A NEW SIMPLIFIED FAULT LOCATION ALGORITHM FOR SERIES

COMPENSATED TRANSMISSION LINES

S. K. Kapuduwage, M. Al-Dabbagh
Electrical Energy and Control Systems
School of Electrical and Computer Engineering
RMIT University City Campus
S3029348@student.rmit.edu.au

Abstract

This paper presents a new simple fault location algorithm based on measurement of phasor quantities
for a two end series compensated transmission lines. The algorithm is developed using linerised model
of 3 phase capacitor banks to represent the effects of compensation. Basically, the algorithm uses
current and voltage measurements from both ends of the transmission network and accurately
estimates the location and the resistance of the fault. The accuracy of the fault location is tested using
two-end 300km, 400KV, 3-phase transmission network, modeled using MALAB 6.1 recently
developed Power System Block set [1]. The algorithm was implemented using MATLAB
programming scripts [1]. The proposed techniques can be easily expanded to adapt multi line, multi
end un-transposed transmission lines.

During recent past there have been several

1. INTRODUCTION
Transmission of power generated from power plants to
consumers have been vastly improved and expanded to
every corner of the world during the last two decades.
Recent development of series compensation in power
systems can greatly increase power transfer capability,
damp power oscillations (if carefully designed) and
improve the transient stability.
However, faults clearing and finding in such
transmission networks considered to be one of the most
important tasks for the manufactures, operators and
maintenance engineers.
The basic arrangement of series compensation of a
transmission line is a series capacitor(C) and non liner
resistor (MOV) in parallel with the capacitor as shown
in Fig (1).
During a fault, MOV operates as a protection to bypass
fault current through the capacitor, which would
otherwise cause dangerously high voltage across the
capacitor bank. As the series compensation unit is non-
liner, fault location can not be determined using
traditional impedance measurement techniques.
improvements to fault finding techniques using phasor-
based approaches [3]; one end and two ends algorithms
[4] with satisfactory results. However, these algorithms
use direct or indirect measurement of impendence to
locate the fault, which would fail in case of series
compensated line due to the non-linear operation of the
capacitor bank.
In order to accommodate the effect of non linearity,
current dependent voltage drop across the capacitor is
estimated and subtracted from the voltage sources, prior
to calculation of distance to the fault.
The proposed algorithm uses voltage (V) and current (I)
from both ends to accurately estimate the capacitor
voltage drop in order to calculate distance to the fault in
event of fault occurs before or after the series
compensation unit.
Availability of measurement of V and I of both ends
allow source impendence to be estimated more
accurately and hence improve the accuracy of the fault
location and simplify the calculation algorithm.
The proposed algorithm has been tested with wide
selections of faults; fault type, fault location and angle
of inception, using MATLAB 6.1. Firstly the
transmission network is modeled and simulated with

1
power system block set of MATLAB [1] and simulated and phasors rotate at 50 cycles per second.
output data ( voltage and currents from sending and
receiving end ) are fed to the new algorithm If the impedance of the line is ZL, then the line
implemented using MATLAB script language[1], to impedances ZL1 and ZL2 are:
estimate the location and the fault resistance.
Section 2 of this paper describes the phasor ZL1 = xZL and ZL2 = (1-x)ZL (2)
representation of the transmission line and linearisation
of series compensator, to suit for the phasor Line Impedance ZL could be expressed by 3 X 3 matrix
calculations. of self (SS) and mutual (MM) impedances of phases a,
b and c:
Section 3 and 4 explain the fault locating algorithm and
modeling of transmission network using MATLAB 6.1. SS aa MM ab MM ac

Section 5 presents performance analysis and summary Z L = MM ba SS bb MM bc (3)
of test results. Conclusions are added to the last section. MM ca MM cb SS cc
If the network is completely transposed and balanced,
self and mutual impedances have the relationship:
2. NETWORK CONFIGURATION
ZLss = SSaa = SSbb = SScc
Fig (1) illustrates a single line diagram of basic two (4)
ends transmission network with series compensation ZLmm = MMab = MMbc = MMca
unit (SCU), which comprises of a capacitor( C ) and
Metal Oxide Varistor (MOV) located at the center of
the line. The network is powered from voltage sources ZLss and ZLmm can also be expressed in terms of positive
EA and EB connected to each end of the network. It is and zero sequence components of the line as;
assumed that a fault occurs at point F1, distance x from
station A, in front of SCU.

