A Review of Fault Location Algorithms Utilising Travelling Wave, Wavelet Transform and Multi-Resolution Analysis Techniques

Fast ever growing modern electrical grids pose a challenge as they result in the significant increase of overhead lines in both length and number. These lines experience faults owing to various reasons that as a consequence cause disruptions to supply and additionally increase the operational costs. Fault location and classification on transmission lines are thus crucial as a means to both protect the electrical power system and to ensure minimal disruption duration, hence maintaining supply and reliability in the grid. This paper is a comparative evaluation of transmission line fault location accuracy utilizing Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) and Multi-Resolution Analysis (MRA) methods on traveling waves under different fault conditions. Simulation results indicate to double end DWT offering superior accuracy when compared to single end DWT and MRA methods. In addition the accuracy of the tested methods is impervious to the applied fault type. However, DWT methods are effected by the selected mother wavelet family.