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This article presents a new algorithm for fault detection in grid-tied microgrids with inverter-interfaced distributed generators (DGs). To support the Grid codes, the DGs require a low voltage ride through (LVRT) capability. The control strategy used in the DGs results in large changes in the fault characteristics of the microgrid. Hence, it is required to study the fault characteristics of the DGs in a microgrid under various operating conditions. The study presents fault detection for microgrids with PQ-controlled DGs having LVRT capability under different DG voltage and different fault conditions (high impedance and low impedance). The fault location has been identified using the phase change in the positive sequence current at specific DG voltages. The reliability of the proposed scheme has been validated under diverse fault conditions through extensive simulations in the Matlab/ Simulink environment, and the comparison with other fault detection techniques proves the efficacy of the proposed scheme for fault detection in microgrids. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Detection and classification of faults including high impedance faults in microgrid. • Fault detection and classification from current signals at the substation. • Faulty feeder and sub-feeder identification within half cycle of post fault current signal. • Wavelet based power spectral density of current signals utilized to detect and classify fault and also identify faulty feeder. • Performance of the proposed algorithm verified under dynamic and challenging situations. The recent progress in the area of microgrid protection has led to the application of data-driven and signal processing techniques for fault detection in microgrids. The deployment of inverter interfaced distributed generators makes the traditional protection schemes ineffective. In this paper a wavelet based power spectral density (PSD) has been utilized to detect fault, identify faulty phases and locate fault in the microgrid. Wavelet based PSD decouples the frequency information from the time information and it is the optimal technique to reveal the change of distribution of harmonics in non-stationary faulty signals as for fault analysis it can consider the faulty frequency band instead of one particular harmonic. The proposed technique can detect fault and identify faulty phases by analyzing current signals from the substation only. The normalized value of PSD of three phase current signals has been considered for fault detection and probabilistic distribution of PSD has been considered for faulty phase identification. The normalized value of PSD of the current signals collected from both ends of the main feeders and one end of the non-DG sub-feeder have been used to locate the faulty feeder and sub-feeder. Appropriate threshold values have been considered to detect fault and to locate the faulty feeder. To locate faults, the technique does not require synchronized signals and thus provides a promising and economical solution for inverter interfaced microgrid. It does not require huge amount of data set for training and testing as it is essentially a threshold based technique and also does not require collection of data at high sampling rate. The proposed scheme has been extensively tested for high impedance fault (HIF), unbalanced loading, load switching, variation of DG parameters, measurement uncertainty and presence of noise in the signal with signal to noise ratio up to 10 dB. This technique provides accurate results for fault resistance from 0 Ω to 300 Ω and up to 10% measurement error. The performance of the proposed technique has been verified for feeder length variation up to 20%. Half cycle of current signal only after fault is required and three levels of wavelet decomposition has been considered. The simulation results and comparative assessment demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• An efficient multi-objective algorithm has been proposed for optimized operation of DGs to reduce voltage unbalance at different buses. • The voltage unbalance limits for different buses can be customized according to the distinctive requirement of the consumers. • The negative sequence voltage has been reduced as much as possible. • The positive sequence voltage has been increased by incorporating LVRT capability in the DG control. • The DG output current is also optimised since the power interfacing converter consists of semiconductor devices which cannot withstand excessive currents. • Several case studies have been conducted and the performance of the proposed method has been tested in real time digital simulator. Voltage unbalance control plays an important role in maintaining the power quality standard in microgrid. This paper presents a multi-objective control strategy to realize optimal voltage unbalance compensation in a multibus microgrid, satisfying customized power quality requirement of the consumers at different buses. The distributed generators (DGs) in the microgrid share the compensation effort cooperatively to satisfy the power quality standard at different buses. Multi-objective Artificial Cooperative Search Algorithm (MOACS) has been proposed to solve the multi-objective pareto optimization problem. The algorithm assigns compensation reference to all the DGs so that the DGs can accordingly compensate the negative sequence voltage at different buses and thereby mitigate voltage unbalance. The effectiveness of the proposed scheme has been established through the results obtained from simulation and real time digital simulator. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]