2016 IEEE PES Asia-Pacific Power and Energy Conference - Xi'an - China

Traveling-Wave Based Fault Location with High

Grounding Resistance for HVDC Transmission Lines
Yuntao Zou, Xiuli Wang, Haitao Zhang, Chunyang Liu
School of Electrical Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University
Department ofElectrical Engineering and Shaanxi Key
Laboratory ofSmart Grid, Xi'an Jiaotong University
Shanxi Xi'an, 710049, China
E-mail address: 30064282@qq.com

Qian Zhou, Weiping Zhu

State Grid Jiangsu Electric Power Research Institute
Jiangsu Nanjing, 211100, China

Abstract-The fault resistance of HVDC transmission lines is one

of the sensitive and significant factors to affect the parameters of
travelling wave and the performance of fault location. Therefore
explicit fault location of high grounding resistance is proposed
lines in this paper. S transform is applied to analyze travelling
wave to demonstrate the characteristic and variation in timefrequency domain. The principle of type A and type D for fault
location are applied into proposed algorithm by magnitude
integral in frequency domain. The position of wave front in
travelling wave can be identified accurately and as a consequence
of it the time of which first arrived is affirmed to measure the
distance of fault. In the end of paper a simulation provide the
validation about accuracy and feasibility of this algorithm.

with tradition methods were developed. In [5] a unfamiliar

method was represented that the voltage distribution of
transmission lines could be calculated by the voltage and
current signals sampling after fault occurs and an mathematic
model of transmission lines and fault would be located
precisely from the voltage distribution. In [6] the difference
about transient energy and the relation between various
parameters of the line were analyzed and depending on
transient energy principle fault location was easily to complete.
In [7] the principle ofpattern recognition was applied into fault
location, which used Pearson correlation coefficients to depict
similarity between pattern voltage signals and ones after fault
occurs to ensure the fauIt location.

Index Terms-fault location, HVDC transmission line, high

grounding resistance, integration of instantaneous frequency
spectrum, S trans form.

However, some fault location methods rely on much more

complicated analysis, accurately model and massive simulation.
And high grounding resistance will defuse the saltation of
voltage and produce adverse effect to fault location. Therefore
it should be exploit new method to complete fauIt location
which could be avoid the situation of principle being
maladaptive to some kind of faults occurring at transmission
line or other places. In this paper, a travelling wave based fault
location algorithm for HVDC transmission system is proposed.
In this algorithm a time-frequency domain analysis of shortwindow sampled voltage signals by S transform is presented.
The novel principle of this fault location is expressed by using
instantaneous frequency spectrum integration at time that detect
precisely the position of wave front that would be used to
determine location of fault reassured. And by this way of
detection, the principles of type A and type D for fault location
are applied into use. At last, to validate accuracy of fauIt
location, proposed algorithm is simulated in a HVDC
transmission system based on PSCADIMETDC and all results
of simulation are denoted in tables. The infallibility and
accuracy of proposed algorithm can be confirmed from the
consequences of simulation.

I.

INTRODUCTION

Nowadays high voltage, tremendous capacity and long

distance HVDC transmiSSIOn systems are pervasively
implemented in power system. Notwithstanding many
advanced fault location principles were massively applied into
HVDC transmission system such as some methods based on
travelling waves or transient variables. It's particularly
necessary and significant to accurately locate permanent and
nonpermanent fault at very long HVDC transmission line to
maintain stability and reliability of system. Many different
kinds of fault location methods and principles were proposed
and discussed in decades. Some conventional methods based on
time domain utilized the accurate time that the travelling-wave
arrived ends of lines to infer the fault location. Continuous
wavelet transform was applied in the travelling-wave principle
to detect precise time that traveling-wave was disseminated
through overhead lines and cables in [1]. A fault location
method under unsynchronized two-end measurement was also
put forward to deal with some fallible situation oflacking GPS
or losing GPS signal. In [2]. Many academics solved this by the
perspective of frequency domain. In [3] and [4] disparate
mathematic analysis processes were put into use to obtain the
natural frequency that had mathematic relationship with fauIt
distance. On the other hand, many entirely novel and discrepant

11.

