20 I 0 China International Conference on Electricity Distribution

The Self-healing Technologies of Smart Distribution Grid

13
24
LI Tianyou , xu Bingyin ,

(1. North China Electric Power University, Beijing 102206,

2.
3.

Shandong University of Technology, Zibo

255012,

Fujian Electric Power Company Limited, Fuzhou

4. Kehui Power Automation Co., Zibo

China;

China;

350003,

255087,

China;

China)

Abstract: The basic concepts of the self-healing of the smart

from "Complex Interactive Networks/System Initiatives"

distribution grid are introduced. The major fault self-healing

launched by EPRT and United States Department of Energy

technologies of the smart distribution grid are presented.

in 1999[1]. Later on, "Intelligrid" of EPR! and "Modern

Suggestions on the research and application of self-healing

Grid initiative" of United States Department of Energy take

technologies of smart distribution gird are given.

the self-healing as the one of main research areas [2,3]. As

the key teclmology to ensure the grid stability and improve

Keywords: smart distribution grid; self-healing; fault

self-healing

the supply quality, self-healing is now a hot research subject

of smart grid.
The self-healing of smart grid can automatically avoid

1. Introduction

or mitigate power outages, power quality problems, and

"Smart Grid"

IS

featured by

reliable, self-healing,

service

disruptions

using

real-time

information

from

efficient, compatible and interactive characteristics, and is

embedded sensors and automated controls to anticipate,

the trend of modern power grid development. Self-healing

detect, and respond to system problems. Like the immune

is the key function for the reliable and high-quality power

function of human body, self-healing can make the grid

supply and one of key research subject of smart grid

withstand and mitigate any internal or external hazard

teclmology. The studies to the self-healing have drawn wide

(fault), and ensure the gird stability and supply quality. It is

attentions of power system academics and a lot of papers on

the new development and the extension of traditional relay

self-healing of transmission network have been published

protection technology. Its ultimate goal is to provide users

[1-6]. However, there are few reports on the study on the

with always-ideal power.

Distribution

The research on self-healing can be divided into two

network directly faces consumers, and its ability of self

areas, transmission grid and distribution grid. Due to the

healing has critical impact on supply quality. The basic

differences

concepts of the self-healing of the smart distribution grid

operation manner, the requirements on the self-healing

are introduced. The major fault self-healing teclmologies of

functions of transmission grid and distribution grid are

self-healing

of

distribution

network

[7.8].

in

their

roles,

network

configurations

and

the smart distribution grid are presented. Suggestions on the

different. Transmission network transmits the power from

research and application of self-healing teclmologies of

the large power plant to the major load centers. It is a

smart distribution gird are given.

meshed network fed with multiple generation plants. The

2. The Basic Concept of Self-healing

operation

cutoff of one or several elements will not affect the

of

network.

Therefore,

the

self-healing

of

transmission grid is to continuously monitor the condition

The concept of the self-healing grid was originated

of

electric

apparatus

in transmission grid,

detect

and

20 I 0 China International Conference on Electricity Distribution

mitigate

the

apparatus's

problems,

isolate

the

faulted

natural disasters. According to government statistics, the

apparatus by fast protection. Other functions are on line

average losses caused by natural disasters are around 5% of

security assessment, early warning and corrective control of

GDP output since the 1990s [9]. The distribution network is

system stability

an integral part of public infrastructure. Once a disaster

to prevent the system from cascaded

blackouts.

happens, it is prone to lead to a wide spread power outage,

and directly affect power supply of a region which causes

3. Self-healing of smart distribution grid

devastating consequence. Take the icing catastrophe in

southern China in early 2008 for example, there were 545

Distribution network directly faces consumers, and any

counties (districts) and more than 2700 million people

faults or disturbances on it will affect the supply quality.

affected in the region whose grid was operated by the State

The

Grid. More than 884 35kV

fast

development

of

economy

leads

to

higher

and above substations and

requirements to supply quality. The supply quality involves

15,300 10kV and above power lines were out of service. It

two aspects: reliability and power quality. Reliability refers

cost 39 billion Yuan to restore the system. In the power grid

to the continuity of power supply to the consumers. It is

operated by China Southern power grid, there were 7451

measured by the system average interruption duration index

10kV and above transmission lines and 859 35kV and

(SAIDI) and the system average interruption frequency

u.s.

time to restore the distribution gird to normal operation

energy's report [9], the reliability rate in US is 99.97%, and

when it is hit by an external attack or natural disaster. The

the power outages and interruptions, costs US at least 150

wide spread and long duration outages greatly harm public

billion dollars a year, which means an average loss of 500

security. Therefore, the research of self-healing of smart

dollars per capital. Power quality refers to the quality of the

distribution grid should cover this kind of problems.

