Fault Analysis of Solar PV based DC Microgrid System

Abstract

Many challenges are related with the DC microgrid protection due to lack of well-defined protection standards. DC breakers are studied less as compared to AC breakers for distribution level applications. Fast detection of occurrence of fault and disconnection of healthy section of the line from the faulty section to protect from high fault current surges has become a vital area of research in DC distribution system. However, fault detection and corresponding relay operation and fault location estimation are two separate issues which require separate solutions. In this study, a methodology will be proposed to detect the fault and its location. The implementation of this methodology starts with modeling a low voltage DC microgrid and introducing different faults for analysis. An efficient method will be used to carry out the above said analysis. Using this methodology a fast, effective fault detection as well as accurate fault location calculation can be performed which is used for protecting the microgrid.