1
Spectral Energy function for Fault Detection
during Power Swing
S. R. Samantaray, Senior Member IEEE, R. K. Dubey, L.N.Tripathy, B. Chitti Babu, Member IEEE
` genuine faults occurring during the power swing period since
Abstract—This paper presents a spectral energy function for
fault detection during power swing using a novel time frequency
transform known as S-transform. S-transform is a variable
window short time Fourier Transform (STFT) which combines
the elements of STFT and Wavelet transform and, thus known as
phase corrected Wavelet transform. The process starts at
processing the current signal through S-transform to generate
the S-matrix. From the S-matrix, corresponding S-contours
(time-frequency contours) are generated. The spectral energy
content of the S-counters is used to register the symmetrical and
un-symmetrical faults during power swing. The proposed
technique is tested for different fault conditions during power
swing with possible variations in operating parameters and is
able to identify the faults with a response time of 1.25 cycles from
the fault inception during power swing.
Index Terms— Power swing, Symmetrical faults, Un-
symmetrical faults, S-transform, S-contours, Spectral Energy.
I. INTRODUCTION
P OWER SWINGS are caused by sudden removal of faults,
loss of synchronism or changes in direction of power flow
as a result of switching and creates oscillations in power
flow. During power swing, the appearance impedance
measured by a distance relay may move in to the tripping zone
of the distance relay characteristics, causing unwanted trip [1].
To ensure the reliable operation of the distance relay, power
swing blocking function is employed in most of the modern
distance relays to block the operation during pure power swing
[2, 3].
The most conventional power swing blocking method is
based on speed (timing) at which the impedance locus travels
in to the operating zones of the relay characteristics. During
the fault conditions apparent impedance trajectory locus
travels faster compared to the speed of the trajectory during
power swing conditions. Thus, the time delay is one of the
indices for discriminating fault from power swing and that has
to be set with knowledge of the likely speed of movement of
the impedance during the power swing. However, with this
setting, the relay fails to block if the apparent impedance
moves fast during power swing and may not respond to
S.R.Samantaray is with School of Electrical Sciences, IIT Bhubaneswar,
Orissa, India. Email: sbh_samant@yahoo.co.in
R.K.Dubey and B. Chitti Babu are with the Department of Electrical
Engineering, National Institute of Technology Rourkela, Orissa-769008, India
L.N.Tripathy is with Department of Electrical Engineeirng, IGIT Sarang,
Orissa, India. Email: loknathtripathy@yahoo.co.in
978-1-4673-0136-7/11/$26.00 ©2011 IEEE
it is blocked from operation [4,5].
The power swing center voltage (SCV), defined as the
voltage at the location of a two-source equivalent system
where the voltage value is zero and the angles between the two
sources are 180 apart, is used to distinguish faults from power
swing [7]. However, it is difficult to set the threshold,
especially when a fault arc is considered. Distinguishing faults
from power swing by monitoring the voltage phase angle at
the relay location [9, 10], has been found suitable. However,
only the single-phase faults have been simulated and the
method has not been applied to symmetrical and other
unsymmetrical faults.
Advanced signal processing technique such as Wavelet
transform [12,13] is an effective tool for power system
transient analysis and feature extraction The Wavelet
transform is a time-frequency transform, retaining the time
information of the frequency spectrum , and thus a potential
tool for fault detection during power swing as the frequency of
the system varies over a range around the nominal frequency
during power swings and a fault gives rise to transients. In
[16], the wavelet transform (WT) has been utilized for
detecting fault during the power swing. However, the
implementation needs high frequency sampling (40.96 kHz).
The Wavelet transform based fault detection scheme during
power swing [17] only concentrates on detecting symmetrical
faults and thus has limitations for identifying unsymmetrical
faults during power swing. Thus, there is strong motivation to
develop a complete protection scheme for identifying faults
during power swing including both symmetrical and
unsymmetrical faults situations.
The proposed approach develops simple and effective
technique for identifying faults during power swing using a
powerful time-frequency transform known as the S-transform
that has found applications in geosciences and power
engineering [18-21]. The S-transform is an invertible time-
frequency spectral localization technique that combines
elements of Wavelet transforms and short-time Fourier
transform. The process starts at retrieving the current and
voltage signal at the relaying point. The current signal is
processed through the S-transform to generate the S-matrix
and corresponding time-frequency contours known as S-
contours, which clearly time localizes the events. Further, the
spectral energy content of the S-contours is computed to
register the faults during power swing. The proposed
technique is simple to implement and fast acting, meeting the
requirements of the distance relay in identifying faults during
power swing.
 2

