An optimized Fault Location System based on
Traveling Waves for Transmission Networks
Abdelsalam Elhaffar
Electrical Engineering Dept. Faculty of Engineering, University of Benghazi
P. O. Box 1308, Benghazi, Libya
Email: elhaffar@ieee.org
Abstract Traveling Waves Recorders (TWR) are used to
accurately detect the arrival times of the traveling waves (TWs)
initiated due to faults in the power system. A concept of fault-
location observability and a multi-end fault-location scheme for
transmission networks based on TWRs are presented. The fault
location is calculated at a computer center using the minimum
number of TWRs. Few TWRs are installed in the existing power
transmission networks so that the fault can be located correctly
and economically in the network. A minimum TWR placement is
proposed to the existing transmission network. The discrete
wavelet transform (DWT) is used to find the high frequency
contents of the TWR signals. The double-end method is utilized
using the shortest path from nearest TWRs to the faulted line.
Validation of fault location is examined by ATP/EMTP
simulations for a typical 400 kV power system.
I. INTRODUCTION
A ccuratly locating faults on high voltage transmission
networks is very important for utilities to allow a quick
maintenance action of the repair crew. Traveling wave
fault location shows an increasing interest to researchers and
utilities due to its accuracy [1]-[7].
As the number of TWRs is usually less than the number of
buses, efficient methods are needed to find the fault only from
few recording units. In [8], a method was developed to
estimate the fault area using several TWRs scattered
throughout the system by comparing a fault signature record
with calculated fault signatures. Recently, the wavelet
transform of the traveling waves are used to extract initial
arrival times of fault initiated TWs reflected from the fault
point [9]-[11].
In this paper, an optimization method considering the
minimum TWRs installed at few monitored substations in the
power system is presented. The fault location is determined by
accurately time-tagging of the initial TW arrivals at these
monitored substations and comparing the time difference to
the total propagation time of the lines along the TW path. The
time reference signal can be attained using satellite from the
Global Positioning System (GPS). Fault distance calculation
is, therefore, carried out using double-end method and pre-
selected two TWR signals. The selection of the nearest TWRs
is based on the arrival times of the initial TWs.
Abdelsalam Elhaffar is with the Department of Electrical Engineering, Faculty
of Engineering, University of Benghazi (formarly Garyounis University).
978-1-4673-0784-0/12/$31.00 2012 IEEE
II. NETWORK BASED FAULT LOCATION
The double-end traveling wave location method (Type D)
requires the installation of a TWR at each bus. However, in
transmission networks, it is not possible to install a TWR at
each bus for economical reasons. Therefore, it is required to
establish a method to install the TWRs at some assigned
locations and to find fault positions beyond the unmonitored
buses. However, there are multiple reflections from all
terminals and impedance changes in the network which
requires a peer investigation to the proper reflection from the
fault position. One method was established in [12] using a
modified shortest-path algorithm and the initial current wave
arrival instant for an existing TWRs in a transmission network
[13].
In this paper, the new TWRs locations are systematically
determined in order to make the transmission system as
observable as possible. At the beginning, the most remote bus,
which is connected to one or two buses of the network is
equipped with a TWR and considered as a terminal bus. Then,
the TWR placement starts by decomposing the network to
separate paths. Each path ends with another remote bus with
no loops between them. These paths are selected with
considerable similar lengths. Also a TWR is places at buses
with several connected lines [14].
III. WAVELET ANALYSIS
Various techniques have used by several researchers to
filter out the traveling wave signal from the power frequency
voltages and currents. The wavelet transforms of the modal
current components are obtained yielding the corresponding
wavelet coefficients in selected levels. The potential benefits
of applying digital wavelet transform (DWT) for analyzing
traveling waves transients have been well-recognized because
of its inherent time and frequency localization characteristics
[15]. DWT offers an alternative to windowed (Short-Time)
Fourier Transform (STFT) analysis where a uniform window
is used for all frequencies. This problem has been solved in
DWT by employing short windows at high frequencies and
long windows at low frequencies. The windowing is
performed in practice by scaling and translating a Mother
Wavelet (t).
The continuous wavelet transform (CWT) is initially shown
as
954
 1
+
t b
CWT ( a, b) =
a
(
a
).x(t )dt
The mother wavelet (t ) is a band pass filter which should
satisfy some conditions: It should be short and satisfies the
relation:
+ is the levels number, and dj is the wavelet details coefficients,
(t )dt = 0
1 a is a coefficient used in order to have the same "energy"
in each analyzing wavelet.
In practice discrete wavelet transform DWT is used instead
of CWT. The two parameters a and b are discretized. For a
signal x(t), its DWT with respect to a discrete mother wavelet
(t) can be represented by
1 nb
DWT [x, m, n ] = x[k ] ( ) (3)
a k a
The b gives the time position of the wavelet, while the
parameter a controls its frequency. DWT of a sampled signal
is calculated by choosing a= a0m, and b= nb0a0m. Toward better
efficiency of computations, a0 and b0 are set to 2 and 1
respectively resulting in a binary dilation of 2m and dyadic
translation of 2mn [16].
For carrying out wavelet analysis, first, a suitable mother
wavelet must be chosen, which plays a significant role in the
