A new approach for mitigating blackout risk by blocking minimum critical distance relays

• We propose a method for simulating process of power system blackout.
• Activation of zone 3 of distance relays is recognized to be critical for blackout.
• A distance relay with highest activation in blackout is recognized as critical.
• We propose a probabilistic–deterministic approach for recognizing critical relays.
• Blocking minimum critical distance relays, substantially mitigate risk of blackout.

Electric power systems are complex and commonly run near their operational limits. Power systems are basically designed based on the (N − 1) criterion. In these systems, total or partial blackouts are unavoidable. Cascading failures following an initial event is recognized as the main mechanism for power system blackouts. Undesirable activation of zone 3 of distance relays due to their local function has been identified as one of the major causes for propagation of cascading failures. In this paper, in order to mitigate the risk of power system blackouts, a novel approach is proposed for recognizing the critical line outages with the highest contribution in cascading failure and preventing their undesirable outage by blocking zone 3 of their distance relay. In this paper, based on the statistical activation of distance relays, a deterministic–probabilistic approach is developed for identifying the critical lines with the highest contribution in blackouts due to activation of zone 3 of their distance relays. In order to avoid interference of relay blocking with the main protection duty of distance relays, the proposed approach recognizes the minimum critical lines with the highest contribution in cascading failure for blocking zone 3 of their distance relays. The proposed approach is demonstrated on the New England 39-bus system and detailed simulation studies carried out to examine the validity and effectiveness of the proposed approach.