II. SYSTEM STUDIED
The studied power system developed using MATLAB
(SIMULINK) software package, is shown in Fig.1. The
complete power system includes parallel transmission lines
(distributed model) of 300 km each (AB and BC are 150 km
each) and connected to the source (1000 MVA) and infinite
bus, respectively, at both ends. The relaying pint ‘R’, where
fault voltage and current signal samples (per unit) are retrieved
for different fault conditions, is as is shown in Fig.1. The
and scalable localizing Gaussian window. The interesting
phenomena in the S-transform are that it is fully convertible
both forward and inverse from time domain to frequency
domain. The S-transform falls within the broad range of
multi-resolution spectral analysis, where the standard
deviation is an inverse function of the frequency, thus
reducing the dimension of the transform. The expression for
S-transform of a continuous signal x(t ) is given as
∞

∫ x(t)w (t − τ, f )e
− 2 πifτ
operating voltage and frequency of the transmission system s( t , f ) = dτ (1)
are 400 kV and the sampling rate is 2.0 kHz on 50 Hz base −∞
frequency (40 samples per cycle). The window function can be expanded and the S-transform is
given as follows
300 km
∞ ( t − τ) 2
A B C 1
Line-1 s( t , f ) = ∫ x ( t ) σ( f )
−∞
2π
e 2 σf 2 e − i 2 πifτ dτ (2)

R Here ‘ f ’ is the frequency, ‘ t ’ is the time and ‘ τ ’ is a

~ parameter that controls the position of the gaussian window on
ZS
ES the t -axis. The standard deviation σ(f ) of the gaussian
Line-2
window is related to frequency ‘ f ’ as
Infinite Bus 1
Fig. 1 System studied for faults during power swing. σ(f ) = (3)
f
The transmission line parameters are as given below:
Zero sequence impedance: ZL0 =96.45 + j 335.26 ohms To improve the performance of the S-transform in terms of
Positive sequence impedance: ZL1 =9.78 + j 110.23 ohms time-frequency contours for signal detection, the standard
Source impedance: Z S = 6 + j 28.5 ohms deviation of the Gaussian window is further modified as
k
Source voltages: E S = 400∠δ kV σ(f ) = (4)
where δ = load angle in degrees. (a + b / f )
Initially, a three-phase fault is created on line-2 and after 5 where a and b are small positive constants varying between
cycles (0.1 sec) the fault is cleared by opening the respective
0 to 1 and k < a 2 + b 2 . Using the modified standard
circuit breakers at both end of line-2. This sends the power
system into power swing. At this condition, fault is created on deviation, the Gaussian window is modified as
(a + b f )2 t2
the line-1 to get the situation of fault during power swing. Fig. a+b f 2
2 shows the voltage and current signals of three phases for a w( t , f ) = e 2k (5)
three-phase fault (a-b-c fault at 50 km of the line, inception k 2π
angle of 30°, fault resistance of 20 ohm, δ = 45° ) during Thus the continuous modified S-transform can now be
power swing. represented as
∞
( −2 π 2 α 2 k 2 / ( a + b f ) 2
2 S(τ, f ) = ∫ X(α + f )e e 2 πiατdα (6)
1 −∞
voltage(pu)

