IET Generation, Transmission & Distribution

Research Article

Novel technique for transmission line ISSN 1751-8687

Received on 13th May 2019
Revised 12th November 2019
parameters estimation using synchronised Accepted on 29th November 2019
E-First on 19th December 2019
sampled data doi: 10.1049/iet-gtd.2019.0702
www.ietdl.org

Abdelhamid Bendjabeur1, Abdelmalek Kouadri1 , Saad Mekhilef2,3

1Signals and Systems Laboratory, Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, University M'Hamed Bougara of Boumerdes, Avenue of

independence, Boumerdes 35000 Algeria

2Power Electronics and Renewable Energy Research Laboratory (PEARL), University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
3School of Software and Electrical Engineering, Swinburne University, Victoria, Australia

E-mail: a.kouadri@univ-boumerdes.dz

Abstract: Accurate transmission line parameters values are of high importance in setting protection relays and rigorous locating
faults that may occur along the transmission network. For this purpose, the work reported in this study presents a new technique
for the delicate determination of transmission lines parameters that are uniformly distributed along the line length. The
developed technique is able to approximate the steady-state profiles for the transmission line voltage and current as a function
of time and line length by given sets of polynomials that, in turn, are substituted in model equations. Synchronised time-domain
data, recorded from both line terminals, are utilised as boundary conditions for the distributed-parameter transmission line
model. The well-known Galerkin method is adopted to transform the line model into a system of non-linear algebraic equations
to be solved. This system of algebraic equations is converted to residuals that are consequently regrouped in a cost function to
be optimised. Thereby, the series resistance, series inductance and the shunt capacitance per line length are the parameters
minimising the cost function. Both simulations and calculation are performed with MATLAB software. The obtained results show
the effectiveness and accuracy of the new approach.

1 Introduction estimation problem considering noise in both the voltage and

current synchronous phasor measurements estimation problem. A
Environmental operating conditions and ageing can make power-frequency parameter measurement approach is proposed in
variations in electrical transmission line parameters. Therefore, the [17]. Its idea is to utilise a frequency response curve to extrapolate
new values of these parameters should be updated and accurately transmission line parameters at power frequency and hence identify
calculated since they are compulsory for the correct setting of positive- and zero-sequence resistance. Time-domain methods use
protective systems, fault detection and location, and knowledge of time-stamped data to estimate the transmission parameters. First-
the propagation characteristics [1]. Classical methods calculate the order coupled ordinary differential equations derived from the
electrical transmission line parameters using tower configuration three-phase π -representation of transmission lines have been solved
and conductor properties [2–4]. However, this approach is using time-domain fault records with the least squares method to
susceptible to inaccuracy, since it disregards constantly varying conclude the line parameters [6]. The π -circuit used by Dasgupta
working factors like surrounding temperature, weather conditions,
and Soman [6] has been used by Costa and Kurokawa [1],
skin effect and others [5]. Instead, it is feasible to evaluate line
however, this latter converted phase-domain coupled differential
parameters with the recorded currents and voltages values from
equation to phase-domain coupled ordinary differential equation
both line ends to be used in either a lumped [6] or a distributed [7]
with the help of modal decomposition and solved them for
model that approximates the dynamics of the electrical
synchronous time-domain fault recorded data by means of least
transmission line. Many works that have been presented in the
squares method. The π -circuit is also employed in the work done in
literature are measurement-based approaches which use data
[18]. This research work proposes a multi-point transmission line
gathered from the transmission line ends. One can distinguish two
parameter estimation model with measurement-based data
kinds of recorded data: time-domain data and frequency-domain
selection scheme, which is adaptively adjusted, to minimise the
data. Frequency-domain data can be obtained from the
relative standard deviation (RSD) of estimated parameters. An
synchronised measurement of voltages and currents phasors with
iterative technique derived from the Newton method is adopted to
the aid of SCADA systems and phasor measurement units (PMUs)
solve the proposed model by fitting the relationship between the
[5, 8, 9]. The main disadvantage of these frequency-domain
RSD and data selection scheme with exponential functions. Data
methods is that the calculation of filter-based phasor subjects
measurements are prone to errors coming from the fact that the
identified parameters to errors. Untransposed transmission line
devices used in the transmission line system such as remote
parameters have been estimated with the aid of Laplace transform
terminal units (RTUs), PMUs and instrument transformers may
using synchronised phasors at both terminals [10]. If missing
occasionally introduce error due to the discretisation of data, time
synchronisation, a post-synchronisation method is employed [11].
synchronisation failure and saturation or incorrect calibration,
Sequence parameters concept has been widely used by researchers
respectively. Since the transmission lines parameter estimation
to estimate the line parameters like in [12–14], where synchronised
procedure can be affected by errors resulting from those devices,
data have utilised to determine positive sequence parameters. The
many studies, like in [19–23], have taken this aspect into
latter has been estimated online in the work accomplished by Wang
consideration and tried to develop algorithms whose accuracy is
et al. [15] which has taken the active power, reactive power and
not reactive to errors if existing by checking their effectiveness
voltage magnitude data measured at the two ends of a transmission
through testing different scenarios in simulations and/or
line as to track transmission line parameters using SCADA data.
experiments. One way to get rid of the noise problem that
Dasgupta and Soman [16] propose an orthogonal distance
commonly contaminates the data is to denoise the PMU
regression approach for solving the zero sequence parameter
measurements using wavelets prior to the calculation of the

