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Boris Shulim
Orange and Rockland Utilities, Inc.
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This paper was presented at the 65th Annual Conference for Protective Relay Engineers and can
be accessed at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/CPRE.2012.6201245.
For the complete history of this paper, refer to the next page.
Presented at the
65th Annual Conference for Protective Relay Engineers
College Station, Texas
April 2–5, 2012
Abstract—Fault location information is critical for operating Two-end fault location methods minimize these errors.
and maintaining transmission networks. Some of the challenges Reference [3] describes a two-end method based on negative-
in calculating accurate fault location include fault resistance, sequence quantities that can be implemented within line
zero-sequence mutual coupling, load, system nonhomogeneity,
and transmission lines composed of multiple sections with
protection relays using the relay programming abilities.
considerably different characteristics. This paper presents a fully Reference [4] describes an implementation of this algorithm
automated real-time fault location system that provides accurate using two line relays with relay-to-relay communication to
fault location information for multiple transmission lines and calculate the fault location in real time.
makes the results available to system operators and maintenance Variable fault resistance introduces errors in fault location
personnel. The system is capable of the following: estimation; accurate time stamping of the measurements aids
• Retrieves all triggered event reports from relays and in minimizing these errors when using two-end methods.
digital fault recorders (DFRs) automatically. With these
Synchrophasor technology is promising; however,
reports, the system identifies the faulted transmission
line(s) within the transmission network. available message rates make using this technology
• Determines the fault type and calculates the fault challenging, especially in applications with fast fault-clearing
location and fault resistance using multiterminal fault times.
location methods for different types of power lines, Alternative traveling wave fault location technology is
including overhead lines, underground cables, and available and provides good results, but deployment has been
composite lines that include both overhead line and limited to extra-high-voltage applications because of its high
underground cable sections. cost. One of the objectives of the system proposed in this
• Uses fault location methods that are accurate under fault paper is to provide an economical solution using relays that
resistance, parallel-line mutual coupling, system perform line protection functions.
nonhomogeneity, and load. While present two-end fault location methods provide good
• Supports event reports with a fixed sampling rate or a results in applications where the X/R ratio of the line is
variable sampling rate that is a multiple of the power constant, they are not suitable for lines with multiple sections.
system operating frequency.
These sections have different impedance characteristics,
• Supports event reports generated by relays and DFRs especially for applications that combine overhead lines and
connected to an IRIG-B time source.
underground cables. This paper presents a method that is
This paper compares fault location results calculated from
field event reports and reports that are obtained from models of based on the negative-sequence voltage profile along the line
real power systems with actual fault locations. and is suitable for composite lines.
We use field and laboratory cases where the fault location
I. INTRODUCTION is known to determine the accuracy of the proposed method.
Fault location in protective relays has been available for The field case shows that the fault location estimation is off by
over 20 years. These relays use impedance-based fault 475 feet in a 26.3-mile composite line application.
location algorithms, typically from one terminal of the We introduce a real-time fault location system that uses
transmission line [1] [2]. While these relays have been very line protection relays and displays fault location information at
useful in locating the majority of faults, the following the control center within 1 minute after the fault occurrence
conditions can affect their fault location accuracy: when using Ethernet-based communication. The fault location
system automatically retrieves event reports from relays after
• High-resistance faults
a fault occurs. The system accommodates event reports with
• Heavy load conditions
both fixed and variable sampling rates.
• Zero-sequence mutual coupling
Orange and Rockland Utilities, Inc. (ORU) plans to deploy
this system in its transmission network and communicate the
fault location results to the ORU Energy Control Center.
