Proactive relay and relay driver failure identification mechanism and microgrid interconnect device including the same

Abstract

A microgrid interconnect device (MID) includes: a relay structured to be connected to a utility grid and distributed energy resources (DERs); a relay driver connected to the relay and structured to actuate the relay to connect or disconnect the DERs from the grid, the relay driver further structured to provide relay state information including a relay driver fault feedback signal; a relay and relay driver failure identification mechanism connected to the relay driver and structured to perform a fault test to determine that the relay driver fault feedback signal is accurate; and a control circuit connected to the relay driver and the failure identification mechanism, the control circuit structured to cause the relay driver to actuate the relay, receive the relay state information, cause the failure identification mechanism to perform the fault test and determine that the relay driver fault feedback signal is accurate based on fault test results.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.