Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Engineering Adaptation and Policy Reforms (ICEPAR 2019)

EARTH FAULT DISTANCE MEASUREMENT IN A SERIES COMPENSATED SHORT

TRANSMISSION LINE USING FAULTED LOOP DIFFERENTIAL EQUATION
Okonkwo, I. I.1, Atuchukwu, A. J.2 and Obi. P. I.3
1,2
Dept. of Electrical/Electronic Engineering, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University, Uli.
3
Dept. of Electrical/Electrical Engineering, Michael Okpala University of Agriculture Umudike.
Email: 1fins212@gmail.com, 2johnulasi@yahoo.com, and 3patndyobi@gmail.com

ABSTRACT
In this research, earth fault distance on high voltage series compensated short transmission line was
measured. The measurement of the earth fault on the transmission line in the present of compensated
device like the MOV protected series capacitor is always a problem because of non – linear behavior of
MOV protected capacitor in the presence of fault. High impedance fault could also pose problem to earth
distance measuring devices. In this research an algorithm base on transient quantities were formulated
and test on earth faulted high voltage series compensated transmission line. The result of the test of the
formulated fault loop algorithm showed that the formulated algorithm measured the fault distance on
earth faulted high voltage compensated short transmission line accurately and the algorithm was robust
in measuring the fault distance for various fault conditions like various degrees of compensation, fault
inception angles and different values of earth fault resistance. This algorithm showed promising practical
applicability as the fault algorithmic variables could be estimated from relays measured data at both end
of the transmission line. The method is fast and cheap because no filter is needed to filter out the DC
component of the fault transient quantities.

1.0 INTRODUCTION
Fault detection and classification on transmission lines are important tasks in order to protect the
electrical power system. In recent years, the power system has become more complicated under
competitive and deregulated environments and a fast fault location technique is needed to
maintain security and supply in the grid.
The challenges of a fast growing electrical grid has also resulted in huge increases of overhead
lines and their total length, these lines are experiencing faults due to various reasons that cause
major disruptions and operating cost of the transmission company of Nigeria (TCN). The
transmission system experience disruptions caused by storms, thunder, snow, freezing rain,
insulation breakdown and short circuits caused by birds and other external objects (Saha et al,
2009). In majority, faults are caused by mechanical and terminal failure, which must be repaired
before the transmission lines are operational again. Intermittent faults are self-cleared and do not
affect the power supply permanently.
Fault distance location in an uncompensated is easy as simply reactance relaying principles could
locate the fault position. In recent years, the highly increasing cost of building new transmission
lines, compounded by the difficulty to obtain new transmission corridors has led to a search for
increasing the transmission capacity of existing lines (Kundur, 1994 and Glover and Sarma,
2010). Use of series capacitors for compensating part of the inductive reactance of long
transmission lines increases the power transmission capacity (Henschel et al, 2005 and Mcnabb
et al, 2001). Immediately series capacitor is added in a transmission line conventional method of

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fault location will fail in locating the fault position because the reactance seen by the
conventional algorithm is now the equivalent reactance (Xl – XC). Also the actual position of the
capacitor during fault is not readily known as such a better fault locating algorithm is required.
When the series capacitor is equipped metal oxide varistor (MOV) more problems set in. Fault
locating devices experiences problems caused by the nature of compensation and it’s attributed
overvoltage protection device nature. Also the nature of earth fault response in general and most
especially its influence to the state of metal oxide varistor (MOV) used in protecting the series
capacitor against over voltage during fault. As a consequence of that, a fault loop impedance
measurement becomes entirely different from the case of uncompensated lines in both dynamic
and steady state aspects.
This research is intended to solve the problem of conventional fault location relays short high
voltage transmission line during resistive earth fault in presence of series capacitor equipped
with metal oxide varistor (MOV).

