Electrical Power Systems Fault Location
with One-Terminal Data Using Estimated Remote
Source Impedance
D. A. C. Lima, R. G. Ferraz, Student Member, IEEE,
A. D. Filomena, Member, IEEE, A. S. Bretas, Senior Member, IEEE
Electrical Engineering Department
Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul
Porto Alegre, Brazil
Abstract In this study, a fault location algorithm for electrical
power systems is presented. The proposal consists in an accurate
impedance-based fault location algorithm by utilizing voltage
and current measurements from local terminal and estimated
remote source impedance. In order to evaluate the fault location
algorithm a numerical analysis is made. Phase-to-ground faults
are simulated in a 230 kV Brazilian transmission line using the
software ATP/EMTP and MATLAB. The algorithm is tested
considering the fault distance, fault resistance, and the variation
of short-circuit capacity of remote system effects. The results
show that the fault resistance and fault distance affect the
estimated fault distance, but with minor errors. More, the
proposed algorithm is not sensitive to the remote system short-
circuit capacity variation.
Index Terms-- Fault Location, Impedance-based, One Terminal
Data, Estimated Remote Source Impedance.
I. INTRODUCTION
Electric power systems are very important in modern
society, but due to its constructive characteristics are
constantly exposed to faults, especially overhead lines. These
faults affect the system's reliability, security and power
quality. Therefore, fault location techniques are very important
for power system restoration. Among the fault location
methods, impedance-based fault location is very attractive
because of their low implementation cost [1]. One-end
impedance-based fault location algorithms estimate a distance
to fault with the use of voltages and currents acquired at a
particular end of the line. These algorithms are simple and do
not require communication means with the remote end [2].
Impedance-based fault location algorithm using voltage
and currents at both line terminals are more accurate than
those using only local terminal data [3], however is required
synchronization between measurements from different
terminals of the line.
Methodologies such as shown in [4]-[6] employ the
current distribution factor for fault current estimation, and this
The authors gratefully acknowledge Coordenao de Aperfeioamento
de Pessoal de Nvel Superior (CAPES), Conselho Nacional de
Desenvolvimento Cientfico e Tecnolgico (CNPq), and Companhia
Estadual de Gerao e Transmisso de Energia Eltrica (CEEE-GT) for the
financial support of this study.
978-1-4799-1303-9/13/$31.00 2013 IEEE
is applied in the determination of the fault location from the
local terminal. Other methodologies as proposed by [7]-[8]
achieve the estimation of the contribution of the load current,
through a fault resistance compensation.
This paper proposes a one-terminal impedance-based fault
location algorithm for electrical power system using
measurements of voltages and currents obtained in local
terminal. The develop approach is based on the symmetrical
components. From measurements of voltage and currents in
the local terminal and of short-circuit capacity of remote
system, the equivalent remote system is determined. In order
to evaluate the fault location algorithm a numerical analysis is
made. Phase-to-ground faults are simulated in a typical 230
kV Brazilian transmission line using the software ATP/EMTP
and MATLAB.
II. IMPEDANCE-BASED FAULT LOCATION
The fault location (FL) problem in electric power systems
using local data can be described by the single-line diagram
depicted in Fig. 1 for the phase-to-ground fault, where
monitored point is the sending end S.
In the Fig. 1, the following notations are adopted:
VS phase voltages at monitored point [V];
VR phase voltages at remote terminal [V];
VSa pre-fault phase a voltage at monitored point [V];
ISa pre-fault current at monitored point [A];
IRa pre-fault current at remote terminal [A];
VSfa phase a voltage during fault at monitored point [V];
Vfa phase a voltage at fault point [V];
ISfa phase a current during fault at monitored point [A];
IRfa phase a remote current during fault [A];
Zla line series impedance to phase a [];
ZTh remote source impedance [];
ZS local source impedance [];
ES system voltage behind local source equivalent [V];
ETh system voltage behind remote source equivalent [V];
If fault current;
Rf fault resistance; Equation (5) is valid for phase-to-ground faults in balanced
l length of the line [km]; systems and it is possible to obtain equations for others types
d fault distance [km]; of faults in the same way that (5) was obtained.
x fractional distance from monitored point to fault with The development presented in this paper is made for
0 x 1; transmission systems. However, this analysis can be extended
DFL digital fault locator. for electric power distribution systems with or without
distributed generation.

