Solutions for network and system protection

• When it comes to feeding generated energy into the power supply network, the latest requirements are much more stringent than they were a few years ago.
• Each wind turbine generator requires its own feed-in management.
• Phoenix Contact offers turn-key solutions for your feed-in management and grid monitoring so that you can meet these requirements using standard-compliant systems.

Approaches such as the German Renewable Energy Sources Act aim to gradually replace conventional forms of power generation with renewable energy sources.

This results in increased expenses to provide stable mains operation so that the generated energy can be transported to consumers reliably and with a high degree of quality.

Modern wind turbine generators also have the task of compensating mains fluctuations and therefore increasing the stability of the mains.

On the one hand, they must meet the grid connection requirements of the respective country; in Germany this is defined by the low-voltage directive VDE-AR-N 4105. On the other hand, system operators must integrate grid and system protection, which acquires the condition values of the grid and implements emergency shutdown in accordance with defined procedures, if necessary. Solutions for feed-in management from Phoenix Contact can be used to continuously monitor the power supply network, enabling the plant control system to respond to events in the network.

The Grid Monitoring and Protection Controller (GMPC) from Phoenix Contact is a modular solution which meets the specifications of the VDE-AR-N 4105 directive. An SD card with special software as well as an ILC 191 ETH 2TX small-scale controller are included in this solution for the VDE-AR-N-4105-compliant evaluation of measured grid characteristic values, which are acquired from the Inline I/O block via the IB IL PM 3P/N/EF-PAC function module. The solution is rounded off by an IB IL 24 DO8/HD-PAC digital Inline output terminal for controlling the section switch as well as a second function module for grid measurement, if the function is required for the grid synchronization of synchronous generators. Once the components have been assembled according to the Plug and Play principle, just one standard PC with an Ethernet interface and Firefox version 24.00 or higher is required for startup of the grid and system protection.

The Grid Monitoring and Protection Controller also enables the measurement of currents up to five amps or the connection of current transformers to acquire energy. The data can then be forwarded to the system controller via PROFINET or Modbus/TCP and processed there.

In addition to the grid monitoring and synchronization function, the GMPC is also used as the historical data memory. It cyclically saves grid characteristic values, energy data, grid events according to VDE-AR-N-4105, and diagnostics information. If a critical grid condition occurs, the grid characteristics are saved for 5 seconds before and after the event with a millisecond time stamp in CSV format. This information can be used for analysis purposes.