Advanced Adaptive Protection Scheme to Minimise Outages and Enhance Reliability in Renewable-Integrated Oil and Gas Power Networks

Integration of Photovoltaic (PV) generation into oil and gas power networks has transformed fault behaviour by creating highly complex sensitivity challenges for conventional Overcurrent Relay (OCR) coordination and tripping time. Inverter-based sources produce limited, variable fault currents and bidirectional power flow, which can cause fixed IEC-based relay settings to lose sensitivity, delay clearing, cause miscoordination, or result in unnecessary trips. In the oil-field industry, the continuity of electric power supplies are connected to safety and production. This work develops an advanced Adaptive Hybrid Overcurrent Relay (OCRH) scheme for an industrial power network (radial and meshed) with renewable energy sources. This proposed scheme combines IEC-standardised (SI) and specific Inverse curve (RI-type) time–current characteristics within a single coordination framework. The transfer between the two characteristics is based on using an adaptive Plug Setting Multiplier (PSM) threshold. This structure improves response under low, medium, and high fault current levels. Optimal Time Multiplier Settings (TMS) are obtained using the Artificial Bee Colony (ABC) algorithm to reduce overall tripping time and compared to Particle Swarm Optimisation (PSO). In the adaptive OCRH scheme, total clearing time decreased by 46% at a real-case oil-field power network without PV. After PV integration, the clearance time reduced from 14.93 s to 8.68 s, despite the additional operational complexity. In this work, Monte Carlo analysis over 1000 randomised fault cases and Hardware-in-the-Loop testing confirmed stable coordination performance across different fault locations and network states, demonstrating that the scheme can operate in a real environment.