Accurate fault location element for series compensated double-circuit transmission lines utilizing negative-sequence phasors

Abstract

Obtaining the accurate fault location in the series compensated double-circuit transmission lines (SCDCTL) is a challenge due to the presence of series compensator, fault resistance, and mutual the coupling between parallel lines. Although by using the pilot fault location methods, the effect of all the aforementioned factors can be eliminated and the location of the fault can be calculated. However, the number of communication channels available for pilot schemes is limited. In addition, the reliability of the communication links for long transmission lines may be particularly reduced. On the other hand, most of the non-pilot methods need to calculate the series compensator data and the accuracy of the fault location in them depends on the accuracy of the series compensator parameters. To improve the limitation of conventional impedance-based methods, this paper presents a non-pilot accurate fault location element (FLE) for conventional distance relays in SCDCTL. The main concept of the proposed method is considering the proper Kirchhoff voltage law (KVL) loop in the negative-sequence circuit of SCDCTL. Consideration of the shunt capacitances of lines ensures accuracy of the achieved fault location formula. It is shown that the designed FLE can improve limitations associated with similar methods such as the dependence of these methods to the fault resistance, mutual coupling between the parallel lines, and the series compensator (SC) parameters. To investigate the performance of the proposed FLE, several factors are considered in the simulation analysis including different fault resistances, fault locations, and fault types. Besides, the influence of current transformer (CT) saturation, measurement errors, external faults, bypassing of the Metal Oxide Varistor (MOV), and effect of noise on the proposed scheme is studied. Evaluation study using PSCAD verify the effectiveness and applicability of the proposed scheme.