ZLss = (ZL0 + 2ZL+)/3

VB & IB (5)
ZLmm = (ZL0 XL+)/3
FL Controls and Data link

IA C Similarly ZA and ZB, source impedances of EA and EB

F2 F1 IB
ZA ZL1 ZL2 ZB are also 3 x 3 matrices and hold similar relationships (4
VF and 5) to its self and mutual components.
VA VB
IF (B) Series Compensation Unit(SCU)
MOV EB
EA Series compensation unit, which has the parallel
connection of C and MOV can be equivalent to series
resistor(RC) and series impedance (ZC) [5 & 6]. Since
Station A Station B the MOV is non-linear element, RC and XC also have
non-linear relationship to current passing through the
line. Therefore,
Fig (1)
Zv [IA] = RC [IA] + JXC[IA] (6)
(A) Transmission line and power supply
Voltage sources are complex phasor vectors, which can
If the characteristic of SCU is known, RC and XC
be denoted in matrix form [2]:
relationship to IA can be predetermined [5 & 6]) and
apply to the fault location algorithm. Typical
EA = [ Ea Eb Ec ] T (1)

2
characteristic of SCU is shown in Fig (2-1) and Fig (2- and off-diagonal terms:
2).

0.4
RC Variation -1 if I and j involved in the fault
Kij = (9)
0.3
0 otherwise
(RC/XCO)

0.2

0.1

0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
where i and j refer to phases a, b and c.
XC Variation
1

3. FAULT CALCULATION ALGORTHM

0.8
(XC/XCO)

0.6

0.4

0.2
From the Fig (1) the difference between voltage sources
0
EA and EB can be written as:
1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 5.0 6.0 7.0 8.0
Current passes through SCU ( I /Iref)

E = EA EB = (ZA + xZL+ ZV) IAA -

Fig (2-1 & 2-2) ((1-x)ZL + ZB)IBB (10)

(C) 3 Phase Fault Model where ZV is calculated with reference to IAA and IAA and
Fig (3) shows 3 phase fault model which could be IBB are pre-fault currents of the network. It can be
expressed in matrix form [4]: assumed that E does not change after the fault because
EMFs of sources could not change instantly after the
[GF] = 1/Rf [KF] (7) fault.

Where Rf is equivalent fault resistance. (A) Faults behind the SCU

After the fault, currents from station A and B are IA and
a
Va IB, total fault current can be written as:
Vb
b
Ia
IF = IA + IB where IF is defined as:
Ib
Vc
c
Ic
IF = 1/Rf(KF) VF (11)
Rab Rbc

Rac where VF is the voltage at fault location.

Ra Rb Rc
Writing the equation to the fault using souirce A

VF = VA - (ZA + xZL +ZV)IA (12)

Fig (3)
Using equation (8) and applying to fault condition,
fault location x can be directly expressed as:
Matrix KF depends on the type of fault and could be
calculated according to following criteria:
ZL[IA +IB] x = E + (ZL + ZB)IB
Diagonal terms of KF:
- (ZA + ZV)IA
i =a

K ij
i =c
i = a, b, c (8) IA is directly measured at the source A, where the fault
locator is installed and IB is transmitted to the fault
locator from the source B.

3
Rewriting the above equation: Substituting values of x matrix, GF can be worked out
ZL[IA +IB]x = E + (ZL + ZB)IB from equation (14), since other parameters are known.
-ZAIA ZVIA (13)
(B) Faults Before the SCU
From equation (10) and (11) an expression for fault If the fault occurs before the SCU, the voltage drop
resistance could be obtained as: across SCU depends on the fault current from source B.
Therefore, equation (14) becomes
I A + IB =
IA + IB = GF(VB - (ZB +(1-x) ZL)IB
1/Rf(KF)[ VA - (ZA + xZL +ZV)IA] Z VI B (15)

