Expose hidden failures to prevent cascading outages

Journal Article · Mon Jul 01 04:00:00 EDT 1996 · IEEE Computer Applications in Power

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1109/67.526849· OSTI ID:287421

Phadke, A G ^[1]; Thorp, J S ^[2]

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1. Virginia Polytechnic Inst. and State Univ., Blacksburg, VA (United States)
2. Cornell Univ., Ithaca, NY (United States)

This article describes how to identify lines and buses that present the greatest hazard to system reliability, and add digital equipment to supervise and control hidden failures of the associated relays. Major blackouts are rare events, but their impact can be catastrophic. A study of significant disturbances reported by NERC in the period from 1984 through 1988 indicates that protective relays are involved in one way or another in 75% of major disturbances. A common scenario is that the relay has an undetected (hidden) defect that was exposed due to the conditions created by other disturbances. For example, near-by faults, overloads, or reverse power flows expose the defective relay and cause a false trip, which exacerbates the situation. Given the importance of hidden failure modes in traditional relaying systems, intervention by computer-based rational control schemes is proposed in this article. Relays with high-vulnerability indices can be identified, and their vulnerable functions and failure modes identified. Countermeasures to reduce or eliminate the likelihood of the hidden failure of key relays can be provided.

• OSTI ID: 287421
• Journal Information: IEEE Computer Applications in Power, Journal Name: IEEE Computer Applications in Power Journal Issue: 3 Vol. 9; ISSN 0895-0156; ISSN ICAPEH
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION
COMPUTERIZED CONTROL SYSTEMS
CONTROL
DETECTION
INTERCONNECTED POWER SYSTEMS
OUTAGES
RELAYS
RELIABILITY