fault-location scheme. Different wavelets can be used to
decompose the fault transient signal and extract the feature
vector. A comparison between three different groups of
orthogonal wavelets was carried out. These wavelets used in
the comparison were: db2, db4, db6, db8, db10, db20, db30,
db40, sym4, sym8, sym10, coi1..5, bior2.4, bior3.3, and
bior3.7. The criterion for selecting the proper wavelet, to be
used in feature extraction, is based on its ability to reconstruct
the original signal with minimum errors. The norm of the error
is used as a discriminator [12].
The problem now arises from which level of the sub-band
components should be used in DWT analysis procedure. The
main reason is at fault location, there is one level at which the
calculation of the fault distance is more accurate than other
levels. If the used scaling function and the wavelets form an
orthonormal basis, the Parseval's theorem relates the energy of
the fault traveling wave signal to the energy in each of the
expansion components and their wavelet coefficients.
Therefore, the energy of the fault traveling wave signal will be
partitioned at different resolution levels according to the
transmission line transients [17].
2 2
2
x (t ) dt = c j (k ) + d j (k )
k = j = 0 k =
where, dj is the j level wavelet coefficient and cj is the j level
scaling coefficient.
With the energy in the expansion domain is partitioned in
time by k and in scale by j. This means that the energy of the
distorted signal can be partitioned in terms of the expansion
coefficients [17]. The above method was implemented in a
MATLAB program using the current details of the fault line
signal as the absolute sum value of the current signal details
(1) squared computed in a discrete form, as in:
N
DE (k ) = d
N -M
2
j (k ) (5)
where DE is the details energy detector in discrete samples. j
(2) N is the signals length and M is the number of samples of the
moving window which depends on the travel time of the
transmission line under investigation.
IV. FAULT LOCATION PROBLEM FORMULATION
It is well known that when a fault occurs in overhead
transmission lines systems, the abrupt changes in voltage and
current at the point of the fault generate high frequency
electromagnetic traveling waves which propagate along the
transmission line in both directions away from the fault point.
If the times of arrival of the traveling waves in the two ends of
the transmission line can be measured precisely, the fault
location then can be determined by comparing the difference
between these two arrival times of the first initial traveling
wave signal.
By modal transform, a three-phase system can be
represented by an earth mode and two aerial modes. Each
mode has a particular velocity and characteristic impedance.
In this paper, the aerial mode 1 signal is used in the fault
distance estimation. The modal components are obtained by:
U ( x, t ) = TvU m ( x, t ) (6)
(7)
I ( x, t ) = Ti I m ( x, t )
where Tv and Ti are voltage and current transformation
matrices, U and I are phase voltage and current components,
Um and Im are modal voltage and current components
respectively. for transposed lines to transform the transient
current signals Ia, Ib and Ic into their modal components using
Clarks transformation as follows [18],[19]:
I1 1 1 1 Ia
I = 1 2 1 1 I (8)
2 3 b
I 3 0 3 3 I c
where I1 is the ground mode current, I2 and I3 are known as
aerial mode current components for transposed lines.
Single end traveling wave fault location method has high
errors when applied to meshed networks due to the difficulties
in finding the second peak signal. The reason is the multi-path
reflections from discontinuities and impedance changes. In
addition it is usually difficult to find the exact fault location
when the fault inception angle is very small and/or with high
fault resistance.
(4)
V. MULTI END MEHOD
Fig. 1 illustrates the single line diagram of a 400-kV
transmission network simulated using ATP/EMTP [21], in
which the processing is created by preprocessor program
ATPDraw [22]. This figure shows small part of 400 kV
FinGrid network has been simulated and a fault scenario
similar to that disturbances occurs on 29.6.2002 13:12:54
(GMT) between OL-KA substations at a distance 112.2km
955
from OL substation. The TWR recorders that recorded the
fault signals are YL, AJ, ES, OL recorders. The minimum path
for the TW has been calculated from Bus OL though OL-KA
line to BUS AJ. The fault is then calculated using two end
method using the OL and AJ recordings. TW velocities can be
determined based on the type and configuration of lines using
line/cable constant (LCC) program of ATP/EMTP [22].
Fig. 1. Test transmission system single line diagram.
advantages over data from a single TWR. First, if several
TWRs are used, combining the observations will result in
an improved estimate of the fault position. A statistical
advantage is gained by adding the N independent
observations (e.g., the estimate of the fault location or
faulty line is improved by a factor proportional to N),
assuming the data are combined in an optimal manner.
This same result could also be obtained by combining N
observations from an individual TWR.
A second advantage involves using the relative placement
of multiple TWRs to improve the observation process. For
example, two TWRs that measure fault direction can be
coordinated to determine the position of a fault.
Broadening the baseline of physical observable lines can
result in significant improvements.
Fig. 2 shows the topology structure of the network. It is
evident that several important buses are un-monitored.
Adding three TWRs can render the network observable.
The proposed buses are UL, HY, and KM buses. This
proposal is under condition that there are no consequent
buses unobserved. Therefore, a TWR is suggested at HY
which is between unmonitored buses KA and KR.
Similarly, TWRs are added at busses UL and KM.
Existing TWR
Proposed TWR

