New Islanding Detection Method for DFIG Wind

Turbines
Bohan Liu

David Thomas

Electrical & Electronic Department

The University Of Nottingham
Nottingham, UK
E-mail: eexbl8@nottingham.ac.uk

Electrical & Electronic Department

The University Of Nottingham
Nottingham, UK
E-mail: dave.thomas@nottingham.ac.uk
unbalance and total harmonic distortion of current relay, the
rate of change of output power relay, the rate of change of
voltage and power factors relay, and the logical rule-based
detection technique. However, when the amount of power
mismatch between the DG and local load is not significant
enough during islanding, the methods mentioned above may
fail to signal the abnormality, and also it is important to set a
proper threshold value to distinguish islanding and grid
connected condition. Although the passive method can operate
fast, an improper threshold value can cause false trip and large
non-detection zone [4].

AbstractIslanding detection and anti-islanding protection is one

of the most main protection requirements of grid connected wind
turbines. This paper investigated a new islanding detection
algorithm for wind turbine, which is combining the ROCOF
relays and the Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) of wind
turbines phase currents algorithms. The THD of wind turbines
phase currents method is introduced as interlock function which
can avoid false operation during system non-islanding situation
(load adding). Also noise and non-linear load are added into the
system to provide a more realistic system, the results shows that
ROCOF relays can operate effectively during system with noise
and non-linear load.

This paper presents a new islanding detection algorithm for

wind turbine, this method is based on ROCOF relays and the
Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) of wind turbine phase
currents, the THD of wind turbine phase currents is introduced
as an interlock function which can avoid false operation
during system non-islanding situation (load adding). 10%
band-limited white noise and 3MW non-linear are added into
the system during simulation to provide a realistic condition. It
is shown that ROCOF relays can operate effectively during
system with noise and non-linear load.

Keywords-islanding; non-islanding; ROCOF; THD;

I.

INTRODUCTION

Distributed generator (DG) is defined as a generator of power

inside the distributed system. DG is driven by prime movers
such as a wind turbine, water turbine, micro-turbine, etc to
generate electricity [1]. Due to the environmental forces
renewable energy resources are being developed as a new
market. And wind turbines attract more attention than other
resources [2]. An essential requirement of the gridinterconnected DG system is the capability of islanding
detection. Islanding occurs when a part of the distributed
system is electrically isolated from the main source of supply,
and continues to be energized by DG. The islanding operation
of DG may cause potential hazards to line-maintenance
personnel, and risk the DG in being damaged by out of phase
reconnection to the grid. The majority of utilities require that
DG should be disconnected from the grid as soon as the
islanding occurs.

II.

ROCOF relays relay on the assumption that when islanding

occurs, there is always an imbalance between the generation
and load in the formed island [5]. Immediately after islanding,
the resulting power imbalance will cause the frequency to
change dynamically which neglecting the governor action can
be approximately by equation (1):

P  PG
df
 ( L
 fr )
dt
2 H  S GN

At present, a lot of islanding detection methods has been

proposed which can be classified into active and passive
algorithms [3]. Active method directly interacts with the
power system operation by introducing perturbations. When
the DG is islanded, the small perturbations can result large
parameters change in the system even if generation and load
are perfect match. Due to the introduction of perturbations, the
detection time is sacrificed. Passive method is based on
monitoring the parameters of the system due to an islanding
situation the parameters vary greatly, the passive methods
include the rate of change of frequency relay, the change of
voltage magnitude relay, the vector surge relay, the voltage

978-1-4577-0365-2/11/$26.00 2011 IEEE

PRICINPLE OF ROCOF RELAYS

PG : Output of the distributed generator

PL : Load in the island

S GN : Distributed generator rating

H : Inertia constant of generating plant

f r : Rated frequency

213

(1)

The rate of change of frequency is calculated by using a

measuring window of a few cycles (usually between 2 to 40
cycles) from the voltage waveform. This signal is processed
by filters and then a resulting signal K is used to detect an
islanding situation [6]. If the value of the rate of change of
frequency is higher than the threshold value (relay setting), a
trip signal is immediately sent to the circuit breaker of the
generator. Fig.1 provides the schematic diagram of the
operating principle of ROCOF relays. The resulting signal is
filtered by the first order transfer function 1/(TaS+1), which
represents a low-pass filter used to eliminate high-frequency
transients, where Ta represents the time constant of the filter
and the adopted measurement window. K is the measured rate
of change of frequency after the filtration processing. Fig.2
shows the estimation of rate of change of frequency and
tripping signal by using FFT method. The system as Fig.5
showed is simulated with the power imbalance 6MW, and
without interlock function (in order to give a clear view of
df/dt and the tripping signal, the time in this figure is from
4.5s to 5.5s which is within 1s, circuit breaker operates at 5s).