III. PROPOSED FAULT LOCATION ALGORITHM

The proposed FL algorithm requires the following data:
length of the line;
line series impedance;
short-circuit capacity (Scc) of remote system;
pre-fault voltage and current at monitored point;
voltage and current during fault at monitored point.
In this algorithm the remote current (IRfa) and remote
equivalent system (ZTh and ETh) are estimated from the pre-
fault voltage and current at monitored point and short-circuit
capacity of remote system.
The FL algorithm is described in detail in ten steps as
follows:
Figure 1. Single-line diagram for a single-phase fault on a transmission line 1. it is assumed that:
(a) pre-fault system and (b) faulted system I Rfa = I Sa (7)
where ISa and IRa are, respectively, the pre-fault current at
Using Kirchhoff's voltage and currents laws in the system monitored point and remote terminal. It is assumed that the
of Fig. 1 for the phase-to-ground fault in phase a, it is possible phase a remote current during fault and the pre-fault current at
to write in phase components that: monitored point are equal.
VSfa =x Z la I Sfa + R f I f (1) 2. using (8), (9), and (10) the voltages at the estimated remote
terminal are calculated by:
Equation (1) can be rewrite in symmetrical components as:
VRa = VSa [ Z l1 I S 0 + Z l1 ( I S1 + I S 2 )] (8)
VSfa
x= (2) VRb= VSb [ Z l1 I S 0 + Z l1 (a 2 I S1 + a I S 2 )] (9)
( Z l 0 I Sf 0 + Z l1 I Sf 1 + Z l 2 I Sf 2 ) + R f I f
2
VRc = VSc [ Z l1 I S 0 + Z l1 (a I S1 + a I S 2 )] (10)
where:
ISf0,1,2 sequence current during fault at monitored point [A]; where:
VSi pre-fault voltage at monitored point [V];
Zl0,1,2 sequence line series impedance [].
VRi pre-fault voltage at remote terminal [V];
Assuming that the positive and negative sequence i are a, b, c phases;
impedances of the transmission line are equal, (2) can be IS0 pre-fault zero sequence current at monitored point [A];
rewrite as: IS1 pre-fault positive sequence current at monitored point
VSfa [A];
x= (3) a = 1120;
Z l 0 I Sf 0 + Z l1 ( I Sf 1 + I Sf 2 ) + Z l1 I Sf 0 Z l1 I Sf 0 + R f I f
3. it is assumed that:
or ETh = VR (11)
VSfa
x= (4) 4. using (12) the remote source impedance is calculated:
Z l1 I Sfa + ( Z l 0 Z l1 ) I Sf 0 + R f I f
| ETh |2
Multiplying both sides of (4) by If* (fault current complex ZTh = (12)
Scc*
conjugate) and splitting the complex equation into its real and
imaginary part is can be obtain: where Scc is the short-circuit capacity of remote system;
5. it is estimate again ETh as (13):
{VSfa I *f }
x= (5) ETh = VR I R ZTh (13)
{( Z l1 I Sfa + ( Z l 0 Z l1 ) I Sf 0 ) I *f }
6. determine an initial fault current estimate using (14) [9]:
where {} represent imaginary part of complex number. I f I Sfa I Rfa
= (14)
Thereby, the fault distance d is estimated by: 7. it is estimate the fault distance as (5) and (6);
d= x l (6)
8. using (15), (16), and (17) the fault point voltages are V. TEST RESULTS AND ANALYSIS
calculated: This section presents evaluations results based on
V fa= VSfa x [( I Sf 1 + I Sf 2 ) Z l1 + Z l 0 I Sf 0 ] (15) simulations performed in ATP/EMTP and FL algorithm
proposed. The fault location accuracy is measured by the
V fb= VSfb x ( Z l 0 I Sf 0 + a 2 Z l1 I Sf 1 + a Z l 2 I Sf 2 ) (16) percentage error calculated [12] by:
V fc= VSfc x ( Z l 0 I Sf 0 + a Z l1 I Sf 1 + a 2 Z l 2 I Sf 2 ) (17) d exact [km] d est [km]
