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Positional Protection of Transmission Systems Using Global Positioning System

Zhiqian Q. Bo, Geoff Weller, Tom Lomas, and Miles A. Redfern
AbstractThis paper presents a new technique for the protection of power transmission systems by using the Global Positioning System (GPS) and fault generated transients. In the scheme, the relay contains a fault transient detection system together with a communication unit, which is connected to the power line through the high voltage coupling capacitors of the CVT. Relays are installed at each busbar in a transmission network. These detect the fault generated high frequency voltage transient signals and record the time instant corresponding to when the initial travelling wave generated by the fault arrives at that busbar. The communication unit is used to transmit and receive coded digital signals of the local information to and from the associated relay(s) in the system. At each substation, the relays determine the location of the fault by comparing the GPS time stamps measured locally with those received from the adjacent substations. Extensive simulation studies presented in the paper demonstrate the feasibility of the scheme. Index TermsGlobal positioning system, positional protection, transient based protection.

I. INTRODUCTION ISTANCE protection [1] has played a major role in power line protection since it was first introduced in the early part of the century. It has many advantages over other power line protection techniques and can be adapted for fault location and backup protection. However, like any other power frequency based protection techniques, it suffers from limitations due to the power system frequency waveform, fault path resistance, line loading and source parameter variations. In particular, the response speed of the relay can not meet the requirements when very high speed fault clearance is required. Modern developments of the power system network, the demands for fast fault clearance to improve system stability, and the need for alternative protection principles have resulted in the search for methods to increase the speed of relay response. In the late 1970s, this led to the development of ultra high speed protection based on the use of travelling wave and superimposed components [2][4]. These relays offered the advantages of fast response, directionality, and were not affected by power swing and CT saturation. However, many distinct advantages of the conventional protection techniques were not retained, for example, inherent backup protection. In addition, in themselves, these technique had difficulty in detecting close in and voltage zero faults.

In recent years, there is a growing interest in the use of fault generated transients for protection purposes and extensive research work has been conducted to develop new relaying principles and techniques based on their detection. This led to the new concepts of Transient Based Protection (TBP) [5], [6]. Among these, the Positional Protection [7] offers attractive solutions for power line protection. The technique is based on the detection of fault generated high frequency transient signals and determines the actual position of a fault on the line by measuring the travelling time of the high frequency transient voltage or current signals along that line. In contrast to the conventional travelling wave based protection techniques, this technique concentrates on fault generated signals produced during arcing and their associated high frequency signals. With this approach, not only the close-in faults can be detected, but also the problem of low fault inception angle, voltage zero faults, is effectively overcome since the fault arc signals vary little with the inception angle. The Positional Protection uses its associated GPS scheme to determine the instant when it detects the fault generated high frequency transient signals and uses the power line carrier communication system to communicate this information with relays on other sub-stations. By comparing the arrival times of the transients at different points in the network, relay is able to identify where the fault is on the system and pin-point its location. The system can also respond to the high frequency transients generated by switchgear operations, which provides an immediate opportunity for comprehensive self testing and calibration checking. EMPT software has been used to simulate a model EHV transmission system in order to examine the responses of the protection scheme to a variety of different system and fault conditions. Results demonstrate that the proposed technique offers a very fast relay response and high accuracy in fault location. It has also been shown that the scheme is immune to power frequency phenomena which can affect established types of relaying. II. BASIC PRINCIPLE AND RELAY DESIGN A short circuit fault on a power transmission line generates voltage and current signals over a wide frequency range. These signals propagate away from the fault point in both directions along the transmission system at a velocity close to the speed of light. It has been long recognized that the actual faulted position could be determined on-line if the transient signals could time tagged at key points on the power system network. The Global Positioning System (GPS), with its ability to provide time synchronization with a accuracy to 1 s over the wide area, provides

Manuscript received August 3, 1999. Z. Q. Bo, G. Weller, and T. Lomas are with ALSTOM T&D Protection and Control Ltd., Stafford ST17 4LX, UK. M. A. Redfern is with the University of Bath, Bath BA2 7AY, UK. Publisher Item Identifier S 0885-8977(00)10305-X.

08858977/00$10.00 2000 IEEE

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Fig. 1. Simulated transmission network.

Fig. 2.