CHARACTERISTIC ANALYSIS

A. Character ofphysical boundary

Abipolar CSC-HVDC system is shown in Fig I, which
consists of converter stations, smoothing reactors, DC filters,
measurement device and transmission lines. Smoothing

This work was supported by the State Grid Corporation in China und er
Grant 52094016000C

978-1-5090-5417-6/16/ $ 31.00 20 16 IEEE

1651

reactors and OC filters will together constitute the physical

boundary (M and N) for high frequency component oftransient
signal in HVDC transmission system.
Boundary N

Boundary M I
I

The location devices are installed at double terminal of line

and keep monitoring and recording voItage signal into buffer
memory in real time and time length of which is 3 ms. And
devices will save the data ofbuffer memory and begin to record
another voltage signal and time length of which is 8 ms if
absolute value ofvoItage is smaller than the threshold value Vset.
Two short sampIes of voltage signal will comprise a long
sampie and time length of which is 11 ms. This long sampie is
applied to complete time-frequency domain analysis by the way
ofS transform to obtain the A(t, 1).

IMeasure

Device

Transmi ssi on
Line

Rectifier

I
I

Double-tuned DC
filters bank.

Double-tuned DC
filters oo.nk

Inverter

Fig.l Bipolar CSC-HVDC transmission system

B. Deteetion by using S transform

The S transform, which is an extension of the ideas of the
continuous wavelet trans form , is based on a removable and
scalable localizing Gaussian window that the resolution is
related to frequency [8]. S transform can provide precise
position of signal singularity and mutation point by the
maximum of instantaneous frequency. S transform can be
regard as what can transform signal to a matrix which include
times and instantaneous frequency. That transformation will
assistant signal analysis to orientate the moment offauIt occurs,
which is considerably advantageous in latter fauIt location.
The result of signal is a complex matrix which can be
denoted as

set, f) =

A(t, f)e/P(t.!)

(1)

where A(t, f) is the amplitude function ofthe matrix and cp(t, f)

is the phase function of it. The t and f are time and frequency
respectively. In proposed algorithm more attention will
concentrate on the amplitude of every element in this complex
matrix.
III.

PRINCIPLE AND ALGORITHM

A. Prineiple oIrault loeation

Oue to A(t, f), instantaneous frequency spectrum integration
of every moment can be acquired from it. Instantaneous
frequency spectrum integration can be defined as

I[t] = [A(t,f}![

front by the S transform's function ofproviding precise position

of mutation point and The wave front detected by
aforementioned way will be utilized to positioning the location
of fault at transmission line.

Now the criterion of fault location by principle of type D

will be represented as follow. The maximum value of I[t] is
considered as the position of wave front so that the ts of the
maximum value I[t s] corresponding that depict the time of
saltation will be recorded. This process can be described as

At both terminal ofline two times will be recorded by as tsm

and tsn aforementioned way and distance from terminal M is
computed by

I = L + v(t'n! - t,n )
2

where the I is distance from terminal M to fault position. The v

is velocity of travelling-wave and the L is whole length of
transmission line.
And the criterion offault location by principle oftype A will
be represented as follow. Oue to the time lag utilized by the
principle of type A between first transient traveling wave and
second travelling wave reflected by the other terminal, it is very
crucial to distinguish and locate two wave fronts. So this
criterion will employed the local maximum value ofintegration
to identifY these two wave fronts. Therefore according to
voltage signal the local maximum value can be used to detect
these two wave front and this process can be described as

local max{1[t],t E [to -3ms,to+8ms]} = I[tdJ

i = 1,2,3

(2)

where m and n are lower limit and upper limit of instantaneous

frequency spectrum. Taking considerable dc component of
voItage signal into account, the lower limit of instantaneous
frequency as which 1400Hz can be chosen should avoid
interference of dc component. The aforementioned treatises the
fauIt location principle shows that when a fauIt occurs at HVOC
system, the voItage offauIt position will sudden change and this
saltati on can be reflected in voltage travelling-wave. By S
transform the sampies of voltage signals are analyzed into a
matrix including many times and instantaneous frequency
spectrum corresponding. The instantaneous frequency
spectrum integration of every moment can be calculated from
the matrix, maximum value of which can positioning the wave

(4)

(5)

where 1m are the time points of all wave fronts including

reflected wave and refracted wave. As we know attenuation is
the essential characteristic oftransmission line so it is easily to
understand that the magnitude offirst transient travelling wave
produced by fault occurring is the supreme value of all waves.
It is also easily to certain the front oftravelling wave detected
by algorithm which the wave that is produced by fault and
reflected by the other terminal. So the fault position will be
located by the t 5 1 of transient travelling wave front that
disseminates to detector directly and the t s2 of transient
travelling wave front that disseminates to and is retlected by the
other terminal, which the two corresponding values of I are
larger than others. This characteristic of distribution ofI[t] can
be described as follow equation. However, it should be noted

1652

that a wave retlected by fault position may be more intense than

the wave reflected by the other terminal when a fault occurs
with closed distance and infinitesimal resistance. And this
situation can be recognized by distribution ofmany consecutive
wave crests from result of S transform.

