Rapid Fault Detection with Periodic Update Feature for Transmission Line Parameters in HVDC Grids

Abstract

Far distant wind farms are integrated nowadays with the help of Voltage Source Converter (VSC)-based HVDC grids. Rapid fault current is very common in VSC-based HVDC grids and, therefore, quick fault detection and fast executing protection methods are critical for the existence of the HVDC grids. This paper proposes a rise time-based fault detection method using local measurement data and Travelling Wave (TW) characteristics of incoming fault TW. Dominating frequency of the primary wavefront is computed by the rise time of incoming fault TW. With the help of auto-updating transmission line parameters and the dominating frequency of incoming TW, the fault location is identified. The performance of the proposed method has been observed in PSCAD Simulation with a 4-Terminal HVDC test grid in multiple scenarios and compared with the existing fault detection methods on multiple levels. The results show that the proposed method is very fast, and accurate and can complete the whole Fault Location process within a few microseconds just after the Inception of the fault.