Neural Comput & Applic
DOI 10.1007/s00521-016-2566-3
ENGINEERING APPLICATIONS OF NEURAL NETWORKS
A modular neuro-wavelet based non-unit protection
scheme for zone identification and fault location in six-phase
transmission line
Ebha Koley1 • Khushaboo Verma1 • Subhojit Ghosh1
Received: 10 December 2015 / Accepted: 17 August 2016
 The Natural Computing Applications Forum 2016
Abstract To overcome the constraints on land availability,
infrastructure and environmental problems, six-phase
transmission lines have been proposed as a potential
alternative to increase the power transfer capability of
existing transmission lines without major modification in
the existing structure of three-phase double-circuit system.
The non-availability of a proper protection scheme due to
large number of possible faults has been the prime reason
behind the low popularity and acceptance of six-phase
system. In this regard, the present work proposes a pro-
tection scheme for six-phase transmission line based on the
hybridization of discrete wavelet transform and modular
artificial neural network. The fault information (approxi-
mate coefficients) in the voltage and current signals is
captured using discrete wavelet transform. The standard
deviation of the coefficients of voltage and current signals
in each phase is then computed and given as input to
modular artificial neural network, which aims at identifying
the faulty section/zone and estimate its location. Test
results exhibit that the proposed scheme effectively dis-
criminates the faulted section and estimates the fault
location with maximum error of 0.675 %. It offers primary
protection to the total line length and also provides remote
backup protection for the adjacent reverse section of the
line using data at relaying point only and thus avoids the
need of a communication link.
& Subhojit Ghosh
sghosh.ele@nitrr.ac.in
1
Department of Electrical Engineering, National Institute
of Technology, G.E. Road, Raipur 492010, India
Keywords Six-phase transmission line  Fault
identification  Fault location  Discrete wavelet transform
and modular artificial neural network
1 Introduction
Recent times have witnessed an increase in the demand of
electrical energy. To facilitate the growing power demand,
it is vital to enhance the power transfer capability of
existing transmission lines. The right of way (ROW) is the
major challenge that the transmission sector is facing
today. This has motivated the development of approaches
that could mitigate the need to enhance the power transfer
capability of existing transmission corridor in an environ-
mentally friendly manner, rather than on constructing new
transmission lines. In this regard, six-phase transmission
has been proposed by L.D Barthold and H.C. Barnes in
1972, as a prospective option to deal with continually
increasing power demand. Six-phase transmission line can
transfer 73 % more power with efficient utilization of
existing structure of three-phase double-circuit line [1, 2].
In addition to this, six-phase transmission system offers
several advantages over conventional three-phase system
such as: reduced conductor surface gradient, potentially
lower audible noise levels and radio interference levels,
better thermal loading capacity and surge impedance
loading, lesser corona, good voltage regulation and higher
efficiency, complete compatibility with existing three-
phase double-circuit line and economic viability [1–5].
Despite the benefits of six-phase transmission system, its
low recognition is mainly attributed to the lack of a simple
and reliable protection scheme.
Due to the involvement of larger number of conductors,
the possibility of occurrence of faults in six-phase
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transmission line is more as compared to three-phase line.
The number of distinct possible types of shunt fault in a
six-phase line is eleven (1LG, i.e., single line to ground,
2LG, 3LG, 4LG, 5LG, 6LG, 2L, 3L, 4L, 5L and 6L) as
compared to five (1LG, 2LG, 3LG, 2L and 3L) for three-
phase systems. Considering all the possible combinations
for different fault types involving all the six conductors, the
total number of shunt faults that can occur in six-phase
system is 120, which is much more as compared to 22 in
three-phase double-circuit lines [6–8]. For maintaining the
stability of any power system under all operating condi-
tions, it is important to remove the fault at the earliest.
Thus, it is essential to develop an adequate protection
scheme, which would determine the section and phase in
which fault has occurred and its location to reduce the
restoration time and hence improve the reliability of the
power system. The larger number of possible fault com-
binations in six-phase system makes the multiclass classi-
fication problem of detecting the faulty phases very
challenging.
Some notable works have been reported in the literature
on the protection of six-phase lines [9–16]. Rebbapragada
et al. [9] proposed a conceptual design for relay protection
and control equipment associated with the six-phase test
line. Apostolov et al. [10, 11] analyzed the implementation
of microprocessor-based relays with programmable logic
control. Oppel et al. [12] described a step distance
scheme utilizing three-phase relays as backup protection
for six-phase test line. The description of operation and
testing of microprocessor-based protection scheme is pre-
sented by Oppel et al. in [13]. A non-unit distance pro-
tection scheme based on impedance measurement has been
addressed by Redfern et al. in [14]. Hajjar et al. [15] pro-
posed a wavelet-based protection approach for fault
detection and phase selection in six-phase transmission
line. A technique based on wavelet transform and traveling
waves theory to locate the shunt faults in six-phase line has
been presented by Hajjar et al. in [16].
In the last few decades, artificial neural networks
(ANNs) have been extensively used by researchers for
protection of single-circuit and double-circuit three-phase
lines [17–20]. The wide usage of ANNs is attributed to its
ability to adapt itself to changing operating condition and
nonlinear function approximation capability. A modular
ANN-based technique has been reported for the fault
detection, classification and location estimation in six-
phase transmission line in [21]. However, this technique is
non-directional, i.e., it is unable to distinguish between
forward and reverse faults. In other words, it is unable to
identify the section in which fault has occurred. Further, for
feature extraction, discrete Fourier transform (DFT) has
been utilized, which has the limitation of not being able to
accurately estimate the fundamental frequency phasor in
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Neural Comput & Applic
the presence of decaying direct current (DC) offset [22]. To
overcome this, in the present work, an algorithm has been
proposed which uses discrete wavelet transform (DWT) for
analyzing and extracting discriminatory features from the
post-fault voltage and current signals. Several protection
algorithms combining neural networks with wavelet
transforms have been reported in the literature for the
protection of three-phase lines [23–27].
For a transmission line fed with multiple sources, the
use of directional relaying allows isolating the particular
faulty section. Due to which the faulty section is avoided,
to being fed from the source post-fault. Without directional
relaying, the circuit breaker(s) may isolate the healthy
section. In such case, the faulty section being connected to
the source would be still in operation, thus increasing the
extent of damage. For a multisource six-phase system with
increased number of faults, the requirement of directional
relaying is very important to enhance the sensitivity and
reliability of the protection scheme. Some works have been
reported on directional relaying in six-phase system
[10, 11]. However, none of the above-reported techniques
have concentrated on the identification of faulty section in
addition to fault location for varying fault scenarios using
DWT and ANN, which is the novelty of the proposed
protection scheme.
Motivated by the need to develop a reliable protection
scheme incorporating directional relaying with fault loca-
tion estimation by effectively utilizing the ability of DWT
and ANN in identifying faulty section, the proposed work
presents a single-ended protection technique for six-phase
line against all 120 types of shunt faults. The fault section
identification is formulated as a binary classification
problem, i.e., identifying whether forward or reverse fault.
The scheme uses combined DWT and modular artificial
neural network (MANN) for fault location estimation and
section/zone identification task. As compared to the con-
ventional stand-alone single neural network, the incorpo-
ration of modularity allows parallel processing of input
patterns resulting in reduction in the model complexity,
higher learning capability and immunity from disturbances
[19].
An important feature of the proposed algorithm is a non-
unit protection, i.e., it is able to perform both the functions
without the information of voltage and current signals at
buses other than one at relaying point which evades relia-
bility issues associated with data transfer as in the case of
conventional unit protection schemes.
The paper is organized as follows; the six-phase trans-
mission line model is presented in Sect. 2. The pre-pro-
cessing and feature extraction process from the raw voltage
and current signals using discrete wavelet transform and
the development of proposed protection scheme are
detailed in Sect. 3. Results are analyzed in Sect. 4. The
Neural Comput & Applic

