A review of coordination strategies and techniques for overcoming challenges to microgrid protection

Microgrids are becoming increasingly popular with consumers. In the near future, many microgrids will be installed for consumers with widely varying energy needs. The most challenging of the requirements for these microgrids is finding a suitable protection scheme that is able to protect the microgrid in both grid-connected and islanded modes of operation. The purpose of this paper will be to provide a review of existing protection schemes and coordination techniques for protection of microgrids. Protection schemes should be capable of detecting short circuits and that faults are cleared by the devices that protect the microgrid system and isolates the faulted equipment. A combination of protective algorithms ensures the successful operation of protective devices and helps to develop different ways to take on issues related to the protection of microgrid distribution systems. Outlined in this paper are the protection issues, existing techniques of microgrid protection and the coordination techniques of microgrid protection.