Block diagram of the relay unit.

an ideal tool for performing this time tagging of the receipt of fault generated transients. Successful applications have already been found in transmission line fault location [8][11]. A. Basic Principle The basic principle of the technique can be demonstrated by referring to the 400 kV EHV transmission network, shown in Fig. 1. Relays are installed at busbars P, Q, R and S and are responsible for the protection of the network. For this paper, the study has concentrated on the protection of the network PQR and the tripping of the breakers associated with that network. When a fault occurs on any part of the transmission network, high frequency signals are generated at the fault point and travel outwards from that point along the network conductors. In time, they will reach the monitored busbars and be detected by the relays connected to them. Each relay records the arrival instant (GPS time) of the initial signal generated by the fault. The relays then code this time information with details of their identification and transmit this to neighboring relays. All relays are continuously ready to receive the coded messages sent by other devices. Data protocols are used to avoid conflict between information sent by different devices along the same line. Following an event, the relays compare the fault transient arrival time recorded at its site with those sent by the other relays. From this they determine whether or not the fault is within its protected zone. If appropriate, tripping instructions are then sent to the relevant local circuit breakers. The actual location where the fault occurs can be clearly identified at each relay location by this method. B. Relay Design A simplified block diagram of the relay unit is shown in Fig. 2. The transient detector unit is connected to the line using the three phase CVTs. These are able to detect the fault generated high frequency voltage signals [12]. The communication unit, containing a transmitter and a receiver circuits, also uses the CVTs together with a hybrid unit to separate the transmitted and received communications signals. The transient detector is responsible for detecting the fault generated fast transient signals and recording the time tag

obtained from the GPS clock. The transmitter circuit sends this time tag corresponding to the instant when the transient is captured, to the receivers of the other relays installed involved in the network protection scheme. Previous research [7], had investigated the use of digital filters to detect the high frequency signals generated by the fault and had shown that the accuracy of fault location was a function of the sampling rate used to digitize the measured signals. This accuracy was directly related to the sampling rate and the higher the sampling rate, the more accurate the measurement. In this system it was therefore proposed to use continuous sampling, i.e. an analog system and a pass band filter tuned to operate between 40 and 80 kHz. The protection technique is therefore divorced from the power system frequency. The communication link used in the scheme modeled and shown in Fig. 2, used power line carrier techniques. Although this has several advantages, other communication systems could be used, such as; pilot wire, optical fibers or microwave. The decision to trip the local breaker depends on the comparison between the times measured by the GPS systems at that location and those measured by other relays. Unlike conventional protection scheme, where each relay is dedicated to the protection of one line section and only associates with one circuit breaker on that line section, the proposed relaying scheme will be responsible for protection of several lines connected to the busbar where it is installed. For example, as shown in Fig. 1, the relay at busbar R will be responsible for the protection of both line sections connected to the busbar by controlling both and CB . Therefore, the technique ofcircuit breakers CB fers a network protection scheme rather than one which concentrates on specific units of plant. This provides several technical advantages and potentially economic advantages over conventional relaying.

III. MODELING AND SIMULATION A. System Modeling The response of the complete system was evaluated by modeling the transmission line systems together with the relays in the scheme using the EMTP simulation program.

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Determining which is the faulted section is reduced to a comparison of the time tags recorded when the fault transients were detected at the different relaying points throughout the network. Each relay compares the time instant of the first wave to arrive at its location with those recorded at other locations. A time difference smaller than the time taken to travel through the corresponding line length indicates that the fault is within the corresponding section. The actual fault location can also be determined with an accuracy of within 300 meters using the difference between time measurements taken at the ends of the faulted line. The relationship between the tag times and determining which feeder is faulted and hence which breakers need to be tripped is given by
(a) Primary system voltages

(1) arrival time of the transient wave as busbar P arrival time of the transient wave as busbar Q length of line between busbar P and Q wave velocity on the line. From the responses shown in Fig. 3, (1) indicates that the fault occurs on the line section PQ. Since this is a TEED feeder, the trip decisions will be made by the relays at locations P, Q and R respectively and subsequently, these relays trip their associated circuit breakers, as shown in Fig. 1(b). For this fault, the relays at P and R are able to discriminate between the TEED feeder PQR and line PR by considering their responses and that from the relay at Q. The distance to the fault is be calculated at both terminals of line section between busbar P and Q. The time tag data and the measured fault location are given in Table I. The tripping signals shown assume a high speed communications system. Fig. 4 shows the corresponding responses for an A phase to ground fault occurring at the point F2 in Fig. 1. In this case, the time differences between and , and correspond to the wave travel time from P to Q and P to R respectively, and therefore the fault is outside the area considered in the study.

(b) Relay response Fig. 3. Responses to an a-earth fault at point F1 (i) at busbar P; (ii) at busbar Q; (iii) at busbar R.

