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A method for fault type discrimination and faulted phase identification using instantaneous local current measurements is proposed. Seven current components are obtained from the measured three-phase instantaneous currents through a transformation and band passed filtered to remove the fundamental components and high frequency content. Upon detecting a fault, nine fault discrimination indices are computed taking different ratios of the maximum rates of change of these filtered current components. The indices are used to (i) separate ground faults from the phase-to-phase and three-phase faults, (ii) discriminate phase-to-ground from phase-to-phase-to-ground faults, (iii) differentiate phase-to-phase faults from the three-phase faults, and (iv) identify the faulted phases. As the indices are ratios, decisions are less affected by the fault resistance. The algorithm was validated using a power system simulated in PSCAD/EMTDC. Extensive testing involving more than 10,000 fault scenarios showed that fault type and faulted phases can be successfully identified. The algorithm found some difficulty in identifying the phases involved in phase-to-phase-to-ground faults at certain fault inception angles, and one of the thresholds can be affected by the transposition scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A simple and yet dependable technique for fault-type identification in HVDC transmission systems is presented in this paper. A set of indices is defined for pairs of rate of change of current measurements to identify the pole(s) involved in the fault to discriminate the ground faults from those involved with the dedicated metallic return conductor. The proposed fault discrimination method will identify the faulty pole within a 1-ms window, and therefore, it can be used to improve the sensitivity and reliability of DC fault protection. Furthermore, the knowledge—whether or not the dedicated return conductor is involved in the fault—is useful for determining the post-fault configuration of bipole grids. Considerable discrimination margins are observed during the rigorous evaluation of the technique for two-conductor and three-conductor HVDC systems under various fault scenarios, for both considerably long overhead transmission lines and cables. The indices can be computed using local current measurements made using low-bandwidth sensors. They are independent of the fault resistance, and therefore, settings can be found easily. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, clearing of DC faults in a hybrid multi-terminal HVDC transmission system consisting of line commutated converters (LCCs) and voltage source converters (VSCs) implemented using half-bridge modular multilevel converter (MMC) technology is investigated. While the hybrid HVDC system has several possible configurations, this paper focuses on two of them: 1) a half-bridge MMC-HVDC link piggy-backing on the transmission line of a LCC-HVDC link and 2) LCC-HVDC link tapped by half-bridge MMC inverters. The proposed dc fault recovery strategy employs a high rating series diode valve placed at each VSC inverter pole to block fault currents; AC circuit breakers to isolate the faulty VSC rectifier pole; and force retardation applied at LCC rectifier to extinguish the arc. Detailed simulations demonstrate fast fault recovery performance with the proposed fault recovery procedure. In the case where a single transmission line is shared by the LCC and VSC links, the VSC rectifier is subjected to considerably high current for a period of few hundreds of milliseconds, and the ac side voltage dips momentarily. During a single pole fault, interrupting power flow on the healthy pole of VSC rectifier may be necessary to maintain smooth operation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

More and more system operators are interested in calculating transfer capability in real time using real-time power flow models generated from the Energy Management System (EMS). However, in comparing these models with offline study models, the EMS models usually include only a limited portion of the interconnected system. It is not practical to extend the EMS model in order to capture the impact of the external systems and as such using an equivalent network becomes necessary for this purpose. Equivalent circuits derived from the offline models for certain predetermined operating conditions would suffer from invalid results under various real-time operating conditions. Hence, it is necessary to derive an equivalent circuit model that is adaptive to the real-time system conditions. This paper presents a general method of creating an equivalent circuit model based on the measured boundary station parameters such as voltages and power flows. Simulation studies show that such derived equivalent circuit models provide solutions with adequate accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the applicability of IEC 61850-9-2 LE-sampled values in transients-based protection by implementing a line protection intelligent electronic device (IED), incorporating a transients-based hybrid protection algorithm suitable for series-compensated transmission lines. The IED is capable of subscribing, decoding, and processing sampled values to be used in the implemented protection algorithms. The proposed method of protection can distinguish between internal and external faults by comparing the polarities of wavelet coefficients of the line currents at either end of the line. The power system section, which the proposed protection scheme is tested upon, is implemented in a real-time digital simulator. Attention is given to replicate the constraints faced by an actual relay in the implementations of the IED. The results indicate that IEC 61850-sampled values can be effectively used in a transients-based protection scheme that is capable of operating under challenging conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Different HVDC grid types and the respective protection options are discussed. An earthed bipole HVDC grid was modeled in PSCAD, and using simulation results, the necessity of di/dt limiting inductors to contain the rise of fault currents within the capacity of current hybrid dc breakers is demonstrated. The impact of different inductor sizes on current rise was studied. A fault detection and localization scheme using the rate of change of voltage measured at the line side of the di/dt limiting reactors is proposed. The protection system was modeled and tested under different fault types and locations. The results show that the proposed method of HVDC grid protection is feasible using the current hybrid dc breaker technology. A systematic procedure for setting the necessary protection threshold values is also demonstrated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Phasor measurement units (PMUs) provide the basis for synchrophasor measurements, which are good data sources for capturing power system dynamic behavior. The recently published IEEE Standard C37.118.1-2011 characterizes the dynamic performance of synchrophasor measurements with two performance class filters: P-class and M-class. Practical implementation of a PMU to meet all dynamic requirements is a challenging task. Performance of an actual PMU with the proposed reference performance class filters is presented with a brief overview of the PMU performance evaluation process and the sources of errors in the test environment. Based on the test results, some inadequacies in the reference M-class filter algorithm provided in the standard are revealed, and several