proposed algorithm is compared with other schemes in Table 1 Basic system description data
Sect. 5. Finally, the conclusions of the work are summa- System voltage 138.00 kV
rized in Sect. 6. Number of phases 6
Number of circuits 1
Number of sub-conductors per phase 1
2 Six-phase transmission system
Total number of ground wires 2
Earth resistivity 100 O-m
Figure 1 depicts the one line diagram of a six-phase
Frequency 60 Hz
transmission line referring to the Springdale-McCalmont
Base power 100.00 MVA
line [5] of Allegheny Power System adopted in the present
Base voltage 138.00 kV
work. The power system network consists of a 138-kV,
Length of line 200 km
60-Hz six-phase transmission line, sectionalized into two
sections/zones of length 100 km each. The line is fed from
sources at both the sending end and receiving end with two
loads of 250 megawatt (MW) and 100 megavolt ampere
(MVAr) at receiving end. The short-circuit capacity of The six-phase current Ia, Ib, Ic, Id, Ie, If and voltage Va,
sources at both the ends and their X/R ratio are 1250 MVA Vb, Vc, Vd, Ve, Vf waveforms (both pre- and post-fault) of
and 10, respectively. corresponding phases during a single-phase-to-ground fault
Basic system description and line configuration data of in phase ‘‘a’’ at 23 km from the relaying point with zero
six-phase line used in the present work are detailed in fault resistance (Rf) and at fault inception angle Ui = 08 are
Tables 1 and 2, respectively. The model used in the work depicted in Fig. 2.
takes into account the distributive nature of the transmis-
sion line by considering uniform distribution of resistance,
inductance and capacitance along the line length. The six- 3 Protection scheme for six-phase system using
phase transmission line model is implemented and simu- discrete wavelet transform and modular
lated using Simulink and Simpowersystems toolbox of artificial neural network
MATLAB.
As shown in Fig. 1, relay is installed at bus 2 to protect In a power system, commercial and environmental con-
the total line. The line section between the relaying point straints demand fault isolation within the shortest possible
and the receiving-end source is considered as forward time, which requires early fault location estimation. In this
protection zone, and the line section between the relaying regard, as mentioned earlier, the protection scheme pro-
point and the sending-end source is the backward/reverse posed in the present work for six-phase system is devel-
protection zone. Thus, faults occurring in forward protec- oped to perform two protection functions. The first function
tion zone (section 2) are termed as forward faults, while involves identifying the direction of fault (forward or
faults taking place on the reverse side of the relay, i.e., in reverse), i.e., the section of the line which is faulty. The
section 1, are considered as reverse/backward faults. second function is to determine the location of the fault

Six Phase Transmission Line

100 km 100 km Load 1

CB1 CB2 CB3 CB4 CB2

CT
ER

ES Fault
Fault PT
Relaying point Ip B3 Load 2
B1 B2 FD/C Y1 = [a, b, c, d, e, f, g]
Vp
[Fault Detection and Classification]
Y1= [S]
FSI/FL [Faulty section identification]
Y2= [Lf]
[Fault Distance Location in km]

Fig. 1 Single-line diagram of a six-phase power system under study

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 Neural Comput & Applic

Table 2 Line configuration

Phase number Conductor Horizontal Height at tower Y (ft) Mid-span clearance (ft)
designation spacing X (ft)

1 a -11 68 56
2 b -14 55 43
3 c -11 42 30
4 d 11 42 30
5 e 14 55 43
6 f 11 68 56
0 GR1 -6 77.5 67.1
0 GR2 6 77.5 67.1

4
Six Phase current in p.u.

Ia IbIc Id Ie
If
2

-2

-4
0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06 0.07
Six Phase Voltage in p.u.

2
Va Vb Vc Vd Ve Vf
1

-1

-2
0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06 0.07
Time in sec

Fig. 2 Six-phase current and voltage waveforms during single-phase-to-ground fault ‘‘ag’’ at 23 km, Uf = 0, Rf = 0 X

from the relaying point. Both the above features are carried Step 7 Activate the ANN modules for fault section
out simultaneously using MANN. The different stages of identification (FSI) and fault location simultaneously
the proposed protection scheme are discussed in detail with the coefficients obtained in step 4.
henceforth. Step 8 Obtain the outputs (faulty section/zone and fault
Step 1 Generate current and voltage waveforms at the location) from the ANN module.
relay location post-fault.
Step 2 Pre-process the generated analog signals using a 3.1 Signal recording, pre-processing and feature
low-pass Butterworth filter. extraction
Step 3 Sample the processed analog signal at 1.2 kHz.
Step 4 Apply DWT on the sampled signal to extract Following the simulation of the six-phase power system
approximate and detailed coefficients. model (Fig. 1) under both healthy and faulty condition,
Step 5 Estimate the fault index from the standard the instantaneous voltage and current samples at bus 2
deviation of approximate coefficients. (i.e., at relaying point) are obtained which contain a wide
Step 6 If the fault index is greater than the threshold range of frequency components (third and higher har-
value (obtained a priori), then no fault and go to monics due to nonlinear elements such as switching
1, else fault. devices, FACTs devices, etc.) and DC components during