2.0 MOV PROTECTION OF SERIES CAPACITOR BANKS

A series capacitor bank consists of the capacitors and their protective system. MOV’s provide
overvoltage protection for the capacitors and are a significant member of the protection system
shown in figure 1. The typical protective bypass system consists of a metal oxide varistor, bypass
gap, damping reactor, and bypass circuit breaker.

Figure 1: MOV Protected Series Capacitor

The varistor serves to provide overvoltage protection of the series capacitor during power system
faults. The bypass gap is controlled to spark over in the event of excess varistor energy. The
bypass breaker closes automatically in the case of prolonged gap conduction or other platform
contingencies. The breaker also allows the operator to insert or bypass the series capacitor. The

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damping reactor limits the capacitor discharge resulting from gap sparkover or bypass breaker
closure. The varistor and the triggered gap operate independently on each phase. The bypass
breaker operates on a three-phase basis. The bypass system is capable of operating with single-
pole or three-pole tripping and re-closing schemes employed on the transmission lines.
The very unique part of this MOV application is that the MOV’s are protected by electronic
controls and the triggered bypass gap. The protection controller monitors the current through the
MOVs at all times. If at any point the recently accumulated energy exceeds the rating of the
MOV bank, then the bypass gap is triggered. The gap is capable of operating and redirecting the
fault current away from the MOVs within 1-2 ms.
The series compensator operates as thus during fault, when three phase fault occurs the capacitor
bank conducts the current for the first half cycle, and the MOV conducts the current for the
second half. This is due to the nonlinearity of the MOV. During a fault event, the MOV
conduction results in adsorption of energy, this energy absorption is constantly monitored and is
used as the basis of triggering the bypass gap.
The SCs with MOVs is characterized with three states with the following details (Goldsworthy,
1987, Kapuduwage and Al-Dabbadh, 2005) . The initial state when the current passing through
the capacitor is less than 0.98 of the per unit current value, the capacitor acts as pure capacitor
with impedance of Xc. when the current passing through the capacitor is 0.98 < I pu < 2.0 the
MOV conducts and the impedance of the installed compensation conducts non-linearly with
partly capacitance and partly resistance. When the current following through the capacitor is
more than 2.0 pu, both the MOV and capacitor are bypassed and no compensation nor an
impedance is presented by the setup to the transmission line.
In this research we are only interested in the initial state when the current passing through the
capacitor is less than 0.98 of the per unit current value and the capacitor is acts as pure capacitor
with impedance of Xc.

3.0 METHODOLOGY
The short line model was characterized with lumped series parameter, while the shunt
capacitance and the shunt conductance of transmission line were neglected fig 2. The transient
fault loop equation was written and was transformed to fault location algorithm.

3.1 Algorithm Derivation from Faulted Loop Differential Equation with Fictitious
Capacitance
The short line loop voltage drop derivative equation algorithm formulated here is only a
representation of many other realizations. For example, including a fictitious capacitance in the
fault loop the fault distance can still be solved for at least for short line model whether there is
capacitor within the loop or not. Hence when fictitious capacitance ‘C’ is added in equation (1)
and differentiated to get

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Figure 2: Schematic of Short – Line Model Equivalent Circuit for Faulted

Series Compensated Line.

d2 d 1 d d
xL 2
I 1 (t)  [xR  R f ] I 1 (t)  I 1 (t)  R f I 2 (t)  V1 (t) (1)
dt dt C dt dt
Sampling equation (1) at four equal spaced time instances to get
 I1 (1) I1 (1) I 1 (1) I2 (1)  xL  V1 (1) 
    
 I1 (2) I1 (2) I 1 (2) I2 (2)  xR  R f  V1 (2) 
  V (3) 
(2)
 I (3) I1 (3) I 1 (3) I2 (3)  1/C
 1    1 
 I (4) I1 (4) I2 (4)  R f  V (4) 
 1 I 1 (4)   1 