minor inconsistencies in the error limits imposed by the standard are highlighted. Finally, some modifications to the M-class reference filter and suggestions to rectify the minor issues in the new standard are proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Part I of this paper describes the design and implementation of an islanding detection method based on transient signals. The proposed method utilizes discrete wavelet transform to extract features from transient current and voltage signals. A decision-tree classifier uses the energy content in the wavelet coefficients to distinguish islanding events from other transient generating events. The verification tests performed in Part I, for a two generator test system having a synchronous generator and a wind farm, showed more than 98% classification accuracy with 95% confidence and a response time of less than two cycles. In Part II, the proposed methodology is applied to an extended test system with a voltage-source converter-based dc source. The proposed relay's performance is compared with the existing passive islanding detection methods under different scenarios. Furthermore, the effect of noise on the performance of the proposed method is studied. The transient-based islanding detection methodology exhibits very high reliability and fast response compared to all other passive islanding detection methods and shows that the relay can be designed with a zero nondetection zone for a particular system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the development and hardware implementation of a classification scheme to distinguish the transients originated by faults from other types of transients. In the proposed scheme, a set of Hidden Markov Model-based classifiers is employed to recognize the fault transients. Input features for the classifiers are the energy contained in wavelet coefficients of the measured current waveforms. A laboratory prototype of the fault recognition system was implemented on a floating-point digital–signal-processor (DSP)-based hardware platform. The classification system was tested using the transient signals generated by a real-time waveform playback unit. The test waveforms were generated by simulating an actual extra-high-voltage transmission system on an electromagnetic transient simulation program. The operation of the classification system was further verified using waveforms obtained from an actual fault recorder. The performance of the classifier was investigated under different practical scenarios, such as current transformer saturation, measurement noise, and lightning faults. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper presents a novel algorithm to determine the location of dc line faults in an HVDC system with a mixed transmission media consisting of overhead lines and cables, using only the measurements taken at the rectifier and inverter ends of the composite transmission line. The algorithm relies on the traveling-wave principle, and requires the fault-generated surge arrival times at two ends of the dc line as inputs. With accurate surge arrival times obtained from time-synchronized measurements, the proposed algorithm can accurately predict the faulty segment as well as the exact fault location. Continuous wavelet transform coefficients of the input signal are used to determine the precise time of arrival of traveling waves at the dc line terminals. Two possible input signals–the dc voltage measured at the converter terminal and the current through the surge capacitors connected at the dc line end–are examined and both signals are found to be equally effective for detecting the traveling-wave arrival times. Performance of the proposed fault-location scheme is analyzed through detailed simulations carried out using the electromagnetic transient simulation software PSCAD. The impact of measurement noise on the fault-location accuracy is also studied in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The paper first shows that the transient stability status of a power system following a large disturbance such as a fault can be early predicted based on the measured post-fault values of the generator voltages, speeds, or rotor angles. Synchronously sampled values provided by phasor measurement units (PMUs) of the generator voltages, frequencies, or rotor angles collected immediately after clearing a fault are used as inputs to a support vector machines (SVM) classifier which predicts the transient stability status. Studies with the New England 39-bus test system and the Venezuelan power network indicated that faster and more accurate predictions can be made by using the post-fault recovery voltage magnitude measurements as inputs. The accuracy and robustness of the transient stability prediction algorithm with the voltage magnitude measurements was extensively tested under both balanced and unbalanced fault conditions, as well as under different operating conditions, presence of measurement errors, voltage sensitive loads, and changes in the network topology. During the various tests carried out using the New England 39-bus test system, the proposed algorithm could always predict when the power system is approaching a transient instability with over 95% success rate. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, an artificial neural network (ANN) based method is developed for quickly estimating the long-term voltage stability margin. The investigation presented in the paper showed that node voltage magnitudes and the phase angles are the best predictors of voltage stability margin. Further, the paper shows that the proposed ANN based method can successfully estimate the voltage stability margin not only under normal operation but also under N-1 contingency situations. If the voltage magnitudes and phase angles are obtained in real-time from phasor measurement units (PMUs) using the proposed method, the voltage stability margin can be estimated in real time and used for initiating stability control actions. Finally, a suboptimal approach to determine the best locations for PMUs is presented. Numerical examples of the proposed techniques are presented using the New England 39-bus test system and a practical power system which consists of 1844 buses, 746 load buses, and 302 generator buses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new method for predicting the rotor angle stability status of a power system immediately after a large disturbance is presented. The proposed two-stage method involves estimation of the similarity of post-fault voltage trajectories of the generator buses after the disturbance to some pre-identified templates and then prediction of the stability status using a classifier which takes the similarity values calculated at the different generator buses as inputs. The typical bus voltage variation patterns after a disturbance for both stable and unstable situations are identified from a database of simulations using fuzzy C-means clustering algorithm. The same database is used to train a support vector machine classifier which takes proximity of the actual voltage variations to the identified templates as features. Development of the system and its performance were demonstrated using a case study carried out on the IEEE 39-bus system. Investigations showed that the proposed method can accurately predict the stability status six cycles after the clearance of a fault. Further, the robustness of the proposed method was examined by analyzing its performance in predicting the instability when the network configuration is altered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]