IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - May/June 2021 - 58

Practical
Microgrid
Protection
Solutions

By Scott Manson
and Ed McCullough

Promises and
Challenges

M

MICROGRIDS AND INVERTER-BASED RESOURCES
(IBRs) offer an exciting promise of clean, renewable, and resilient energy. However, these emerging technologies pose a new
set of challenges due to simulated inertia, limited overload
current contributions, firmware-based inverter behavior, and
more. This article explains some of these challenges and shares
several common techniques used to overcome them with programmable protective relays (PPRs).
The prevalence of IBRs is expected to continue to grow in
microgrids and electric utility grids as governments and corporations pursue aggressive renewable energy goals that necessitate the integration of batteries, photovoltaics (PVs), wind, and
nonfossil-fueled energy sources. The decarbonization of electricity generation requires electric power systems to function
with variable numbers of conventional rotating synchronous
generators and/or IBRs online.
Protection systems keep society functioning by isolating
faults and mitigating disturbances, thereby keeping critical
infrastructure online and protecting the environment, processes, revenues, assets, and human lives. Uptime (reliability)
is directly related to quality of life. Humans are directly protected by removing fault currents and indirectly protected by
keeping hospitals powered, ship systems online, and military
facilities operational and safeguarding assets, such as electric power system conductors, transformers, motors, and the
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MPE.2021.3057953
Date of current version: 19 April 2021

58

ieee power & energy magazine

1540-7977/21©2021IEEE

may/june 2021



IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - May/June 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - May/June 2021

Contents
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - May/June 2021 - Cover1
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - May/June 2021 - Cover2
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - May/June 2021 - Contents
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IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - May/June 2021 - Cover3
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