IET Gener. Transm. Distrib., 2020, Vol. 14 Iss. 3, pp. 506-515 506
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Fig. 1 single-phase line portion of Δx → 0 length

transmission line parameters as it is proposed in [24]. Another ∂v(x, t) ∂i(x, t)

= − Ri(x, t) − L
example of how the synchronisation time error correction is made ∂x ∂t
in order to ensure precise line estimation what has been given in (1)
∂i(x, t) ∂v(x, t)
[25]. = −C
∂x ∂t
An unprecedented approach, that is based on synchronised
sampled data and a distributed line model in order to estimate subject to the boundary conditions
distributed line parameters by solving the considered model via
Galerkin and an optimisation technique, is initiated in this paper. v(0, t) = f 1(t)
The main contributions of the suggested algorithm can briefly
be summarised in the following statements: v(l, t) = f 2(t)
(2)
i(0, t) = g1(t)
• The novelty of the proposed algorithm which is newly applied in
i(l, t) = g2(t)
the field of transmission line parameters estimation.
• The use of the distributed line model seeing the distributed nature
where l is the length of the line.
of transmission line parameters which results in overcoming some
The functions f 1(t), f 2(t), g1(t) and g2(t) can be found by
problems coming from lumped models that are often obtained after
discretising the distributed model, the fact that this makes the interpolating the data recorded from the terminals of the
calculations be sensitive to the sampling rate. transmission line using some appropriate polynomials. The system
• No high sampling rate is required, only a few number of datasets of partial differential equations (PDEs) in (1) are of the first order.
are needed, consequently, the calculation time is reduced. The solutions of the system of PDEs (i.e the voltage and current)
are approximated by Fourier series for the time and Bernstein for
• The capability of the new methodology of accurately approximate
the length. This numerical solution of the PDEs is substituted in the
steady-state voltage and current profiles at each instant and in each
line model equations and by mean of Galerkin method [28], the
location along the line using only boundary data. This substantially
line model problem is transformed into a system of non-linear
helps in setting protection relays and for installing flexible
algebraic equations to be solved. The solution to this problem is
alternating current transmission system devices to increase power
achieved via an optimisation problem whose cost function is the
transfer capability and improve system stability.
minimisation of the system of non-linear algebraic equations
• Adequate transmission line parameters estimation, and the residuals eventually ends up with finding the series resistance,
immunity of the present approach to different data errors. series inductance and the shunt capacitance per line length.
The research work presented in this paper is organised as
follows. Section 2 is devoted to detailing the proposed approach 2.1 Theoretical background
when dealing with single-phase transmission lines. In Section 3, In this study, the numerical solution of the telegrapher's equation is
the present method is generalised to handle the three-phase approximated by a set of orthogonal basis functions. Consequently,
transmission lines case. Simulation results due to the application of it is worth to mention some important properties of the employed
the technique described in Section 2 are shown in Section 4. In series and polynomials.
Section 5, the presented work is terminated by a conclusion
summarising the previous sections. 2.1.1 Fourier series properties: A function f (t) defined over the
time interval 0 ≤ t < u may be expanded into a Fourier series as
2 Proposed method follows [29]:
This paper presents a novel technique for the estimation of n n
transmission line parameters. The time-domain technique is
suitable for single-phase transmission lines, and even capable for
f (t) = a0 + ∑ aicos(iwt) + ∑ bisin(iwt) = ATΨ(t) (3)
i=1 i=1
handling the case of three-phase transmission lines since this latter
can be decoupled and treated as three independent single-phase where
transmission lines with the utilisation of modal decomposition [26,
27]. The method uses a distributed-parameter line model seeing
A = [a0, a1, b1, a2, b2…an, bn]T
that transmission line impedance is distributed along the line length
as illustrated in Fig. 1.
For this purpose, the Telegrapher's Equation [7] is adopted to Ψ(t) = [1, cos(wt), sin(wt), …, cos(nwt), sin(nwt)]T
express the relationship between the voltage v(x, t) and the current = [F0, 2n + 1, F1, 2n + 1, …, F2n + 1, 2n + 1]T
i(x, t) with the series resistance R, the series inductance L and the
shunt capacitance C with the assumption that those parameters are and
constant and uniformly distributed along the line. The so-called
Telegrapher's Equation can be formulated as follows: 2π
w=
u

