Electric Power Systems Research 77 (2007) 566–573

Line protection based on the differential equation

algorithm using mutual coupling
M. Garcı́a-Gracia a,∗ , W. Osal b , M.P. Comech a
a Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain
b Barquisimeto Polytechnic University, Barquisimeto, Venezuela

Received 24 June 2005; received in revised form 2 May 2006; accepted 24 May 2006
Available online 24 July 2006

Abstract
The application of the distance protection for distribution systems is increasingly more frequent. However, the distance relaying algorithms
employed are designed for single lines without considering mutual coupling between parallel lines. Mutual coupling affects the accuracy of the
results. In this work, the behavior of the conventional differential equation algorithm (DEA) is analyzed for its accuracy in the estimation of the
fault distance. The response time, the variation of the line parameters, the fault inception angle, the presence of erroneous samples and the mutual
coupling are considered in the study. These results are compared with those obtained using the Fourier algorithm. In both algorithms, the errors are
significant when mutual coupling is present, reaching 12.59% for fault at the end of the line. In this paper, a new distance relaying called DEA with
mutual coupling (DEAMC) has been presented. The new algorithm is an improvement to the DEA algorithm that takes into account the coupling
effect in the analytical equations. The DEAMC response has been compared with the conventional algorithms results. The results show that the
new algorithm improves the accuracy when mutual coupling is present. The DEAMC algorithm reduces the error to 1.93% for fault at the end of
the line.
© 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Distance relaying; Differential equation; Mutual coupling

1. Introduction and zero sequence impedance. In a system of parallel lines,

Distance protection is implemented in meshed distribution
systems to maintain selectivity. Several algorithms have been
developed to implement distance relaying, such as symmetrical
component [1–3], traveling waves algorithm [4,5], Fourier [6],
adaptative scheme [7–9], artificial neural [10] and differential
equation algorithm (DEA) [11,12].
When conventional algorithms for distance relays are applied
in parallel line systems, these are adversely affected by the
mutual coupling between lines. The effect of the mutual induc-
tance may cause relays to see the fault as if it had taken place
nearer or farer than the protection zone [3,8,9,13], and will pro-
duce under-reach or over-reach.
The relaying distance algorithms are designed for single line
systems. When there is a single phase-to-ground fault in these
systems, the measured voltage is proportional to the positive
∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +34 976 76 19 23; fax: +34 976 76 22 26.
E-mail addresses: mggracia@unizar.es (M. Garcı́a-Gracia),
wosal@unexpo.edu.ve (W. Osal), mcomech@unizar.es (M.P. Comech).
this voltage is affected by the zero sequence mutual impedance
between the two lines, this leads to an error in the estimated
impedance, this error is usually corrected by increasing the
homopolar impedance.
Several researches in relaying distance algorithms have been
carried out. Algorithms based on phasor estimation [14–16]
solve this problem, however long window data are needed. The
implementation of the traveling waves [4,5] is affected by the
system parameters and network configurations, and another dif-
ficulty arises for fault near the busses or for those faults occurring
at near zero voltage inception angle. The results obtained by the
method based on differential component net [17] are satisfactory
but its feasibility requires the availability of the data obtained by
the current transformer of both extremes of the protected line,
and, therefore, a reliable communication canal to transmit signal
in long distances is needed.
This paper presents the comparison between the conventional
DEA [11] and the algorithm based on Fourier [18] to show their
capability and the effects of mutual coupling. The study shows a
poor response of these algorithms in power systems with paral-

0378-7796/$ – see front matter © 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.epsr.2006.05.011
 M. Garcı́a-Gracia et al. / Electric Power Systems Research 77 (2007) 566–573 567

Substituting (4) in (3)

dia dia
u a = R1 · i a + R m · i a + L 1 + Lm + R m · ib
dt dt
dib dic
+ Lm + ·Rm · ic + Lm (5)
dt dt

