Line protection systems with 5G communications

This paper analyses communications-assisted accelerated line protection scheme using 5G communication between two substations. The primary goal is to eliminate the reliance on traditional wired communication methods typically used for line protection trips during fault conditions at distant ends of the line. The study employs a hardware-in-the-loop setup, featuring hardware intelligent electronic devices and a real-time simulator to model virtual merging units of the substations. A realistic operational private 5G network is utilized as the wide area communication infrastructure for the accelerated distance protection. Experimental results in a laboratory environment demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of implementing 5G technology for enhancing line protection.