2.1.2 Bernstein polynomials properties: Bernstein polynomials

of the nth degree are defined on the interval [0, 1] as in [30]

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 Bl, n(x) = nl 1 − x n−l l
x (4) ΦT(l)SΨ(t) = f 2(t) (18)

There are (n + 1) nth degree polynomials. Bi, n(x) is conventionally ΦT(0)QΨ(t) = g1(t) (19)
null for i < 0 or i > n.
A recursive definition can be also used to generate the ΦT(l)QΨ(t) = g2(t) (20)
Bernstein polynomials over [0, 1]
When using normalised length, (15)–(20) turn out to
Bi, n(x) = (1 − x)Bi, n − 1(x) + xBi − 1, n − 1(x) (5)
ΦTx (x)SΨ(t)/l = − RΦT(x)QΨ(t) − LΦT(x)QΨt(t) (21)
It can be easily shown that any given polynomial of degree n can
be expressed as a linear combination of the Bernstein basis [31]. ΦTx (x)QΨ(t)/l = − CΦT(x)SΨt(t) (22)
The derivatives of the nth degree Bernstein polynomials are a
linear combination of Bernstein polynomials of degree (n − 1).
ΦT(0)SΨ(t) = f 1(t) (23)
They are given by

dBi, n(x) ΦT(1)SΨ(t) = f 2(t) (24)

= n(Bi − 1, n − 1(x) − Bi, n − 1(x)) (6)
dx
ΦT(0)QΨ(t) = g1(t) (25)
2.2 Telegrapher's equation solution approximation with
Fourier series and Bernstein polynomials ΦT(1)QΨ(t) = g2(t) (26)
The telegrapher's equation solution is approximated by
2.3 Numerical solution of Telegrapher's equation using
n m Galerkin method
v(x, t) = ∑ ∑ Bi n(x)F j m(t)si j
, , , (7)
Galerkin method is based on constructing the inner product of the
i=0 j=0
functions in (21)–(26) and the bases by which the PDE solution is
n m approximated. The inner product can be reached by multiplying the
i(x, t) = ∑ ∑ Bi n(x)F j m(t)qi j
, , , (8) system of (21)–(26) by Bernstein polynomials and Fourier series,
i=0 j=0 then integrating on both time and length intervals [32, 33]

∫ ∫ Φ (x)Φ(x)SΨ(t)Ψ (t)/l dt dx
or equivalently 1 u
T T
x
0 0
v(x, y) = ΦT(x)SΨ(t), (9)
+R∫ ∫ Φ (x)Φ(x)QΨ(t)Ψ (t) dt dx
1 u
T T
(27)
T
i(x, y) = Φ (x)QΨ(t) (10) 0 0

+L∫ ∫ Φ (x)Φ(x)SΨ (t)Ψ (t) dt dx = 0

1 u
T T
t
where Bi, n is the ith term of Bernstein polynomials of degree n. 0 0
F j, m represents the jth term of Fourier series.

