S1-1 2012 IEEE Student Conference on Research and Development

Symmetrical Fault Detection Technique during Power

Swing based on S-Transform
1
Nor Zulaily Mohamad, 2Ahmad Farid Abidin, 3Wan Noraishah Wan Abdul Munim, and 4Muhammad Yahya
Centre of Electrical Power Engineering Studies
Faculty of Electrical Engineering
Universiti Teknologi MARA
Shah Alam, Selangor
1
norzulailymohamad@yahoo.com, 2ahmad924@salam.uitm.edu.my,
3
aishahmunim@salam.uitm.edu.my,4mohdyahya@salam.uitm.edu.my

Abstract—Disturbances in a power system such as line switching
and sudden removal of faults may cause instability which lead to
the power swing phenomenon. During a power swing, the mal-
operation of distance relay is among the problem which needs to
be solved. In the case of a power swing, a distance relay is
designed to block detection to avoid wrong interpretation of relay
current signals. However, this blocking scheme proves to be
unreliable as it could block the trip signals when a genuine fault
occurs in the system during a power swing. Hence, it is vital to
develop a proper fault detection technique during a power swing
to avoid such circumstances. This paper presents a detection
technique to detect symmetrical faults during a power swing
based on the time frequency transform known as S-Transform.
To ascertain validity of the proposed scheme, it was verified with
the IEEE 14-bus system and simulation results showed that the
proposed technique was able to detect symmetrical faults
occurring in the power system.
Keywords-distance protection; power swing; symmetrical fault;
S-Transform
I. INTRODUCTION
Power swing is a consequence result from system
disturbance such as such as sudden removal of faults, line
switching, or generator disconnection. When one of these
system disturbances happens to any power system, it may
break the balance between generators and loads, and causes
oscillations in generator rotor angles [1]-[2]. During a power
swing, the voltage and current fluctuate simultaneously,
causing fluctuating in the measured apparent impedance at the
distance relay point, hence it will enter the relay tripping zones
leading to undesired relay operation.
Power swing blocking (PSB) scheme function is employed
in modern distance relay to prevent any unwanted relay
operation during power swing. The main philosophy of this
scheme is to block the relay operation during a power swing
and reset the relay when a genuine fault occurs during a power
swing. Literature surveys up to recent years show PSB ideas
has lead to new security issue for distance relay operation.
Benmouyal et al. [3] and Su et al. [4] tracked the power
swing voltage center (PSCV) to detect a symmetrical fault
during a power swing. However, these methods require longer
time delay and this might cause the power swing blocking
scheme function fail to reset the relay.
Mecharoui and Thomas in [5] developed a technique to
detect fault during power swing based on monitoring the
voltage phase angle. However the technique proved to be
problematical for high resistance fault. Further work was
carried out in [6] to concentrate particularly in detecting high
resistance fault during power swing, but the symmetrical fault
is not being considered in this paper.
A simple approach based on Fast Fourier Transform (FFT)
analysis on DC component of current is used in [7] to detect
fault during a power swing and it works for both symmetrical
and asymmetrical fault. Another approach based on FFT
analysis is developed by Mahamedi [8]. Unfortunately both
techniques require a proper selection of Fourier coefficient,
especially for detecting high resistance fault.
Time-frequency analysis using wavelet transform (WT) has
been introduced in [9] and [10] for identification of the power
swing and detection of symmetrical faults during a power
swings. However for the sake of implementation of the wavelet
based scheme, the proper selection of the wavelet coefficient is
an essential, and inaccuracy in the selection might caused some
of the cases cannot be detected.
Abidin et al. [2] introduced time-frequency analysis using
S-Transform as a feature extraction tool for characterizing the
respective features of fault, stable swing, and unstable swing
for distance relay operation. This technique was found to be
problematical for the detection of faults with resistance of more
than 50 Ω.
All of the techniques which have been reported are not able
to operate properly during high resistance faults and/or
symmetrical faults. This paper presents a detection technique to
detect symmetrical fault during a power swing based on S-
Transform analysis on the distance relay inputs based on
voltage and current signals. In order to ascertain validity of the
proposed scheme, evaluation and simulation are conducted
under IEEE 14-bus system with various study cases which will
be discussed in detail in the following sections.

978-1-4673-5160-7/12/$26.00 ©2012 IEEE 7

 S1-1 2012 IEEE Student Conference on Research and Development

II. SYSTEM STUDIED III. S-TRANSFORM THEORY

The system used to evaluate the proposed technique is S-Transform is a variable window of Short Time Fourier
IEEE 14-bus system as illustrated in Figure 1, extracted from Transform (STFT) proposed by Stockwell in 1996 [13]. It is
[11]. It consists of 5 generators, 3 transformers, 11 loads and based on employing a moving and scalable Gaussian window
20 transmission lines. The selected test system represents a and supplies the frequency dependant resolution. A key feature
portion of the American Electric Power System in Midwestern of the S-Transform is it is a time-frequency domain
US as of February, 1962 [12]. The simulation model of the test representation.
system is set up by using PSCAD/EMTDC tools. Generators
are modeled by using synchronous machine and the exciter One of the methods of achieving the derivation of S-
used is based on an IEEE type SCRX solid state exciter. Transform is by manipulating Gaussian window function of the
Transmission lines are modeled with Bergeron model type STFT which can be defined as,
distributed parameters. For system loading condition, the three | |
phase passive linear branch model is used for both resistive and ,
√
. . (1)
inductive load.
where τ and ƒ denote the time spectral localization and Fourier
frequency respectively.
The relations between S-Transform and Fourier Transform
can also be written as,

