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Best ANN Structures for Fault Location in Singleand Double-Circuit Transmission Lines
J. Gracia, A. J. Mazn, Member, IEEE, and I. Zamora, Member, IEEE
AbstractThe great development in computing power has allowed the implementation of articial neural networks (ANNs) in the most diverse elds of technology. This paper shows how diverse ANN structures can be applied to the processes of fault classication and fault location in overhead two-terminal transmission lines, with single and double circuit. The existence of a large group of valid ANN structures guarantees the applicability of ANNs in the fault classication and location processes. The selection of the best ANN structures for each process has been carried out by means of a software tool called SARENEUR. Index TermsArticial neural networks (ANNs), fault classication, fault location, learning vector quantization, multilayer perceptron.

NOMENCLATURE ANN MLP LVQ Articial neural network. Multilayer perceptron. Learning vector quantization. Linear activation function purelin. Sigmoid tangent activation function. Sigmoid logarithm activation function. Fault position in the line (in per unit) Fault resistance (in ohms). Voltage of phase . Current of phase . Prefault values. Single-phase fault. Two-phase fault. Two-phase-to-earth fault. Three-phase fault. Fast Fourier transform. I. INTRODUCTION AULT location in overhead transmission lines is a problem that has consumed a great amount of resources in recent times. The fault location methods developed traditionally are based on two different methodologies: the injection of an electrical pulse in the line and the measurement of the reected signals; the pulse turnaround time from the fault point indicates the fault location;
Manuscript received June 23, 2004; revised October 22, 2004. This work was supported in part by the research team of Projects DPI2003-02616 and in part by the MCYT and UPV 00142-345-AND-15300/2003, and by the UPV/EHU. Paper no. TPWRD-00297-2004. J. Gracia is with the Government of the Autonomous Community of Aragon, Zaragoza 50015, Spain (e-mail: jgracias@aragob.es). A. J. Mazn and I. Zamora are with the Department of Electrical EngineeringETSI of Bilbao, University of the Basque Country, Bilbao 48013, Spain (e-mail: iepmasaj@bi.ehu.es; izamora@ieee.org). Digital Object Identier 10.1109/TPWRD.2005.855482

FFT

the measurement of electrical magnitudes in the terminals of the line, mainly fundamental periodic components of voltage and current; fault position can be determined from these magnitudes. In addition to the used methodology, location systems can be classied according to the place where the electrical magnitudes are measured. Two options exist: methods that use magnitudes measured in one terminal of the line or methods that use magnitudes measured in both terminals of the line. The systems that use values measured in both line terminals give more exact results than those that only use values measured in one terminal. Nevertheless, if measurements taken in the two line terminals are used, they need to be synchronized. For this reason, the process of data acquisition (DAQ) can be more complex. In addition to precision and speed, the fault location systems are required to be economical. Therefore, on an equal basis, systems implemented in only one terminal are preferred, because they allow to simplify the process of fault DAQ. The development of personal computers (PCs) has made the modeling of electrical systems easier. Therefore, conditions more and more similar to real ones can be represented. Nevertheless, many factors inuence the electrical parameters during the fault and it is difcult to include all of them in the model (fault type, fault position, fault resistance, electrical system state at the moment at which the fault occurs, mutual inuences in the case of double-circuit lines, etc). All of these parameters make it difcult to know the dynamic of the system, being necessary to use more or less exact approaches, specially in the case of complex topologies. In order to carry out the diverse processes of fault analysis, articial intelligence elements based on ANNs can be added to the classic techniques. The studies that apply neural networks to fault analysis can be classied under three big groups: fault detection [1][4], fault classication [5][9], and fault location [10][14]. All of these techniques try to obtain a unique structure of neural network that allows to solve the considered problem. This paper shows that only a structure of neural network to solve all of the fault classication and location problemsit does not exist, but there is a large group of neural-network structures, which can solve the problems perfectly. This range of possibilities, far from being understood like a disadvantage, is an advantage that guarantees the applicability of the use of ANNs in the fault classication and location processes. Due to the large number of structures that can be used for the resolution of these problems, it is necessary to make a good selection of the networks to use. For this purpose, a software tool called SARENEUR [15] has been developed. This software allows to verify the neural networks performance.