∫ ∫ Φ (x)Φ(x)SΨ (t)Ψ (t) dt dx

T 1 u
Φ(x) = B0, n(x)B1, n(x) … Bn, n(x) , C T T
T t
Ψ(t) = F0, m(t)F1, m(t) … Fm, m(t) 0 0
(28)
+ ∫ ∫ Φ (x)Φ(x)QΨ(t)Ψ (t)/l dt dx = 0
u
s0, 0 … s0, m q0, 0 … q0, m 1
T T
x
S= … … … ,Q= … … … 0 0

sn, 0 … sn, m qn, 0 … qn, m

∫ ∫ Φ (0)Φ(x)SΨ (t)Ψ (t) dt dx
1 u
One can see that T T
t
0 0
(29)
∂v(x, t) ∂ΦT(x)
= ∫ ∫ Φ(x) f (t)Ψ (t) dt dx = F
1 u
= SΨ(t) = ΦTx (x)SΨ(t) (11) T
∂x ∂x 0 0
1 1

∂i(x, t) ∂ΦT(x)
∫ ∫ Φ (1)Φ(x)SΨ (t)Ψ (t) dt dx
1 u
= SΨ(t) = ΦTx (x)SΨ(t) (12) T T
∂x ∂x t
0 0
(30)
= ∫ ∫ Φ(x) f (t)Ψ (t) dt dx = F
1 u
∂v(x, t) ∂ΨT(t) T
= ΦT(x)Q = ΦT(x)QΨt(t) (13) 2 2
∂t ∂t 0 0

∫ ∫ Φ (0)Φ(x)QΨ (t)Ψ (t) dt dx

1 u
∂i(x, t) ∂ΨT(t) T T
= ΦT(x)Q = ΦT(x)QΨt(t) (14) t
∂t ∂t 0 0
(31)
= ∫ ∫ Φ(x)g (t)Ψ (t) dt dx = G
1 u
T
Replacing the different variables and their partial derivatives of (1) 1 1
and the different boundary conditions of (2) by their 0 0

approximations given by (9)–(14), yields

∫ ∫ Φ (1)Φ(x)QΨ (t)Ψ (t) dt dx
1 u
T T
t
ΦTx (x)SΨ(t) = − RΦT(x)QΨ(t) − LΦT(x)QΨt(t) (15) 0 0
(32)
= ∫ ∫ Φ(x)g (t)Ψ (t) dt dx = G
1 u
T
ΦTx (x)QΨ(t) = − CΦT(x)SΨt(t) (16) 0 0
2 2

ΦT(0)SΨ(t) = f 1(t) (17)

508 IET Gener. Transm. Distrib., 2020, Vol. 14 Iss. 3, pp. 506-515
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Equations (27)–(32) are non-linear algebraic equations whose
unknowns are the coefficients matrices S and Q and the scalars R,
L and C.
Setting
u
M0 = ∫0 Ψ(t)ΨT(t) dt,
u
M1 = ∫0 Ψt(t)ΨT(t) dt,
W 0 = ∫0 ΦT(x)Φ(x) dx,
1

W 1 = ∫0 ΦTx (x)Φ(x) dx,

1

W 2 = ∫0 ΦT(0)Φ(x) dx,
1

W 3 = ∫0 ΦT(1)Φ(x) dx
1

and with the aid of Kronecker product (denoted by ⊗), the

system of algebraic equations can be summarised in the matrix
form as follows:

M0T ⊗ W 1 /l RM0T ⊗ W 0 + LM1T ⊗ W 0 Fig. 2 Three-phase line portion of Δx → 0 length

T T
CM1 ⊗ W 0 M0 ⊗ W 1 /l 2.5 Summary of the proposed method
T
M0 ⊗ W 2 0(n + 1)(m + 1) vec(S) The process of transmission line parameter estimation can be
=
M0T ⊗ W 3 0(n + 1)(m + 1) vec(Q) summed up in the following algorithm:

0(n + 1)(m + 1) M0T ⊗ W 2 1. Interpolation of synchronously recorded data with Fourier series.
0(n + 1)(m + 1) T
M0 ⊗ W 3 2. Approximating solution of the transmission line mode equation
(33) with Bernstein polynomials and Fourier series with respect to
0(n + 1)(m + 1) × 1 length and time, respectively.
0(n + 1)(m + 1) × 1 3. Applying Galerkin method that results in a non-linear system of
algebraic equations.
vec(F1)
4. Considering the resulting non-linear system of algebraic
vec(F2) equations as an optimisation problem whose objective function
vec(G1) depends on the transmission line parameters.
vec(G2) 5. Employing the DIRECT algorithm to solve the optimisation
problem and ending up with the determination of the transmission
line parameters.
Here, vec(X) represents an operator that transforms a matrix X into
a single column vector by stacking its columns. 3 Extension of the proposed method for three
phase transmission lines
2.4 Minimisation process
The present method is developed for single-phase transmission
If R, L and C are known, the system of non-linear algebraic systems. For the purpose of generalising the proposed method for
equations problem in (33) is reduced to solving an over-determined the case of three-phase transmission lines, this is decoupled into
linear system of algebraic equations. Suppose three independent single-phase by the so-called Clarke's
transformation. Consider a three-phase transmission lines portion
Ax = b (34) shown in Fig. 2.
Equation (1) turns out to
is a linear system of equations for which the number of equations is
greater than the number of unknowns x. The approximate solution ∂ Vph ∂ Iph
of (34) can be simply determined by the least squares method. = − R Iph − L
∂x ∂t
Hence (38)
∂ Iph ∂ Vph
= − C
x^ = (A−1 A)T A−1b (35) ∂x ∂t