Define 1/Rf (KF) => GF, then: Equations (11) and (13) are valid for this case too.
Therefore the distance to the fault and fault resistance
IA + IB = GF( VA - (ZA + xZL)IA ZVIA) (14) can be directly calculated.
The process is simple, faster and more accurate
Assume that the fault type is known; say for an example compared to the one end algorithm, where remote
phase a b to ground fault, the first step is to calculate current (current from station B) can only be estimated
the KF matrix. Appling criteria (8) and (9), matrix KF using recursive formula.
can be found as:
4. PERFORMANCE EVALUATION
2 1 0
The algorithm was tested using MATLAB 6.1 Power
KF = 1 2 0 system Block Set to model 2-ends transmission network
0 0 0
and MATLAB model is shown in Fig (4)

Sim u la tio n o f a fa u lt in a s e r ie s c o m p e n s a te d 3 p h a s e tr a n s m is s io n s ys te m ( 4 0 0 K V)
(Pr e a n d p o s t fa u lt)

1
2 A
1G1 1A
1

4 0 0 kV 1 Fa u l t
1G2 1B 2 B
Line11 IA B C 1 2 A B -G

M E A _CUR1 2
1G3 1C
3 C
2
S o u rce A Line 11
C V1 C 1
AV1 A1

BV1 B1

FA UL T 3 -P h a se F a u l t
I-1 P h A B C B US

Ca p M ea
T i m e sta rts: 0 .0 se c
M O V -V I
T i m e e n d s: 0 .2 se c
V -1 P h A B C M EA_M OV
CA P B A NK S am pling T im e: 0 .0 2 m se c

1A4 I MO V C u rre n t M e a s: 4 0 /cy l c l e

2G1 1A
C APV1
4 0 0 kV Fa u l t T yp e : Ph AB - G
2G2 1B Line 2 1B4 1A5 4 0 0 kV
S w i tc h i n g : a fte r 2 cy c.
1 5 0 km Line 12
1B5
2G3 1C
1C 4 1C 5

S o u rce B
Line 2 Line 12
300M W
IN IT L O A D
280 M VAR -1 M E A _CUR2

I - 2PhABC G1 IA B C 2

Fig (4)

4
A) Simulation Model& Test Data x 10
5 ( b ) V o lt a g e a t S t a t i o n A

300km, 400KV, 50 Hz, 3 phase transmission system is 3

modeled and simulated using MATLAB 6.1. The line is

V o lt a g e ( V )
2

70% compensated and the capacitor is located at the 1

middle of the line. The system data used for the model
0
is shown in the Table(1).
Station A & B -1

Positive Seq. Impedance () 1.31 + j 94.5 -2

Zero Seq. Impedance () 2.33 + j 26.6 -3

Transmission Line 0 .0 0 8 0 .0 2 0 .0 3 0 .0 4 0 .0 5
t i m e in s e c .
0 .0 6 0 .0 7 0 .0 0 8

Line Length (km) 300 0 .5 3

( c ) D is t a n c e t o f a u lt

Voltage (KV) 400

Compensation % 70 0 .5 2

D is t a n c e in p .u .
Location of SCU (km) 150 0 .5 1

Positive Seq. Impedance () 8.25 + J 15.0 0 .5

Zero Seq. Impedance () 82.5 + J 308

Positive Seq. Capacitance (nF)/km 13 0 .4 9

Zero Seq. Capacitance (nF)/km 8.5 0 .4 8

SCU bank 0 .4 7
0 .0 2 0 .0 2 5 0 .0 5 0 .0 7 5 0 .1 25

Reference Voltage (KV) 150 P o s t f a u lt ( in s e c .)

Reference Current (A) 500 x 2 Fig (5 a, b, c)

Exponent (-) 23
SIM Parameters (B) Implementation Of Algorithm
Sim. Start & End (Sec.) 0.0 0.2 The algorithm is developed using MATLAB 6.1
Fault SW closed at (Sec.) 0.04 language scripts and program model is shown in Fig
Sampling Time (Sec.) 2e-5 (6):
Table (1)
Work Load model MATLAB
parameters Model
At this stage selected number of faults have been tested Space

with diversity of, type of fault (a-g, a-b-g, a-b-c-g), Run

fault location (0.25, 0.5 0.75 in pu) and fault inception the Model
(0, 45, 135 in degree). Typical simulation run from the
model is shown in Fig (5 a) and (5 b). Run the Algorithm
Compute initial flow and
prepare impedence
matrices