(SAIFI).

According

to

the

department

above substations out of service [10]. It may take a very long

of

index

power to the consumer, and it is measured by the voltage

deviation,

frequency,

voltage

fluctuation

and

flicker,

Tn short, the self-healing of smart distribution grid is

firstly to reduce outage including momentary interruptions

harmonics and phase unbalance. In fact, there are a lot of

to improve supply reliability. Secondly, it can optimize the

momentary interruptions in the distribution network, such

power quality, especially mitigate voltage sag problems.

as the interruption caused by reclosing for transient fault, or

Thirdly, it is effective in preventing the system from the

by

damage of external attacks and natural disasters.

automatic

power source

switch over in substation.

Moreover, there exist quite a number of voltage sags caused

by fault, inrush current etc.. Voltage sag will last from half

The

following

contents

will

focus

on

the

fault

self-healing technology of smart distribution grid.

power cycle to 1 minute. Momentary interruption and

voltage sag may cause mal-function of high-tech digital

4. Fault self-healing of smart distribution grid

equipments and result in huge economic losses. At present,

the

Fault self-healing of smart distribution grid refers to

reliability statistics, and the voltage sags are not included in

automatic control measures to eliminate or isolate the fault

national power quality standards. Further investigations to

and restore service using modern communication, computer,

these

automatic control and power electronics technologies.

the

momentary

two

interruptions

phenomena

are

are

not

needed.

included

They

in

are

two

fundamental problems to be solved in the research of the

self-healing of smart distribution grid.

Fault self-healing involves the primary and secondary

system. The primary system should have a flexible structure

Nowadays, there are serious threats to the security of

with wide application of new equipments such as fast

power grid, such as terrorist attacks, local wars, ty phoons,

circuit breaker, fault current limiters etc.. In the secondary

thunderstorms, ice disaster, earthquakes, floods and other

system, the new technologies such as wide area protection,

20 I 0 China International Conference on Electricity Distribution

the faulted section will trip the circuit breakers to isolation

distributed control should be employed.

the fault by the direction or phase of the current based on

4.1 Automatic fault isolation and restoration technology

the distributed control, and there is on outage in the none

faulty section, which is called seamless self-healing.

It refers to the medium voltage feeder automation (FA)

Seamless

self-healing

system

is

similar

to

fast

technology. The present FA mainly relies on successive

self-healing system. FTUs can exchange the direction of the

reclosing or telecontrol method. It takes at least 60 seconds

fault current with the adjacent FTUs for the isolation of the

to isolate fault and restore supply.

fault.

The new development of FA is to make use of

distributed

control

based

on

TP

communication.

The

intelligent feeder terminal units can exchange the fault

The

section

is

identified as

a healthy

one by

comparing the direction of both ends of the section which

approaches to the same; otherwise, it is identified as a faulty
section.

detection results and control commands in real-time. It

It need to measure voltage for detecting the current

doesn't rely on the master station to isolate fault and restore

direction. There is often only one PT in the RMU for

supply, and takes only several seconds to restore the supply.

investment-reducing and space-saving, and it is difficult to

A fast self-healing FA based on distributed control for

detect

all

kinds

fault.