The difference between the approximate solution and its exact subject to their boundary conditions.
value can be expressed as R , L and C are series resistance, series inductance and
shunt capacitance 3-by-3 per unit length matrices in which the
diagonal entries represent the self-parameters, and the others
Residual = Ax^ − b = A(A−1 A)T A−1b − b (36)
represent the mutual parameters between phases, respectively. The
3-by-1 vectors Vph and Iph represent the transversal voltages
This residual function depends on the unknown transmission line
and the longitudinal currents in the three-phases, respectively.
parameters R, L and C. Hence, a minimisation problem is arising in
Setting [35]
determining these parameters. For this purpose, the cost function
given in (37) should be minimised. T
Rm = T ck R T ck (39)
T
min Residual(R, L, C) Residual(R, L, C) (37) T
R, L, C
Lm = T ck L T ck (40)
In order to solve the minimisation problem (37), the DIRECT −1 −T
algorithm proposed by Jones et al. [34] is employed. The DIRECT Cm = T ck C T ck (41)
algorithm converges to the global minimal value of the cost
T
function (37) [34]. Vm = T ck Vph (42)
After the determination of the transmission line parameters, the
coefficient matrices for the approximate solution (i.e profiles) of Im = T ck −1
Iph (43)
transversal and longitudinal voltage are determined by (35).
IET Gener. Transm. Distrib., 2020, Vol. 14 Iss. 3, pp. 506-515 509
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The (38) becomes 1.6876 0.8652 0.7267
L = 0.8652 1.6876 0.8652 mH/km (52)
∂ Vm ∂ Im
= − Rm Im − Lm 0.7267 0.8652 1.6876
∂x ∂t
(44)
∂ Im ∂ Vm 11.305 −2.446 −0.820
= − Cm
∂x ∂t C = −2.446 11.775 −2.446 ηF/km (53)
subject to their boundary conditions. −0.820 −2.446 11.305
Here [Rm], [Lm] and [Cm] are series modal resistance, series
Phase voltages and currents from both terminals are recorded by
modal inductance and shunt modal capacitance 3-by-3 per unit
taking 50 samples over one operating period of 1/60 s, then the
length diagonal matrices that can be described as
recordings vectors are transformed according to (42) and (43) to
model voltages and currents, respectively. The boundary conditions
R0 0 0
are interpolated by the use of Fourier series. The impedance of
[Rm] = 0 Rα 0 (45) each mode is determined by the method described in Section 2.
0 0 Rβ Thereafter, the transmission line parameters are concluded.

L0 0 0 4.1 Interpolating the recorded data

[Lm] = 0 Lα 0 (46) The data are synchronously recorded in steady state. Those data are
0 0 Lβ approximated with a linear combination of Fourier series as in (3).
The number of Fourier series is chosen so that the relative error
C0 0 0 between the simulated data and the approximating functions is
reduced. Investigating the number of terms gives that the optimum
[Cm] = 0 Cα 0 (47) number of terms is m = 2. Fig. 3 shows the absolute relative error
0 0 Cβ (ARE) functions between interpolated and simulated data for
modal voltages and modal currents which is evaluated as
The 3-by-1 vectors Vm and Im represent the transversal modal
i
voltages and the longitudinal modal currents in the three i U(i) − u nT
independent single-phase systems Absolute relative error = 0 ≤ i ≤ n = 50;
nT max {U(i)}
T
Vm = V m0 V mα V mβ (48) 1
T= Hz
60
T
Im = Im0 Imα Imβ (49) (54)

[T ck] is the Clarke's modal transformation matrix that is used for
the conversion from the phase domain to the modal domain, in
other words from coupled thee-phase transmission lines to
decoupled three single-phase transmission lines [36]. The former
can be given as [35]
where U is the vector of the recorded data and u represents the
approximating function using the weighted sum of Fourier series.
From Fig. 3 and according to the AREs values, it can be clearly
seen that the weighted sum of Fourier series fits well the different
transmission line signals.