123
Neural Comput & Applic

the fault in the line. Thus, pre-processing of the input data where w is the mother wavelet function, f(k) is the sampled
is essential for removing the noise components and signal, and xm m
0 and kx0 represent the discretized parameters
redundant information and to extract certain useful fea-
of scaling and shifting, respectively.
tures (attributes) to fully represent the state of transmis-
Using DWT, the original sampled signals are repre-
sion line by maintaining disparity between the healthy
sented by x(n) having N sample points, and a frequency
and faulty condition. To achieve the same, the recorded
ranging from 0 to 1.2 kHz is processed through a high-pass
instantaneous values of voltage and current signals in
filter h(n) and a low-pass filter g(n) at the first decompo-
each phase are processed by a second-order low-pass
sition level. The output of the high-pass filter has N/2
Butterworth filter (cutoff frequency of 480 Hz). After
sampling points, and it spans the frequency range from
filtering, the signals are sampled at frequency of 1.2 kHz.
600 Hz to 1.2 kHz. The output of the low-pass filter also
The sampling frequency has been selected based on
has N/2 samples, and it spans the other half of the fre-
Nyquist sampling criteria. It is worth mentioning here
quency band, i.e., from 0 to 600 Hz. Following the filtering
that, when higher harmonics are present in the system, the
operation, the detail coefficients (cD1) and the approxi-
absence of filter warrants the use of a sampler with very
mation coefficients (cA1) at level 1 are obtained. Further,
high sampling frequency (at least twice the highest har-
the approximation coefficients are processed to the second
monic, as per Nyquist criterion) and hence large memory
level of decomposition to reiterate the process. Finally, the
requirement. Following filtering and sampling, to obtain
decomposed signal is obtained at the anticipated level. In
the approximate coefficients of voltage and current signals
the proposed work, db 3 wavelet is used to decompose the
of each phase, DWT is utilized. Recently, an increased
signal up to three levels because the third-level wavelet
focus has been placed on wavelet transform for extracting
approximate coefficient would include frequency infor-
information from non-stationary signals, as it provides
mation of 60 Hz, which can be used for fault section
information regarding both time and frequency domain
identification and location estimation task. The selection of
representation unlike the more widely used Fourier
decomposition level has been made considering two fac-
transform, which provides only frequency domain repre-
tors, i.e., sampling frequency employed for discretization
sentation. Furthermore, because of lesser execution time
and the trade-off between the computational complexity
and hence faster response, DWT is more suitable for
and the detection of suitable features in frequency range of
online verification with high accuracy. Also, DWT is
interest. Increase in the level beyond three did not lead to
known to distinguish between healthy and faulty condi-
any appreciable improvement in the performance of the
tion because of build in noise attenuation property and
fault section identifier and locator. After obtaining
proper trade-off between computational cost and accu-
approximate coefficient of voltage and current signals of
racy. Due to these features, DWT continues to enjoy a
each phase (which covers frequency ranges from 0 to
growing popularity in the field of transmission line pro-
150 Hz), the standard deviation (SD) of these coefficients
tection [28–30]. Using DWT, the sampled voltage and
(rIacA3, rIbcA3, rIccA3, rIdcA3, rIecA3, rIfcA3, rVacA3,
current signals are analyzed by decomposing it into an
rVbcA3, rVccA3, rVdcA3, rVecA3 and rVfcA3) has been
approximation and detail information, by successive high-
estimated as:
pass and low-pass filtering of the time domain signal. " #1=2
The one-level decomposition is mathematically repre- 1 X N
2
sented as rj cAi ¼ ðcAij  lj cAi Þ ð4Þ
N  1 j¼1
X
Yhigh ½k ¼ x½n  g½2k  n ð1Þ P
X where lj ¼ N1 Nj¼1 cAij , where i = 1, 2, …, n is the
Ylow ½k ¼ x½n  g½2k  n ð2Þ wavelet decomposition level from level 1 to level n,
N represents number of wavelet approximate coefficients.
where Yhigh ½k and Ylow ½k are the outputs of the high-pass The SD gives a measure of the distribution of coeffi-
and low-pass filters, respectively, post-subsampling by 2. cients around the average value. The SD measured using
For the present work, the above decomposition is carried (4) is given as input to each stand-alone ANN in the
out up to level 3. modular structure.
For a given function f(k), discrete wavelet transform is
given as: 3.2 Fault identification
0 1
1 X B mC
 Bn  kx0 C Large number of fault cases with varying fault parameters
DWTðm; nÞ ¼ pffiffiffiffiffi f ðkÞw @ m A ð3Þ
xm has been simulated to generate a suitable dataset for
0 k x
0 training of the modular ANN structure. As discussed

123

earlier, SD of the approximated coefficients of current
signals post-fault in each phase has been obtained and
analyzed. Post-fault, the magnitude of SD of approximated
coefficients exceeds that during normal operation. Based
on the analysis of SD of approximated coefficients of
current signals in each phase, a threshold value (Thpc)
corresponding to faulty cases for each phase has been
determined. Using threshold value, the healthy and faulty
condition can be segregated based on the SD of approxi-
mate coefficients rip cA3 ðlÞ as:
 
1 if rIp cA3 ðlÞ [ Thpc
Dp ðnÞ ¼ ð5Þ
0 else
where 1 and 0, respectively, represent faulty and healthy
condition.
If the SD of approximate coefficient of current signal in
each phase (fault index) at any instant (rip cA3 ðlÞ) is lesser
than the pre-defined threshold value, there is no fault in the
corresponding phase. If the condition is met in any phase,
the corresponding phase is identified as faulty phase. While
(Eq. 5) gives information regarding the fault in a given
phase, it does not provide any information about the
involvement of ground in the fault. In this regard, the six-
phase currents are used to obtain the zero sequence current
to determine the involvement of ground in the fault.
Depending on the type of fault identified, the correspond-
ing ANN in the modular structure will be activated.
3.3 Fault section identification and location using
MANN
The standard deviation of approximate coefficient of volt-
age and current signals of each phase is used to obtain the
feature matrix ‘‘F’’ to be used for training the MANN,
which is given as:
 
