Electricity grid protection without borders

Researchers from TU Delft and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) are teaming up to protect renewable dominated power systems. Associate Professors Marjan Popov and Sarasij Das are among the first grantees selected under the new strategic partnership agreement between TU Delft and IISc.

More sustainable energy systems are essential in the face of climate change, especially as the total contribution of the energy sector to the increased CO2­ level is approximately 35% of (TNO 2019). The decommissioning of coal- and gas power plants for replacement by sustainable resources is of significant interest. However, introducing electrical power systems supplied with high amounts of renewables presents major challenges. Decreased system inertia due to the use of small-mass generators raises stability risks. The use of more power- electronic devices results in low fault currents, which are difficult to be detected. Electrical power systems can be subjected to the variation of voltages and currents leading to severe blackouts.

Researchers at TU Delft and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) share many similar research interests, including Wide Area Monitoring application for system integrity protection schemes, control islanding of power systems, and many other power system protection studies that can be worked out and also validated by measurements in both TU Delft’s Electrical Sustainable Power (ESP) lab and IISc’s Power Systems’ Lab.

“Electricity grid protection without borders”

TU Delft’s Marjan Popov and IISc’s Sarasij Das have now received seed funding to collaborate in this field of power system protection. The impact of this research can help both countries. The Netherlands, for example continues with the trend to provide 100% penetration of renewable energy, and how the systems will be protected and controlled is one of the goals of the energy transition. On the other hand, wide area monitoring is important to guarantee a high level of reliability in the exploitation of future power systems.

This cooperation brings an excellent opportunity to do joint research in developing new applications which can serve both Indian and Dutch society and can be used to contribute to the ongoing energy transition.