Fig. 1. Model of transmission line considered in the differential equation algo- Rearranging
rithm.
dia di0
lel lines with mutual coupling. To solve this problem, the DEA ua = R1 · ia + L1 + 3 · Lm + 3 · R m · i0
dt dt
algorithm for parallel lines considering mutual coupling is pre-  
dia di0
sented. The behavior of the new algorithm is analyzed based on = [R1 ia + (R0 − R1 )i0 ] + L1 + (L0 − L1 ) (6)
the response time, the fault inception angle, the variation of the dt dt
line parameters, the presence of erroneous samples in the cur-
rent data, and the accuracy in the estimate of the impedance. The where the zero sequence current is given by
DEA with mutual coupling (DEAMC) improves the results when
mutual coupling is present. The method presented in this paper 1
i0 = (ia + ib + ic ) (7)
needs the current on the extreme of the two lines located in the 3
same substation, then communication channel are not needed.
Then, the general equation of the line in matrix form is
2. The differential equation algorithm expressed in function of the three-phase voltage as
⎡ ⎤ ⎤
⎡ ⎡ ⎤ ⎡ ⎤
The DEA algorithm is based on the differential equation ua ia ia i0
⎢ ⎥ ⎢ ⎥ d ⎢ ⎥ ⎢ ⎥
which describes the circuit. It is assumed that it can be rep- ⎣ ub ⎦ = R1 · ⎣ ib ⎦ + L1 · ⎣ ib ⎦ + (R0 − R1 ) · ⎣ i0 ⎦
dt
resented by an impedance of lumped parameters, as is shown in uc ic ic i0
Fig. 1. ⎡ ⎤
The voltage drop across the line impedance of phase-a is i0
d ⎢ ⎥
given by + (L0 − L1 ) · ⎣ i0 ⎦ (8)
dt
ua = Za · ia + Zab · ib + Zac · ic (1) i0

where the subscripts a, b and c represent the phase quantities,

Zab and Zac are the mutual impedances between phases.
2.1. Single phase-to-ground fault
On the other hand, when considering ideally transposed line
we have
Considering a single phase-to-ground fault on phase-a, the
Za = Zb = Zc = Zs ; Zab = Zac = Zm (2) voltage of the affected phase is given by

where Zs represents the surge impedance of the line and Zm  

dia di0
represents the mutual impedance. ua = kr [R1 ia + (R0 − R1 )i0 ] + kl L1 + (L0 − L1 )
dt dt
Substituting (2) in (1), the expression becomes
(9)
dia
ua = Zs · ia + Zm · ib + Zm · ic = Rs · ia + Ls + R m · ib
dt
where kr and kl represents the resistive and the inductive compo-
dib dic nents of the line length up to the fault point, respectively. Both
+ Lm + ·Rm · ic + Lm (3)
dt dt of them are expressed in per unit notation. Therefore, for a fault
at the end of the line, its value is equal to 1 and 0.5 for a fault in
Considering the following relationship between the sequence the middle of the line.
parameters To determine the kr and kl values, it is sufficient to consider
two samples: the current and the voltage in the instants n and
L1 = Ls − Lm ; L0 = Ls + 2 · Lm ;
(n + 1).
R1 = Rs − Rm ; R0 = Rs + 2 · Rm (4) Therefore
⎡ di0 ⎤


 dian
R1 · ian + (R0 − R1 ) · i0n L1 + (L0 − L1 ) n
uan ⎢ dt dt ⎥ · kr
[U] = [A] · [K] = =⎣
di0n+1 ⎦ kl
(10)
uan+ dian+
R1 · ian+1 + (R0 − R1 ) · i0n+1 L1 + (L0 − L1 )
dt dt
568 M. Garcı́a-Gracia et al. / Electric Power Systems Research 77 (2007) 566–573

where [U] represents the matrix of the voltage samples, [K] the
matrix of the constant values kr and k1 and [A] represents the
coefficient matrix.
The kr and kl values from (10) have been obtained using
matrices division. For this case, the expression used is:
[U]
[K] = (11)
[A]
where the matrices [A] and [U] are known.
Fig. 2. Power system modeled for the study.
2.2. Double phase-to-ground fault

