Open Phase Detection in DER Operation by Using Power Quality Data Analytics

This paper reports a practical challenge in Distributed Energy Resources (DER) operation: open phase detection. The paper presents a wide variety of naturally occurred open phase events recorded by power quality meters in DER commercial operations. The events demonstrate the complexity of open phase detection due to electrical and magnetic interphase couplings through transformer winding and core configurations. The coupling effect could recreate the missing phase in various patterns so that the DER control and protection systems or control room operators may not detect the anomaly for prolonged period of time. This paper shares experiences of timely DER open phase detection by using power quality data and suggests practical detection guidelines based on waveform signature analytics. The original field records provide credible benchmarking references for algorithm development to meet the new DER open phase detection requirement in the IEEE Stdandard 1547-2018 revision.