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Abstract—Utilities have recently installed phasor measurement of its parameters, the algorithm will not run. Most viable
units (PMUs) in their systems. In the control room, massive model-free algorithms are more computationally intensive
amounts of data come in from PMUs, but it is hard to utilize in since system architecture cannot be used to simplify the
real-time. Situational awareness and event detection are
necessary to avoid cascading outages. Tangible algorithms need
analysis. The most desirable algorithm is one that can operate
to be implemented in order to make this abundant data useful to quickly in real-time with a model-free architecture. The
a system operator. Several events cause frequency deviation, proposed algorithm in this paper is not computationally
including load variation and faults. Of these events, changing intensive, allowing it to run in real-time.
loads and switching shunt capacitors on and off is necessary. High impedance fault (HIF) occurs due to undesired
The developed algorithms need to flag faults without giving false contact of a conductor with the ground through a high
positives for other events. Of the fault types, a high impedance
fault (HIF) is the hardest to detect since it may not trip a
impedance [7]-[11]. Since a HIF is many orders of
breaker and causes a smaller frequency deviation from lower magnitude greater than the line in impedance, very little
impedance faults. This paper proposes an approach to detect a current flows through it, making its presence difficult to
HIF using statistical analysis: a null and alternative hypothesis detect compared to low impedance faults which draw almost
test is conducted to determine whether a system has diverged all line current to ground. Regular faults can be detected by
from the 60Hz average to another less probable value. The relays, but dry earth and other mediums do not draw enough
approach uses utility PMU measurements at substations to
achieve the standard deviation of the system. A high impedance
current to be seen by these instruments [8]. References [9]
fault is simulated in Matlab/Simulink, and the bus frequency at and [10] both seek to identify the location of a HIF by power
the fault location is exported for analysis. Real-time PMU line communication techniques and analyzing magnetic fields,
measurements and the simulated frequency deviation are then respectively. Reference [11] utilizes time frequency analysis
combined to test whether the HIF would be detectable in the to detect the HIF in a laboratory setting.
real system. The results show the effectiveness of this approach This paper introduces a new, simple, and computationally
for HIF detection.
inexpensive method to detect a HIF using PMU
Index Terms— PMU, statistical analysis, high impedance fault, measurements based on statistical analysis applied to a
frequency analysis Gaussian distribution. The remainder of this paper is
organized as follows: in section II, the methodology and
I. INTRODUCTION mathematical background are presented. Section III proposes
Phasor measurement units (PMUs)can provide abundant data a specific algorithm to detect events including the HIF. In
when assessing voltage stability, frequency changes, line Section IV, the approach is applied on a case study to verify
congestion, and changes in power flow across tie lines, which its effectiveness of detecting HIF. A conclusion is provided in
have substantial impact on stability of the overall system [1]- Section V.
[6]. In reference [3], a Jacobian was built assuming the
system architecture is known and singular value II. METHODOLOGY TO DETECT FREQUENCY CHANGE EVENT
decomposition was applied to the matrix in order to An approach using statistics was considered when
determine whether a system was approaching an instability searching for a valid algorithm. For this algorithm design, a
point. The system architecture for the PMU data is not always Null and Alternative Hypothesis approach is utilized. A
given so a model-free based algorithm is needed, as is the Gaussian distribution would be ideal for this test, so in order
same case in [6]. A model-free algorithm is more flexible, for a Gaussian distribution to be obtained, the data must be
since it does not require any system architecture to operate normalized. In reference [12] the Central Limit Application is
such as connectivity or admittance-bus matrix specifications. explained so that the probability distribution function of a
If a model-free algorithm encounters a system without most large sum of samples will approach a Gaussian distribution.
H A is assumed to be true.