0
The discrete S-transform of the signal is given as
N −1 2 πmj

∑
-1 ( −2 π 2 m 2 k 2 ) /( a + b f ) 2 i N
S( j, n ) = X ( n + m) e e (7)
-2
500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 m =0
and j =1……..N-1, n =0, 1…N-1. Here ‘ j ’ and ‘ n ’ indicate
5
the time samples and frequency steps (voice frequency),
respectively. X(n + m) is obtained by shifting X (n ) by m ,
current(pu)

0
where as X (n ) is the Fourier Transform of x ( t ) and given as
N −1 2 πnt
1 − i(
∑
)
-5
500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 X(n ) = x (t) e N (8)
samples N k =0
Fig. 2 Voltage and current of three phases for three-phase faults (a-b-c fault)
during power swing
The Fourier spectrum of the gaussian window at a specific
n (frequency) is called a voice gaussian and for a
III. GENERALIZED S-TRANSFORM
frequency f1 (n1 ) , the voice is obtained as
The S-transform [18-21] is an extension to the Gabor
Transform and wavelet transform, and is based on a moving S( j, n1 ) = A( j, n1 ).exp( jφ( j,n1) (9)
 3

Hence the magnitude and phase at a particular voice can be
calculated as follows
max(S( j, n1 )) = max(A ( j, n1 ) (10)
and
⎧ imag(S( j, n1 )) ⎫
φ( j, n1 ) = a tan ⎨ ⎬ (11)
⎩ real(S( j, n1 )) ⎭
The spectral energy E of the signal is obtained from S-
Transform as
E = {abs(S( j, n ))}2 (12)
From the above analysis it is quite evident that not only S-
Transform time localizes the faulted event but also peak
amplitude and phase information of the voltage and current
signals can be obtained (Eq. 10 and 11).The spectral energy
(Eq. 12) obtained from S-Transform is used to identify the
faults during power swing in the proposed technique.
IV. PROPOSED SPECTRAL ENERGY FUNCTION FOR FAULT
DETECTION DURING POWER SWING
A. Problems faced by distance relay during power swing
As mentioned earlier, identifying faults during power swing
is a very challenging task. During power swing, the apparent
impedance measured by the distance relay falls within the
tripping characteristics of the relay, causing unwanted
operation of the relay. Fig. 3 shows the respective voltage,
current and apparent impedance (a-phase quantities) for a
three-phase fault a-b-c fault at 50 km of the line, inception
angle of 30°, fault resistance of 20 ohm, δ = 45° ) during
power swing. It is observed that the impedance travels into the
relay operating zone time to time (set at ‘1’ based on per unit
quantities) during power swing. It is obvious that the
impedance trajectory enters into the tripping zone during
faults. Thus identifying faults during power swing is a highly
challenging task, which blocks the relay during power swing
and issues tripping signal as soon fault occurs during power
frequency information of the corresponding transformed
signal. Thus there is a significant difference in the S-contours
during pure power swing and faults during power swing.
When fault occurs during power swing, the S-contours are
concentric on the complete duration of fault compared to
pulsating contours during power swing. This is reflected as the
frequency content of power swing and faults during power
swing are quite different. Also the S-contours are concentric
over higher width (as shown in Fig. 4(a), showing the
presence of higher frequency contents in the fault current
signal during power swing. As the current signal contains
more valid information during faults, thus the proposed
scheme is based on the current signal only. The spectral
energy is computed (Eq.12) to register the fault during power
swing. Half cycle S-transform is used to derive the S-contours
and spectral energy function for registering faults during
power swing.
Fig. 4(a) shows the spectral energy based fault detection for
Line-Line-Line (a-b-c fault at 80 km of the line, inception
angle of 60°, fault resistance of 30 ohm, δ = 60° ) fault during
power swing. Window-1 of the Fig. 4(a) shows the current
signal, window-2 shows the corresponding S-contours and
window-3 shows the computed spectral energy of the s-
contours for phase-a. It is found that setting a threshold (say
‘15’) on the spectral energy, the relay can be made to block or
operate during power swing or fault during power swing,
respectively. The response time of the proposed S-transform
based algorithm is less than one cycle from fault inception
during power swing, meeting the speed criteria of the distance
relay. Similar observations are made for phase-c quantities as
shown in Fig. 4(b) in same fault situations. Thus it is found
that for a symmetrical fault during power swing, the spectral
energy is able to distinguish between power swing and faults
during power swing based on a set threshold on the spectral
energy.
5

swing. Half cycle S-transform based phasor estimation (Eq.10

Current(pu)

and 11) is used for apparent impedance calculation. 0

2
-5
Voltage(pu)