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II. NEURAL-NETWORK APPLICATION TO FAULT ANALYSIS Articial neural networks (ANNs) can be applied to fault analysis because they are a programming technique applicable to problems in which the information appears in a vague, redundant, distorted, or massive form. Also, they are able to learn using examples. In the problems of fault classication and fault location, they are potentially applicable because: many parameters must be considered, specially in certain conditions, such as double-circuit lines; there are methods to simulate examples in a quick and reliable way; the conditions of the electric system change. A neural network is able to adapt itself to the new state, immediately, just putting it under a new training; the ANN output is very fast, because its working consists in a series of very simple operations. Although the programming using ANNs has great advantages, it also presents some disadvantages [16]. Among them, the complexity of the type and the network architecture selection (number of layers, number of neurons per layer, activation functions, learning algorithms parameters, etc.) can be emphasized. The fault location problem in transmission lines using ANNs consists in dening a neural network that allows to obtain the position at which the fault has occurred, using a small number of electrical parameters measured in a line terminal. These parameters are the values of the fault and prefault voltages and currents in steady state. Due to the fault type, the voltage and current values are going to be very different. This fact divides the resolution of the fault location problem into two steps: the fault classication and the fault location. Thus, the fault classication consists in obtaining a neural network that allows to determine the fault type, from the fault and prefault voltage and current values measured in a line terminal. The fault location consists in obtaining a neural network that, using the same values used in the fault classication process, allows to obtain the fault position. III. ANN STRUCTURES FOR FAULT CLASSIFICATION IN SINGLEAND DOUBLE-CIRCUIT LINES OF TWO TERMINALS A. ANN Structure The fault classication method proposed in this paper is based on an independent analysis of each line phase. The ANN obtains whether the analyzed phase is affected by the fault or not. The magnitudes considered are the fundamental components of voltage and current modules in that phase. These fundamental componentshavebeenobtainedusingtheFFT lteringtechnique. The phase voltage and current values measured in a line terminal during the fault, are expressed in per unit value relative to the prefault situation (V/Vpf) and (I/Ipf). Thus, in the case of two terminal single lines, the classication network has the structure shown in Fig. 1. By analyzing the values of these electrical parameters in fault situations, represented in a (V/Vpf) versus (I/Ipf) diagram, two

Fig 1. Network structure for fault classication in single lines.

clearly differentiated areas are observed. The phases in fault situation are located in one area, while the sound phases are located in the other one. This allows to dene a classication criterion. Fig. 2 shows the voltage and current per-unit values for the four fault types (single-phase faults, two-phase faults, two-phase-to-earth faults and three-phase faults), in different positions and with different fault resistances. The maximum value considered of fault resistance has been 75 . These values have been obtained for the single line La Lomba-Herrera. In Fig. 2, it can be observed an area corresponding to the phases affected by the fault (top left-hand area) and another corresponding to the sound phases (bottom right-hand area). In this gure, a zoom has been included for single-phase faults, two-phase faults, and two-phase-to-earth faults. In these zooms, it can be seen that overlaps do not exist between zones of fault and no-fault situation. Thus, the current and voltage values of each phase, relative to the prefault situation, are supplied to the ANN. The ANN will indicate whether the phase is in fault or in sound situation. This process is repeated for each one of the three phases. Once the process has nished, it is possible to know the type of fault that occurred. In double-circuit lines, the representation of (V/Vpf) versus (I/Ipf) of different phases during the fault does not present two areas clearly differentiated in contrast to single-circuit lines. Overlaps between the areas appear due to the inuence of one circuit on the other. For this reason, another ANN has been suggested for classication. This ANN considers phase currents and voltages of the two circuits of the line (Fig. 3). If these three parameters are considered as inputs, then a three-dimensional (3-D) representation is possible. This representation avoids the overlap between the areas that appear in the 2-D representation. So each point of the diagram represents clearly a fault or no fault situation. B. ANN Input/Output Data Examples for ANN training and verication in fault conditions have been generated with a FALNEUR simulator [13]. Faults have been dened by: fault distance: with . That is to say, faults in 101 different positions. , with . That is fault resistance: to say, 76 different fault resistances for each fault position. The neural networks have been trained selecting cases of this group following two different criteria. Training with random data. The network is trained with a random sample of total generated cases (in our case 8% of the total cases). Training with frontier data. The network is trained with cases corresponding to faults generated in 101 equidistant positions of the line and maximum fault resistance and %), and with cases corresponding (

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Fig. 2. Fault voltages versus current values relative to the prefault state for different fault situations.

