Fault Location Using Sparse Synchrophasor Measurement of Electromechanical-Wave Oscillations

This paper presents a novel system-wide fault-location method for transmission lines utilizing electromechanical-wave oscillation propagation phenomena. The method uses synchrophasor measurements during disturbances obtained from phasor measurement units sparsely located in the network. The method determines the time of arrival of electromechanical waves propagating from the fault point to sparsely located phasor measurement units. By taking the speed of electromechanical-wave propagation as well as topology of the network into account, the method is able to detect the faulty line. Finally, by adding fictitious buses inside the faulty line and applying a binary search method, the location of fault is accurately pinpointed. The main advantage of the proposed method is the use of a limited number of PMUs which reduces the cost of implementation. The method was developed in MATLAB and tested with the IEEE 118-test system. Test results reveal the high accuracy of the method in detecting and locating faults.

I. Introduction

Power system is subjected to faults caused by various reasons such as different weather condition, animal or human contacts, vegetation contacts, etc. Once circuit breakers clear the fault following relays trip command, the fault point must be determined and proper action taken to expedite troubleshooting and minimize repair time [1].