power system and working in islanding condition. Therefore,

examining the total harmonic distortion of wind turbines phase
currents can be used to detect islanding..
The changes in the loading for DG due to loss of main power
source obviously result in variations on the harmonics of the
current. So, we propose the THD of the current as one of the
current at the monitoring parameters [2][4]. The total
harmonic distortion of the current at the monitoring time t is
defined as:
THD value of a signal is given in expression (2).
H

THDt 

I

2
h

h2

I1

 100

(2)

Where:

I 1 : rms value of the fundamental component of the

signal

I h : rms value of the h th component of the signal

f(Hz)

System
frequency
estumatiuon

df/dt calculation

1/
(TaS+1)

H: number of harmonics

Trip
signal

Low-pass filter

During each cycle with N sampling, the average of THD will

be obtained by the equation (3).

>

THD avgt 

ROCOF relay
setting
(Hz/s)

1
N

N 1

 THD
i 0

t i

(3)

Where:
N: number of samples in each cycle

Figure1. Simplified schematic diagram of ROCOF

THDavgt : one cycle average of THD

20

During normal operation, the difference between THD t and

THDavgt is small and varies around small values, but when

-20

wind turbines are disconnected from the distribution network

it is expected that the difference will be high enough to
distinguish the islanding network. Therefore, a normalized
parameter based on the difference of THD t and THDavgt

df/dt

-40

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

time
1

trip

will be defined.
0.5

THDt 
0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

THD avgs  THD avgt

THD avgs

 100

(4)

where THDavgs is the THD reference value for the steady

time

state and normal loading conditions.

If the THD t be more than a given threshold then the
islanding detection conditions have happened. Therefore, the
islanding detection of wind turbines will be based on the value
of expression (4) and its threshold. The proposed algorithm is
shown in Fig.4.

Figure 2. The estimation of rate of change of frequency by using FFT and

tripping signal

III.

THE PROPOSED METHOD OF THD

The small disturbances can be detected on phase currents,

when the wind turbines are disconnected from a distribution

214

The algorithm starts by sampling of three-phase currents and

calculates their THD. When the distribution power system is
working in a balance condition, only one phase sampling is
adequate otherwise sampling of three-phase currents is
necessary. The results shown in Fig.3 were simulated by using
the system as Fig.5 it is observed that the THD value is
increased after islanding, islanding situation can be detected
quickly by using this method. But in this paper, this algorithm
is used as an interlock function which cooperates with
ROCOF relays.

IV.

ANALYSIS

120/25KV

9MW

25/0.575KV
Transmission lien Transmission lien

DFIG+wind
turbine

Sub-system
ROCOF

CB
1

9MW

Figure 5. Single line diagram of test system

The test system shown in Fig.5 was used to evaluate the

routines. It comprises a 120kV, 50Hz, which feeds a 25kV
distribution system through a 120/25kV / Yg transformer. In

15

this system there is one 9MW DFIG wind turbine generator

connected at bus 5, which is connected to the network through
one 25/0.575kV / Yg transformer. In all simulated cases, the

total-THD%

10

circuit breaker CB at bus 2 opens after 5s which creates an

islanding situation, and remains open during the rest of the
simulation. Thus, the initial active power imbalance in the
islanded system is equal to the active power provided by the
substation at the islanding moment. The total simulation time
is 10s (in order to give a clear view of df/dt and the tripping
signal, the time in these figures are from 4.5s to 5.5s which is
within 1s). The results of system with 10% band-limited white
noise and 3MW non-linear load are shown in Fig.6 and Fig.7
separately. It is observed that by using the Fast Fourier
Transform method ROCOF relays tripping signal can still
operate accurately during system with noise and non-linear
load situation.

islanding

5
time

10

Figure 3. THD of islanding condition

Phase current

Calculate

THDt

df/dt

Calculate
THDavg

-5
One cycle

No

abs(THDavg , s  THDavg ,t )
 setting

0.2

0.4

0.8

0.6

0.8

0.5

Continue
one cycle

0.6
time

trip

SIMULATION AND

0.2

0.4
time

Figure 6. ROCOF tripping signal and df/dt (system with 10% band-limited
white noise)

trip

Figure 4. Proposed method for islanding detection

215

5
df/dt

df/dt

50
0

-5

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

0
-50
4.5
1

time
trip

0.5

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

time

V.

