Concise Definition of the Overcurrent Protection System for CIGRE European Medium Voltage Benchmark Network

Abstract

In the significant widespread transition towards clean energies, there has been an unstoppable trend in integrating renewable energy sources (RESs) in distribution networks. However, the massive penetration of integrated multi-sources into conventional distribution systems may create several operational problems, such as malfunctioning protection systems. This paper concisely defines the setting for overcurrent protection applied to the CIGRE European (EU) Medium Voltage (MV) benchmark network. The benchmark system is commonly recommended for RESs penetration studies. In this paper, the authors show the calculations and results of the non-directional and directional overcurrent protection relay in a very educational and detailed way. The definition of the settings considers several operating situations and two short-circuit (SC) types: three-phase and single-line-toground. The main contribution of this paper is a well-documented and validated overcurrent protection settings of the CIGRE EU MV that can be used for teaching and research purposes.