Solving for the value of ‘x’ in equation (2) using Crammers rule and letting the fault distance x
equal to x1 (estimated fault distance) or x2 (analytic fault distance), then
V1 (1) I1 (1) I 1 (1) I 2 (1)
V1 (2) I1 (2) I 1 (2) I 2 (2)
V1 (3) I1 (3) I 1 (3) I 2 (3)
1 V1 (4) I1 (4) I 1 (4) I 2 (4) (3)
x 1 or x 2 
L I1 (1) I1 (1) I 1 (1) I 2 (1)
I1 (2) I1 (2) I 1 (2) I 2 (2)
I1 (3) I1 (3) I 1 (3) I 2 (3)
I1 1 (4) I1 (4) I 1 (4) I 2 (4)
x1 or x2 is Equation for the Second Order Fault Loop Voltage Drop Distance Measurement
Algorithm for short transmission line.
where

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I k (n)  I k (t ) t t ( n )
d
Ik (n)  I k (t ) t t ( n )
dt
2 (4)
Ik (n)  d I k (t )
t t ( n )
dt 2
d
Vm (n)  Vm (t ) t t ( n )
dt
k→ is the faulted line K – th branch.
n→ is the n – th term sample.
m→ is the m – th node.
The numerical differentiation by Newton forward method is given in (Sastry, 2005)
1 1 1 1 1 
y (n)   Δy(n)  Δ 2 y(n)  Δ3 y(n)  Δ4 y(n)  Δ5 y(n)   , (5)
h 2 6 12 2 
1 11 5 
y (n)  2  Δ 2 y(n)  Δ3 y(n)  Δ4 y(n)  Δ5 y(n)   , 6
h  12 6 
y (n) in equation (5) and y(n) in equation (6) can now be applied for the first and second
derivatives of the relay signals respectively, k is the k – th difference y(n) at n – th point
interpolation point

4.0 MATERIALS
The test circuit to be used is an earth faulted 330kV - double end fed 70% series compensated
990MVa, 80Km single transmission. The circuit and its parameters are shown below fig 3.

Figure 3: Single Line Earth Fault before Compensation

Test case 1 circuit parameters

Generator 1
E1(t)=330x103sin(250t) V, ZG1=(6+j40), S=990MVA
Generator 2
E2(t)=0.8|E1|sin(250t +450) V, ZG2=(4+j36), S=990MVA
Line parameters
Rs=0.075 /km, Ls=0.04875 H/km

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Gs=3.75*10-8 mho/km, Cs=8.0x10-9F/km

Line length= L (Km) (variable), Fault position = x % (variable)

5.0 FAULT DISTANCE MEASUREMENT SYSTEM

The fault distance measurement system shown in figure 4 comprises of the earth faulted series
compensated high voltage long transmission line, double fed at both ends with both end relays
connected to GPS Trans – receiver. A synchronizer that synchronizes the signal measured by the
end relays through the help of the GPS clock. And also fault distance estimation center that is
connected to the GPS that uses computer for fault distance measurement algorithm execution.

Satellite
GPS GPS
Trans- receiver A Trans- receiver B

Series capacitor

SC
G1 G2
Rf
Relay (1) Relay (2)
Ir1(t), Vr1(t) Ir2(t), Vr2(t)
GPS Trans- receiver C
SynchronizedIr1Ir1
Synchronized (t),VV
(t), (t)(t)
r1r1
and Ir2(t), Vr2(t) received

Fault distance algorithm

procession unit (Computer)

Figure 4: Fault Distance Measurement System

6.0 SIMULATION AND RESULTS

6.1 SIMULATION MODELING OF SHORT LINE
An earth faulted 330kV - double end fed 70% series compensated 990MVa, 80Km single
transmission line with earth fault before compensation was model for simulation as short line.
The protection of the series compensation device was put on check to make sure it had not acted
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by measuring its values and made sure it was still acting as constant capacitor. When the current
passing through the capacitor is less than 0.98 of the per unit current value, the capacitor acts as
pure capacitor with impedance of Xc. The model was characterized with lumped series
parameter, while the shunt capacitance and the shunt conductance of transmission line were
neglected. The equivalent circuit of the test circuit is shown below fig 5.

