Enhancing network management with modern protection relays

Management of electrical power networks requires an intimate knowledge of the performance of their many constituent items of plant. Performance of the network can only be assured if all of the plant items are able to perform in accordance with their design criteria. Outages to carry out preventative maintenance are becoming more difficult to obtain, and down sizing has, in many cases, reduced the availability of skilled staff to carry out work to maintain adequate performance. New techniques are now available based on the employment of communicating relays and the regular gathering of performance data which provides alternatives to the traditional way of doing things. The implications from the use of such numerical devices must be thoroughly understood in order to take advantage of their full capabilities. The author discusses network management using performance measurement, using protection relays for performance measurement, remote system analysis, and future developments.