I[tvj] > V local max{I[t]}

terminal M and (d) and (f) complete it at terminal N likewise.

Equation (4) is applied to calculate the fault position.
On the other hand, ifthe principle of fault location is type
A, which means that only one terminal's information will be
used to locate fault position, (c) and (e) in FigA could be an
extremely classic example to depict. When fault occurs at line

tE [ta -3ms,t,2 ) U(ts2,ta +8ms]

I[ts2] > V local max {I[t]}

l ------ ------5a!i .

M id-5pan

(6)

1.8 Im) fo r Condud:OfSo

tE [ta -3ms,t'l)u(tvj,ta +8ms]

1 3 1m) fo r Groun d W ires

~ G1

t '2 >t'l

9 .5 (m)

Therefore fault distance from terminal M is computed by

I = L _ V(tS2 - t'l)
2
IV.

C1

TABLE I
Double-tuued filters
2
11.71
9.047
C2/~F
5.84
L2/mH

CdelF
LdmH

C2

15 .7 [ m)

(7)
:w .[m)

TOWEl: 0C2

Cond udo<s: chutat

SIMULATION

A. Model and parameters of simulation model

Abipolar CSC-HVDC system is built in PSCADIEMTDC
shown as FigA. The dc and ac voltage level are 500 kV and
383 kV respectively and the power of HVDC system is 1000
MW. The model of I 000 km transmission lines is shown as Fig.
5. Two DC double-tuned filters are applied in this system
concurrently and the parameters ofwhich are given in Table I
and smoothing reactor is 0.12 H. SampIe frequency is 100 kHz.
Time offault occurred is l.2 s. The wave velocity is 2.97 x 10 5
km. The parameters of l2th/24 th double-tuned filter and 12th/36 th
double-tuned filter are expressed as Table I.
12thl24th

~~,,------"----\.

O lm )

-->

GlOund Res istivity: 2()() .O o

l hm"rn)
Re la tive Glound Perme-ability: 1 .0
Earlh Return Formula : Ana lvtics i A[)CfOxirnation

Fig.3 Structure ofHVDC transmission line

two transient travelling waves disseminate to both ends of line

and one ofthem will be retlected by the terminal N and go back
to terminal M so it is explicit from (c) and (e) that two transient
travelling waves reach to terminal M successively and two
notable time points of them are tsl and t s2 respectively. Then
fault position can be obtained by calculation of equation (7).

PARAMETERS OF FILTERS

12th /36 th Double-tuued filters

2
Cl/elF
Ll/mH
6.46
3.752
C4/~F
L4/mH
11.35

1.2

1.202

1.204

1.206

1.208

1.204

1.206

Time (s)

6 plusc

(a)

hr ige

1.198

1.2

1.202

Time (s)
(b)

Fig.2 Simulation model ofbipolar CSC-HVDC transmission system

B. Analysis offault loeation by two prineiples

A single-pole-to-ground fault with 1000 ohms occurs at 700
km from terminal M and results of S transform and integration
values ofinstantaneous frequency spectrum are shown in FigA.
The characteristics of travelling-wave's process can be
observed clearly from FigA. Ifthe principle offault location is
type D, (e) in FigA provide a notable value which comes from
an obvious signal in (c) to detect the front oftravelling wave at

1653

1.202
1.204
Time (s)
(e)

1.206

200
500
1000
0.01
200
500
1000

1.2

1.202

900

l.204

1.20238
1.20238
1.20238
1.20306
1.20306
1.20306
1.20306

1.20442
1.20442
1.20442
1.20375
1.20374
1.20375
1.20374

697.06
697.06
697.06
897.53
899.02
897.53
899.02

-0.42
-0.42
-0.42
-0.27
-0.11
-0.27
-0.11

Time (s)
(d)

TABLE 111
Fault
distance
(km)