For a double phase-to-ground fault between phase-a and or

phase-b, the equation is

 ⎡ ⎤
uαn iαn iαn − iαn−1 kr · R1
d = ·⎣ 1⎦ (17)
(ua − ub ) = kr R1 (ia − ib ) + kl L1 (ia − ib ) (12) uβn iβn iβn − iβn−1 kl · L 1 ·
dt h
Therefore, the equations that allow the values of kr and kl to where h is the sampling interval.
be obtained are As before, these equations can be solved using matrices divi-

 sion, or in an analytic way by means of

uan −ubn
uan+1 −ubn+1 1 (uαn ) · (iβn − iβn−1 ) − (uβn ) · (iαn − iαn−1 )
kr = (18)
⎡ ⎤ R1 (iβn ) · (iαn−1 ) − (iαn ) · (iβn−1 )
d(ian − ibn )

R1 (ian − ibn ) L1 
⎢ dt ⎥ kr h − (iβn ) · (uαn ) − (iαn ) · (uβn )
= ⎣ ·
d(ian+1 − ibn+1 ) ⎦ kl
(13) kl = (19)
R1 (ian+1 − ibn+1 ) L1 L1 (iβn ) · (iαn−1 ) − (iαn ) · (iβn−1 )
dt
3. Electric power system
As before, in (10), these equations can be solved using matri-
ces division.
3.1. Description of the modeled system
2.3. Three-phase fault
The power system shown in Fig. 2 has been considered for
the study. It is a 45 kV system feeding loads of 1.5 MW and
In the case of a three-phase fault, the neutral current is null
0.53 Mvar through line 1 of 7.7 km. Line 2 (7.7 km) feeds a load
(i0 = 0) and the general equation shown in (8) can be expressed
of 3.93 MW and 2.58 Mvar. These loads are also feeding from
as
⎡ ⎤ ⎡ ⎤ ⎡ ⎤ bus 2, through lines 3 and 4 of 9.4 km. The electrical networks
ua ia ia connected to bus 1 and bus 2 are represented by their Thévenin
⎢ ⎥ ⎢ ⎥ d ⎢ ⎥
⎣ u b ⎦ = R 1 · ⎣ ib ⎦ + L 1 · ⎣ i b ⎦ (14) equivalents, which are given by:
dt
uc ic ic Zth1 = 4.25\84.4◦  Zth2 = 8.46\ − 20.57◦ 
Three-phase fault is a symmetric fault, therefore the network Uth1 = 49.49\84.4◦ V Uth2 = 44.74\ − 23.3◦ V
can be treated as a single phase system. Nevertheless, with the The sequence data of the lines 1 and 2 modeled in parallel
α–β transformation some improvements are obtained [11], for are the following:
this reason the α–β transformation is preferred.
The α and β components are defined by R1 = 1.314  R0 = 2.650 
⎡ ⎤ ⎡ ⎤ L1 = 0.0092 H L0 = 0.0354 H

 ua  1 −
1
−
1
uα ⎢ ⎥ 2 ⎢ ⎥
= M · ⎣ ub ⎦ with M = ·⎢ √2 √2 ⎥ The power system has been studied by means of the EMTDC
uβ 3 ⎣ 3 3⎦ simulation [19]. Current and voltage relaying signals has been
uc 0 −
2 2 sampled with the frequency rate f = 10 kHz (200 samples per
(15) cycle).