Fig 3.

Network structure for fault classication in double-circuit lines.

to faults generated in the remote terminal of the line and fault resistances varying between 0 and and . It was observed that the results using the rst criterion were good enough. So this criterion has been selected for training the networks. In addition, it has been veried that the classication network training can be carried out only with the data corresponding to single-phase faults. This is because the single-phase fault is the fault type for which the most severe conditions (overlaps between areas) appear. C. Application to Real Lines Once network inputs were selected, the appropriate ANN type for the fault classication problem was determined, as well as the best network structure (number of layers, number of neurons per layer, and activation functions). In order to determine the characteristics of the optimal ANN for fault classication, an exhaustive analysis was carried out with SARENEUR application [15]. Due to the applied strategy (V/Vpf versus I/Ipf), the software tool SARENEUR showed that

the two types of ANN that seem more appropriate for fault classication are MLP and LVQ networks. The operation of these ANN types was veried on a group of single- and double-circuit transmission lines. This way, the structures that fulll the conditions settled down by the user for training and verication were selected after verifying that a great number of applicable ANN structures exist. The group of electrical transmission lines analyzed belong to the Spanish electrical system and their main characteristics are shown in Table I. The analysis developed showed that either the MLP network or the LVQ network are applicable for fault classication. However, the MLP network presents important advantages in front of the LVQ one, such as smaller errors and a smaller training time. This is mainly due to the rounding technique applied in the MLP network to obtain discrete values, which eliminates most of the errors. Therefore, the structure selected is a MLP network that uses backpropagation training with LevenbergMarquardt optimization [17]. This algorithm reduces the training time, presenting practically a null error and allowing to train with a random sample of data that does not require previous preparation. In the transmission lines analyzed, the best network training times are lower than a minute. In some networks, this time did not exceed 5 s. In the process of fault classication in single lines, the optimal networks classied without committing any

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TABLE I CHARACTERISTICS OF THE TRANSMISSION LINES ANALYZED

TABLE III STRUCTURES SELECTED FOR THE DOUBLE-CIRCUIT LINES ANALYZED

TABLE II STRUCTURES SELECTED FOR THE SINGLE LINES ANALYZED

error. In the case of double-circuit lines, the errors in classication were below 1%. 1) Single Lines: The main conclusion obtained is that there are many optimal networks that carry out the fault classication process in a correct way. Also, those structures that have a linear activation function in the output layer present better behavior. Due to the good performance of MLP networks, simple networks of two hidden layers and no more than six neurons per layer were chosen. Even when a more reduced training time is required, single hidden layer networks can be used. In the analysis made on two terminals single transmission lines, it was observed that training times were always lower than a minute and, in some cases, lower than a second, without committing any error. These results were obtained in a AMD Athlon 900-MHz computer, with 128-Mb RAM. The optimal classication network for each single line is shown in Table II. In the selection of these ANN structures, different parameters have been considered, such as the ANN size, the training time, and the errors in the results. The nomenclature used for the activation functions is the following: linear function, called purelin ( ); limited sigmoid function between , called tansig (T); , called logsig limited sigmoid function between (L). The methodology applied for these three lines can be applied to any line. For those new lines, the most appropriate network structures is selected easily with SARENEUR. 2) Double-Circuit Lines: Carrying out the same process for double-circuit lines, the errors produced were always lower than