2 1 4.2 Modal parameters estimation

0
6 3
After interpolating the recorded data and transforming it to modal
−1 1 1 domain, the algorithm described in Section 2 is applied to the three
T ck = (50)
6 2 3 independent single-phase transmission lines. Table 1 shows the
−1 −1 1 ARE for modal parameters due to the implementation of the
6 2 3 DIRECT algorithm to solve the optimisation problem presented in
(37). The ARE is calculated as
4 Simulation results of the proposed method estimated value − actual value
ARE = × 100% (55)
This section shows the results of implementing the proposed actual value
method. The parameter estimation procedure is carried out and the
results are investigated. The simulations are done with the help of The modal-domain parameters are calculated for a set of (n, m)
MATLAB/Simscape software that provides SimPowerSystems pairs.
library for power systems simulations. The data from both It is worth to point out that:
transmission line ends were simultaneously recorded. A sampling
frequency of 3 kHz is employed. An example is considered for The AREs for the resistance are less than AREs of the inductance
testing of the novel technique. The system is a three-phase and capacitance.
transmission line that is 300 km long. A balanced 440 kV/60 Hz The estimated parameters are well computed as all the AREs are
three-phase source is installed on the sending terminal. A three- less than 1% which allows to say that the estimated parameters are
phase load of 500 kVA and a power factor (PF) of 0.97 is close to the actual ones.
connected to the receiving terminal of the transmission line. This The AREs are almost identical even the suggested (n,m) pairs (i.e
latter is characterised by the following per unit length parameters the degree of Bernstein polynomials and the number of Fourier
[6]: series terms approximating the solution, respectively) are changed.
This gives a great advantage to the method since the desired values
58.221 47.104 47.063 can be reached by few terms of polynomials. Consequently, the
R = 47.104 58.224 47.104 mΩ/km (51) computational time is lessened.
47.063 47.063 58.221

510 IET Gener. Transm. Distrib., 2020, Vol. 14 Iss. 3, pp. 506-515
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Fig. 3 Plots of ARE functions for transmission line signals
(a) Sending end voltages, (b) Receiving end voltages, (c) Sending end currents, (d) Receiving end currents

IET Gener. Transm. Distrib., 2020, Vol. 14 Iss. 3, pp. 506-515 511
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Table 1 ARE for modal parameters in percentage (%) Table 4 ARE for phase capacitance in percentage (%)
Parameter (n,m) Capacitance (n,m)
(2,2) (4,4) (6,6) (8,8) (2,2) (4,4) (6,6) (8,8)
R0 0.007 0.007 0.007 0.002 c11 2.620 2.272 2.272 2.272
L0 0.259 0.536 0.525 0.523 c12 30.73 30.61 30.61 30.61
C0 0.333 0.525 0.402 0.401 c13 106.6 106.9 106.9 106.7
Ralpha 0.018 0.006 0.006 0.006 c21 30.73 30.61 30.61 106.9
Lalpha 0.242 0.391 0.392 0.392 c22 0.861 0.904 0.904 0.904
Calpha 0.333 0.355 0.335 0.333 c23 3.558 5.251 5.251 5.251
Rbeta 0.501 0.154 0.122 0.128 c31 106.6 106.9 106.9 106.9
Lbeta 0.875 0.439 0.392 0.367 c32 3.558 5.251 5.251 5.251
Cbeta 0.433 0.355 0.353 0.320 c33 3.260 3.214 3.214 3.214

Table 2 ARE for phase resistance in percentage (%) Table 5 ARE for modal parameters
Resistance (n,m) Parameter ARE
(2,2) (4,4) (6,6) (8,8) Proposed Method in [1]
r11 0.455 0.152 0.124 0.129 R0 0.007 7.467
r12 0.501 0.127 0.092 0.100 L0 0.259 2.467
r13 0.589 0.214 0.179 0.187 C0 0.333 3.133
r21 0.501 0.127 0.092 0.100 Ralpha 0.018 4.400
r22 0.428 0.124 0.096 0.101 Lalpha 0.242 7.400
r23 0.528 0.155 0.120 0.127 Calpha 0.333 4.600
r31 0.589 0.214 0.179 0.187 Rbeta 0.501 15.33
r32 0.528 0.155 0.120 0.127 Lbeta 0.875 11.66
r33 0.433 0.129 0.101 0.106 Cbeta 0.433 11.33

