Using gold sequences to improve the performance of correlation based islanding detection

One of the problems encountered when connecting distributed generators to a distribution system is the possibility of islanded operation. Traditionally this has been prevented through the application of passive under/over voltage and frequency relays which are triggered if the island contains mismatched amounts of active and/or reactive power, respectively. Various active techniques which reduce the power mismatch required for operation of the passive relays have been developed. These active techniques may fail to detect islanding in multiple generator islands if all the generators do not have identical active anti-islanding strategies. An islanding detection technique based on the correlation between disturbances in system voltage and a pseudo-random sequence used to perturb the generator’s output was developed for use in islands where generators may have different anti-islanding strategies. Previous investigations have always used pseudo-random sequences from the maximal length family of sequences. It is demonstrated in this paper that using either a Gold or Kasami sequence instead of a maximal length sequence can improve the performance of the correlation technique.