rip cA3 ðlÞ
F¼ ð6Þ
rvp cA3 ðlÞ
where l represents the fault location with different fault
resistance and fault inception angle, p represents each of
the phase a, b, c, d, e and f, rIpcA3(l) and rVpcA3(l) are the
feature vectors obtained from standard deviation of
approximate coefficient of the post-fault current and volt-
age signals, respectively. The feature matrix F is a
12 9 n matrix, where n is the number of simulated fault
cases. The first row of F represents the SD of approximate
coefficient of current signal corresponding to phase ‘‘a’’ at
different fault locations with varying fault inception angle
and fault resistance. The pattern vector F is then given as
input to MANN for training.
The diagrammatic representation of the proposed pro-
tection scheme is depicted in Fig. 3. A total of eleven
individual multilayer feed forward ANNs constitute the
123
Neural Comput & Applic
proposed modular structure, i.e., one for each type of fault.
Depending on the type of detected fault, the corresponding
ANN in the modular structure will be activated. While
designing the MANN, the first step is to determine the
appropriate size and architecture of the individual neural
networks. For the proposed scheme, the number of neurons
in input and output layer for all ANNs is taken as 12 and 2,
respectively. For the selection of the number of hidden
layers and its neurons, a series of pilot runs are executed on
a trial-and-error basis to select the optimal architecture.
The architecture of all the ANNs is outlined in Table 3. For
all the neurons, tangent sigmoid activation function has
been used. The individual ANNs comprising the modular
structure receive similar inputs, which are processed in
parallel, following which their outputs undergo an OR
gating operation. The first neuron in the output layer rep-
resents the section/zone in which fault has occurred, i.e.,
forward fault or reverse fault, and second neuron represents
the location of fault (Lf). Based on the output of gating
operation and the individual ANN outputs, the faulty sec-
tion and the location of the fault are obtained.
For fault in section 1, the output corresponding to first
neuron should -1. Similarly fault in section 2 is repre-
sented by an output of 1. The input indices ‘‘X’’ and output
indices ‘‘Y1’’ and ‘‘Y2’’ of each ANN are thus given as:
X ¼ ½rIa cA3 ; rIb cA3 ; rIc cA3 ; rId cA3 ; rIe cA3 ; rIf cA3 ;
rVa cA3 ; rVb cA3 ; rVc cA3 ; rVd cA3 ; rVe cA3 ; rVf cA3 
ð7Þ
Y1 ¼ ½s ð8Þ
Y2 ¼ ½Lf  ð9Þ
While both voltage and current singles are used for zone
identification and fault location estimation, only current
signals are used for fault detection and the corresponding
phase detection. Since the fault detector and phase selector
are based on the variation in magnitude of phase current post-
fault, the current information is sufficient to detect and
classify. Using the voltage variation information in addition
to the current magnitude information would only add
redundancy, thus leading to complexity without any appre-
ciable improvement in the accuracy. However, the case is
different for zone identifier and fault locator (FL), which
indirectly uses the impedance information and thus requires
both voltage and current signals. After selecting the appro-
priate structure, the next step is to train each individual ANN
of modular structure using training dataset generated from
different simulated fault cases. As mentioned earlier, the
simulation and hence the generation of the training dataset
are carried out using Simulink and SimPowerSystems tool-
box of MATLAB. In order to generate the training dataset,
various types of faults at different fault locations, fault
Neural Comput & Applic

MANN Module
Voltage Current 1LG
ANN-1 for LG
Sample Sample IW{1,1} LW{2,1} LW{3,1}

b{1} b{2} b{3}

12 Inputs 2 Outputs
2LG
DWT IW{1,1} LW{2,1}
ANN-2 for 2LG
LW{3,1} LW{4,1}

b{1} b{2} b{3} b{4}

Extract the 12 Inputs 2 Outputs
approximate and detail ANN-3 for 2L
coefficients of voltage 2L
IW{1,1} LW{2,1} LW{3,1}
and current signals
b{1}
b{2} b{3}
12 Inputs 2 Outputs
Standard deviation
of approximate
coefficients of
voltage and current ANN-11 for 6L
signals IW{1,1} LW{2,1} LW{3,1}
6L b{2}
b{1} b{3} 2 Outputs
12 Inputs
Y1= +1/ -1
Feature Faulty Section/zone
extraction
Fault location
Y2 = Lf

Fig. 3 Proposed protection technique based on DWT and modular ANN for a six-phase transmission line

Table 3 Architecture for ANNs in modular structure

Type of ANN No. of No. of neurons in the No. of neurons in the No. of neurons in the Type of activation function in
fault hidden first hidden layer second hidden layer third hidden layer hidden/output layer
layers

LG ANN1 2 35 35 – Tangent sigmoid

2LG ANN2 3 35 20 15
2L ANN3 2 35 35 –
3LG ANN4 3 37 35 20
3L ANN5 2 35 35 –
4LG ANN6 3 27 33 35
4L ANN7 2 35 35 –
5LG ANN8 3 35 35 35
5L ANN9 2 35 35 –
6LG ANN10 2 37 37 –
6L ANN11 2 35 35 –

inception angles and fault resistance are simulated. The
variation in the parameters is detailed in Table 4. For single-
phase-to-ground fault, the total number of faults simulated
for training are 6 (LG faults) 9 38 (19 distance to fault from
relaying point in each line section) 9 9 (fault resis-
tance) 9 2 (fault inception angle) = 4104. Also, two no
fault samples have also been added in the training patterns to
differentiate from faulty condition. Thus, the total number of
training patterns/samples used for training the ANN#1 (for
single-phase-to-ground fault) is 4104 (faulted) ? 10 (no
fault) = 4114. Similarly for training of the other ANNs,
appropriate training samples were generated.