The three-phase quantities can be condensed into two new 4. Testing and results
orthogonal quantities, which are




uα iα d iα The behavior of the DEA algorithm is analyzed under differ-
= kr · R 1 · + kl · L · (16) ent situations and the results are compared with those obtained
uβ iβ dt iβ
using the Fourier algorithm. In this study, the accuracy of the
 M. Garcı́a-Gracia et al. / Electric Power Systems Research 77 (2007) 566–573 569

Table 1 Table 3
Errors in the estimate of the impedance for different fault points Response times and accuracy of the algorithms for different inception angles of
fault
Fault distance DEA algorithm Fourier algorithm
(%) Angle in fault DEA algorithm Fourier algorithm
Error (%) Distance (p.u.) Error (%) Distance (p.u.) (degrees)
Time (ms) Error (%) Time (ms) Error (%)
25 1.95 0.255 2.16 0.255
50 1.95 0.510 1.94 0.505 0◦ 13 1.95 64 1.94
75 1.95 0.765 2.12 0.765 30◦ 10 1.95 64 1.94
100 1.93 1.020 2.02 1.020 60◦ 4.5 1.95 64 1.94
90◦ 4.5 1.95 64 1.94

Table 2
Response time of the DEA and Fourier algorithms time is 76 ms. Therefore, the DEA is faster than the Fourier
Fault distance (%) DEA algorithm time (ms) Fourier algorithm time (ms) algorithm.
25 4.5 76
50 4.5 76
4.3. Influence of the fault inception angle in the response of
75 5.0 76 the algorithms
100 8.0 76
Table 3 shows the errors obtained in the calculation of
the impedance for different fault inception angles. This angle
estimation of the impedance, the influence due to the parame- expresses the state of the voltage wave when the fault happens.
ters variations of the line [20], the fault inception angle and the The fault angles considered are 0◦ , 30◦ , 60◦ and 90◦ of the volt-
mutual coupling are analyzed below. age wave for phase-a. The distance of fault is 50% of the total
length. In this table, it is observed that the accuracy of the algo-
4.1. Accuracy of the algorithms rithms is independent of the fault inception angle. Furthermore,
the response time diminishes for faults occurring in the instant
Table 1 shows the errors obtained in the estimate of the of maximum value of the voltage wave.
impedance by the DEA and Fourier algorithms for different fault
points, with an inception angle of 60◦ . The errors obtained in the 4.4. Influence of parameter variations in the accuracy of
DEA algorithm are less than 1.95% while in the Fourier algo- the algorithms
rithm the maximum error reached is 2.16%. Therefore, from this
point of view, both algorithms are quite similar. The settings of the distance relays are usually adjusted with
parameters calculated during the line design. However, these
4.2. Response times of the algorithms parameters change appreciably when the line is installed. This
is due to conductor height variations and ground resistivity,
In Table 2, the response times of the DEA and Fourier algo- amongst others. Table 4 shows the influence in the accuracy
rithms are shown in function of the fault distance. The response of the algorithms for variations in the ground resistivity from
time is selected when the measured impedance reaches its sta- 50 to 100  m, for a single phase-to-ground fault at 100% of
ble value. The value is considered stable when the maximum the line. Likewise, it is observed that the change in the conduc-
variation is within a range of 0.01 , as shown in Fig. 3. It is tor height does not affect the accuracy of neither the DEA nor
observed that in the worst case the DEA algorithm reaches a the Fourier algorithm in an appreciable way; however, when the
stable value within 8 ms. In the Fourier algorithm the maximum ground resistivity diminishes the error diminishes.

4.5. Influences of the mutual coupling in the accuracy of

the algorithms

The effect of the mutual coupling is a decisive factor in dis-

Fig. 3. Approach for selection of respective time.
tance protection, which can significantly change the impedance
measured by the relay. To show this effect, mutual coupling is
considered in the system of Fig. 2. The values of zero sequence
mutual coupling between the lines are given by
R0m = 1.335 ; L0m = 0.0236 H
Table 5 shows the errors obtained in the calculation of the
impedance for this case. The error in the estimation of the
impedance increases when the fault distance is increased. This
is due to the mutual impedance raises with increasing length. In
other words, the relay sees the fault further away and an under-
570 M. Garcı́a-Gracia et al. / Electric Power Systems Research 77 (2007) 566–573

Table 4
Errors due to the parameters variation of lines
Height of the tower (m) DEA algorithm Fourier algorithm

50  m 100  m 50  m 100  m

Error (%) Distance (p.u.) Error (%) Distance (p.u.) Error (%) Distance (p.u.) Error (%) Distance (p.u.)

