Advanced Engineering Tools for Protective Relay Engineers

Power industry deregulation trend and proliferation of digital electronic devices are deeply affecting operations of power utility companies. Engineering departments, in particular, must deal with increasing complexity of existing applications as well as with emergence of new applications. Such an environment, creates many new challenges for protection system engineers. Use of new business model, deployment of microprocessor relays, proliferation of intelligent devices, higher emphasis on power quality and shortage of personnel are among the main ones. As a result, engineers increasingly must rely on use of advanced engineering tools to perform their daily tasks. This paper describes several such tools developed at Texas A&M University's Power System Control and Protection Laboratory.