B. Simulation Studies The configuration of a transmission line network used in the studies is shown in Fig. 1. The line lengths, source capacities and fault positions studied are as shown in the figure. CB , CB , CB , CB , CB are circuit breakers responsible for isolating the different line sections. Fig. 3(a) shows the primary system voltages at the busbars experienced during an a-earth fault at the point F1 in Fig. 1. As expected, the severity of the fault depends on the impedances of the lines connecting the busbar and the fault point. It is evident that the high frequency components are produced on the faulted and unfaulted phases. Fig. 3(b) shows the corresponding transient voltage signals captured by the relays at P, Q and R. It can be seen that the magnitude of the captured transient signals decreases with increasing distance between the relay and the fault point. Upon detecting the arrival of the transient signal, each relay time tagged the signal and details of the time tag are sent to the other relay locations. The time taken for the communications will depend on the communication system used. In this study a high speed communications system has been modeled. The time taken for the communications is an system overhead, which will be added to the processing time required in the decision making units.

(2) The relays therefore restrain the circuit breakers associated with section PQR from tripping. The relay installed at busbar S will detect and time tag the fault generated transient wave and together with the time tag data received from the relay at busbar P can determine that the faulted line section is SP and trip the corresponding breaker. The relay located on busbar P will respond in a similar manner. Fig. 5 shows the relay response for a b phase to ground fault occurring near a voltage zero at point F3. As expected although the magnitude of the transient signals has been reduced compared to those shown in Figs. 3 and 4, the relay is able to make the correct decision based on the signals detected. Details of the relay s responses are as shown in Table I. Fig. 6 shows the response to a high impedance a phase to ground fault at point F4. The fault path resistance is 300 .

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TABLE I RELAY RESPONSE FOR VARIOUS SYSTEM AND FAULT CONDITIONS

(a) Primary system voltages

Fig. 5. Relay response for a b-earth voltage zero fault at point F3 (i) at busbar P; (ii) at busbar Q; (iii) at busbar R.

(b) Relay response Fig. 4. Responses to an a-earth fault at point F2 (i) at busbar P; (ii) at busbar Q; (iii) at busbar R. Fig. 6. Relay response for an a-earth high impedance fault at point F4 (i) at busbar P; (ii) at busbar Q; (iii) at busbar R.

Again although the magnitudes of the signals captured are relatively lower due to the increase in fault path resistance, the result clearly shows that the scheme is still able to operate. Fig. 7 shows an a to b phase fault at point F5 on the TEED feeder PQR. The high frequency transients are readily detected at the relay locations and the summary of results is shown in Table I. Switching operations at any substation will also generate high frequency transients, which will be detected by the relays. However, the time differences between the time tags will correspond

to the transit times along the feeders and the protection will diagnose that the disturbance is not on the protected feeders. The response of the system to these switching operations offers the opportunity for a comprehensive self-testing of the fault detection, GPS and communications system. The GPS clock has an accuracy of 1 s roughly corresponds to an accuracy in fault location of 300 meters. This assumes that the transients travel at the speed of light in a vacuum, whereas their speed will be less along the power conductors.

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REFERENCES
[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] Protective Relays Application Guide: ALSTOM T&D Protection & Control Ltd. M. Chamia and S. Liberman, Ultra high speed relay for EHV/UHV transmission linesDevelopment, design and application, IEEE Trans. PAS-97, pp. 21042112, 1978. A. T. Johns, New ultra-high speed directional comparison technique for the protection of EHV transmission lines, Proc. IEE, vol. 127, no. C, 1980. M. Vitins, A fundamental concept for high speed relay, IEEE Trans. PAS-100, pp. 163168, 1981. Z. Q. Bo and A. T. Johns, Transient based protectionA new concept in power system protection, in The IPST97, Proceedings of the International Conference on Power System Transients. Seattle, USA, June 1997. Z. Q. Bo, G. Weller, F. T. Dai, and Q. X. Yang, Transient based protection for power transmission lines, in PowerCon98, Proceedings of the IEEE/CSEE International Conference on Power Engineering, Beijing, China, Aug. 1998. Z. Q. Bo, F. Jiang, G. Weller, F. T. Dai, and M. A. Redfern, Positional protection technique for power transmission lines, in IPEC99, Proceedings of the International Power Engineering Conference, Singapore, May 1999. P. F. Gale, P. A. Crossley, B. Y. Xu, Y. Z. Ge, B. J. Cory, and J. R. G. Baker, Fault location based on travelling wave,, IEE Pul. 368, 1993. H. Lee, Development of accurate travelling wave fault locator using the global positioning system satellites, Trans. CEA E&O Div., vol. 32, 1993. Z. Q. Bo, R. K. Aggarwal, and A. T. Johns, A new approach to transmission protection using fault generated high frequency current signals, in Proceedings of the 12th Power Systems Computation Conference, Dresden, Germany, Aug. 1923, 1996. Z. Q. Bo, R. K. Aggarwal, J. A. S. B. Jayasinge, A. T. Johns, and P. J. Moore, A novel communication scheme for monitoring of power transmission system utilising global positioning system, in Proceedings of the International Conference on Electrical Engineering, ICEE96, Beijing, China, Aug. 1215, 1996. A. T. Johns, Z. Q. Bo, and R. K. Aggarwal, A novel nonunit protection scheme based on fault generated high frequency noise on transmission lines, in Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Developments in Power System Protection, 1994, IEE Pul. no. 368, pp. 2124. Z. Q. Bo, A. T. Johns, and R. K. Aggarwal, A new directional relay based on the measurement of fault generated current transients, in Proceedings of the IEE International Conference on Developments in Power System Protection, Mar. 1997. D. R. M. Lyonette, J. A. S. B. Jayasinge, Z. Q. Bo, and G. Weller, A new directional relay for the protection transmission lines using high frequency voltage transients, in Proceedings of the IEEE/CSEE International Conference on Power System Technology, Beijing, Aug. 1821, 1998, pp. 11071110.