Table 3 ARE for phase inductance in percentage (%) C13 and C12 have relatively small values in comparison with the
Inductance (n,m) other parameters in [L] and [C], respectively. Hence, they have an
(2,2) (4,4) (6,6) (8,8) unsubstantial contribution in modal decomposition. It can be
concluded that the smaller the parameter is, the greater its ARE is.
l11 2.492 1.918 2.271 2.253
This aspect comes from the fact that the modes 0 and β are not
l12 6.084 6.363 6.797 6.828 fully decoupled which is known as quasi-mode [37]. Suggesting
l13 11.81 11.48 10.96 10.92 more exact modal decomposition to decouple the three phases can
l21 6.084 6.363 6.797 6.828 overpass this aspect.
l22 0.254 0.576 0.511 0.525
In practise, the parameter having no considerable values are
l23 0.726 1.496 1.370 1.406
ignored.
l31 11.81 11.48 10.96 10.92
l32 0.726 1.496 1.370 1.406 4.4 Comparison with related works
l33 0.254 0.576 0.511 0.525
In this part, the modal parameters ARE resulted from the
implementation of the present approach (for (n, m) = (2, 2)) and the
method in [1] have been recorded in Table 5.
4.3 Phase parameters calculation The findings show that the present approach gives smaller
Once the modal parameters are calculated using the method AREs for modal parameters in comparison with AREs obtained by
described in Section 2, the phase parameters can be concluded as the method in [1], in spite its promising results for phase domain
follows: parameters. The method in [1] is based on ordinary differential
equations (i.e lumped transmission line model coming from π -
R = T ck −T
Rm T ck −1
(56) circuit model) solved by least squares method. This method
basically uses both synchronised terminal data and their time-
−T −1
derivatives in estimating transmission line parameters. The main
L = T ck Lm T ck (57) problem with this algorithm is that it suggests that the calculation
of time-derivatives data is straight forward, whereas it is actually
T
C = T ck Cm T ck (58) not. It is well known that it is mathematically very complex to
compute instantaneous time-derivatives directly from sampled
The AREs for phase parameters are calculated and recorded in data, or at least it is inaccurate to approximate these sampled data
Tables 2–4. The tables show the AREs for phase parameters. It can time-derivatives using, for instance, finite difference methods. If
be observed that: time-derivatives data were suggested to be synchronously
The AREs of phase parameters are nearly the same for different recorded, this fact would make that method very expensive in
(n,m) as in the case of modal parameters. terms of data acquisition, and susceptible to measurement errors.
Prony method has been used in [6] to overpass this problem,
The AREs of self parameters are relatively small. however this method suffers from high computational complexity
The AREs of mutual resistance are relatively small. in approximating recorded terminal data. The present method
The AREs of mutual inductance and capacitance are relatively high successfully solves the previously mentioned issue through
especially for the case of L13, C13 and C12. One can notice that L13, approximating recorded data by Fourier series whose time-
derivative is readily obtained and computationally simpler than the

512 IET Gener. Transm. Distrib., 2020, Vol. 14 Iss. 3, pp. 506-515
© The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2019
Table 6 ARE due to noise in percentage (%) for
(n, m) = (2, 2)
Parameter SNR
100 dB 80 dB 60 dB 40 dB
R0 0.023 0.456 1.534 5.050
L0 0.481 0.516 0.203 2.132
C0 0.072 0.072 0.247 0.309
Ralpha 0.097 0.624 1.666 8.423
Lalpha 0.449 0.449 0.939 1.932
Calpha 0.003 0.003 0.080 0.473
Rbeta 0.912 1.105 5.451 18.39
Lbeta 0.341 0.352 0.376 1.768
Cbeta 0.333 0.337 0.493 0.484