0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500

0 300
S-contours

-2 200
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500

5 100
Current(pu)

0
500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500
30
Spectral energy

-5
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 20 threshold
4
10
Impedance

2 set impedance
0
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500
samples
-2
500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500
samples
Fig.4 (a) Current, S-contour and spectral energy of a-phase for line-line-line
Fig. 3 Voltage, current and impedance for a-phase in case of a-b-c fault fault during power swing.
during power swing.

B. Assessment of the spectral energy function for Faults

during power swing
The proposed approach uses spectral energy content of the
S-contours (time-frequency contours) generated from the S-
matrix. It is observed that the S-contours provide the time and
 4

Current(pu) 5 30

25
-5
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500

300
20
S-contours

200

Spectral energy
100 threshold
15

500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500

30
Spectral energy

10
20 threshold
Fault inception
10 50 samples (1.25 cycles)
5
0
500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500
samples

0
Fig.4 (b) Current, S-contour and spectral energy of c-phase during line-line- 1800 1850 1900 1950 2000 2050 2100 2150 2200
line fault during power swing. samples

Fig.5 (b) Response time of the spectral energy based fault detection during
30 power swing.
a-phase
b-phase Fig. 5(a) shows the spectral energy for Line-Line-Line-
25 c-phase
Ground fault (a-b-c-g fault at 90 km of the line: zone-1,
inception angle of 45°, fault resistance of 10 ohm, δ = 45° ). It
20
is observed the spectral energy for all three phases clearly
Spectral energy

threshold distinguish faults during power swing. Similar results are

15 obtained for a-b-c fault at 170 km (zone-2) of the line,
inception angle of 60°, fault resistance of 20 ohm, δ = 60° as
10 shown in Fig. 5(b). The response time of the proposed scheme
from the fault inception is shown in Fig. 5(c). The fault is
5 initiated at 1940th sample and the spectral energy is able to
cross the threshold at 1990th sample. Thus total time taken
0 from the fault inception is 25 ms (1.25 cycles: 50 samples on
500 1000 1500 2000
samples
2500 3000 3500
40 samples per cycle sampling rate). Thus the response time of
the proposed technique is reasonable fast in decision making
Fig.5 (a) Spectral energy of three phases for a symmetrical fault (a-b-c-g fault)
during power swing. required by the distance relay.
25
a-phase
25 b-phase
20 c-phase

20 threshold
S p ectral eren g y

15

threshold
Spectral energy

15

10

10

0
500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500
samples
0
500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 Fig.7 Spectral energy of three phases for un-symmetrical fault (a-c fault)
samples
during power swing.
Fig.5 (b) Spectral energy of three phases for a symmetrical fault (a-b-c) fault)
during power swing.
 5

V. DISCUSSION
35
a-phase The spectral energy function derived from S-transform is
30
b-phase tested for identifying both symmetrical and un-symmetrical
c-phase faults during power swing and found to be highly reliable in
performing the task. Different fault conditions are tested with
25
wide variations in operating parameters such as fault inception
angle, fault resistance, location of the fault, power angle etc.
Spectral energy