Figure 5: Single Line Equivalent Circuit (Short Line Model)

This short line model was simulated in matlab environment using Simulation software that had
been formulated for transient simulation of RLC circuits in (Okonkwo et al, 2012). The test for
the accuracy of the formulated fault distance measurement algorithm and the results of the
simulations were shown in table 1 through table 5.
6.2 Results
Tables 1 to 5 are simulation results of test circuit one of 80 km transmission line under the
following condition except where otherwise stated; 0.700000 compensated transmission line,
earth fault at distance of 0.400000 with 5.000000 ohm resistance and modeled as short line,
sampled time = 0.000001 seconds and Fault occurred at time t1 = 0.012500 seconds.
Table 4.1: Fault distance under varied line length (km)
Line Length 10km 20km 50km 80km
(Km)
Algorithm 1 (x1) 0.4000 0.4000 0.4000 0.4000
Algorithm 2 (x2) 0.4000 0.4000 0.4000 0.4000
Table 4.2: Calculated fault distance under varied fault resistance ()
Fault Resistance 5 50 100 500
()
Algorithm 1 (x1) 0.4000 0.4000 0.4000 0.4000
Algorithm 2 (x2) 0.4000 0.4000 0.4000 0.4000
Table 4.3: Calculated fault distance under varied series compensation (%)
Series 20% 40% 80% 100%
Compensation
Algorithm 1 (x1) 0.4000 0.4000 0.4000 0.4000
Algorithm 2 (x2) 0.4000 0.4000 0.4000 0.4000
Table 4.4: Calculated fault distance under varied fault position (pu)

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Fault Position 0.1000 0.2000 0.3000 0.4000

(Pu)
Algorithm 1 (x1) 0.1000 0.2000 0.3000 0.4000
Algorithm 2 (x2) 0.1000 0.2000 0.3000 0.4000

Table 4.5: Calculated fault distance under varied fault inception angle represented
as fault inception time (sec)
0.0000sec 0.0125sec 0.0200sec 0.0233sec

Algorithm 1 (x1) 0.4000 0.4000 0.4000 0.4000

Algorithm 2 (x2) 0.4000 0.4000 0.4000 0.4000

Figure 6: Relay 1 Voltage Time Response Figure 7: Relay 2 Voltage Time Response

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Figure 8: Relay 1 Current Time Response Figure 9: Relay 2 Current Time Response

Figure 10: Analytic and Estimated Compensations

Current Time Response.

6.3 RESULT ANALYSIS

The research result of the simulation showed that formulated algorithm for the short line earth
fault distance measurement could measure the fault distance correctly on short transmission line
for various degree of compensation, fault resistance, fault angle, and various length of short
transmission line, table 1 through table 5. The estimated and analytic variables of the fault
distance measurement algorithm derived from the simulated transient response of earth faulted
short transmission line were almost the same in values and they were robust calculating the fault
distance. Figure 6 through figure 9 showed the simulated sending and receiving end relay voltage
and current responses. Figure 10 showed the compensation current response and it can clearly be

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seen that the compensation conducting current was still below 0.98 pu (when the MOV would
have not started conducting). This means that the capacitor reactance XC modeled as the only
impedance of the MOV protected compensation device during fault position measurement was
correct.

CONCLUSION
An algorithm for measuring the earth fault distance on high voltage short transmission line has
been formulated. The formulated measuring algorithm was robust and could measure fault
distance at variable earth fault conditions like different levels of compensation, fault inception
angles and different values of fault resistance (both high and low). The fault distance measured
through the estimated values of the algorithm variables is mere proof of the practical
applicability of the formulated fault distance measurement algorithm.

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