2
VZ
VX and IX correspond to the voltage and current phasors at III. CONSIDERATIONS FOR VARIABLE FAULT RESISTANCE
Terminal X. VY and IY correspond to the phasors at
Variable fault resistance affects the voltages and currents
Terminal Y. These phasors can be obtained from symmetrical
that the relays at each terminal measure. Fig. 3 shows the sum
or Clarke components or phase quantities. ZL is the line
of the local and remote residual currents (total residual
impedance. We can compensate ZL in (1) according to the
current) and the estimated fault resistance for a B-phase-to-
distributed parameter line model to accommodate long
ground fault. The total residual current is approximately equal
transmission lines [1].
to the total fault current at the fault location. The fault
Alignment of local and remote measurements is critical for
occurred on a 400 kV transmission line with a line length of
obtaining accurate fault location using two-end-based
225 kilometers; wildfires close to the transmission line caused
algorithms for faults with variable resistance. Methods based
the fault condition. Observe that the fault current starts with a
on (1) are sensitive to the errors in measurement alignment.
peak value lower than 828 A that increases to a peak value of
Reference [3] describes a two-end method that uses only
3,860 A in 4 cycles at a rate of 758 A per cycle. The
negative-sequence quantities and solves a second-order
corresponding resistance that we calculate according to (2)
polynomial equation to estimate the distance to the fault.
changes at the beginning of the fault and settles to
These quantities include local current and voltage
approximately 3 Ω after 4 cycles [1].
measurements, as well as remote source impedance and
current magnitudes. Reference [5] presents a method that uses ⎧⎪ V I + VYB IXBk0 − ZL1I YBk0 IXBk0 ⎫⎪
an iterative process to estimate a factor that compensates the R F = real ⎨ XB YBk0 ⎬ (2)
error in alignment and then solves the distance to the fault. ⎩⎪ ( IXBk0 + IYBk0 )2 ⎭⎪
Reference [6] uses time-synchronized phasor where:
measurements for multiterminal-based fault location.
I XBk0 = IXB + k 0 I XR
However, most phasor measurement units (PMUs) offer a
maximum data transfer rate of 60 messages per second. Fast I YBk0 = IYB + k 0 I YR
clearing times reduce the available fault data, making the ZL0 − ZL1
k0 =
synchrophasor-based fault location calculation challenging. 3ZL1
We can use two-end methods to calculate fault location on
VXB is the B-phase voltage at Terminal X.
three-terminal lines by reducing the three-terminal network to
a two-terminal network [3]. Fig. 2 shows a typical VYB is the B-phase voltage at Terminal Y.
three-terminal line. For a fault on Section X, the voltages at IXB is the B-phase current at Terminal X.
the tap (VTAP) calculated from Terminal Y and Terminal Z are IYB is the B-phase current at Terminal Y.
equal, and the voltage calculated from Terminal X is different IXR is the residual current at Terminal X.
from the voltages calculated from the other two terminals. IYR is the residual current at Terminal Y.
Based on this concept, Section X can be identified. ZL1 is the positive-sequence line impedance.
ZL0 is the zero-sequence line impedance.
3
V2k_R_Y is the negative-sequence voltage at the right C. Fault Location for Three-Phase Faults
junction of line section k that is calculated from For three-phase faults, we calculate the positive-sequence
Terminal Y. impedance to the fault, Ztotal, from either terminal using
Fig. 5 illustrates the negative-sequence voltage magnitude positive-sequence voltage, V1, and current, I1, according
profiles from Terminal X and Terminal Y of the transmission to (10). The algorithm identifies the faulted line section, k,
line shown in Fig. 4. Because the two voltage profiles using (11). Equation (12) determines the total distance to the
intersect at the fault location, the negative-sequence voltages fault, L, where Lengthi is the length of line section i.
at the junctions of the faulted line section meet the two criteria
V1
stated in (7) and (8). Ztotal = (10)
I1
V2k _ L _ X ≤ V2k _ L _ Y (7) k −1
∑ i =1 Z1i ≤ Ztotal < ∑ i =1 Z1i
k
(11)
V2k _ R _ Y < V2k _ R _ X (8) k −1
k −1 Ztotal − ∑ i =1 Z1i
L = ∑ i =1 Length i + • Length k (12)
Z1k
The breaker statuses and trip signals are exchanged among 0.025
the RTDS and relays via the digital I/O interface, as Fig. 8
illustrates. The system setup emulates the real-time, closed- LG Fault
0.02
loop controlled power system. LL Fault
0.01
0.005
0
5.7 13.3 20.16
A
sampling methods have similar performance.
