A DIRECTIONAL DERIVATIVE-BASED FAULT DETECTION METHOD FOR STANDALONE PV-BASED MICROGRIDS WITH BATTERY-SUPERCAPACITOR HYBRID ENERGY STORAGE

Hybrid standalone DC Microgrid, which consist of photovoltaic (PV) generation, energy storage systems, and power electronic converters, provide high efficiency and clean power supply to loads. These hybrid DC Microgrids can be implemented in many applications, where there are difficulties in connecting to the main grid. In this paper, a directional derivative fault detection scheme for a standalone PV-based Microgrid with a battery-supercapacitor (SC) hybrid energy system is proposed. Due to the compact nature of these systems, it is a challenging task to detect the faulty component, due to the near-end characteristic of fault in these systems. As a selective fault detection method, after detection of fault by using the derivative of fault current, the direction of current is used to determine faulty components. Simulation results prove that the proposed directional derivative-based fault detection scheme can detect the fault and faulty component expeditiously during different scenarios.