Unmonitored

The power lines studied are part of the 400 kV Finnish UL AJ

EHV transmission system. The relevant lines and location of 233
221
the current transducers are shown in Fig. 1. 47 OL
173
HU
Two main aspects which affect the accuracy directly and 43
14
163
KA
significantly need to be considered. One is the data RA 131
151
YL
synchronized sampling and the other is arrival time detection. HY
238
The former can be obtained easily by using the Global 224 158 87
81 KR
Positioning System (GPS) which can provide time ES
synchronization up to maximum 1 s accuracy over a wide 27 35
132

area; the latter can be fulfilled by using wavelet analysis TM

which has already been successfully applied in various fields
in electrical engineering [23].
A MATLAB program has been developed to estimate the
fault location from the first peak arrivals at the nearest three
TWRs. The minimum path for the traveling wave between the
closest two TWR units to the fault has been calculated using
Dijkstra Algorithm [13]. The maximum value of the first
recorded signals are selected as the two TWR candidates for
fault location. Then, the fault distance is calculated by the
double-end method using the chosen TWR signals. For
example: If a single earth fault occurs at OL-KA line, and the
best two TWR candidates are OL and AJ recorders, the fault
location can be calculated as follows:
line lengths[OL-AJ] + (T1OL -T1AJ ).v
FLOL =
2 N
124 KM
Fig. 2. Topology structure of the test transmission system with line lengths.
It is distinctive, that in case of locating faults which are not
adjacent to the measurement bus, in the sections between the
unmonitored buses, an analytical time-shift of the
measurements to the unmonitored bus is applied. This can be
carried out by adding the line travel time to the measured
arrival time. To find the shifted-time arrival at KA calculated
from AJ bus is tKA = tAJ - (AJ-KA) where (AJ-KA) is the travel
time of the line connecting bus AJ and KA. The mean time
can be calculated from the first packet of wavelet details
arrived at the triggered TWR using (10).
(9)

VI. DATA FUSION AND TWR PLACEMENT

D (t
k =1
k ) tk
= N
(10)
Fused data from multiple TWRs, circuit breaker (CB)
status and protective relaying signals provide several D (t
k =1
k )