If the Null Hypothesis is not rejected, H0 is assumed to be
true (1). Rejecting the null hypothesis simply translates to an
anomaly in the system indicative of an event (2). The
Fig. 1. Normal distribution curve probability of rejecting the null hypothesis falsely is 1% since
it is only rejected for an area of 0.01. There can never be a
This concept is tied into the Null/Alternative Hypothesis zero percent chance of making an error so bounds are set
test. Consider that the whole system frequency is very close relatively low. Since the problem is an equivalence
to 60 Hz for all time. An analog measurement of 60 Hz hypothesis, the area is split between the left and right side of
exactly is very improbable, but for the algorithm design, a the curve. Therefore, if the x-value in equation (4) is less
bus frequency mean of 60Hz is assumed for all time. The than 0.005 or greater than 0.995, the time of that particular
mean of each 60-sample window is calculated, including the measurement is flagged as containing an event.
most recent system measurement and the prior 59
measurements. The probability that this mean is a subset of III. HIF DETECTION ALGORITHM
60Hz is tested. A level of significance of 1% is used: this will Figure 2 shows the flow chart explaining the steps of HIF
be explained later. detection. In this figure, a sliding window which includes the
The mathematical background is explained as follows: most current sample as well as the prior 59 samples is
analyzed to ascertain whether or not that window contains an
H 0 : 60 (Null hypothesis) (1) event. Recurring positive flags in the algorithm, logged in
the Event Matrix, translate to an increased likelihood of a HIF.
Although these events are not entirely independent, the
chances that a single window will register a false positive are
This can be used to aid operators since this event often is Is X < 0.005?
undiagnosed by current methods.
Yes
Is another system No
IV. CASE STUDY state available?
The data used in this paper has two parts. The first part is
obtained from already installed PMUs in a utility. This data is No
extracted from the openPDC data stream [14] on several days
during Summer 2015. The HIF data is obtained from a End
Matlab/Simulink [15] simulation of different faults with Fig. 2. Flow chart of HIF fault detection
different high impedance to ground. The system PMU data is
utilized to attain the standard deviation for a bus. The
simulation produces a standard deviation of 0 when no events
are present and the system is balanced. In a real system, there
is a constant fluctuation around 60Hz.
The standard deviation of the real system is also
important since it contains load shifting and voltage
modulation, accounting for regular system operations and
decreasing the likelihood of a false reading dramatically.
During testing of the algorithm, the system frequencies
were tested and a false reading was never made. In Fig. 3, a
high impedance fault of 100 ohms is introduced at the 4456 th
iteration and this same HIF is logged sequentially after
iteration 4483, which is relatively quick. All following
values are logged in the matrix until the end of the simulation. Fig. 3. Frequency deviation due to 100 ohm HIF
This sequential continuity of the events in the Event Matrix,
as seen in Fig. 2, causes a flag for the HIF to switch. Fig. 4
V. CONCLUSION
This paper presented a new method for HIF detection using
statistical analysis as an application of PMU data. A
mathematical approach was explained and the HIF detection
Fig. 4. Magnitude of X-norm approaching rejection region 100 ohm
algorithm was described. Combined PMU data and HIF
HIF model
simulated data were utilized to test the capabilities of the
proposed method. This algorithm can run in real-time
alongside other situational awareness programs and expand
detection of events to HIFs. The algorithm registered no false
positives in several tests for a system that operates with load
switching. After the HIF was introduced, the algorithm
detected a fault for its entire duration less than 1 second later.
Even if an event is detected on one sample, multiple
detections are necessary to characterize an HIF. Future work
involves pairing this algorithm with others to monitor voltage
stability. This algorithm may also be modified in the future to
detect other undetectable fault types, such as internal
machine/transformer fault. Interactions with this algorithm
will be taken into account in order to generate more
Fig. 5. Probability of event 100 ohm HIF
redundancy and reliability when assessing possible events to
be relayed for detection.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work was funded by Clemson University Electric Power
Research Association (CUEPRA). Members of CUEPRA are:
Advanced Cable Bus Inc., ALSTOM, Duke Energy, South Carolina
Electric and Gas (SCE&G), and Santee-Cooper
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