NON-ISLANDING

25/0.575KV

4.8

4.9 a) 5

5.1

5.2

5.3

5.4

5.5

4.6

4.7

4.8

4.9 b) 5

5.1

5.2

5.3

5.4

5.5

4.6

4.7

4.8

4.9 c) 5

5.1

5.2

5.3

5.4

5.5

4.6

4.7

4.8

4.9

5
5.1
d)
time(s)

5.2

5.3

5.4

5.5

5
0
4.5
1
0
-1
4.5

During the situation which is shown in Fig.8, false operation

of ROCOF relays is of concern. The test system used to
investigate false operation is similar to the system in Fig.5. In
Fig.9 at 5s by closing the circuit breaker a three phase load is
adding into the system. Under this situation, the ROCOF
relays must not operate as it is a non-islanding condition and a
stable system. However, when the power imbalance occurs in
the system during load adding, the trip signal operates. In this
case, the interlock function total-THD% should operate to
avoid nuisance tripping.
120/25KV

0
4.5
10

block

Figure 7. ROCOF tripping signal and df/dt (system with 3MW non-linear
load)

4.7

0.5

total-THD%

trip

4.6

Figure 9. Simulation results of islanding situation the ROCOF relays with

THD interlock function

For islanding situation, in the system as described in Fig.8

with a 0.667 pu power imbalance, the detected result with
block signal is shown in Fig.9. The circuit breaker opens at 5s
where the df/dt and total-THD% are depicted in Fig.9 (a) and
(c) separately, after 100ms tripping signal is generated as in
(b) and because at this time total-THD%>1 the block signal is
not tripped as in (d) of Fig.9.

9MW

Transmission lien Transmission lien

DFIG+wind
turbine

Sub-system

20

9MW

CB

df/dt

ROCOF
5

0
-20
4.5

Figure 8. Single-line test system (adding load)

An interlock function is needed to stop false trips during non

islanding conditions. As in [7] for synchronous machines it

4.6

4.7

4.8

4.9

5.1

5.2

5.3

5.4

5.5

4.6

4.7

4.8

4.9 b) 5

5.1

5.2

5.3

5.4

5.5

4.6

4.7

4.8

4.9 c) 5

5.1

5.2

5.3

5.4

5.5

4.6

4.7

4.8

4.9

5
5.1
time(s)

5.2

5.3

5.4

5.5

a)

trip

dp
was shown that
is very effective. However, for DFIG the
dt

block

total-THD%

output power is very accurately controlled even during

frequency variations. Therefore, another interlock total-THD%
scheme has to be found. If it is islanding, after the circuit
breaker operates, the THD value is increased. But during nonislanding situation the THD value will be back to zero after
the transient.

0.5
0
4.5
4
2
0
4.5
1

0.5
0
4.5

d)

Figure 10. Simulation results of non-islanding situation the ROCOF relays

with THD interlock function

216

REFERENCES

In order to verify the rate of change of power, interlock

function can cooperate with ROCOF relays properly Fig.10
shows the results of system as Fig.8. It has been shown that
during non-islanding situation where load added occurs at 5s
and the block signal trips at 5.0609s by comparing the totalTHD%<1, it effectively blocks ROCOF relays operation at
5.0998s.
VI.

[1]

[2]

[3]

CONCLUSIONS

This paper provides a new islanding detection method which

is based on ROCOF relays and the Total Harmonic Distortion
(THD) of wind turbine phase currents. In order to reduce the
detection time of islanding, a smaller relay setting is always
used, but it can cause false operation. Therefore, during the
non-islanding situation, the ROCOF relays should not operate
due to the stable system. The Total Harmonic Distortion (THD)
of wind turbine phase currents method is used as an interlock
function to avoid false operation. It is shown that during nonislanding situation the block signal can stop ROCOF tripping
effectively, and there is no block signal tripping in islanding
situation.

[4]

[5]

[6]

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