( a ) F a u lt c u r r e n t - f r o m S t a t io n A Pre-fault calculations to
find Delta E
3000
Compute KF matrix
depends on type of fault
2000

Read fault currents and

1000 vottages at ST. A & B
C u r re n t(A )

0
Get next set of Exit
samples ( I & V)
-1 0 0 0

-2 0 0 0
Filter and perform DFT to
estimate phasor values
-3 0 0 0

0 .0 0 8 0 .0 2 0 .0 3 0 .0 4 0 .0 5 0 .0 6 0 .0 7 0 .0 8
Estimate Vottage drop in
SCU
t im e in s e c .

Calculate fault
distance(x) and Rf

5
 Fig (6) Fig (7)

The algorithm is tested using selected type of faults as
listed in Fig (7). Fault type information is loaded to the
MATLAB model and run the simulation to obtain the
source A and B voltages and currents. Then the data is
processed and applied to the algorithm to obtain the
fault location and resistance. Fig (7) shows the average
fault location error indicated for each type of faults.
(C) Accuracy of Testing
Fig (7) results show that the average fault location error
for faults close to the middle of the line is significantly
small (0.4% to 1.2 %) and, gradually increases closer to
the stations (0.8 to 2%). It is considered that higher
error percentages shown in Fig (7) are less contributed
by the model and the algorithm but mainly caused by
number of other reasons:
MATLAB model parameters are not exactly
matched with data used for the algorithm. For an
example transmission line blocks in MATLAB can
not be implemented without shunt capacitance, but
the algorithm presented is very basic and shunt
capacitance effects are not considered.
5. CONCLUTIONS
The algorithm presented in this paper is accurate and
simple to implement as a fault locator to find the
location of faults on series compensated transmission
lines. Since the fault locator has the instant data of
sources A and B, source impedances can be calculated
on-line, which eliminates source mismatches
substantially.
Faults may occur in front or behind the SCU, the
algorithm can produce results in a very short time, and
with similar accuracy to locators, which operate from
data derived from one end. The proposed algorithm can
be easily applied to any other type of transmission lines
(multi-lines and multi-ends). The inclusion of shunt
compensation in the algorithm developed in this paper
is in progress.
6. REFERENCES
[1] MATLAB Version 6.1, Release 12-1 Help
Reference Documents

Filters used in the algorithm for processing of [2] Rosolowski E., Jzykowski J. Effects of
measured signals are very basic and harmonic Transmission Load Modeling on Fault Location,
presence is not completely eliminated. Wroclaw, University of Technology, Poland

Data used for calculating capacitance voltage drop [3] Saha M.M., Jzykowski J., Rosolowski E. Kasztenny
SCU is not finely matched with SCU block in B. A new accurate fault locating algorithm for series
MATLAB model. compensated lines, IEEE Transactions on Power
Delivery Vol.14, No. 3, July 1999, pp. 789-795
The algorithm described in the paper is being improved
to minimize the shortcomings. [4] Yu C.H., Liu C.W. A new PMU- Based Fault
. Location Algorithm for Series Compensated Lines,
Estimated fault location from station A IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery Vol. 17, No.1,
Fault spec. (Type, Average Error % January 2002 pp. 33 -46
angle, Resistance) 50km 150km 225km
a-g, 0, 0.1 1.6 0.8 2.0 [5] Goldsworthy D.L., A Linearised model for MOV
a-g, 45, 0.1 2.0 0.4 1.2 protected series capacitor, IEEE Transactions on
a-g, 135, 0.1 1.7 0.7 1.4 Power Systems, Vol 2, No.4, November 1987 pp. 953-
a-b-g, 0, 0.1 1.2 1.2 1.3 958
a-b-g, 45, 0.1 1.6 1.0 1.3
a-b-g, 135, 0.1 1.5 1.1 1.5 [6] Lucas J.R., Mclaren P. G. A Computationally
a-b-c-g, 0, 0.1 2.0 0.4 0.8 Efficient MOV Model for Series Compensation
a-b-c-g, 45, 0.1 1.2 0.8 0.9 Studies, IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery Vol. 6,
a-b-c-g, 135, 0.1 1.3 0.9 1.0 No. 4, October 1991 pp. 1491-1497