Distributed Protection Coordination Algorithm Applied to Overcurrent-Based Schemes

In recent years, the introduction of adaptive schemes in electric distribution system protection has led to the over-coming of challenges related to the variability of fault current produced by the integration of distributed energy resources (DER). However, the changing nature of adaptive protection systems increases the complexity of the coordination problem, causing selectivity issues. This paper reformulates the traditional coordination problem by introducing the concept of distributed coordination and proposing a protection algorithm that guarantees adaptable selectivity. To evaluate the performance of the distributed coordination proposal, using an alternating method of multipliers (ADMM) and overcurrent-based functions, the protection algorithm is simulated in a CIGRE benchmark. Results show that the proposed algorithm is flexible and has good performance.