Synchrophasor-based system integrity protection scheme for an ultra-mega-power project in India

System Integrity Protection Scheme (SIPS) aids the normal protection scheme in case of certain special contingencies like tripping of important corridors/flow gates etc. to mitigate the voltage or angular instability, load generation imbalance and finally large-scale cascading catastrophes. A recent blackout incident in an ultra-mega-power project (UMPP) in India has motivated the authors to ponder upon a SIPS as a solution. As part of designing the SIPS, an efficient solution is formulated using synchrophasors for a well-known issue nonetheless an issue which still disturbs the Indian power system network with blackouts – i.e. unintended distance relay operation in the event of power swing. Here, real-time voltage and current phasors and the angular separation between the buses connecting faulted line, acquired by phasor measurement unit is utilised to derive a differential power coefficient (DPC). This study proposes a modified logic scheme for blocking/de-blocking of distance relays i.e. change the existing scheme with ‘block all zones except Zone-1’ to ‘block all zones on power swing detection’. Rate of change of DPC is derived here which aids in differentiating stable and unstable power swings. A special protection scheme is finally formulated based on the modified logic.