Traveling Wave Based Fault Location Methods: Review and Demonstration

This paper reviews traveling wave based fault localization methods, including the traditional single-ended and the double-ended methods, and a most recent one. The first method relies on local measurements only while the second one relies on measurements from both ends. Both methods require the information of line length and traveling wave propagation speed. To determine the speed, an additional experiment is required to generate traveling waves. The third method is based on the fault location computing equations from the first two methods. Further manipulation leads to a new computing equation without the input of propagation speed. The paper also presents how to extract traveling waves from instantaneous measurements and how to compute fault location using computer simulation. A 300-km transmission line energized by two 500 kV, 60 Hz sources is simulated in OPAL RT-LAB real-time digital simulator. Traveling waves are extracted from the phase currents by use of a high-pass filter with kilo-Hz bandwidth. The three methods are tested and demonstrated for various fault types at different locations. In addition, characteristics of traveling waves of different fault types have been closely examined.