Grids get smart protection and control

As open transmission access is becoming a reality, a major concern of electric power utilities is to maintain the reliability of the grid. Increased power transfers raise concerns about steady-state overloads, increased risks of voltage collapse and potential stability problems. Strengthening the protection and control strategies is what utilities must do to prevent a local problem from spreading to other parts of the grid. This article defines the framework and motivation for the development of a multilayered protection and control scheme that starts with local measurement devices and integrates higher-level control schemes into an overall control strategy