956
 where t is the time arrivals at the k-th TWR and D(tk) is the Phase
maximum details power. currents Read
Fig. 3 can help to understand the proposed algorithm Recording
implementation where it can be summarized as follows:
1. The measured fault signals of each TWR are transformed to
the modal domain. Polarity Modal
2. For each TWR, the faulty transmission line is identified Identification Transformation
which has different polarity from other lines or using a
probabilistic-based selectivity technique [24]. Then, the
signals are sent to a central computer with the network
Applying DWT
configuration, circuit breaker status and protective relay
signals.
3. The aerial mode is processed using DWT using a suitable
mother wavelet and the details level is selected based on its Selecting Optimum Mother
energy content. Wavelet and Optimum Detail
4. The best nearest two TWR signals is selected based on their
received signal strength and arrival times.
5. If the number of triggered TWRs, CBs is greater than one, Determine Nearest 2 TWRs, CBs operated
calculate the minimum travel time of the signals from the
faulted line towards the nearest TWRs using Dijkstra
algorithm. Otherwise, single-end method is used.
6. If faulted line is located in the TW path (an intermediate bus If
between the two TWRs), the double-end method is used to Single End No
find the fault location using (9). Method No. of TWRs > 1
7. For each TWR signal, the first packet of the details' power
of fault signal is determined to find its arrival time using
Yes
(10). The time at maximum value of the delay profile is
recorded for both TWR signals to improve the accuracy.
Faulty line
VII. RESULTS No included in the
The new TWRs places are assigned to make the TW path,
transmission system as observable as possible. Implementing
the proposed algorithm enables accurate positioning of the Yes
majority of faults in the network assisted by breakers'
operation and other intelligent electronic devices' signals Double End Method
(IED). Some results are shown in Table I. This method is
sensitive to the travelling wave propagation velocity which
Fig. 3 the proposed fault locator implementation.
can be calculated using the switching disturbances or using
external faults for lines connected between each two TWRs. VIII. CONCLUSIONS
Using a ground resistivity of 2300 .m and the data of table II This work has successfully developed an economical fault-
and III for a horizontal transmission line configuration, the location scheme for transmission networks using minimum
propagation speed was found to be 291774 km/s. At least, two TWRs. DWT of the TW signals is used to extract arrival times
recordings are needed for an accurate fault location in meshed of fault traveling waves reflected from the fault point. The
networks. Simulation studies show that the errors are minimum path for the TW has been calculated and the fault is
symmetric along the transmission line. The exceptions are for then calculated using two end method using the appropriate
close-up faults and small fault inception angles. Practically, it fault recordings from the nearest TWR recorders. The method
is impossible to locate faults if the TW arrival time is less than shows a good results for long transmission lines in a meshed
the sampling time. In this case, high sampling frequency is network. Simulations show a good results when compared
needed which may not be possible due to the equipment with some practical events in the studied network. For close-
limitation. Other impedance based techniques can be adopted up, other fault location techniques can be combined with the
for such cases. Considering small inception fault angle, it is proposed method.
not possible to detect the TW as it may not has enough level to
be detected by the TWR.

957
 IX. APPENDIX [2] F. S. Caralho and S. Carneiro,Detection of Fault Induced Transients in
E.H.V. Transmission Lines for the Development of a Fault Locator,
International Conference on Power Systems Transients- IPST 2003.
400kV [3] Y. G. Paithankar and M. T. Sant, A new algorithm for relaying and
fault location based on auto-correlation of travelling waves ,
400kV 400kV
Electric Power Systems Research, Volume 8, Issue 2, March 1985,
Pages 179-185.

I
UL I
HU
I

AJ
[4] Rajendra S, McLaren PG. Traveling-wave techniques applied to
F2
I protection of teed circuits: Principle of traveling wave techniques ,
IEEE Trans PAS, 1985, 104, Page(s): 3544-3550.
I
UL UL
I

OL
I [5] Rajendra S, McLaren PG. Traveling wave techniques applied to the
YL
I F1 protection of teed circuits: Multi phase/multi circuit system. IEEE Trans
PAS 1985; 104, Page(s): 3551-3557.
I

KA

400kV 400kV I 400kV [6] Christopoulos C, Thomas D, Wright A. Scheme, based on travelling-
KA
I

waves, for the protection of major transmission lines. IEEE Proc C 1988,
RA pp. 63-73.
KR
RA
RA
HY [7] Aurangzeb, M.; Crossley, P.A.; Gale, P.; Fault location using the high
400kV KR
IN
frequency travelling waves measured at a single location on a
KR
transmission line , Developments in Power System Protection, 2001,
Seventh International Conference on (IEE), 9-12 April 2001
F3
Page(s): 403 406.
I

ES
[8] Z. Galijasevic and A. Abur,'Fault Area Estimation via Intelligent
Processing of Fault-Induced Transients', IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON
I

