Application of Phasor Measurement Units (PMUs) for fault location in SEC-EOA interconnected network

Abstract

This paper addresses the subject of fault location in interconnected networks using the Phasor Measurement Units (PMUs). As it is not economical to install PMUs in all the network buses, this paper also highlights a PMU placement technique based on the so-called Tree Search Method (TSM) to determine a near-optimal solution for the PMU placement problem. TSM application to a 115 kV system depicted from the Saudi Electricity Company-Eastern Operating Area (SEC-EOA) network is then presented. Mathematical formulation to calculate the fault distance is discussed. Simulation results obtained from both PSCAD and MATLAB to determine the locations of different types of faults are presented and discussed.