Advanced hardware-based protection strategy for multi-DGs microgrids using adaptive median filtering

Multiple distributed generations (DGs)-based microgrids are the modern adaptation of conventional power distribution networks due to the rapid penetration of renewable energy resources. However, different protection and control issues are associated with these microgrids due to their dynamic operational behaviour. This paper presents a high-speed protection strategy for microgrids using an adaptive Median filter (AMF) algorithm. The current and voltage signals are measured at the considered bus and are pre-processed via AMF to generate a per-phase Multiple Indexing-based Criterion (MIBC) for fault detection/classification. The MIBC includes total harmonic distortion (THD), reactive power, and active power. The variation in MIBC of any phase depicts the presence of a fault in the microgrids. Then, fault localization is carried out using the directional trends of non-fundamental components of active power (NFCOAP). Extensive simulations are carried out on MATLAB/Simulink 2022b to validate the usefulness of the proposed strategy. Moreover, the scheme is validated through HIL’s setup based on the dSPACE MicroLab tools. The results illustrate that the proposed strategy performs well during the high impedance Faults (HIF) and low-impedance solid faults (LISF) in radial and meshed scenarios with 92% accuracy.