It

can

be

solved

by

using

looped cable is showed as Fig.l, FTUs (including the relay

current-differential protection. To simplifY the protection,

for

peer-to-peer

the fault location can be achieved by simply detecting the

communication network (fast industrial Ethemet),and they

phase angle difference between fault currents at both ends

can exchange dates each other. A CP (Communication

of a line section in practical implementation. For an internal

Processor) is used to establish communication between DA

fault, the phase angle difference approaches to 180, while

[Ill
.
for an external fault the difference is about zero

the

CBs)

are

connected

to

the

master and FTUs. When a permanent fault occurs at point F,

the relay for the CBs trips and the FTUs exchange the
overcurrent signals with the adjacent FTUs. FTU at Q12

4.2 Fault self-healing of single phase to ground fault

detects the fault but FTU at Q21 doesn't detect the fault. So,
the fault section is identified between Q12 and Q21. FTUs

The distribution neutral point adopts non-effectively

control QI2 and Q21 trip to isolate the fault. Finally FTUs at

earthed mode (none earthed or reactance earthed). The fault

QFI and Q22 exchange information each other, and control

current is small when a single phase to ground fault (SPOF)

QF1 and Q22 close to restore the supply. It has already been

occurs in non-effectively earthed network, and the line

applied in DA project of Xi amen, Fujian, China.

voltage keeps almost unchangeable. There is almost no

impact to the supply to the load. Therefore, the network
with a SPOF is allowed to operate for several hours to avoid
power outage. Far more important is that quite a few of
faults will achieve self-healing as the arc may go off.
According to the statistics provided by Italian ENEL, the

Peer-to-peer communication network

outage caused by SPOF reduces 50% by using adjustable

Fig.1 The fast self-healing FA based on distributed control

Petersen coil, and it reduces 26% by using automatic tuning

for looped cable

arc suppression coil. Therefore, the non-effectively earthed,

If the cable line is in a closed loop mode (double-end

especially adjustable Petersen coil earthed system, is one of

sources come from the same bus, and the tie breaker is

the important research contents of the self-healing of the

closed at normal), the switches of the RMU are breakers,

smart distribution grid.

which can cut off the overcurrent. The FTUs at both ends of

Now,

the

arc

suppressing

coil

in

use

can

only

20 I 0

compensate

the

steady

China International Conference on Electricity Distribution

capacitance

component

of

the

grounding current. The actual grounding current contains

Uninterruptible power supply (UPS) based on

DFACTS

3.3

harmonic component and resistive component, and its value

may reach up to 10% of the total grounding current. It can't
be compensated by the arc suppressing coil. In addition, the
transient component of the grounding current cannot be
compensated. The grounding current includes transient
component when it is intermittent grounding, and the
component can decrease the arc suppressing rate. The
current

can

be

reduced

to

small

value

with

the

full-compensated coil which can totally compensate the

grounding current with the use of the modern power
electronic technology, and it will improve the grounding
self-healing rate. Also, full-compensated coil can reduce the
fire and safety hazards caused by the grounding, and it can
prevent short-circuit caused by the transient over-voltage in
the intermittent grounding.
The component of the full-compensation coil is showed
as Fig.

2. The subject is automatic winding-turn arc

suppression coil, with an active electric power filter as a

supplement. The steady
grounding

current

is

capacitance component of the

compensated

by

the

automatic

winding-turn arc suppression coil, and the active electric

power

filter

will

instill

compensation

current

with

opposite polarity of the remaining residual current by PMU,

[121.
and then the grounding current is totally eliminated

The

application

of

DFACTS

can

implement

uninterruptible power supply to loads while fault occurs in

[101.
distribution network
So, this is also an important
research content of fault self-healing in distribution network.
Two kinds of uninterruptible power supply technologies
based on DFACTS are introduced as follows.

Seamless self-healing of dual-supply circuit loop

The existed design method of self-healing technology

of dual-supply

circuit loop

adopts mechanical

switch.

Because the switch itself needs to take several periods to

convert, short time blackout will be caused inevitably, and it
will do harm to some sensitive loads. Tf Solid State Transfer
Switch (SSTS) which is made up of power electronic device
is adopted, loads switching can be implemented in half
period or even a few microseconds after receiving control
command, and power supply to sensitive loads will not be
influenced.
While the dual-supply circuit loop shown as Fig.3 is in
normal operation, SSTS A is turned on and SSTS B is
turned off. Tn this condition, the sensitive load is supplied
by Source A, and Source B is in standby state. While the
control system detects that Source A fails, SSTS A will be
turned off and SSTS B will be turned on in half period.

r-- ------

; ; ;
-

i
powerfilt r

.-

,=

-----------------------------

Then, Source B is converted to supply the load in one

period, and seamless self-healing of dual-supply circuit loop
is implemented.