10.5 1.42 1.01 1.95 1.02 1.42 1.01 1.85 1.02

11.5 1.45 1.01 1.94 1.02 1.37 1.01 1.85 1.02
12.5 1.41 1.01 1.94 1.02 1.40 1.01 1.85 1.02

Table 5 currents of the phase-a, i01 and i02 the zero sequence currents in
Errors in the estimation of the impedance considering the mutual coupling the lines 1 and 2, Z1 , Z2 and Z0m are the positive and negative
between parallel lines
sequence impedances of the line 1 and zero sequence mutual
Fault distance DEA algorithm without Fourier algorithm [17] impedance between lines 1 and 2.
(%) mutual coupling The voltage ua of the phase-a in the point of location of the
Error (%) Distance (p.u.) Error (%) Distance (p.u.) relay is the sum of their positive, negative and zero sequence
25 3.75 0.259 3.57 0.257 values
50 6.18 0.530 6.16 0.530
75 9.08 0.817 9.22 0.817 ua = u1 + u2 + u0 (23)
100 12.59 1.125 12.91 1.300
Substituting (20), (21) and (22) in (23), the voltage ua
becomes
reach is produced. As it is observed in the table, the mutual
coupling affects both DEA and Fourier algorithms significantly. ua = Z1 · i1 + Z2 · i2 + Z0 · i01 + Z0m · i02 (24)

Considering Z1 = Z2
5. DEA with mutual coupling algorithm (DEAMC)
ua = Z1 · (i1 + i2 + i01 ) − Z1 · i01 + Z0 · i01 + Z0m · i02
To correct the previous mentioned effects, an improvement in
the formulation of the DEA algorithm is presented considering (25)
the effects of the magnetic coupling.
In the DEA algorithms shown in Eq. (9), the term (Z0m ·i02 ) is
To obtain the analytical equations of the algorithm, with mag-
not taken into account; however, the consideration of this con-
netic coupling, the circuit of parallel lines shown in Fig. 4 is
cept improves the accuracy when mutual coupling is present.
considered. This shows a power system fed at both ends by their
The DEA considering the mutual coupling is the DEAMC algo-
Thévenin equivalents, represented by Zth1 and Zth2 and their
rithm.
sources. The impedances of both lines are ZL1 and ZL2 , while
Similarly, the current of the phase-a is the sum of their
ZmL indicates the mutual impedance between the lines. The relay
sequence values
is located in bus A of line 1.
The symmetrical component is a usual method for the anal- ia = i1 + i2 + i01 (26)
ysis of unbalanced faults in power systems [21,22]. Using this
method, the sequence networks of the system are shown in Fig. 5, Now, considering (26), Eq. (25) can be expressed in terms of
therefore the electrical parameters of the line, resistance and inductance,
u0 = i01 · Z0 + i02 · Z0m (20)
u2 = i2 · Z2 (21)
u1 = i1 · Z1 (22)
where u0 , u1 and u2 are zero, positive and negative sequence volt-
ages of the phase-a, i1 and i2 the positive and negative sequence

Fig. 4. Power system of parallel lines used in the study. Fig. 5. Sequence networks of the power system of parallel lines.
 M. Garcı́a-Gracia et al. / Electric Power Systems Research 77 (2007) 566–573 571

