Fault Location Method in Power Network by Applying Accurate Information of Arrival Time Differences of Modal Traveling Waves

Abstract

Faults may be generated in power networks as a result of bad weather, human activities, or some other factors. The complex structure of power network adds to the difficulty of fault location (FL). This paper presents a novel FL scheme by utilizing the information of the time differences of arrival (TDOAs) of modal traveling waves (MTWs) asynchronously sampled in the network. First, the fault area is determined by searching the minimum TDOA of MTWs. Then, by applying the fictitious fault point method in the fault area, the minimum accumulated difference is used to detect the fault line. Finally, the accurate FL is estimated by solving the objective function of the absolute distance between the FL and multiple FL candidates. Various simulations are carried out in the IEEE 30-bus system. The calculation results demonstrate that the method is not affected by fault impedance, inception angle, location, and noises to a certain extent.