Power plant protection calculation software

[jspigolon]

Hi folks,

Recently I have been working with power plant protection system designs. I ‘m wondering if someone can give me a tip about which software can perform the most number of protection calculation inside a power plant.

Thanks in advance.

 

[wbd]

There are a number of software packages available. I use EasyPower from ESA, Inc. Many companies will give you a demo program to try out. The EasyPower has options for coordination, arc flash, etc. Website is

http://www.easypower.com

 

[mpparent]

SKM PowerTools is a good one as well...

Mike

 

[rbulsara]

Well...just a reminder: The softwares do not calculate "protection". They calculate short circuit currents etc. (and perform other analysis such as load flow and transients). Even for that you have to input data such as imepedances etc. However software do include a wealth of libraries that contain data for standard components.

As for protection device coordination, softwares only provide you with curves for the settings you provide. Again device library of most fuses, brekaers and relays are real help. You can adjust settings by comparing the curves. This is limited to curves for breakers and fuses.

There are many other settings required to set protection relays which only have to be calculated by hand and in most cases professinal judgement and experience is needed.

Protection is as much an art as science and you will do well to learn it while working with some experienced people.

 

[jspigolon]

Thanks to all for the information.

I’m concerned about two software that can help me with the design of the protection system, EDSA and ETAP. Both provide “protect device calculation” that are extremely helpful, but still leave some hand calculation to perform.

Apparently it seems that exist such software that is able to perform “protection calculation” automatically, without the need of hand calculation. Does anyone is aware of it?

 

[RRaghunath]

DIGSI software of Siemens is a powerful software if you like to try. I looked at their demo version some time back.

 

[RalphChristie]

Hi

First you have to ask yourself how much do you want to spend? The more functions you want to do, the more you are going to pay.

Digsilent are a good program, although a bit expensive. Check

http://www.digsilent.com

You can also do a search on this site. There was in the past some questions regarding protection software packets.

Regards
Ralph