Development of overcurrent relay model and power system simulator using National Instruments devices in real-time

Abstract

One of the major objectives at Mississippi State University’s Power and Energy Research Laboratory (PERL) is to develop an adaptive protective controller for Shipboard Power System (SPS) protection. This thesis work focuses on developing an overcurrent relay model in LabVIEW software and validating the developed model by conducting Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) tests with Real-Time Digital Simulator (RTDS) and commercial Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories (SEL)-351S directional over-current relay. Simulation results show that the developed relay model is quite flexible, efficient and can be used in real-time. Modeling efforts to establish a HIL platform using National Instruments devices have been presented here. This thesis work also proposes a high-performance and low-cost National Instruments-PXI platform for power system simulations. Two-bus, eight-bus and shipboard power system (SPS) test cases are developed using Matlab/Simulink.Software-in-the-Loop (SIL) tests are conducted for these test cases with Matlab/Simulink overcurrent relay model for several fault conditions. To determine the performance of the NI-PXI system, open loop tests are done between the NI-PXI and the SEL-351S relay and these results are compared with the results of open loop test conducted between the RTDS and SEL-351S relay. HIL tests are done between the NI-PXI system and the dSPACE relay model. HIL tests are also done between the NI-PXI and the commercial SEL-351S relay. These results show that the NI-PXI controller can be used as a power system simulator.