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Table 4 Fault parameter variation for generation of training and test patterns
Fault Training patterns
types
Fault location in All From 0 to 95 km in steps of 5 in forward and
km reverse sections
Fault inception All 0 and 90
angle ()
Fault resistance All 0, 4, 8, 15, 30, 45, 55, 70, 100
(X)
The individual eleven neural networks are trained using
Levenberg–Marquardt (LM) algorithm, which is designed
to approach a second-order training speed without having
to compute the Hessian matrix. Tangent sigmoid function
(tansig) has been used in the hidden and output layers.
After training, the proposed algorithm is tested by another
dataset considering fault scenarios not included in training
patterns.
4 Results and discussion
To validate the effectiveness of the proposed protection
scheme, simulation studies have been carried out for dif-
ferent types of forward and reverse shunt faults. The pro-
posed algorithm was tested with 10,980 fault cases which
were not included during the training of MANN. The effect
of variation in fault parameters such as location of fault
from relaying point (La) from 1 to 99 km in forward and
reverse direction, fault inception angle (Ui) from 0 to 360
and fault resistance(Rf) from 0 to 126 X has been investi-
gated. Prior to fault zone identification and fault location
estimation, detection and faulty phase selection have been
carried out and some of the test results corresponding to
different fault scenarios with variation in fault parameters
viz. fault type, location of fault, fault resistance and fault
inception angle are depicted in Table 5.
For all the tested fault cases, the fault detector and
classifier (FD/C) are found to correctly detect and classify
the fault within one cycle (16.6 ms.) post-fault. Following
fault detection and classification, some of the test results
corresponding to faulty zone identification and fault loca-
tion estimation are discussed in the subsequent subsections.
4.1 Response of protection scheme for varying fault
location
The performance of proposed scheme has been investi-
gated for different types of fault at varying location form 1
to 99 km from the relaying point in both forward and
reverse sections, and test results are depicted in Fig. 4.
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Neural Comput & Applic
Testing patterns
Random values between 1 km and 99 km in forward and
reverse sections
Random values between 0 and 360
Random values between 0 and 126 X
Further, the percentage error in estimating the fault
location has also been calculated (Tables 6, 7) as:
 
La  Lf  100
% Error in fault location ¼ ð10Þ
Total line length
where La is the actual location of fault from the relaying
point and Lf represents the output of proposed scheme, i.e.,
the estimated fault location. Positive and negative errors in
fault location, respectively, correspond to the estimation of
fault location before and after the actual fault location from
the relaying point.
As can be seen in Tables 6 and 7, the proposed
scheme is able to achieve a reasonably high accuracy in
estimating the location of fault. Also, the performance of
the fault locator is not affected by changes in the fault
location. The negative and positive values of MANN out-
put 1, respectively, correspond to reverse and forward
faults.
4.2 Influence of faults situated close
to the terminals/boundaries
For faults occurring very close to a relay (near-end faults),
the voltage at the relay location will be small or even zero.
Thus, the near-end faults are problematic for the conven-
tional impedance-based relays. The performance of the
proposed scheme has been evaluated for faults occurring
close to the relay locations, i.e., near to bus 2 (within 1 %
of the line) occurring in both the sections. The test results
are outlined in Table 8. For phase(s)-to-ground faults and
phase(s)-to-phase faults, the fault resistance is kept at 5 and
0 X, respectively, while fault inception angle is selected as
0.
Further, to assess the reach setting of the proposed
algorithm, various far-end faults, i.e., faults occurring at far
end from the relay location (i.e., greater than 99 % of the
line) in both forward and reverse directions, have been
simulated. The fault resistance is taken as 95 and 0 X for
phase(s)-to-ground faults and phase(s)-to-phase faults,
respectively, while fault inception angle is kept at 95. The
test results are depicted in Table 8. It is quite evident from
Neural Comput & Applic

Table 5 Test results of proposed protection scheme (Fault detector/classifier) for different types of fault with varying fault parameters
Fault parameter Fault Actual location Resistance Inception angle Output of fault detector/classifier
varied type in km in ohms in degree
a b c d e f g

Fault location fg 0.5 25 40 0 0 0 0 0 1 1

eg 1 25 40 0 0 0 0 1 0 1
efg 17 25 40 0 0 0 0 1 1 1
cefg 27 25 40 0 0 1 0 1 1 1
abefg 37 25 40 1 1 0 0 1 1 1
acdefg 47 25 40 1 0 1 1 1 1 1
abcdefg 57 25 40 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
af 67 0 40 1 0 0 0 0 1 0
acd 77 0 40 1 0 1 1 0 0 0
acde 87 0 40 1 0 1 1 1 0 0
abcdf 96 0 40 1 1 0.99 1 0 1 0
abcde 97 0 40 1 1 1 1 1 0 0
abdef 98 0 40 0.99 0.99 0 1 1 1 0
abcdef 99 0 40 1 1 1 1 1 1 0
Fault resistance cg 27 126 30 0 0 0.99 0 0 0 1
dg 27 120 30 0 0 0 1 0 0 1
eg 27 110 30 0 0 0 0 1 0 1
cdg 27 80 30 0 0 1 1 0 0 1
acdg 27 50 30 1 0 1 1 0 0 1
acdeg 27 20 30 1 0 1 1 1 0 1
acdefg 27 10 30 1 0 1 1 1 1 1
abcdefg 27 3 30 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
Fault inception angle ag 33 35 360 1 0 0 0 0 0 1
afg 33 35 300 1 0 0 0 0 1 1
aefg 33 35 250 1 0 0 0 1 1 1
acefg 33 35 200 1 0 1 0 1 1 1
acdefg 33 35 150 1 0 1 1 1 1 1
abcdefg 33 35 100 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
ad 33 0 60 1 0 0 1 0 0 0
bdf 33 0 30 0 1 0 1 0 1 0
abcd 33 0 10 1 1 1 1 0 0 0
abcdf 33 0 7 1 1 1 1 0 1 0
abcdef 33 0 5 1 1 1 1 1 1 0

Table 8 that the proposed algorithm is able to distinguish
the forward and reverse faults and also locate the fault
accurately, for faults occurring close to the boundaries. The
maximum percentage error in fault location estimation is
found to be -0.204 % and -0.404 % for close-in fault and
far-end faults, respectively.
4.3 Response of protection scheme for varying fault
inception angle
For faults occurring at the instant of zero voltage crossing,
no traveling wave is generated and thus traveling wave-
based protection schemes do not perform satisfactorily for
faults at zero fault inception angle [31]. Therefore, an
assessment about the impact of fault inception angle in the
algorithm precision for identifying and locating both for-
ward and reverse faults was carried out. The test results of
faulty section/zone and corresponding distances calculated
for several faults along with the variation in fault inception
angle are depicted in Fig. 5. For all the phase(s)-to-ground
fault and phase(s)-to-phase fault cases, Rf is kept at 3 and
0 X, respectively.
The percentage error in estimating the location of fault
has also been evaluated, and results are given in Table 9. It
is clear from the table that the maximum and minimum
percentage errors in estimating the fault location of