as follows common end of the CONFIG 2 (BUS 1). In the CONFIG 3

dia DEAMC algorithm is impractical and expensive, therefore in
ua = R1 · ia + (R0 − R1 ) · i01 + R0m · i02 + L1 this case DEAMC is not appropriate.
dt
di01 di02
+ (L0 − L1 ) · + L0m (27) 6. Testing and results
dt dt
To analyze the behavior of the proposed algorithm, the situa-
Considering that the values kr and kl represent the resistive
tions for conventional DEA and Fourier algorithms are consid-
and inductive parts in per unit of the line, (27) can be written as
ered again, taking into account in this case the coupling between
ua = kr [R1 · ia + (R0 − R1 ) · i01 + R0m · i02 ] the parallel lines.
  Now, the electric power system of Fig. 2 analyzed in Section
dia di01 di02
+ kl · L1 + (L0 − L1 ) · + L0m (28) 4 is considered with mutual coupling between lines 1 and 2,
dt dt dt where the values of the coupling are the same as those considered
Then, the equations to calculate kr and kl expressing the result previously
in matrix form are



 R0m = 1.335 ; L0m = 0.02362 H
uan B11 B12 kr
= · (29) In Eqs. (23), (26)–(29), corresponding to the proposed
uan+1 B21 B22 kl
DEAMC algorithm, the zero sequence of the mutual coupling
where the coefficients are given by impedance appears as an addend. In this section, the influence
of this impedance in the estimation of the fault distance is deter-
B11 = R1 · ian + (R0 − R1 ) · i01n + R0m · i02n mined.
dian di01 di02
B12 = L1 + (L0 − L1 ) + L0m 6.1. Response times of the algorithm
dt dt dt

B21 = R1 · ian+1 + (R0 − R1 ) · i01n+1 + R0m · i02n+1
dian+1 di01n+1 di02n+1
B22 = L1 + (L0 − L1 ) + L0m
dt dt dt
and i02 is the zero sequence current in the line 2, R0m the resistive
component of zero sequence mutual impedance between the
two lines and L0m is the inductive component of zero sequence
mutual impedance between the two lines.
Again the solutions kr and kl are obtained using matrices
division.
The developed algorithm implicitly assumes that zero
sequence currents from both lines are available at the relay
location. The availability of this current depends on the sys-
tem configuration. Fig. 6 shows the possible configurations. The
DEAMC algorithm ameliorates the accuracy in comparison to
the DEA algorithm in both ends for the CONFIG 1 and in the
Table 6 shows the results of the response times of the DEAMC
algorithm. The variation is only significant for faults at the end
of the line.
6.2. Influence of the fault inception angle in the response of
the algorithm
In this section, faults at 50% of the line are applied with
different inception angles. As it can be observed in Table 7, the
variation of the angle does not affect the accuracy of the DEAMC
algorithm, in a similar way in the case of the conventional DEA
algorithm.
Table 6
Response times of the DEAMC algorithm
Fault distance (%) Time (ms)

25 3.5
50 3.5
75 4.1
100 9.0

Table 7
Response times and accuracy of the algorithm for different inception angles of
fault
Angle in fault (degrees) Time (ms) Error (%)

0◦ 3.5 1.91
30◦ 3.5 1.91
60◦ 3.5 1.91
90◦ 3.5 1.91
Fig. 6. Mutual coupling configurations.
572 M. Garcı́a-Gracia et al. / Electric Power Systems Research 77 (2007) 566–573

Table 8
Errors due to the parameters variation of lines with the DEAMC algorithm
Height of the 50  m 100  m
tower (m)
Error (%) Distance (p.u.) Error (%) Distance (p.u.)

10.5 1.40 1.01 1.91 1.02

11.5 1.40 1.01 1.91 1.02
12.5 1.41 1.01 1.91 1.02 Fig. 8. DEA conventional under-reach in a parallel power system and improve-
ment in proposed DEA.

