BC Hydro, an electrical services company in British Columbia, Canada has upgraded its generator and transformer protection thanks to help from the RTDS® Simulator.

The RTDS Simulator, a powerful real-time processing system with both conventional and communications-based I/O options, gave BC Hydro a fast, flexible way to understand its various power system contingencies and their effect on protective relays and a testbed for validating modified settings and configurations. Engineers at BC Hydro were able to understand the protection misoperation issues on their network, de-risk the solution, increase the reliability of protection, and decrease their commissioning time for these protective relays.

As a leading utility, BC Hydro serves over 95% of the province's population, with a service area stretching from the U.S. border to the 59th parallel over 1,300 km north. This area is uniquely diverse in terms of geography, culture, and power system infrastructure, including many remote communities. Recent transformer protection upgrades took place at Masset substation, where diesel generators serve a community thriving on the remote, wild, and beautiful islands of Haida Gwaii the traditional territory of the Haida Nation.

Historically, BC Hydro tested generator protection using relay test sets (open-loop testing tools) and steady-state signals. However, the dynamics of the generator, governor, and exciter are not captured using this method. Transitioning the testing to the real-time simulation environment allowed for the detailed dynamic representation of the network, the machine, and its controls, and the closed-loop testing of the relay to support the commissioning process.

Functions tested with the RTDS Simulator included generator protection, such as stator ground fault, out-of-step, loss of excitation, and differential; and transformer protection, such as instantaneous and time overcurrent, overvoltage, and differential.

Having successfully applied the RTDS Simulator in their protection planning department, BC Hydro hopes to continue testing every protection element in a controlled laboratory environment prior to generator and transformer relay deployment. During commissioning, selected COMTRADE event files are played back to the relay, and field results are sent to the protection engineer for analysis and approval.

Learn more about HIL testing for generator and transformer protection at www.rtds.com/applications

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About RTDS Technologies Inc

For over 25 years, the RTDS Simulator has been the industry's de facto tool for the closed-loop testing of protection and control systems. Today, RTDS Technologies continues to lead the way with innovative developments, ensuring real time simulation's applicability for the grid modernization practices that are so critical for utilities, protection and control manufacturers, research institutions, and consultants around the world. Hardware-in-the-loop testing with the RTDS Simulator provides a safe, flexible environment for the testing of digital substation components via real-time streaming of IEC 61850 data. Learn more at www.rtds.com.