Adrian Timbus

Islanding detection in smart grids

All distributed generators (DG), especially those connected to low voltage distribution grids are required to detect islanding conditions. The methods for detecting islanding are classified in three main categories: passive, active and communication based. Passive methods are based on grid monitoring, are easy to implement but have a large non-detection zone in the case local generation meets the load demand. Active methods, which are commonly used today, may reduce the non-detection zone but in the case of large amount of DGs installed, power quality problems are foreseen. The communication based methods are seldom used today mainly because of high cost of communication.