Process Improvement of Distribution Protective Relays Coordination

This paper discusses the improvement of protection settings reviews performed by protection engineers in utilities regularly. It highlights common process inefficiencies, shows the improved deployment of data sources and proper use of software tools, and demonstrates filling gaps with automated routines. The rapid expansion of renewable energy resources and evolving regulatory requirements have increased the demand for these studies and necessitated a quicker turn-around time. The paper presents three practical examples implemented in a real power network. The solution presented in this paper results in considerable time savings and forms one of the major building blocks for adaptive protective schemes in the future.