[6]

Fig. 7. Relay response for an a-b phase fault at point F5 (i) at busbar P; (ii) at busbar Q; (iii) at busbar R.

[7]

[8]

Errors in the time tagging do introduce an uncertainty for faults occurring close to a busbar. To form a complete protection scheme which covers faults on any part of the transmission line system, the technique needs to be complemented by a high speed directional relaying technique. Such relays could be provided by measuring either current [13] or voltage [14] transient signals. In the complete scheme, the direction of a fault as determined at a busbar would also be transmitted to the adjacent relays using the communication link. IV. CONCLUSION A new technique for the protection of a transmission line network is presented in the paper. This uses a dedicated fault detector to extract the fault generated high frequency voltage transient signals and a GPS system to time tag these signals. The travelling time of the transient high frequency signal from the point of fault to the adjacent substation is used to determine the fault position. Simulation studies have been carried out to demonstrate the operation of the system when applied to an EHV transmission network containing both plain and TEED feeders. Results show that the proposed scheme is able to identify the faulted section of a transmission network and issue the trip command for the circuit breaker associated with the faulted section. The protection is inherently high speed but is dictated by the data communications system used. Studies show that the proposed technique is able to offer a high accuracy in fault location. Since the accuracy of fault location is proportional to digital sampling rate, continuous sampling was chosen, i.e., an analog fault detector. Unlike traditional protection schemes, this technique offers a new concept in network protection. The protection inherently monitors the network to which it is connected and is not limited to individual units of plant. ACKNOWLEDGMENT The authors are grateful to ALSTOM T&D Protection and Control Ltd. for permission to publish the paper.

[9] [10]

[11]

[12]

[13]

[14]

Zhiqian Bo obtained his B.Sc. degree from the Northeastern University, China in 1982 and Ph.D. degree from The Queens University of Belfast, UK in 1988. From 1989 to 1997, he worked at the Power Systems Group at the University of Bath. During this time, he published numerous papers and contributed to significant innovations in the field, as well as acting as a consultant to leading companies and government departments and as a Visiting Professor to academic institutions. Presently, he is with ALSTOM T&D Protection and Control Ltd. His main research interests are power system protection and control. He is also interested in and takes an active role in projects involving international technical collaboration, joint ventures and management in science and technology.

Geoff Weller completed a student apprenticeship with the English Electric Company in 1967, graduating with a London University degree. He was employed as a relay development engineer by GEC Measurements (now ALSTOM T&D Protection and Control Ltd.) before being appointed as a Project Leader in 1975. He was responsible for the development of one of the first microprocessor based distance relays for extra high voltage power transmission lines, and later on, other distance relays for sub-transmission and distribution lines. He has held his present position as Chief Engineer, Development, for the last 6 years, giving him responsibility for all aspects of hardware and software design and validation testing of protection and control relays.

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Tom Lomas, currently senior control systems engineer at Alstom T&D, Protection and Control Ltd., St. Leonards Works Stafford, has spent most of his career working in the field of electricity supply substation control, protection and scada systems, variously in research, development, design, and application. Currently his work involves the engineering of modern numerical protection and control relays, in conjunction with PC based operator control points, to provide integrated substation systems for use in both industrial and utility applications. The scope of engineering includes the design of protection and control systems, the configuration of multi-functional relays, the design of in-substation communications, the design and configuration of scada control databases and human man-machine interfaces.

Miles A. Redfern received his B.Sc. degree from Nottingham University and Ph.D. degree from Cambridge University in 1970 and 1976 respectively. In 1970 he joined British railways research and in 1975 moved to GEC Measurements where he held various posts including Head of Research and Long Term Development and Overseas Sales Manager. In 1986, he joined the University of Bath, with research interests in Power Systems, their Protection and Industrial Management.