Novel travelling wave fault location principle for VSC-HVDC transmission line

Abstract

Currently, voltage source converter (VSC) based high voltage direct current (HVDC) technology is widely utilized in power transmission system. It has high transmission efficiency, no commutation failure issue and ability to supply power to passive system. In order to enhance the reliability of VSC-HVDC transmission system and accelerate the maintenance progress, travelling wave (TW) fault location principle is adopted to discriminate the exact location of transmission line (TL) fault, and its fault location accuracy is highly related to TW arrival time detection and TW propagation velocity. Therefore, aiming to enhance the fault location accuracy, the paper proposes a novel TW fault location principle for VSC-HVDC transmission line. Firstly, the detailed calculation method of propagation velocity of TW along HVDC-TL is described. Secondly, a novel TW fault location principle is proposed including TW arrival time detection method and TW’s accurate frequency calculation method. Eventually, based on PSCAD/EMTDC, a typical ±400kV VSC-HVDC simulation model is established to validate the robustness of novel TW fault location principle against fault type issue, fault resistance issue and fault location issue.