Efficient coordination of ROCOF and frequency relays for distributed generation protection by using the application region

This paper proposes a method for determining the coordination of the rate of change of frequency (ROCOF) and under/overfrequency relays for distributed generation protection considering islanding detection and frequency-tripping requirements. The method is based on the concept of application region, which defines a region in the trigger time versus active power imbalance space where frequency-based relays can be adjusted to satisfy the anti-islanding and frequency-tripping requirements simultaneously. This method can be used to optimally determine the instantaneous and time-delay settings of different frequency-based relays in a unified manner. The application region can be also employed to evaluate how much an existing frequency-based protection scheme violates one of the above-mentioned requirements. In addition, it can be used to set different combinations of frequency-based relays in order to make the distributed generator frequency-based protection system as efficient as possible, since it respects the region that satisfies both requirements. Index Terms--Distributed generation, dynamic simulation, frequency relays, islanding detection, rate of change of frequency relays, synchronous generators.