1.202 1.203 1.204 1.205 1.206

100

Time (s)

f:l '1' ~
(e)

300

'j

500

1.199 1.2 1.201 1.202 1.203 1.204

Time (s)
(f)

700

Fig.4 Single-pole-to-ground fault with 1000 ohms occurs at 700 km rrom end
M. (a) Voltage 01' end M. (b) Voltage 01' end N. (c) Time-Frequency
Distribution ofVoltage ofend M. (d) Time-Frequency DIstnbutlOn ofVoltage
01' end N. (e). Integration value 01' end M. (f) Integration value 01' end N

900

C. Consequences and accurancy

The eonsequenees of diserepant fault position with

disparate grounding resistanee are shown as Table II with
prineiple oftype A. And faults with same eonditions are shown
as Table III with prineiple oftype D. The loeation results and
errors ofthem are also expressed in Table 11 and Table III. From
these eonsequenees, it have indieated that the proposed
algorithm with two prineiples ean aeeurately loeate faults
regardless of the position of whole transmission line, with the
largest error being less than 3%. Moreover, the wave front
deteetion and fault loeation preeision are not affeeted by
grounding resistanee.
TABLE 111
Fault
distance
(km)

100

300

500
700

FAULT LOCATIONS WITH PRINCIPLE OFTYPE

Grounding
resistance
(n)
0.01
200
500
1000
0.01
200
500
1000
0.01
200
500
1000
0.01

Time of
direct
wave
front (s)
1.20036
1.20036
1.20035
1.20036
1.20104
1.20104
1.20104
1.20104
1.20171
1.20171
1.20171
1.20171
1.20238

Time of
reflected
wave
front (s)
1.20644
1.20644
1.20643
1.20644
1.20577
1.20576
1.20576
1.20576
1.20509
1.20509
1.20510
1.20509
1.20442

Location
result
(km)

Error
(%)

97.12
97.12
97.12
97.12
297.60
299.08
299.08
299.08
498.07
498.07
496.58
498.07
697.06

-2.88
-2.88
-2.88
-2.88
-0.80
-0.31
-0.31
-0.31
-0.39
-0.39
-0.68
-0.39
-0.42

FAULT LOCATIONS WITH PRINCIPLE OF TYPE 0

Grounding
resistance
(n)
0.01
200
500
1000
0.01
200
500
1000
0.01
200
500
1000
0.01
200
500
1000
0.01
200
500
1000

Time of
wave
front at
terminal
M (s)
1.20036
1.20036
1.20036
1.20036
1.20104
1.20104
1.20104
1.20104
1.20171
1.20171
1.20171
1.20171
1.20238
1.20238
1.20238
1.20238
1.20306
1.20306
1.20306
1.20306

V.

Time of
wave
front at
terminal
N (s)
1.20306
1.20306
1.20306
1.20306
1.20239
1.20238
1.20238
1.20238
1.20171
1.20171
1.20171
1.20171
1.20104
1.20104
1.20104
1.20104
1.20036
1.20036
1.20036
1.20036

Location
resnlt
(km)

Error
(%)

99.05
99.05
99.05
99.05
299.525
301.01
301.01
301.01
500
500
500
500
698.99
698.99
698.99
698.99
900.95
900.95
900.95
900.95

-0.95
-0.95
-0.95
-0.95
-0.16
0.34
0.34
0.34
0
0
0
0
-0.14
-0.14
-0.14
-0.14
0.11
0.11
0.11
0.11

CONCLUSION

Based on the disparity of attenuation of physieal boundary

eonstituted of smoothing reaetor and double-tuned filter banks
and transmission line of HVDC system to instantaneous
frequeney speetrum of voltage travelling-wave, a travelingwave based fault loeation algorithm for HVDC transmission
lines is proposed in this paper. This novel fault loeation
prineiple is depend on using a kind of mathematie timefrequeney analysis method ealled S transform and the
integration value of instantaneous frequeney speetrum
originating from S transform, whieh ean identifY the different
loeation of fault with diserepant grounding resistanee and deteet
preeisely the position of wave front. Simulations based on
PSCAD/METDC are eompleted to verify the feasibility and
aeeuraey of proposed algorithm. The performance of algorithm
is doing weH but it is neeessary to do more amelioration of
dedueing sampIe frequeney and keep high preeision of
algorithm in the meanwhile.
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1654

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