Source A

&

Source B

SSTS

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

_____________________

,--------

controller
------

Fig. 2 The diagram of a full-compensation coil

sensitive
loads

Fig.3 Dual-supply circuit loop based on SSTS

20 I 0 China International Conference on Electricity Distribution

2 Dynamic Uninterrupted Power Supply (DUPS)

can continue supplying power to all or some important

electrical equipments while they are detached from the main

DUPS is composed of STATCOM and a DC energy

grid [8]. Micro grid can make the best use of DER, and it can

storage system. STATCOM is used as a signal generator,

make sure that power supply to the

and it converts the storied DC energy into active current to

uninterrupted while main grid is outage.

continue supplying for a while when main electrical system

internal

user is

photovoltaic
b

is out of power.
Using DUPS as an emergency power supply, sensitive
loads can avoid appearing unexpected operation caused by

Micro grid

separator

short time blackout. As shown in FigA, the output of feeder

1

adopts SSCB

and other feeders adopt mechanical

circuits. DUPS supplies the sensitive load through SSCB 2

c

which is usually turned off in normal operation. While

power supply is interrupted when a fault occurs at the
upstream of the load, SSCB 1 will be turned off and SSCB
2 will be turned on in half period. Then, the sensitive load is

supplied

by

DUPS

until

the

fault

is

cleared

by

Fuel cell

Fig.5 The diagram of a micro grid proposed by CERTS

the

mechanical circuit and power supply is restored or the load

4, Conclusion

is transferred to other feeders seamlessly.

$'

"$

QF

OF1

Smart distribution grid represents the future of the

distribution network. Its self-healing function is to reduce
power outages, improve power quality, raise the level of

Feeder II

against attacks and disasters, and provide quality power to

DUPS

bring
Conventiona

about

Therefore,

load
energy storage

significant

the

research

economic
on

the

and

social

self-healing

benefits.
of

smart

distribution grid is of great significance.

system
Sensitive loae

Now,

FigA A distribution network based on DUPS

we

should

further

study

and

analyze

the

short-term power outage and voltage sag of the distribution

network, and the impacts to the user and society. We should

3.4 Micro Grid

carry out the statistical research in the area to facilitate the

study and application of the self-healing technology. In

One

of

the

characteristic

of

Smart

Grid

is

the

interconnection of distributed renewable energy. Micro grid

is a distribution subsystem into which Distributed Electric
Resource (DER) is connected, and it is also a planned
supplying islanding. Fig.5 shows the basic structure of
micro
control

grid

which

technology,

applies

advanced

protection

measurement

technology

and

and

power

electronic technology proposed by Consortium for Electric

Reliability Technology Solutions (CERTS). It can connect
or disconnect with the main electrical system flexibly, and it

connection with the implementation of D A , we should

study the distribution-data communication and advanced
measurement and protection, which is the foundation of the
self-healing of the smart distribution network. Self-healing
technology is applied in the network construction and
transformation of urban centers or sensitive load area. It can
improve the quality of the power supply. Meanwhile, we
should strengthen technical exchanges, track the recent
development at home and abroad, promote the development
of the self-healing technology and construction of the smart

2010 China International Conference on Electricity Distribution

grid.

[11] Xu Bingyin,You Weihan,Ma Shicong,Gao

Mengyou, Phil

Gale. Fault Location of Active Network Based on the Phase

Acknowledgements

Angle Comparison of Fault Currents. The 10th International

Conference on Developments in Power System Protection.

The authors wish to thank Mr. Gao mengyou, a PhD candidate of

electrical engineering of Shandong University, for his help in
preparing the paper.

Manchester,April 2010.
[12] QU Tierong, TAN Weipu, LTU Ku, YAN G Yihan. Research
on new master-slave arc suppression coil based on single
phase active filter. CICED. Beijing. Sep. 2009

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