Development of a hybrid platform for automated type and online application testing of protection & control schemes

Due to the increasing complexity of protection and control devices in modern power grids and the corresponding challenges for configuration and system integration the subject of application testing has become a focus of current research interest. Presently, the first industrial designs for a combined application and type testing exist. However, since all known concepts are based on conventional relay test systems they are conclusively limited by the historical grown system constraints and thus lack the requirements for flexible application testing procedures. In this paper a new hybrid platform for application and type testing of innovative protection and control schemes is introduced that offers fast process generation and use case design. Thereby, its performance is investigated in reference to conventional protection evaluation systems. The proof of concept is given by an extensive type testing of a distance protection relay according to IEC 60255-121 based on the hybrid simulator system. The test results emphasise the benefits of the proposed hybrid testing platform.