Testing Protective Relays and Power Generation Control Systems to HEMP
Abstract
During a high-altitude electromagnetic pulse (HEMP) event, large voltages and currents will couple to exposed electrical lines. Resulting impacts could occur not only to the large transmission-line infrastructures and components with which those lines interface, but also to the digital control system (DCS) protective relay equipment and its system-monitoring diagnostic lines. In addition, these currents and voltages will also couple to the DCS equipment that operate power generation plants (PGPs). This paper discusses HEMP survivability tests to both types of DCS equipment. This testing included both radiated (Military Standard [MIL-STD]-461, RS-105) and conducted (MIL-STD-188-125-1 pulsed-current injection [PCI]) testing. Testing was performed on the equipment mounted in both unprotected and HEMP-protected open-rack configurations.The basic, HEMP rack-level protection with no special-shielded enclosures is almost sufficient to protect many types of DCS equipment to the Department of Defense (DoD) HEMP threat levels. This type of straightforward protection is recommended for use by power companies to mitigate HEMP susceptibility of their DCS rack-mounted equipment. It is cost effective, but is not low risk per MIL-STD-188-125-1. The Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) is developing similar practical HEMP mitigation techniques for other power grid equipment
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 01, 2020
- Accession Number
- AD1093403
Entities
People
- A. Mattei
- A. Walker
- Charles W. Anderson
- D. Fromme
- G. Bohannon
- M. R. Rooney
- M. Woerner
- W. M. Bollen
Organizations
- Defense Threat Reduction Agency