Coordinated Microgrid Island Detection With Redundant Consensus Voting
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional methods for unintentional island detection in microgrids face challenges such as non-detection zones, nuisance tripping, and potential cyber-attacks, which can lead to false positives and compromised system stability.
Innovation Solution
A consensus-based method using multiple UI detection sources with redundancy to identify unintentional islanding, where a consensus among UI detection sources is required before triggering a response, ensuring accurate detection and preventing false positives and cyber-attacks.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional single-source UI detection methods are used, then the detection speed is fast, but the reliability is reduced due to non-detection zones and false positives
Solution Approach 1:
The detection system is segmented into multiple independent UI detection sources (first, second, and third detection sources) that operate in parallel. Each source independently monitors for unintentional islanding conditions using different detection methods, and their results are combined through a logical OR operation to achieve more reliable detection coverage without single-point failures
Solution Approach 2:
The control device performs multiple functions: it acts as a coordinator that receives detection results from multiple independent sources, processes these results through logical operations, and generates the final UI response. This multi-functional approach consolidates the complexity into a single control device while maintaining high reliability through redundant detection paths
2Reliability
If multiple UI detection sources with consensus requirement are used, then the reliability and resistance to cyber-attacks are improved, but the response time may be delayed
Solution Approach 1:
The system requires only two out of three detection sources to agree on an unintentional islanding condition before triggering a UI response. This partial consensus requirement (excessive action) provides sufficient cybersecurity resilience against single-source failures or cyber-attacks while avoiding the delays that would result from requiring full consensus from all three sources
Solution Approach 2:
The control device continuously monitors and pre-processes detection results from all three sources in real-time, maintaining readiness to immediately generate a UI response as soon as the consensus condition is met. This preliminary processing ensures that when an actual UI event occurs, the system can respond rapidly without delay from initial data collection or analysis
3Measurement precision
If redundant detection sources are implemented, then false positives are reduced, but the system complexity and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The detection results from three separate UI detection sources are merged into a single decision through a logical OR operation in the control device. This merging approach consolidates the complexity of managing multiple independent detection systems into a simple, unified logic that reduces overall system complexity while maintaining the detection accuracy benefits of redundancy
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses multiple copies of UI detection functionality (first, second, and third detection sources) that can be implemented using standard, off-the-shelf detection algorithms and devices. By copying proven detection methods rather than designing a completely new complex system, the patent achieves enhanced detection accuracy while keeping the added complexity manageable and cost-effective
Data Source
AI summary
Unintentional islanding (UI) of a circuit of distributed energy resources (DERs) may leave area electrical power systems (EPS), external to the DER circuit, energized. Thus, UI detection methods have been developed to detect unintentional islanding and trigger a UI response. However, individual UI detection methods have various deficiencies. Thus, a consensus-based UI detection process is disclosed that builds a consensus from multiple UI detection sources, optionally implementing different UI detection methods. The redundancy in this consensus-based UI detection process provides robust, sensitive, selective, and cybersecure UI detection for the entire DER circuit. For example, the consensus-based UI detection process may eliminate or reduce non-detection zones, avoid false positives, thwart cyber-attacks, and/or the like.