Absolute Error in Miles
kV
Fig. 14. Current and voltage measurements of the relay at Terminal Y.
TABLE II Fig. 15. Negative-sequence voltage profiles for the B-phase-to-ground fault.
ABSOLUTE ERRORS OF THE ESTIMATED FAULT LOCATION IN MILES
New Traditional Two- Relay at Left Relay at Right VI. AUTOMATED FAULT LOCATION SYSTEM
Method Terminal Method Terminal Terminal
Most of the existing multiterminal fault location methods
0.09 2.18 3.91 4.25 are mainly for post-event analysis. To perform this analysis,
we need to collect event reports from all line terminals, align
these data, and estimate the fault location, which is time-
consuming and inefficient. The automated fault location
system (AFLS) that we present in this paper can monitor
A
D. System Latency
The AFLS latency depends on the event retrieval time and
fault location computation time. The event retrieval time
depends on the communications medium between the
computer and the relays. For serial communication, the event
retrieval time is a function of the data transfer rate and the file
size. Typically, event retrieval times are in the order of 1 to
Fig. 16. AFLS monitoring three transmission lines. 3 minutes. For Ethernet-based communication, event retrieval
times are in the order of seconds. The computer performs fault
A. System Configuration location calculations in less than 1 second. For systems with
The initial system configuration requires specifying the Ethernet communication, the overall system latency is less
number of terminals of the monitored line, the number of than 1 minute.
sections, the section impedances, the communications
parameters of the relays, and the association of the relay with VII. AFLS DEPLOYMENT
the corresponding line terminal. After the system is
Orange and Rockland Utilities, Inc. (ORU) proposed the
configured, it does not require additional user intervention.
installation of fault-locating equipment at transmission line
The software also accommodates line terminals with dual
terminals in order to implement the two-end fault location
breakers and compensates for shunt reactors based on their
system as part of the ORU Smart Grid Project. The majority
impedances.
of ORU 345/138 kV transmission lines are overhead
B. Fault Record Retrieval and Archiving conductors, and some of them are underground cables. These
The user can configure the fault location software to transmission lines are relatively short, approximately 9 to
retrieve event reports from the protective relays via event- 10 miles; however, the lines are not easily accessible for
driven or polling mechanisms. When using the event-driven inspection during faults due to difficult terrain. Therefore, a
mechanism, the software initiates the retrieval process tool to precisely calculate the fault location is important for
immediately upon receiving a message from the relay every quick restoration of the faulted transmission line.
time a new event is triggered. When using the polling The algorithm presented in this paper for fault location on
mechanism, the software polls the relays for new events transmission lines using a two-ended technique, as per ORU
periodically at user-defined intervals and retrieves the new design requirements, was tested, and the results are within
event reports. Compared to the polling mechanism, the event- 1.5 percent accuracy. Based on successful testing results,
driven mechanism offers lower latency and minimum ORU allocated funding to implement this fault location
communications traffic. The software stores the retrieved technique on critical transmission lines.
event reports with filenames consisting of the device name ORU is planning to use relays with fixed sampling rates
and event trigger time stamp. and accurate time stamping for fault locating. These relays can
have up to six sets of three-phase current and two sets of
C. Fault Location Calculation and Results Display three-phase voltage inputs. Thus, the relays can monitor
After successfully retrieving all of the event reports for a multiple lines within a substation.
particular fault, the fault location software automatically ORU is in the process of implementing its first double-
indentifies the faulted line, estimates the fault location, and ended fault location system. This system will include relays at
displays the results. Fig. 17 shows the display of the fault each terminal of the transmission line and will communicate
location information. This display can be available at the with a workstation located at the ORU Energy Control Center
control center. The reported fault location information via serial communication over optical fiber. The workstation
includes the line name, reference terminal, distance to the will process the fault data recorded by relays. The results,
fault, fault type, and time of the fault. The software can also including calculated fault location, will be emailed to the
send the fault location information to maintenance personnel system operator.
via email.
8