Error_1[%]
= 100% (19)
9. it is estimated the phase a remote current during fault as: l [km]
(V fa ETha )
I Rfa = (18)
[(1 x) Z la + ZTha ] d exact [km] d est [km]
Error_2 [%]
= 100% (20)
10. from the value calculated in (18) returns the step 6 until d exact [km]
algorithm convergence. where dest is estimated fault distance, dexact, is exact fault
After the convergence of this algorithm the fault distance distance, and l is the total line length.
is determined.
IV. CASE STUDY A. Fault Distance Effect
The Table II shows the absolute values of estimated fault
A. Simulated Electrical Power System distances considering fault points along the whole
In order to evaluate the impedance-based FL algorithm a transmission line. It is possible to observe that the absolute
numerical analysis was done. Phase-to-ground faults were errors increase with the fault distance. However these errors
simulated in a typical 230 kV Brazilian transmission line are not very significant, especially for cases in which fault
using the software ATP/EMTP [10] and the FL algorithm was resistances are less or equal to 20 .
implemented using MATLAB [11]. Table I shows the system TABLE II
parameters. The remote terminal parameters shown in Table I ESTIMATED FAULT DISTANCES OBTAINED
correspond to the original system, however only short-circuit Exact Distance Estimated Distance [km]
capacity (Scc) is used in the FL algorithm. [km] Rf = 0 Rf = 10 Rf = 20 Rf = 40
TABLE I 0 0.00 0.02 0.06 0.18
SYSTEM PARAMETERS 10 10.00 9.89 9.76 9.45
Local Terminal Remote Terminal Transmission Line 20 20.00 19.79 19.57 19.07
30 30.00 29.69 29.37 28.67
Es = 208.03 -9.00 kV ETh = 207.47 -13.55 kV l = 100 km
40 40.00 39.59 39.16 38.25
ZS0 = 0.2222+j5.8031 ZS0 = 8.9031+j85.4229 ZS0 = 0.0443+j0.1240 /km 50 50.00 49.49 48.95 47.82
ZS1 = 0.3650+j14.0840 ZS1 = 34.9352+j140.38 ZS1 = 0.0087+j0.0481 /km 60 60.00 59.38 58.73 57.37
- Scc = 24+j138.31 MVA - 70 69.99 69.26 68.49 66.90
80 79.99 79.14 78.25 76.41
90 89.99 89.02 88.00 85.90
B. Applied Disturbances 100 99.99 98.89 97.73 95.37
To evaluate the FL algorithm simulations were performed
considering the following influences: The Fig. 3 presents the percentage errors, of estimated
fault distance: 11 phase-to-ground fault points, as shows fault distance with the same fault points of Table II, calculated
Fig.2; by (19). It is possible to see an error of about 4.6 % in
fault resistance: 0, 10, 20, and 40 ; estimated fault distance for worst case, i.e., for cases in which
variations in exact short-circuit capacity: variations of fault point is near the remote terminal and fault resistances are
10 % and 20 % of exact Scc of remote system. equal to 40 .
5,0
Rf = 0
4,5
Rf = 10
4,0
Rf = 20
3,5
Rf = 40
3,0
Error_1 [%]

2,5
2,0
1,5
1,0
0,5
0,0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Fault distance [km]
Figure 2. Three-phase system considered in ATP simulations
Figure 3. Percentage errors as a function of the fault distance for
phase a-to-ground fault, calculated by (19)
 The Fig. 4 presents the percentage errors calculated by 6,0
d=10
(20). It is possible to see an error of about 5.5 % in estimated
d=50
fault distance for worst case, i.e., for cases in which fault point 5,0
d=100
is near to the monitored point and fault resistances are equal to 4,0
40 . It is observed that the error is almost constant for