1% for the analyzed networks. These errors belong to faults produced with a fault resistance near to the maximum value (75 ) and in positions very far from the reference terminal. There are not any signicant differences in terms of more suitable ANN topology, whenever they are MLP networks with a linear output layer. In order not to increase the training time unnecessarily, it is recommended to use networks with no more than six neurons in the hidden layers. Under these conditions, the training time is near a minute. Single hidden layer structures can be used if speed is a decisive factor. The structures selected for the fault classication process in the double-circuit transmission lines analyzed are shown in Table III. A total of 23 028 cases were veried for each line. These cases correspond to faults simulated in 101 positions, with 76 different fault resistances, and for the three phases. IV. ANN STRUCTURES FOR FAULT LOCATION IN SINGLE- AND DOUBLE-CIRCUIT TRANSMISSION LINES A. ANN Structure For the fault location problem, fault voltages and currents in per unit referred to prefault values, (V/Vpf) and (I/Ipf), have also been considered. Therefore, the simulations made with FALNEUR software for the classication process are also valid for the location process. Besides as the value of current of the faulty phase is very high, the logarithm of the fault current has been used. This application of logarithms is not recommended in the classication process in order to avoid overlaps between fault and no fault zones. For instance, the ANN proposed for fault location, for the single-phase fault case, has the structure shown in Fig. 4. Due to the structure and characteristics of the problem to solve, an MLP with backpropagation training algorithm and LevenbergMarquardt optimization have been considered. B. ANN Input/Output Data The same examples generated in the classication step can be used for training the selected network, although it has been enough to train with those cases dened by the following parameters: with (faults simu Fault distance: lated in 26 positions) with (faults Fault resistance; simulated with 19 different fault resistances).

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TABLE IV RESULTS OF THE VERIFICATION OF THE SELECTED FAULT-LOCATION NETWORKS

ferent positions, with 19 different fault resistances, and with and without errors associated with the measurement equipment. The verication has been carried out using all of the generated cases, with and without errors. The total number of cases used in the verication is 15 352: , with Fault distances: simulated in 101 positions). , with Fault resistances: simulated with 76 different fault resistances). C. Application to Real Lines In the transmission lines shown in Table I, the networks with better behavior have been selected. These networks have been trained and veried following the criterion described previously, obtaining the results shown in Table IV. These networks have been taken from a greater group previously selected by SARENEUR. Due to the good behavior of the MLP structure, there are many possible networks to use. As an example, a group of 38 networks, selected by SARENEUR, for the case of a single-phase fault in the single line La LombaCompostilla are shown in Table V. The ANN considered the best has been taken from this group and shown in Table IV (network LLP 6-6-3-2). (faults (faults

Fig 4. Example of ANN structure for fault location in case of single-phase fault (phase R).

In order to consider the errors associated with the measurement equipment in fault situation, the location network is also trained with cases affected by errors (up to 3% in the faulty phases and up to 1% in the sound phases). The total training cases are 988. These cases belong to simulations of the type fault determined in the classication process, located in 26 dif-

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TABLE V TRAINING PARAMETERS FOR THE SINGLE-PHASE FAULT LOCATION THE LINE LA LOMBA-COMPOSTILLA

IN

TABLE VII PARAMETERS CALCULATED IN THE TRANSMISSION LINE LA LOMBA-HERRERA

TABLE VIII ACTUAL FAULT PARAMETERS IN THE TRANSMISSION LINE VILLARINO-VILLALCAMPO

TABLE VI ACTUAL FAULT PARAMETERS IN THE TRANSMISSION LINE

The analysis developed shows that to obtain an only best ANN structure for all of the lines is not possible. Nevertheless, a series of common characteristic to the best networks has been observed: two hidden layers with up 89 neurons in the rst layer and up 46 in the second one; preferably LLP, LTP, TLP, or TTP topologies; nonlinear activation function in the input layer; linear activation function in the output layer. Under these conditions, the best networks are able to train in times from a few seconds to 3 min, depending on the fault characteristics. From Table IV, the average errors oscillate between 0.015% and 0.4% in the fault location process and between 0.017% and 0.46% in the fault resistance calculation. The maximum error varies between 0.09% and 3.77% in the fault-location process and between 0.16% and 3.21% in the fault resistance calculation. Comparing these results with those obtained with traditional methods, we can see that these errors are really low. Besides, we should to keep in mind that the input data already contain errors (3% in the faulty phases and 1% in the sound phases). V. RESULTS The global system operation was veried once the selected ANN was trained and veried. In order to check it, several faults provided by the Spanish utility IBERDROLA S.A. were analyzed. Thus, for the single transmission line La Lomba-Herrera, the faults indicated in Table VI were analyzed. Faults were correctly classied with the selected structures (Table II) in all of the cases. For the fault-location process, the selected location networks (Table IV) gave the results shown in Table VII.

