A Data-Driven Compensation Method for Distance Relays Near Inverter-Based Resources During Phase-to-Phase Faults

Fault control schemes of inverter-based resources (IBRs), such as solar and type IV wind farms, have the potential to induce malfunctions in distance relays. This paper proposes a data-driven impedance compensation method to refine the operation of distance relays near grid-following full converter-based IBRs in the case of phase-to-phase (PP) faults. A database containing the real and imaginary components of the apparent impedance around the fault occurrence moment with corresponding target values is first prepared to implement the proposed method, taking into account various prefault and fault conditions. The proposed method employs a real-time startup criterion determined by local measurements. Once the startup criterion is satisfied, the fault identification unit leverages the database to determine the nature of the disturbance. If the disturbance is identified as a similar PP fault, the apparent impedance measured by the distance relays phase element is compensated based on database estimates. Simulations on a modified IEEE benchmark system corroborate that the designed compensation method improves the distance relays performance to detect in-zone faults on the IBR connection line while maintaining stability against other disturbances.