Error_2 [%]
distances greater than or equal to 30 km in estimated fault 3,0
distance.
2,0
6,0
Rf = 0 1,0
5,0 Rf = 10
0,0
Rf = 20 0 10 20 40
4,0
Rf = 40
Error_2 [%]

Fault Resistance [ohm]

3,0
Figure 6. Percentage errors as a function of the fault resistance for
2,0 phase a-to-ground fault, calculated by (20)

1,0
C. Scc Variation Effect
0,0 The short-circuit capacity is used to estimate the remote
10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
equivalent system (ZTh and ETh). Thus, any error in Scc value
Fault distance [km] influence on accuracy of the proposed algorithm.
Figure 4. Percentage errors as a function of the fault distance for The Figs. 7-9 shown the percentage errors as a function
phase a-to-ground fault, calculated by (20) fault distance considering the variations in exact short-circuit
capacity of remote terminal for three different fault
B. Fault Resistance Effect resistances, calculated by (19).
The Fig. 5 presents the percentage errors as a function It is noted in Fig. 9 that an error of 20% in Scc results in an
fault resistance for fault distance equal to 0, 50, and 100 km, error of about 5.3 % in estimated fault distance, for a fault in
calculated by (19). The errors are smaller than 5% for worst remote terminal 100 km. Thereby, an error of 20 % in Scc
case, i.e., for cases in which fault resistance is equal to 40 increases only by 0.66 % the error in estimated fault distance.
and fault distance is 100 km. 1,5
Exact Scc
5,0 1,3
d=10 1.1*Scc
4,5
d=50 1,0 1.2*Scc
4,0
Error_1 [%]

d=100 0.9*Scc
3,5 0,8
0.8*Scc
3,0
Error_1 [%]

0,5
2,5
2,0 0,3
1,5
1,0 0,0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
0,5
Fault distance [km]
0,0
0 10 20 40 Figure 7. Percentage errors as a function of the fault distance for
Fault Resistance [ohm] phase a-to-ground fault with Rf = 10 , calculated by (19)

Figure 5. Percentage errors as a function of the fault resistance for

phase a-to-ground fault, calculated by (19)
3,0
Exact Scc
The Fig. 6 presents the percentage errors as a function 2,5 1.1*Scc
fault resistance for fault distance equal to 10, 50, and 100 km, 1.2*Scc
calculated by (20). The errors are smaller than 6% for worst 2,0
Error_1 [%]

0.9*Scc
case, i.e., for cases in which fault resistance is equal to 40 1,5
and fault distance is 10 km. 0.8*Scc
1,0

0,5

0,0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Fault distance [km]

Figure 8. Percentage errors as a function of the fault distance for

phase a-to-ground fault with Rf = 20 , calculated by (19)
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0.9*Scc
3,0 faults on power transmission lines with use of two-end unsynchronized
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0.9*Scc
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4,0

2,0

0,0
10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Fault distance [km]

Figure 10. Percentage errors as a function of the fault distance for

phase a-to-ground fault with Rf = 40 , calculated by (20)

VI. CONCLUSIONS
In this paper, is proposed an accurate impedance-based
fault location algorithm by utilizing only voltage and current
measurements from local terminal and the estimated remote
source impedance.
The algorithm has been tested considering the influence of
fault distance, fault resistance, and the variation of short-
circuit capacity of remote system. The results showed that the
fault resistance and fault distance influence in estimated fault
distance, but with acceptable errors. More, the FL algorithm
proposed is little sensitive to variation of the short-circuit
capacity of remote system. It is important to notice that the
studied fault cases were all associated with a real transmission
line.
It is thus clear that the algorithm proposed is a useful and
valid approach for fault location in electrical power systems.