2
, . . (2)
where H(f) denotes the Fourier Transform of h(t).
From equation (2), the discrete time series of S-Transform
corresponding to h(t) is shown in following equation by letting
τ -› k/T, f -› n/NT , and α -› m/NT ,

, ∑ . . (3)

where j, m, and n = 0, 1, …, N-1, T and N denote sampling

interval and total of sampling point respectively.
Equation (3) can be further simplified as,

, ∑ . (4)
Figure 1. Single line diagram of IEEE 14-bus system
where 2 and 2 .
Initially, a three-phase fault is initiated at line 3-4 at t=1.5s
and cleared after 500ms. This sends the power system into IV. PROPOSED SCHEME
power swing. At this condition, fault is created at line 4-5 at The scheme proposed in this paper used S-Transform as
t=2.5s to get the situation of fault during a power swing. Figure signal processing tool to extract the features between power
2 shows the typical voltage and current signals measured by the swing and symmetrical fault occurring during a power swing.
distance relay located near bus-5 at line 2-5 during a power Under power swing condition and symmetrical fault after
swing and after a three-phase fault occurring during a power power swing condition, inputs of distance relay based on
swing. voltage and current are calculated and processed using S-
20 Transform tools to generate the S-matrix.
10
Further, the magnitude of the S-matrix is calculated using
voltage

0
following equation,
-10

-20
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 4000 ∑ . (5)
samples
10

5
∑ . (6)
current

0
where δ denotes the magnitude of S-Transform of signal Vbus(t)
-5
and Iline(t) respectively.
-10
0 500 1000 1500 2000
samples
2500 3000 3500 4000
From each of equation (5) and (6), the smallest value of
each of column in the matrix of δ is further defined by using
Figure 2. Voltage and current signals of three-phases for a power swing and following equation,
after three-phase fault occurring during a power swing

8
 S1-1 2012 IEEE Student Conference on Research and Development

2000
∑ . (7) 1500

voltage
1000
∑ . (8) 500

Based on each of equation (7) and (8), a row vector of 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 4000
samples
length n, filled with smallest value of each of column in matrix 2000
of δ is obtained. Further, the corresponding output from each of 1500
equation (7) and (8) is computed to register the faults during a

current
power swing. The proposed technique is very straightforward 1000

and the process of identifying the fault during a power swing is 500

illustrated in the following flowchart shown in Figure 3.

500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 4000
samples
Figure 4. Magnitude of the S-matrix on voltage and current for the event of
normal power swing

2000

1500

voltage
1000

500

500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 4000

samples
2000

1500
current

1000

500

500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 4000

Figure 3. The flowchart of identifying fault during power swing
V. TEST RESULTS
In this part, S-Transform analysis on each of voltage and
current signals are performed to evaluate the proposed
detection technique. The process starts with retrieving the
distance relay input signals for both voltage and current signals
as shown in Figure 2. Further, both of signals are processed
using S-Transform to generate the S-matrix.
samples
Figure 5. Magnitude of the S-matrix on voltage and current for the event of
three-phase fault occurring during a power swing
Once the magnitude of the S-matrix is obtained, the
minimum value of each of column in the matrix of δ is further
computed by using equation (7) and (8). Figure 6 and Figure 7
show the results of minimum matrix value of absolute S-
Transform analysis on the voltage and current signals for both
normal power swing and fault occurring during power swing
respectively.
x 10
-3

6
The magnitude of the S-matrix is calculated using equation
voltage

4
(5) and (6). Since the obtained outputs from the above
calculation are in m-by-n matrix, contour plot is used to 2

interpret the data. The obtained S-contour correspond to the 0

equation (5) and (6) are shown in Figure 4 and Figure 5. Figure 0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 4000
samples
4 represents the S-contour for the event of normal power swing 0.02
and Figure 5 represents the S-contour for the event of fault 0.015
occurs during power swing.
current

0.01

0.005

0
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 4000
samples
Figure 6. Minimum value of of the S-matrix on voltage and current signals
for the event of normal power swing

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 S1-1 2012 IEEE Student Conference on Research and Development

x 10
-3
Van Cutsem, T.; Vittal, V., “Definition and Classification of Power
6
System Stability”, IEEE Transaction on Power System, Vol. 19, No. 2,
May 2004.
voltage

4
[2] Farid bin Abidin, Ahmad, Adaptive Distance Protection to Prevent False
2 Relay Tripping during Voltage Collapse and Power Swing, PHD Thesis,
2010.
0
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 4000 [3] Benmouyal , D. Hou and D. Tziouvaras, Zero-Setting Power-Swing
samples Blocking Protection, [online]
0.02
Available:
0.015
http://www.selinc.com/techpprs/6172_ZeroSetting_20050302.pdf
current

0.01
0.005
0
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000
samples
Figure 7. Minimum value of of the S-matrix on voltage and current signals
for the event three-phase fault occurring during a power swing
Based on the result shown in Figure 6 and Figure 7, it is
clearly observed there is significant feature when a fault
occurred in the power system and cleared from the power
system. Whenever a fault occurred in the normal condition or
during a power swing, the fault can be easily detected by using
the proposed technique.
VI. CONCLUSION
A symmetrical fault detection technique during a power
swing for the distance relay had been presented in this paper. It
make use of the utilization of S-Transform processing tool to
process the distance relay input signals based on voltage and
current signals to detect symmetrical fault occurs in the power
system. Despite whether the fault is occurred during a normal
condition or a power swing condition, this technique is proven
able to detect the fault.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to extend their gratitude to
Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) for supports on the
project in term of scholarship and financial support.
REFERENCES
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[4] Su, B., Dong, X.Z., Bo, Z.Q., Sun, Y.Z., Caunce, B.R.J., Tholomier, D.,
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