Table 9
Errors for different fault points with the DEAMC algorithm
Fault distance (%) Error (%) Distance (p.u.)
25 1.93 0.254
50 1.91 0.509
75 1.89 0.764
100 1.86 1.018
6.3. Influence of the variation of the parameters on the
accuracy of the DEAMC algorithm
The variations of the parameters considered in the conven-
tional DEA are used again to evaluate the DEAMC. In Table 8, it
can be observed that the algorithm is insensitive to the different
tower heights. However, when the ground resistivity diminishes
the error diminishes as in the conventional algorithm.
6.4. Influence of the mutual coupling on the accuracy of the
algorithm
In this study, the power system of Fig. 2 is used considering
the mutual coupling between lines 1 and 2. Table 9 shows the
results of the errors obtained for faults simulated in line 1 at 25,
50, 75 and 100% of the line length.
The results show that the DEAMC algorithm is accurate for
the different faults simulated. The error is practically the same
in all the points and it is not higher than 1.93%. Therefore, when
coupling is considered the error is greatly reduced by using the
DEAMC algorithm. A good capability of the DEAMC algorithm
to compensate the effect of the mutual coupling is observed.
Fig. 7 compares the behavior of the errors in the conven-
tional and proposed DEAMC algorithm in function of the fault
distance, for a system with mutual coupling. The error of the
DEAMC algorithm is independent of the fault distance and it is
lower than those obtained from the conventional algorithm.
It can be observed in Fig. 8 that the problem of under-reach
associated to the coupling effect of the conventional algorithm is
appreciably corrected by the proposed algorithm. As it has been
seen in Section 4.5, for a fault at 100% of the line, the conven-
tional DEA locates the fault outside the protection zone with a
high error (12.59%). With the proposed DEAMC algorithm the
fault distance is calculated with a lower error (1.86%).
Shunt capacitance is not considered in the DEA algorithm. In
short transmission lines its effect is not significant and therefore
its error is neglected. However, in long lines the accuracy of the
distance relaying can be affected. In those cases, to reduce the
error the methods presented in [23] can be used.
7. Conclusion
The variations of the conductor height or the fault inception
angle, and the presence of erroneous samples do not significantly
affect the accuracy of DEA, Fourier and DEAMC algorithms.
These algorithms are more sensitive to ground resistivity varia-
tions.
Furthermore, in power systems where the mutual coupling
is present, the accuracy of the DEA or Fourier algorithms is
negatively affected producing under-reach.
The algorithm developed in this work considers the mutual
coupling in distribution system, which improves the accuracy.
In this algorithm, the zero sequence current of the parallel line is
required for its correct operation. The error obtained in compar-
ison with the conventional DEA is reduced from 12.59 to 1.93%
for the example analyzed. The selectivity and the under-reach
problems are minimized, while the response time is not affected.

Appendix A. List of symbols

[A] coefficient matrix

[B] coefficient matrix
h sampling interval
i 0 , i1 , i2 positive and negative sequence currents of the phase-a
i01 , i02 zero sequence current in the lines 1 and 2
ia , ib , ic current of the a, b and c phases, respectively
iα , i β α and β components of the current
kr , kl coefficients that represent the resistive and the induc-
tive components of the line length up to the fault point
Fig. 7. Comparison of errors between conventional and proposed algorithms. (p.u.)
 M. Garcı́a-Gracia et al. / Electric Power Systems Research 77 (2007) 566–573
[K] matrix of the constant values kr and kl
[M] transformation matrix from abc to the α–β components
u0 , u1 , u2 zero, positive and negative sequence voltage of the
phase-a
ua , ub , uc voltage of the a, b and c phases, respectively
uα , uβ α and β components of the voltage
[U] matrix of the voltage samples
Z0 , L0 , R0 zero sequence impedance, inductance and resistance
of the line 1
Z0m , L0m , R0m zero sequence mutual impedance, inductance
and resistance between the two lines
Z1 , L1 , R1 direct sequence component of impedance, induc-
tance and resistance of the line 1
Z1 , Z2 , Z0m positive and negative sequence impedances of the
line 1 and zero sequence mutual impedance between
lines 1 and 2
Za , Zb , Zc impedance of the a, b and c phases, respectively
Zab , Zac mutual impedance between phases
Zm , Lm , Rm mutual impedance, inductance and resistance,
respectively
Zs , Ls , Rs surge impedance, inductance and resistance of the
line, respectively
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