Advanced System protection schemes Applied in the Power grid

The project Advanced System Protection Schemes Applied in the Power grid (ASAP) was an industry innovation project led by Statnett, partially funded by the Norwegian Research Council. The project consortium consisted of partners: DNV, NTNU, RISE, and Eneryield. The project was active two years from 2021 to 2023. Today System Protection Schemes (SPS) are used extensively in the Norwegian power system. SPS are event-based protection solutions specially designed to solve specific network challenges and intervene in the grid by taking appropriate protective actions, such as disconnection of production or consumption. SPS is a powerful and complex tool contributing to maximize the degree of secure utilization and they are an important enabler for an increasing share of renewables in the system. However, without a good overview and correct settings, it could risk making unwanted interventions with major consequences and destabilizing effects on the power system. The control centres and planning departments within Statnett that handle the complexity of SPS, have warned that it is not justifiable to expand the use with the current methods. To ensure SPS can maintain its role as a critical contributor in the future power system with the increasing electrification of Norway, the ASAP project has initiated. The primary objective of the ASAP project was to build the foundation and key building blocks for the long-term goal of enabling fully automatically activated and deactivated System Protection Schemes (SPS) to provide the highest possible reliability and capacity utilization in the Norwegian power grid. This was realized in four sub projects. In Sub Project 1 – Status Communication, the project specified, developed, and prototyped a user interface and its related interaction model. a concept and pilot demonstration of improved interface with the control centres' operators, In Sub Project 2 – Optimized Settings, the project developed and demonstrated a method that automates and optimizes SPS, regarding activation status and activation volume, considering the given operating situation. In Sub Project 3 – SPS Dependency, the project developed and demonstrated a method a method that reveals dependencies between the SPS, both functional and structural dependencies and using steady state and dynamic analysis. In Sub Project 4 - Long-term vision and concept for automatic SPS operation, the project investigated and concepts for future SPS operation. This was concluded with a road map to reach a 2050 vision of “Fully Automated Intelligent SPS Operation”.

With the aim to design the next generation of system protection, Statnett started the Advanced System Protection Schemes Applied in the Power grid (ASAP) project. The project includes the development of new methods for risk control, optimization and automation, and an intelligent interface with the operators of the control centers. A new user interface concept was designed to support operators in managing System Protection Schemes (SPS) in the power grid. The interface consolidates SPS-related information into a digital representation of the power grid in a single view, as opposed to the current practice where operators aggregate information from various systems and views to create situational awareness and decision support. The interface allows for the activation of different information layers and zooming into the model to select information for display. It also provides access to SPS status and recommendations for SPS actions, which are not currently available to the operator. A structural dependency is identified if any two SPS have a common input, or a common output, or if one input to one of the SPS is an output of the other SPS. The structural dependency is directly given by the design of the SPS. A manual and an automatic method to systematically search for structural dependencies have been developed, verified, and tested. A functional dependency is identified in a situation when more than one SPS are triggered by the same event (trigger-based dependency), such as overload on two cascaded power lines, or if the action taken by one SPS leads to the triggering of one or more additional SPS (action-based dependency). The project has provided insight for a future vision in order to provide a virtually unlimited grid capacity to the electricity market and connected grid users, by maximum utilization of the grid infrastructure, within electrical safety, system reliability, and power quality constraints, by smart application of advanced digital, adaptive, and automatic control functionalities of agreed remedial actions in case of severe events or tentative limit violations, which otherwise would have compromised the power system integrity.

The primary objective of ASAP (Advanced System protection schemes Applied in the Power grid) is to build the foundation for Statnett´s long term goal of an automatically activated and deactivated System Protection Scheme (SPS). A SPS that is automatically activated and deactivated based on the operating situation, is expected to provide highest reliability and utilization of the power grid. The ASAP project will develop and prototype a user interface and its related interaction model; develop a method that automates and optimizes the SPS, regarding activation status and activation volume, considering the given operating situation; develop a method that reveals any dependency between the SPSs and investigate automatic solutions to optimize utilization of available transmission grid capacity. There are several research challenges that the project will face which require different approaches. * The development of user interfaces and effective communication of SPS require close dialog with the operators and the scientific method must reflect that this is an iterative process where the cognitive element is important. * The development of the optimized SPS must be based on the theoretical methods and models developed for power system optimization and control. The scientific method will be a combination of applying optimization theory and validation through numerical simulations. * Another challenge is how to use available measurements and to detect disturbances in real-time in order to obtain precise information about the state of the system. Reliable state estimation is a requirement for coordinated control actions.