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 Neural Comput & Applic

Forward Fault 100

abcef
abd 83.372 km Lable x
80 ad 63.355 km
axis
54.722 km
1 = 3 km
60 acdg 2 = 6 km
23.360 km 3 = 16 km
40 fg 4 = 23 km
ag 5 = 33 km
6.914 km
3.862 km 6 = 34 km
20
7 = 45 km
8 = 53 km
0
9 = 54 km
10 = 63 km
-20
Reverse Fault

11 = 73 km
12 = 83 km
adg
-40 13 = 97 km
16.435 km
abefg
abdefg
-60 32.816 km
33.632 km abcdefg
ce
46.350 km abcdef
-80 52.709 km
Actual Location (La) Estimated Location (Lf) acde 96.079 km
72.047 km
-100
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

Actual Location (km)

Fig. 4 Test results of proposed protection scheme for different types of fault at different locations

Table 6 %Error in fault

Fault type ag fg adg acdg abefg abdefg abcdefg
location estimation for different
types of ground faults at Actual location in km 3 6 16 23 33 34 45
different locations
MANN output 1 1 1 -1 1 -1 -1 -1
%Error in fault location estimation -0.431 -0.457 -0.218 -0.180 0.092 0.184 -0.675

Table 7 %Error in fault

Fault type ce ad abd acde abcef abcdef
location estimation for different
types of phase faults at different Actual location in km 53 54 63 73 83 97
locations
MANN output 1 -1 1 1 -1 1 -0.9993
%Error in fault location estimation 0.146 -0.361 -0.178 0.477 -0.186 0.461

proposed algorithm are found to be -0.618 and 0.055 %,
respectively. Thus, the accuracy of the algorithm is not
sensitive to variation in fault inception angle.
4.4 Effect of high resistance fault
For fault cases occurring at remote end, i.e., far away from
the sending end with high resistance, the increase in fault
current may be inadequate. Therefore, majority of the
protection algorithms, which are influenced by fault resis-
tance, fail to perform satisfactorily. In this regard, the
performance of the proposed protection scheme has been
tested for fault cases involving high fault resistance
occurring at remote end. Table 10 depicts the response of
proposed protection scheme for various forward and
reverse phases-to-ground faults with varying fault resis-
tance. The test results of the corresponding faults are
depicted in Table 10. It is clearly observed that, for all the
cases, the faulty section has been identified correctly and
also located accurately with the maximum percentage error
in estimating the fault location being -0.672 %. From the
simulation results, it can be concluded that the proposed
scheme is insensitive to the variation in fault resistance.
The robustness to fault resistance variation can be directly
attributed to the fact that an ANN is a nonlinear compen-
sator which adapts itself to variation in fault resistances and
other parameters.
4.5 Backup protection to adjacent reverse line
section
The response of the proposed scheme has been tested for
fault cases occurring at section 1, i.e., in reverse direction
from the relay location. From the test results, as illustrated
in Tables 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10, it is clear that for reverse faults
the first output of MANN is ‘‘-1,’’ i.e., it is correctly
identified as reverse fault. Further, for all the tested reverse
fault cases, the location has also been estimated perfectly

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Neural Comput & Applic

Table 8 Test results of proposed protection scheme for different types of fault at boundary location
Location Fault type La MANN output 1 Fault identified MANN output 2 (Lf in km) %Error

Near-end faults ag 1 km in section 1 -1 Reverse 1.120 -0.060

dg 1 km in section 2 1 Forward 1.091 -0.046
deg 1 km in section 2 1 Forward 0.841 0.080
abcg 1 km in section 1 -1 Reverse 1.333 -0.167
defg 1 km in section 2 1 Forward 1.407 -0.204
cdefg 1 km in section 2 1 Forward 1.186 -0.093
abcdfg 1 km in section 1 -1 Reverse 1.250 -0.125
bcdefg 1 km in section 2 1 Forward 0.999 0.005
abcdefg 2 km in section 2 1 Forward 1.940 0.030
ab 1 km in section 1 -1 Reverse 0.825 0.088
adf 1 km in section 2 1 Forward 1.184 -0.092
abce 1 km in section 1 -1 Reverse 0.883 0.058
abcef 1 km in section 2 0.999 Forward 0.807 0.097
abcdef 1 km in section 1 -1 Reverse 0.827 0.087
Far-end faults cg 99 km in section 2 1 Forward 98.742 0.129
acg 99 km in section 1 -1 Reverse 98.960 0.020
befg 99 km in section 2 1 Forward 98.251 0.375
abceg 98 km in section 1 -1 Reverse 97.206 0.397
bcdefg 99 km in section 2 1 Forward 98.856 0.072
abcdefg 98 km in section 1 -0.999 Reverse 97.858 0.071
ab 99 km in section 2 1 Forward 99.590 -0.295
abc 99 km in section 2 1 Forward 98.896 0.052
ade 98 km in section 1 -1 Reverse 98.455 -0.228
abcd 99 km in section 2 1 Forward 98.570 0.215
abdef 98 km in section 1 -1 Reverse 98.432 -0.216
abcde 99 km in section 2 1 Forward 99.394 -0.197
abcdef 99 km in section 2 1 Forward 99.808 -0.404

with maximum error of -0.675 % (Table 6). Thus, the
proposed scheme is able to provide remote backup pro-
tection for the adjacent reverse section of the line (sec-
tion 1), using only single-end data at bus 2, thus avoiding
the need of communication link.
4.6 Effect of variation in the source-side networks
parameters
The robustness analysis of the proposed scheme has been
carried out by evaluating its performance under variation
in short-circuit capacity (SSC) from 0.2 to 5 times and X/R
ratio from 1 to 10 of the source, voltage variation up to
±10 %, frequency variation within ±5 % and power flow
angle (d) variation from 25 to 35. The results corre-
sponding to these variations are detailed in Table 11. To
analyze the effectiveness of the proposed scheme, different
types of fault have been simulated at 50 km from the
relaying point in both the sections with Ui = 0 and
Rf = 0 X.
It can be observed that the proposed scheme is able to
detect, classify and identify the faulty zone for these varia-
tions. However, as far as locating the fault is concerned, the
performance of fault locator is to be somewhat unsatisfactory
under these variations in the fault conditions. It should be
noted that the proposed ANN-based protection scheme being
a machine learning technique is very specific to the model
considered. In other words, the scheme will be effective only
for the fault scenarios occurring only in the power system
considered and not for systems with wider variation in the
line length, different line parameters and line voltage varying
beyond ±10 %. However, the scheme can be extended to
perform well under above-mentioned conditions by consid-
ering a different ANN structure and re-training it with a
wider database by the inclusion of data corresponding to the
above-mentioned eventualities.