Fig. 5 ARE of estimated inductance as a function of the load profile

Fig. 4 ARE of estimated resistance as a function of the load profile

procedure in [6]. Moreover, the proposed approach is capable to

provide steady-state voltages and currents profiles which are useful
in various applications. Fig. 6 ARE of estimated capacitance as a function of the load profile

the present method is investigated in case of different loads and in

4.5 Effect of noise
Recorded data from the transmission lines are converted to digital
signals using analogue-to-digital converters in order to be
processed and used for parameter estimation. Modern intelligent
electronic devices (IED) using 16 or 32 bits have a signal-to-noise
ratio (SNR) higher than 100 dB [19]. The method is examined in
the case where signals are contaminated with noise that is
considered as a Gaussian noise having various SNRs. The
parameters are determined with the noisy data and the obtained
results are listed in Table 6. It is noticed that the error grows for
lower SNR, especially, for the series resistances. The accuracy of
the method is still acceptable even with the presence of noise.
4.6 Effect of load changes
Transmission line fed loads are changeable depending on power
customer needs that vary form time to another. For this purpose,
the present methodology is tested at different load profiles to study
the load change effect on its accuracy. Polynomials degrees (n,m)
are given (2, 2). White noise is introduced in order to make the test
more realistic. The SNR of noise is taken as 40 dB to simulate the
worst case that possibly happens. The new methodology is set
under test in case of loads having a set of apparent powers (AP) of
{104, 105, 106, 107, 108, 0.5 × 108} VA with different PFs that in turn
take the values {0.76, 0.86, 0.93, 0, 98}. The set of APs with
different PFs are chosen as test samples to see the evolution of
AREs at different load profiles. Since AREs of the three modes
have nearly similar deportment, only α-mode is considered in this
study. The parameters of α-mode are estimated and the accuracy of
the presence of noise. Figs. 4–6 depict the AREs of α-mode
parameters as a function of load profiles. Some important remarks
are summarised as follows:
• The AREs for estimated R range between a maximum of 7.55%
and a minimum of 2.45%.
• The AREs for estimated L flactuate between a maximum of 8.36
and a minimum of 0.25%.
• The AREs for estimated C are in the interval whose maximum
and minimum are 3.35 and 0.027%, respectively.
• AREs for C nearly do not exceed 1% for all PFs. However,
starting from an AP of 100 MVA, the AREs for PF = 0.93
remarkably increase to reach 3.35%.
• Each PF does not have any specific feature over the others.
The results show that the developed methodology is capable for
estimating transmission line parameters with acceptable accuracy
in spite of load change and highly noise contaminated data.
The accuracy of parameter estimation method introduced in
[38] considerably lessens for loads with AP above 10 MVA
especially with PF values close to unitary. The present
methodology shows better accuracy and more immunity to noise in
case of loads with high AP. This would make the developed
method useful to use for estimating parameters of transmission
lines that are heavily loaded.

IET Gener. Transm. Distrib., 2020, Vol. 14 Iss. 3, pp. 506-515 513
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Table 7 AREs due to voltage data error in percentage (%) the AREs of the estimated parameters resulting from introducing a
for (n, m) = (2, 2) synchronisation time delay of 10 ns, 100 ns, 1 μs and 10 μs between
Parameter With error in voltage data sending and receiving data recording moments. The results show
0.1% error 1% error 5% error that AREs remain small despite time synchronisation errors.
R0 0.132 2.443 8.565
L0 0.307 0.545 4.546
5 Conclusion
C0 0.149 1.00 4.798 In this paper, a novel technique for the estimation of electrical
Ralpha 0.924 4.665 12.45
transmission line parameters using synchronised sampled data has
been presented. The proposed technique shows that it can
Lalpha 0.309 0.598 4.545 accurately determine transmission lines parameters regarding their
Calpha 0.095 1.001 4.734 distributed nature. Moreover, it has the ability to determine steady-
Rbeta 0.433 5.676 7.990 state profiles for the transmission line voltage and current as a
function of time and line length. The developed approach is based
Lbeta 0.455 0.595 4.112
on the Galerkin method for which Fourier series and Bernstein
Cbeta 0.344 0.899 4.798 polynomials are used to approximating the voltage and current. In
practice, synchronised time-domain data recorded from both
terminals should be as accurate as possible in order to ensure
Table 8 AREs due to current data error in percentage (%) proper implementation of the present method. In cases when data
for (n, m) = (2, 2) are interfered with errors due to measurement devices limitations,
Parameter With error in current data noise and time synchronisation failures, the proposed approach
0.1% error 1% error 5% error confirms its capability to overcome these common practical
obstacles and adequately estimate the transmission line parameters.
R0 0.881 4.554 11.23 Suggesting new sets of polynomials may further enhance the
L0 0.575 0.972 5.216 present work thoroughness.
C0 0.011 1.429 4.972
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