This study presents a novel micro‐grid protection scheme based on Hilbert–Huang transform (HHT) and machine learning techniques. Initialisation of the proposed approach is done by extracting the three‐phase current signals at the targeted buses of different feeders. The obtained non‐stationary signals are passed through the empirical mode decomposition method to extract different intrinsic mode functions (IMFs). In the next step using HHT to the selected IMFs component, different needful differential features are computed. The extracted features are further used as an input vector to the machine learning models to classify the fault events. The proposed micro‐grid protection scheme is tested for different protection scenarios, such as the type of fault (symmetrical, asymmetrical and high impedance fault), micro‐grid structure (radial and mesh) and mode of operation (islanded and grid connected) and so on. Three different machine learning models are tested and compared in this framework: Naive Bayes classifier, support vector machine and extreme learning machine. The extensive simulated results from a standard IEC micro‐grid model prove the effectiveness and reliability of the proposed micro‐grid protection scheme.

Variability in solar irradiance has an impact on the stability of solar systems and the grid’s safety. With the decreasing cost of solar panels and recent advancements in energy conversion technology, precise solar energy forecasting is critical for energy system integration. Despite extensive research, there is still potential for advancement of solar irradiance prediction accuracy, especially global horizontal irradiance. Global Horizontal Irradiance (GHI) (unit: KWh/m²) and the Plane Of Array (POA) irradiance (unit: W/m²) were used as the forecasting objectives in this research, and a hybrid short-term solar irradiance prediction model called modified multi-step Convolutional Neural Network (CNN)-stacked Long-Short-Term-Memory network (LSTM) with drop-out was proposed. The real solar data from Sweihan Photovoltaic Independent Power Project in Abu Dhabi, UAE is preprocessed, and features were extracted using modified CNN layers. The output result from CNN is used to predict the targets using a stacked LSTM network and the efficiency is proved by comparing statistical performance measures in terms of Root Mean Square Error (RMSE), Mean Absolute Percentage Error (MAPE), Mean Squared Error (MAE), and R² scores, with other contemporary machine learning and deep-learning-based models. The proposed model offered the best RMSE and R² values of 0.36 and 0.98 for solar irradiance prediction and 61.24 with R² 0.96 for POA prediction, which also showed better performance as compared to the published works in the literature.

The emerging smart-grid and microgrid concept implementation into the conventional power system brings complexity due to the incorporation of various renewable energy sources and non-linear inverter-based devices. The occurrence of frequent power outages may have a significant negative impact on a nation’s economic, societal, and fiscal standing. As a result, it is essential to employ sophisticated monitoring and measuring technology. Implementing phasor measurement units (PMUs) in modern power systems brings about substantial improvement and beneficial solutions, mainly to protection issues and challenges. PMU-assisted state estimation, phase angle monitoring, power oscillation monitoring, voltage stability monitoring, fault detection, and cyberattack identification are a few prominent applications. Although substantial research has been carried out on the aspects of PMU applications to power system protection, it can be evolved from its current infancy stage and become an open domain of research to achieve further improvements and novel approaches. The three principal objectives are emphasized in this review. The first objective is to present all the methods on the synchro-phasor-based PMU application to estimate the power system states and dynamic phenomena in frequent time intervals to observe centrally, which helps to make appropriate decisions for better protection. The second is to discuss and analyze the post-disturbance scenarios adopted through better protection schemes based on accurate and synchronized measurements through GPS synchronization. Thirdly, this review summarizes current research on PMU applications for power system protection, showcasing innovative breakthroughs, addressing existing challenges, and highlighting areas for future research to enhance system resilience against catastrophic events.