Distributed Generation (DG) sources

predominantly renewable energy-based

such as solar photovoltaic and wind energy sources

have significantly penetrated into power system networks. This high penetration of DG sources may lead to the formation of unintentional islands

which is hazardous to both the equipment and personnel

if sustained. In this paper

46 passive parameters are considered to find out which candidate(s) are promising for detecting sustained unintentional islands and avoid false DG trips. These 46 parameters are derived from point of common coupling (PCC) voltage

DG output current

frequency

power factor angle

active and reactive powers. All these parameters are tested on standard IEEE 13 and 34 bus distribution networks

integrated with inverter-interfaced DGs at different locations for different penetration levels in the MATLAB/SIMULINK environment. The parameters are tested for different islanding events (comprising of various local loads

such as conventional parallel RLC resonant load

R

RC

and RL loads) and for different non-islanding events. The parameters are then ranked accordingly by a suitable averaging approach based performance ranking technique. From this analysis

the best candidates are obtained for detecting inverter DG islands at single-point (or single PCC) locations and multi-point (or multiple PCCs) locations. Multiple best passive candidates are obtained for different island scenarios from which a set of promising islanding detection indicators are proposed.