Compensated fault impedance estimation for distance-based protection in active distribution networks

Electric distribution networks are experiencing fast changes mainly due to the integration of distributed energy resources. These changes originate the active distribution networks, where several distributed energy resources are integrated, usually using power converters. In these active networks, the conventional control, operation, and protection schemes used in power systems are unsuitable, and as a consequence, new approaches must be proposed and tested. This paper analyses the distance relay performance in active distribution networks; as the main contribution, a communication-less compensation strategy is proposed to deal with the effects of fault resistance and the distributed energy resources’ infeed and remote currents. The obtained results demonstrate the excellent performance of the proposed compensation strategy aimed at determining the true value of the estimated positive sequence impedance. This compensation can be easily integrated into the software of conventional distance relays to overcome fault resistance, infeed, and remote current effects. •A detailed error analysis for conventional distance relays is presented.•A strategy to compensate conventional distance relays is proposed.•A critical case for active networks considering converters is validated.•Results validate the proposed distance relay compensation.