20
as shown in Table-I, including both symmetrical and
threshold
unsymmetrical faults. The fault location within 150 km is
15
within zone-1 and fault location beyond 150 km is in zone-
2.The response time of the spectral energy based scheme is
10
within 1.25 cycles from fault inception which shows the
fastness of the proposed technique.
5
The proposed approach uses the spectral energy of the
transformed signal using a novel time-frequency transform
0
500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 known as S-transform. S-transform has been found to be
samples improved version of time-frequency transform compared to
Fig. 8 Spectral energy of three phases for a un-symmetrical fault (a-g fault) Wavelet-transform with respect to noise immunity. S-
during power swing. transform is highly immune to noise [23], where as the
performance of Wavelet transform is significantly degraded in
30
presence of noise [24]. Another requirement of Wavelet
a-phase transform is the requirement of high sampling rate to retrieve
b-phase the required detailed information at a particular level of
25 c-phase
decomposition. The sampling rate chosen is 2.0 kHz for the
proposed study which is too low compared to existing Wavelet
20
transform based techniques (more than 40 kHz). Also it is
Spectral energy

threshold observed that the S-contours are concentric around the same
15 region irrespective of the fault current level and DC offsets.
This property of S-transform is highly suitable for event
10 detection such as faults during power swing. The proposed
scheme is highly reliable in detecting faults during power
5
swing and simple to implement on DSP/FPGA board for
developing real time relay module.
TABLE-I
0 FAULT SITUATIONS TESTED USING THE PROPOSED
500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500
samples
SPECTRAL ENERGY FUNCTION
Fault Fault Fault Fault Power Response
Fig. 9 Spectral energy of three phases for an un-symmetrical fault (ab-g fault) Types resistanc location inception angle time
during power swing. e (km) angle (degree) (cycles)
(ohm) (degree)
The proposed scheme is tested for different types of a-b-c 10 60 30 45 1.23
unsymmetrical faults during power swing. Fig. 7 shows the 100 170 45 60 1.24
spectral energy for Line-Line fault (a-b fault at 100 km of the a-b-c- 20 50 45 60 1.25
line, inception angle of 45°, fault resistance of 100 ohm, g
100 160 60 45 1.23
δ = 60° ) . It is found that the spectral energy for a and b-phase
a-b-g 10 85 90 60 1.25
are above the threshold compared to the spectral energy b-c-g 50 120 45 45 1.25
content of c-phase which is far below the threshold, showing c-a-g 100 180 60 60 1.24
the faulty phases involved in the fault process during power a-b 20 30 45 45 1.24
swing. Fig.8 shows the spectral energy for Line-Ground fault b-c 50 90 60 60 1.24
(a-g fault at 130 km of the line, inception angle of 45°, fault c-a 100 160 30 45 1.23
resistance of 50 ohm, δ = 60° ). In this case, spectral energy of a-g 0 20 30 45 1.24
phase-a is highly pronounced compare to phase-b and c b-g 50 130 60 45 1.24
Similar observations are made for Line-Line-Ground fault (a- c-g 100 180 30 60 1.25
b-g fault at 180 km of the line: zone-2, inception angle of 30°,
fault resistance of 50 ohm, δ = 45° ), where a and b-phase are
clearly distinguished form phase-c for faults during power VI. CONCLUSIONS
swing. Thus the proposed approach is able to clearly The paper presents spectral energy function for fault
distinguish unsymmetrical fault during power swing from detection during power swing. The technique starts at
power swing with variations in operating parameters. preprocessing the current signal retrieved at the relaying point
to derive the S-matrix. The S-contours are derived from the S-
 6

matrix and the spectral energy content of the S-contours is
computed to register the faults during power swing. The
proposed technique is tested for both symmetrical and
unsymmetrical faults during power swing including wide
variations in operating parameters and is able to identify faults
during power swing within 1.25 cycles from fault inception,
meeting the speed requirement of the distance relay.
[23] P.K.Dash, S.R.Samantaray, G.Panda, B.K.Panigrahi, “Time-frequency
transform approach for the protection of parallel transmission lines”, IET
Proceeding on Generation, Transmission and Distribution, vol.-1, Issue-
1,pp.30-38, Jan-2007.
[24] Hong-Tzer Yang, Chiung-Chou Liao, ‘A de-noising scheme for
enhancing Wavelet-based power quality monitoring system’, IEEE.
Trans. on Power Deliv., Vol.16, No.3, pp.353-360, July 2001.

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