TABLE IX PARAMETERS CALCULATED IN THE TRANSMISSION-LINE VILLARINO-VILLALCAMPO

Also, faults whose characteristics are shown in Table VIII were analyzed in the VillarinoVillalcampo double-circuit transmission line. In the case of the double-circuit line, faults were also classied and located correctly (Table IX). VI. CONCLUSION An ANN-based application for fault location in electrical transmission lines has been presented in this paper. In the selection of the best ANN structures, a tool developed specically for this aim, called SARENEUR, has been used. This tool allows to select the ANN that fullls certain conditions or to verify the operation of a specic network. Because many structures that offer satisfactory results exist, an only ANN optimal structure cannot be determined, as much in fault classication as in fault location. Nevertheless, the best networks present some common characteristics: In the fault classication step, the networks should have linear activation function in the output layer. Besides, in order not to increase the training time, the networks should not have more than two hidden layers and not more than six neurons per layer. In these conditions, the networks training time for single- and

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double-circuit lines is less than a minute. The classication errors are null in single lines and smaller than 1% in double-circuit lines. Single hidden layer structures can be used if speed is a decisive factor. In the fault-location step, the selected networks are characterized by two hidden layers (eight to nine neurons in the rst layer and four to six in the second), no-linear activation function in the input layer and lineal activation function in the output layer, with LLP, LTP, TLP, or TTP activation functions. Under these conditions, the ANN trains in very small times and is always lower than 3 min. The mean errors in the fault location oscillate between 0.015% and 0.4%. In the fault resistance determination, the mean errors change between 0.017% and 0.46%. If smaller training times are required, a single hidden layer can be used. The times have been obtained in a AMD Athlon 900-MHz computer with 128-Mb RAM. REFERENCES
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[11] Z. Chen and J. C. Maun, Articial neural network approach to singleended fault locator for transmission lines, IEEE Trans. Power Syst., vol. 15, no. 1, pp. 370375, Feb. 2000. ua, J. J. on, I. Zamora, J. F. Miambres, M. A. Zorroz [12] A. J. Maz an, and K. Sagastebeitia, A new approach to fault location in Barandiar two-terminal transmission lines using articial neural networks, Elect. Power Syst. Res., vol. 56, pp. 261266, 2000. [13] A. J. Mazon, I. Zamora, J. Gracia, J. Bilbao, and J. R. Saenz, Falneur: Articial neural network based software to fault location in electrical transmission lines, in Proc. IASTED Int. Conf. Appl. Informatics (AI2001), Innsbruck, Tyrol, Austria, Feb. 2001. [14] D. V. Coury, M. Oleskovicz, and R. K. Aggarwal, An ANN routine for fault detection. Classication and location in transmission lines, Elect. Power Components Syst., pp. 11371149, Nov. 2002. [15] A. J. Mazon, I. Zamora, J. Gracia, K. J. Sagastebeitia, and J. R. Saenz, Selecting ANN structures to nd transmission faults., IEEE Comput. Appl. Power, vol. 14, no. 3, pp. 4448, Jul. 2001. [16] M. Kezunovic et al., Intelligent systems in protection engineering. working group C-4, in Proc. IEEE Power Engineering Soc. Power System Relaying Committee Systems Protection Subcommittee, Feb. 1999. Draft. [17] H. Demuth, Neural Network ToolBox For Use with MatLab. Natick, MA: The MathWorks, 1998.

J. Gracia was born in Zaragoza, Spain, in 1967. He received the electrical engineering degree from the University of Zaragoza, Zaragoza, in 1991. He is currently pursuing the Ph.D. degree at the University of the Basque Country, Bilbao, Spain. Currently, he is with the Government of the Autonomous Community of Aragon, Zaragoza, Spain.

A. J. Mazon (M03) received the electrical engineering and Ph.D. degrees from the University of the Basque Country, Bilbao, Spain, in 1990 and 1994, respectively. Currently, he is a Full Associate Professor in the Electrical Engineering Department, University of the Basque Country. In 1992, he was with Labein Research Laboratories, Zamudio, Spain. His research activities include electric power systems, transients simulation, fault analysis, and transmission-line thermal rating.

I. Zamora (M03) received the electrical engineering and Ph.D. degrees from the University of the Basque Country, Bilbao, Spain, in 1989 and 1993, respectively. Currently, she is a Full Associate Professor in the Electrical Engineering Department at the University of the Basque Country. Her research activities include electric power systems, transients simulation, fault analysis, and transmission-line thermal rating.