An Improved Noniterative Parameter-Free Fault Location Method on Untransposed Transmission Lines Using Multi-Section Models

Abstract

This paper proposes an improved noniterative fault location method on untransposed transmission lines without utilizing line parameters. Two-end three phase voltage and current phasor measurements before and during the fault are typically required. First, the parameter-free fault location problem is formulated through multi-section transmission line models, and the necessary condition of noniterative solutions is carefully investigated to determine the maximum possible section number of the multi-section line model. Afterwards, with the determined section number, the analytical solution of the fault location is derived with full utilization of the inherent characteristics of the line parameter matrices. Instead of solving all the parameters, two key variables inside the parameter matrices are extracted and the fault location is obtained by analytically solving a polynomial equation. The method provides a closed-form analytical solution, and therefore avoids convergence issues of iterative algorithms. In addition, line asymmetry of untransposed transmission lines are fully considered to minimize fault location errors. Extensive numerical experiments show that the proposed method has improved fault location accuracy compared to the existing method, with different fault types, locations and impedances.