A Setting Optimization Ensemble for a Distributed Power Grid Protective Relay

To ensure a stable and reliable power supply, the valid and timely response of protective relays are indispensable. Through the prevention of fault expansions, potential equipment damage or system collapse can be averted, where their setting is one vital prerequisite for such effective implementations. However, the increasing complexity of distribution power systems results in more challenges for protection tuning strategies. Ergo, this paper presents an ensemble that combines the independent factor evaluation (IFE) and quantum genetic optimization (QGO) models to further optimize the performance of relays according to their distributed tuning environment. In this ensemble, both near and far-end fault characteristics can be incorporated. In the first stage, the IFE dimensional reduction model is deployed for massive heterogeneous input data, where the statistical independence of input signals is calculated, the linear transformation matrix to decouple mixed signals is found, the linear combination of such signals is formed, and the non-Gaussian property to sort them is established. This can ameliorate the following calculation efficiency under those high-dimensional data scenarios. Subsequently, the QGO model is designed to further improve relay settings, where qubit representation is built to reduce required chromosomes, the linear superposition of the optimal solution probability in different states is implemented for a better diversity and convergence performance, and a self-adaption quantum gate is established to dynamically update the qubit chromosome groups and two-state solution combinations. Lastly, an empirical case study is presented, which validates the enhanced convergence, accuracy, and rapidity of the proposed ensemble.