A Novel Island Detection Methodology for the Realization of Smart Grid

Abstract

Responding to the problem of increased load demand, progress has been made to develop a new smarter infrastructure, which employs a decentralised approach. This smart decentralised system, termed smart grid, is composed of micro grids which utilise a combination of distributed energy resources (DER). The DERs can either be operated in parallel with the grid or in autonomous condition (intentional-islanding). Operating the DER under intentional islanding condition is seen as the next stage in smart grid's future development which requires intelligent control implementation. In order to utilise this intelligent control, immediate detection of islanding is essential. This paper proposes a new smarter islanding detection method, which implements the forecast capability of smart grid by detecting the fluctuations before islanding occurs. The proposed method has been tested in simulation and compared against the current islanding detection methods. The simulation results have successfully proven the benefits of the new proposed method over the current methodologies in island detection.