains via a
coupling capacitor. The coupling capacitor is thus
incorporated into the dwider circuit and acts as Z,. It
enables the small hf signal to be superimposed onto the
mains as shown in figure 4. The hf signal is generally a
few volts at a frequency in the low lcHz range.

The hf signal only appears on the mains during the

period between LOM and identification of the
condhon. During this time a small ripple will be
apparent on the 50-Hz waveform. which attenuates
with &stance from the transmitter. It can be eliminated
totally, if necessary, with the use of a line trap but its
momentary presence on the system should be
acceptable. Also, since the carrier signal is a low
frequency sine wave it does not contribute to system
rado-frequency interference.

3.2 Power Factor Correction

Figure 4 - Small hf signal superimposed onto the mains

A response for a typical voltage dvider circuit is shown

in figure 5 and shows that when the device is correctly
tuned a considerable change in V,, can be obtained for
a small change in system impedance. V,, is measured
using a high-pass filter connected across the mains,
removing the 50-Hz waveform and returning a value
for the magnitude of the hf signal, which will vary with
change in system impedance.
It is usual to choose component values for Z1 such that
the ripple on the mains will be negligible when
synchronised to the utility. When LOM occurs Z z will
increase and a small hf ripple will appear,
superimposed on the 50-Hz waveform. The detection
circuit will sense the magnitude of the signal and when
it exceeds a predetermined value the unit will trip.

In its present form the device can fail to operate when

located near power-factor correction equipment. Shunt
capacitors will appear as a low impedance to the hf
signal and, if they are close to the device, can cause the
system impedance to appear constantly low, even while
islanded. One method of eliniinating the low
impedance effect of power factor correction equipment
is to use a line trap.
Line traps were first used in the 1930's in carrier pilot
relay systems to confine the carrier power to a protected
section of transmission line. They typically consist of a
parallel induclor/capacitor combination tuned to g v e a
high impedance at the carrier frequency and negligible
impedance at SOHZ. We can use a line trap in this
situation to 'weight' the impedance of the EG network
at the carrier frequency, making it appear much larger
than it is and removing the apparent low impedance
introduced by power-factor correction.
4. TESTING OF THE DEVICE

Digital simulations were employed to test the validty of

the technique and a micromachine system used as a

98
practical test bed. The micromachine system consisted
of a 3-kVA synchronous generator, tied to a busbar
through a transformer and artificial transmission line.
Setting of the new unit requires a knowledge of the
synchronised and island impedances at the particular
busbar to whch the unit will be connected. A bus close
to the low impedance infinite bus should be chosen.
This serves to place as many transformers (which act as
impedance buffers) between the embedded generator
and the unit, ensuring the ratio between island and
synchronised impedances is a maximum. The system
setup is shown in figure 6.

\I

Cncut-breaka
- O U p h g

Active techniques provide a more reliable approach to

identlfication of loss of mains, but traditionally at the
expense of dlrectly influencing either the quality of
supply or the performance of the power system. As a
result they have generally not been implemented.
The new method presented here provides fast
identification of loss of mains, incorporating the
advantages of active devices with the compatibility of
passive techniques. It correctly identlfies LOM during
operating condltions in whch more established forms
of protection fail to operate and remains stable during
system dlsturbances.

In terms of spinning reserve, embedded generation has

tradltionally been considered negative reserve. Ths is
due to the probability of erroneous trips from ROCOF
relays during gnd frequency transients, isolating the
private generator at a time when its capacity is
required. Since the proposed method remains stable
under all frequency and fault conditions, it presents the
opportunity of using embedded generation to contribute
to spinning reserve.

Auho-amp

these methods cannot, at present. be guaranteed to

operate in the required time under all condltions.

= T

Fjgure 6 - System setup

When the system is synchronised Z2 is small and when

correctly tuned the ripple is negligble, as indlcated by
the oscilloscope waveform in figure 7a. Islandmg
results in an increase in Zzand a ripple becomes
apparent at the output of the high pass filter circuit as
shown in figure 7b, enabling the relay to trip.

6.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The authors wish to express their gratitude to E

Swidenbank and D Flym for their assistance with the
micromachine system at the Queens University of
Belfast.

7.

REFERENCES

[ 11 ELECTRICITY ASSOCIATION: Recommendations

for the connection of embedded generating plant to the
distribution system. Engineering recommendation G59/1,
Northern Ireland, 1993.

[2] ELECTRICITY ASSOCIATION: Notes of guidance for

the protection of embedded generating plant up to 5 M W for
operation in parallel with public electricity suppliers
dishbution systems. Engineering Technical Report No. 113,
1994.

Figure 7a - Synchronised

Figure 7b - Islanded

The unit was subjected to the various range of fault

conditions available on the micromachine and in all
cases remained stable.
5. CONCLUSION

Power companies are continuously striving to ensure

that the presence of embedded generation on their
system does not have an adverse effect on the quality of
supply to its customers. They attempt to solve the loss
of mains problem by the application of passive
techniques such as rate of change of frequency. but

[3] Redfem; M A, Usta, 0 and Fielding, G: Protection

against loss of utility grid for a dispersed storage and
generation unit. IEEE Trans. Power Delivery, Vol.8, No.3,

July 1993, pp.948-954.

[4] Warin, J W: Loss of mains protection. ERA Cod. on
Circuit Protection for Industrial and Commercial
Installations, London, 1990.

[ 5 ] Cooper, C B: Standby generation - problems and

prospective gains from parallel nmning. Power System
Protection 89, Singapore, 1989.