P37.103: Protection and Control

Objective

Utilities face the challenge of managing the performance and reliability of multi-generation protection and control (P&C) assets accompanied by tighter regulations and resource limitations. New technologies and automation tools provide utilities with tremendous opportunities to advance new P&C designs.

By developing application guides, evaluating new technologies, and conducting technology transfer, the project aims to assist members in:

• Reducing the risk of protection system misoperation by establishing systematic configuration management processes that can seamlessly integrate protection data, streamline setting change management processes, and automate relay settings verification
• Lowering costs and improving protection reliability by advancing condition-based protection system maintenance programs
• Advancing new P&C designs by embracing fiber-optic communications and digital substation technologies
• Knowledge preparation and field deployment of IEC 61850 standard and technologies

Research Value

• Improve relay setting management by applying configuration management guidance and automation technologies.
• Increase protection system reliability by reducing human errors, preventing relay misoperation, and detecting hidden failures.
• Reduce costs and improve safety, storm -hardening, and grid resilience by advancing new designs and embracing digital substation technologies.

Planned 2025 Research

• Life-Cycle Management of Relay Settings: Configuration Management Guidelines and Effective Practices. Many utilities face challenges in managing the consistency, conformance, and accuracy of large volumes of relay settings for meeting reliability and regulatory requirements. The growing complexity of digital relay technologies, tighter compliance requirements, and increasing concerns with setting-error-caused relay misoperation drive utilities to identify applicable research on systematic approaches and automated tools for improved relay-setting data management. Configuration management (CM) is a proven methodology that addresses requirements, controls changes, and maintains facility configuration throughout a system’s life cycle. A well-established configuration management system, when applied to a P&C asset, can help ensure that relay settings and changes to that information are systematically identified, approved, verified, and recorded in sufficient detail throughout the life cycle of P&C assets.

• Application Guide for Relay Firmware Change Management. Upgrading relay firmware not only impacts relay functionality but also introduces compatibility issues with other components in P&C systems. Previously, a common practice for utilities was to freeze relay firmware versions through standardization of P&C design. However, with tighter regulation on security patch management, new approaches and application guidance are needed for utilities to keep relay firmware up to date while maintaining the integrity and reliability of P&C systems.

• Life-Cycle Management of Relay Settings: Tools Assessment. Traditional tools for creating and managing relay settings have led to many disconnected data repositories, applications, and environments. Meanwhile, there are growing business needs for stakeholders across a utility organization to inquire and exchange accurate setting information to support engineering, planning, field service and compliance. Assessing and analyzing commercially available software can help answer these questions: What tools can provide the Single Source of Truth for managing relay settings across different applications? What tools can help automate setting data exchange, verification, and documentation?

• Application Guidelines for Protection System Maintenance. The reliability of P&C systems relies on well-established asset maintenance programs. The challenges utilities face today include difficulty in scheduling outages, stretched resources, and the growing complexity of relay technologies. The research aims to address these challenges by evaluating new monitoring technologies and advancing condition-based maintenance (CBM) programs. The research results might provide utilities with application guidance that can be used in engineering standards and design specifications for creating effective CBM programs and reducing the costs associated with time-based maintenance (TBM) programs. The benefits of combining CBM and TBM in maintenance programs include reducing the cost and outage requirements of TBM, expanding maintenance intervals based on NERC PRC-005, detecting hidden failures at once, and triggering a maintenance action when it is truly needed.

• Evaluation of Protective Relay Performance Under Power Swings: Lab Testing and Research Findings. Stable power swings can cause unwanted operations of protective relays and consequently compromise power system reliability. The NERC PRC-026 standard requires that utilities take necessary actions to prevent transmission protection misoperation during stable power swings at non-fault condition. Through power swing simulation and lab testing, the EPRI research plans to evaluate the performance of transmission protective relays under stable power swings with various fault or non-fault conditions. The research may provide members with new discoveries about power swing dynamics, the state-of-the-art power swing detection and blocking technologies, and potential impacts of power swings on the transmission protection relays. The outcomes of the research may assist utilities in specification, engineering, and application of relaying technologies to improve the reliability of protection systems subject to the NERC PRC-026 standard.

• Technology Transfer Workshop: IEC 61850 Standard and New P&C Designs: The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) 61850 standard facilitates substation automation and enables equipment interoperability through a common data format. There is growing interest from utilities to explore the IEC 61850 standard and associated digital substation technologies, for to advanceing new P&C designs that promise to improve safety and reliability, reduce costs, enable interoperability and condition monitoring, and strengthen grid resiliency.

  The technology transfer workshop will provide members with knowledge preparation and new insights on:

  • IEC 61850 standard and digital substation architectures
  • New technologies for resilient communication networks
  • New P&C applications using the Generic Object-Oriented Substation Event (GOOSE) message
  • Emerging process bus technologies and new P&C applications using sampled value
  • New technologies and industry standards for precision time synchronization

  The workshop, held in collaboration with relevant EPRI research programs and industry stakeholders, aims to keep members abreast of the latest technologies and industry standards, provide a forum for members to share success stories and lessons learned, and prepare members for field deployment through EPRI technology transfer.

Anticipated Deliverables

Past EPRI Research on Topic