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 Neural Comput & Applic

60
eg ac abcdef
cefg abcefg abcdefg abef
36.074 km 37.881 km 36.527 km
37.726 km 36.751 km 36.559 km 37.824 km
Forward Fault

Lable x axis
40 1 = 360 degree
2 = 340 degree
3 = 290 degree
37 km
4 = 250 degree
5 = 140 degree
6 = 100 degree
20 7 = 50 degree
8 = 30 degree
9 = 20 degree
10 = 10 degree
11 = 5 degree
0

-20
Reverse Fault

37 km
-40

deg abcfg abe abcde

38.235 km 36.890 km 37.970 km 36.859 km
Actual Location (La) Estimated Location (Lf)
-60
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
Fault Inception Angle (degree)

Fig. 5 Test results of proposed protection scheme for different types of fault with different fault inception angles

Table 9 Test results of proposed protection scheme for different types of fault with different fault inception angles
Inception angle Fault type La MANN output 1 Fault identified MANN output 2 (Lf in km) %Error

360 eg 37 km in section 2 1 Forward 36.074 0.463

340 deg 37 km in section 1 -1 Reverse 38.235 -0.618
290 cefg 37 km in section 2 1 Forward 37.726 -0.363
250 abcfg 37 km in section 1 -1 Reverse 36.890 0.055
140 abcefg 37 km in section 2 1 Forward 36.751 0.125
100 abcdefg 37 km in section 2 1 Forward 36.559 0.221
50 ac 37 km in section 2 1 Forward 37.881 -0.441
30 abe 37 km in section 1 -1 Reverse 37.970 -0.485
20 abef 37 km in section 2 1 Forward 37.824 -0.412
10 abcde 37 km in section 1 -1 Reverse 36.859 0.071
5 abcdef 37 km in section 2 1 Forward 36.527 0.237

4.7 Response of protection scheme with current
transformer (CT) saturation
Following fault, a significantly large current with DC offset
may result in the saturation of current transformer. Under
saturation, the CT is not able to produce a secondary cur-
rent in proportional to the primary current. A proper pro-
tection scheme should be able to operate even under such
condition.
The efficacy of the proposed scheme has been evaluated
under CT saturation also. Figure 6 depicts the effect of CT
saturation on the phase currents measured at the relay
location for a single-line-to-ground fault. Even with the
non-proportional distorted phase current, the proposed
scheme is able to detect, classify (Fig. 6c), identify the
fault zone and estimate the location of the fault. The impact
of CT saturation on the distortion in the phase current post-
fault is most significant for single-line-to-ground faults

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Neural Comput & Applic

Table 10 Test results of proposed scheme for different faults with varying fault resistance at La = 99 km from relaying point in sections 1 and 2
and Ui = 45
Fault resistance (X) Fault type La MANN output 1 Fault identified MANN output 2 (Lf in km) %Error

126 cg 99 km in section 2 1 Forward 100.156 -0.578

125 beg 99 km in section 2 1 Forward 99.521 -0.261
110 adfg 99 km in section 2 1 Forward 99.765 -0.383
100 acdeg 99 km in section 2 1 Forward 97.866 0.567
75 acdefg 99 km in section 2 1 Forward 100.344 -0.672
65 abcdefg 99 km in section 2 1 Forward 99.328 -0.164
50 ag 99 km in section 1 -1 Reverse 98.611 0.195
45 afg 99 km in section 1 -1 Reverse 98.288 0.356
35 befg 99 km in section 1 -1 Reverse 99.324 -0.162
20 abefg 99 km in section 1 -1 Reverse 99.704 -0.352
15 abcdeg 99 km in section 1 -1 Reverse 100.309 -0.655
1 abcdefg 99 km in section 1 -1 Reverse 100.171 -0.586

Table 11 Test results of proposed scheme for different faults with varying source-side parameters
Source parameter Fault SSC of the X/R Voltage Frequency Power Output of classifier MANN
varied type source (MVA) ratio (kV) (Hz) flow output 1
angle a b c d e f g

SSC of the source and bg 250 1 138 60 35 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 1

its X/R ratio bcg 750 2 138 60 35 0 1 1 0 0 0 1 -1
bcdg 1000 3 138 60 35 0 1 1 1 0 0 1 0.985
de 3000 6 138 60 35 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 1
abc 5000 8 138 60 35 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 -1
cdef 6250 10 138 60 35 0 0 1 1 1 1 0 1
Voltage bg 1250 10 125 60 35 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 1
deg 1250 10 127 60 35 0 0 0 1 1 0 1 -1
defg 1250 10 132 60 35 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 1
bc 1250 10 137 60 35 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 -1
abc 1250 10 140 60 35 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 1
bcde 1250 10 145 60 35 0 1 1 1 1 0 0 1
bcdef 1250 10 151 60 35 0 1 1 1 1 1 0 -1
Frequency ag 1250 10 138 57 35 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 1
abg 1250 10 138 58 35 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 1
abcg 1250 10 138 59 35 1 1 1 0 0 0 1 -1
ab 1250 10 138 61 35 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 1
def 1250 10 138 61 35 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 1
abcd 1250 10 138 62 35 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 -1
abcde 1250 10 138 63 35 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 -1
abcdef 1250 10 138 63 35 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 1
Power flow angle (d) ag 1250 10 138 60 25 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 -1
abg 1250 10 138 60 27 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 1
abcg 1250 10 138 60 29 1 1 1 0 0 0 1 -1
ab 1250 10 138 60 30 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 1
abd 1250 10 138 60 32 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 -0.945
abef 1250 10 138 60 34 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 1