KM
POWER SYSTEMS, VOL. 18, NO. 4, NOVEMBER 2003, pp. 1241-
1247.
TM [9] Robertson, D. C.; Camps, O. I.; Mayer, J. S. & Gish, W. B.: Wavelets
Fig. 4 ATPDraw circuit diagram of the simulated network. and electromagnetic power system transients, IEEE Transactions on
Power Delivery, Volume: 11 Issue: 2 , April 1996, Page(s): 1050 -1058.
TABLE I [10] A. Abur and F. H. Magnago, Fault location using wavelets, IEEE
Simulation Results for a Single-Phase earth faults Trans Power Delivery 1998; 13, Page(s): 1475-1480.
Faulted Actual Location from OL Estimated Location Error % [11] A. Abur and F. H. Magnago, Use of time delays between modal
Line from OL components in wavelet based fault location , International Journal of
% km Electrical Power & Energy Systems, Volume 22, Issue 6, August 2000,
OL-KA 20 % 32.6 32.6540 -0.1656 Pages: 397-403.
OL-KA 50 % 81.5 81.6586 -0.1946 [12] A. Elhaffar and M. Lehtonen, Multi-End Traveling Wave Fault
OL-KA 80 % 130.4 130.4298 -0.0229 Location based on Current Traveling Waves, 16th Power Systems
Computation Conference 2008, (PSCC2008), July14-18, 2008,
TABLE II Glasgow, Scotland.
Conductor data of a 400-kV transmission line [13] E. W.Dijkstra, A note on two problems in connection with graphs,
Ph skin Resistance Rout Numer. Math., vol. 1, pp. 269-271, 1959.
[/km DC] [cm] [14] Kai-Ping Lien, Chih-Wen Liu,Chi-Shan Yu,and Joe-Air Jiang,
1 0.374 0.05165 3.284 'Transmission Network Fault Location Observability with Minimal
2 0.374 0.05165 3.284 PMU Placement', IEEE Transactions nn Power Delivery, Vol. 21, No. 3,
July 2006, pp. 1128-1136.
3 0.374 0.05165 3.284
[15] Daubechies I. Ten lectures on wavelets , SIAM; 1992.
4 0.5 0.36 1.46 [16] M. Misiti, Y. Misiti, G. Oppenheim and J. Poggi, Wavelet toolbox user's
5 0.5 0.36 1.46 guide. Version 2. , The math works.
[17] A. M. Gaouda, M. M. A. Salama, M. R. Sultan, and A. Y. Chikhani,
TABLE III 'Application of Multiresolution Signal Decomposition for Monitoring
Tower configuration data of a 400-kV line Short-Duration Variations in Distribution Systems', IEEE Transactions
Ph Horiz Vtower Vmid Seperate NB on Power Delivery, Vol. 15, No. 2, April 2000,pp. 478-485.
[m] [m] [m] [cm] [18] L. M. Wedepohl, Application of matrix methods to the solution of
1 11 24 10 45 2 travelling wave phenomena in polyphase systems, Proc. IEE, vol. 110,
2 0 24 10 45 2 no. 12, pp. 2200-2212, Dec. 1963.
3 -11 24 10 45 2 [19] E. Clarke, Circuit Analysis of AC Power Systems, Symmetrical and
4 6 33 20 0 0 Related Components, Wiley, NewYork, 1943.
[20] Liang, J.; Elangovan, S; Devotta, J.B.X. "Application of Wavelet Transform in Travelling Wave
5 -6 33 20 0 0 Protection" International Journal of Electrical Power and Energy Systems, Vol. 22, 2000, 8, pp.
537-542.
[21] Alternative Transient Program, RuleBook, 1987.
[22] Prikler, L. and Hoildalen, H. ATPDraw users' manual, SINTEF Energy
Research AS, Norway, TR F5680, ISBN 82-594-2344-8, August 2002
X. ACKNOWLEDGMENT [23] C. Sidney Burrus, Ramesh A. Gopinath and Haitao Guo. Introduction to
The author gratefully acknowledges the valuable discussion Wavelets and Wavelet Transform, Prentice Hall, New Jersey (1997).
[24] Abdelsalam M. Elhaffar, Nagy I. Elkalashy, Naser G. Tarhuni,
and revision with Dr. N. Elkalashy, Power System Protection Mohamed F. Abdel-Fattah and Matti Lehtonen, Evaluation of
Group (PSPG), Electrical Engineering Department, Probabilistic-Based Selectivity Technique for Earth Fault Protection in
Minoufiya University,Egypt. MV Networks,28 June - 2 July 2009, Bucharest, Romania.

REFERENCES
[1] T. W. Stringfeild, D.J. Mahart and R.F.Stevens, Fault Location
Methods for Overhead Lines, AIEE Transactions, pp. 157-160, August
1957.

958