A novel adaptive distance protection scheme for DFIG wind farm collector lines

•The method is well adaptable to different operation modes.•The method is strongly immune to the transition resistance.•Unaffected by the weak feed characteristics of the wind generator collector system.•The method is not affected by fault on the adjacent line.

In view of the sensitivity and selectivity problems in DFIG (doubly-fed induction generator) wind farm collector line protection, a new adaptive distance protection scheme is proposed. First, according to the geometric distribution characteristics of the collector line voltage and current, the equation of voltage drop from the relaying point to the fault point is established and the adaptive setting coefficient is calculated. On this basis, a new adaptive distance protection criterion is formed according to the phase relationship between the fault current and the measured current. Wind farm simulation tests on RTDS verify that, the proposed method is well adaptable to different operation modes, strongly immune to the fault resistance and unaffected by the weak feed characteristics of the wind generator collector system.