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 Neural Comput & Applic

because of the relatively higher magnitude of post-fault studied. The feasibility of the proposed scheme has been
current as compared to other faults. Hence, a typical case of tested for 10980 fault cases which are much more com-
a single-line-to-ground fault has been discussed here, pared to all the earlier reported protection techniques for
although the effect of CT saturation has been evaluated for six-phase line. Moreover, due to directional feature, the
other faults also with varying fault scenarios. proposed technique provides backup protection to adjacent
reverse line section, which is an advantage over other fault
location techniques for six-phase lines which do not pro-
5 Comparison with existing schemes vide backup protection to adjacent reverse line section as
they are non-directional. The reach setting of the proposed
The proposed protection scheme has been compared with scheme is 99.5 %, i.e., almost entire line can be protected
the previously reported techniques proposed in [11, 16, 21], by the proposed scheme. Further, the proposed algorithm
for fault location estimation (Table 12) to assess the uses only SD of the approximated coefficients of voltage
expediency of the algorithm. The comparison has been and currents signals obtained from DWT, due to which the
carried out in terms of fault location estimation accuracy, size of the fault feature data used in the proposed algorithm
directional feature, technique used and number of test cases is five times less as compared to training data used in the

Six phase current without CT saturation Six phase current with CT saturation
20 20

15 Six phase secondary current in pu x CT ratio 15

Ie
Six phase primary current in pu

10 10 Ie
Ib
Ib Id
Id
Ia Ic If
5 Ic If 5 Ia

0 0

-5 -5

-10 -10

-15 -15

-20 -20
0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06 0.07 0.08 0.09 0.1 0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06 0.07 0.08 0.09 0.1
Time in sec. Time in sec.

(a) (b)
Level of output of proposed fault

X: 0.0375
1 Y: 7
Z: 1 X: 0.0375
0.8 Y: 5
Z: 1
detector/classifier

0.6

0.4
X: 0.03333
Y: 7
0.2 Z: 0

0
g
f X: 0.03333
e Y: 5 0.1
Z: 0 0.08
d 0.06
c 0.04
b 0.02
Phases and ground a 0 Time in sec.

(c)

Fig. 6 a Comparison of six-phase current post-fault without; b with CT saturation during single-phase-to-ground fault ‘‘eg’’ fault at Ui = 08
(ti = 0.0333 s); c output of the fault detector and classifier under CT saturation

123
Neural Comput & Applic

Table 12 Comparison of existing techniques with the proposed protection scheme

Scheme [11] [16] [21] Proposed
protection
scheme

Input used Six-phase voltage and current Fault-induced high- Fundamental component of voltage and SD of approx.
frequency transient current signals of six phases coefficients
currents obtained by
DWT
Relaying point Data at both ends Data at one end Data at one end Data at one end
Techniques used Two three-phase microprocessor- Continuous WT for Modular ANN Combined DWT
based relay (current differential, capturing the fault- and modular
directional comparison and induced high- ANN
distance protection schemes) frequency transient
currents
Number of test Tested for 2 real time fault cases 7 4930 10,980
case studies
Protection Directional but did not locate the locate the faults but locate the faults but non-directional Directional as
functions faults non-directional well as locate
the fault
Fault location N.A. Max. 0.5 % ±0.73 % ±0.675 %
estimation
accuracy in terms
of % error
Fault section Not done Not done Not done 100 %
identification
Fault resistance Tested for fault involving Rf = 2 Tested for Rf = 0.5 X Not influenced with high Rf (tested up Not influenced
X only and Rf = 400 X to 100 X) with high Rf
(tested up to
126 X)
Total training N.A. N.A. Five post-fault samples of fundamental SD of approx.
samples component obtained by DFT (for coefficients
(extracted 200 km line length, training samples obtained by
features) used for for each ANN will be more) DWT
training the ANN
Effect of variation Did not considered Considered (test Considered (from 0 to 360) Considered (from
in fault inception results are given for 0 to 360 and
angle two Ui, i.e., 0 and results are
135) given in
Table 9)
Fault locations 2 locations 7 locations (25, 50, Different locations Different
tested 130, 180 and up to 98.5 % of line length locations up to
260 km) 99.5 % of line
length
Maximum possible not mentioned Not mentioned 98.5 % of the line length 99.5 %, i.e.,
reach setting almost entire
line length

only reported MANN-based scheme in [21]. Because of
lesser input data size, convergence to an acceptable level of
accuracy during training and testing will be faster and
memory usage is reduced approximately by 5 times. Based
on the comparison made in Table 12, it can be concluded
that the proposed algorithm outperforms all the other ear-
lier reported fault location techniques for six-phase line.
Based on the comparison detailed above, the advantages
of the proposed scheme can be summarized as:
(a) The reach setting under study was tested up to
99.5 % of line length. Using the proposed scheme,
90 % of the line length can be covered accurately
which is better than 80 % provided by conventional
distance relays.
(b) Provides non-unit protection, thus the reliability of
the proposed scheme is better, and it also evades the
usages of communication link.

123

(c) Providing adequate protection for close-in faults,
which is an advantage over the conventional impe-
dance-based protection schemes, which does not
perform adequately for faults occurring near to relay
location due to small/zero voltage at the relay location.
(d) Immune to wide variations in fault parameter/cases viz.
fault location, fault inception angle and fault resistance.
(e) Provides backup protection up to 99 % of adjacent
reverse line section.
6 Conclusion
In spite of the advantages of the six-phase transmission
system, its low popularity is mainly attributed to the
unavailability of a reliable protection scheme. This paper is
aimed at deciphering the problem of distinguishing between
forward and reverse faults and providing the exact location
of the fault simultaneously in six-phase line. An advance
signal processing tool, i.e., discrete wavelet transform in
combination with modular ANN, has been applied for pro-
tection of six-phase line against all 120 types of shunt faults.
The fault information is captured using features based on
standard deviation of approximated coefficients of voltage
and current signals obtained by DWT. The voltage and
current signals at relay location, i.e., at bus 2 only, are used
for deriving the DWT coefficients. This avoids the usage of
any communication link. The proposed scheme has been
validated with a large number of fault cases simulated in
forward and reverse directions with variation in fault
parameters viz. fault type, fault location, fault inception
angle and fault resistance. The algorithm is able to provide
primary protection to total line length and also remote
backup protection for the adjacent reverse section of the line,
without entailing the information with relays at buses other
than one from where current and voltage signals are
extracted. The performance of the proposed technique has
also been compared with previously reported techniques for
protection of six-phase line. Based on the test results, it is
evident that the proposed algorithm provides good coverage
and reliability for identifying the faulty section (forward and
reverse faults) and locates the fault accurately with maxi-
mum percentage error of ±0.675 %. Future work is planned
on implementation of the proposed scheme on a digital
platform (microcontroller and digital signal processor) and
evaluating the algorithm for more practical situations.
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