Influence of Inserting FACTS Series Capacitor on High Voltage Transmission Line on Estimation of Fault Location

S. K. Kapuduwage M. Al-Dabbagh E.M. Yap Electrical Energy and Control Electrical Energy and Control Electrical Energy and Computer Systems Systems Engineering School of Electrical and School of Electrical and School of Electrical and Computer Engineering Computer Computer RMIT University City Engineering Engineering Campus RMIT University City Campus RMIT University City Campus S3029348@student.rmit.edu.au majid@rmit.edu.au elenayee@ieee.org
ABSTRACT
Based on the developed algorithm for accurate and efficient fault location estimation of series compensated transmission lines, the series compensation unit (SCU) is assumed fixed at the centre of transmission line, and the fault location estimated using instantaneous 3-phase voltage and current signals monitored at the transmission line ends. This paper investigates the problems and solutions regards to the practical issues concerning fault distance estimation on transmission lines including thyristor controlled switched capacitor (TCSC) with various operation modes. It also investigates the optimum sampling of data measurement required for estimating fault locations accurately. The effects on implementation of the proposed improvements have been tested using the ATP on two ends 400KV, 300km long transmission line model. The initial results indicate that the proposed developments slightly affect the accuracy of fault location estimation. detection methods. To deal with this problem, a new method of estimating fault location for basic series compensated transmission lines, using instantaneous fault data, has been proposed by the authors [6]. This paper examines the application of the algorithms with FACTS series compensated transmission lines and the practical issues related to estimation of fault location. The Series compensator under FACTS has two main parts, i.e. thyristor controlled switched capacitor (TCSC) and the protection system as shown in Fig. 1. During the condition of normal power operations thyristor branch is triggered by its pre-known firing angle and hence the voltage drop across the series capacitor can be estimated using instantaneous fault current through the TCSC [8]. However, during a fault, the TCSC operates with its protection devices and therefore, accurate estimation of TCSC voltage drop is far more complicated, compared to the present method. This paper examines three operation modes of the TCSR during light and heavy faults in the transmission network to accurately estimate the TCSC voltage drop, for all operation modes. The two ends single transmission line has been modelled using the ATP program in order to test the computation of TCSC voltage drop under various fault conditions.

1. INTRODUCTION
The development of power electronics applications in power systems provides great benefits in technical or economical terms. Applying FACTS series compensators is one of the electronics controllers that enhanced power transfer capability, transient stability and damping of power transfer through transmission lines. However, one of the difficulties of having FACTS compensation is that the calculation of capacitor voltage drop can not be estimated using convectional methods [2] [4]. The operation of FACTS devices introduces harmonics and non linearities to the power system, which adversely affect the protection systems and the fault

Fig. 1: TCSC Basic Model

The algorithm was developed using MAT LAB 6.5 to test its performance in fault detection, using the fault data generated from ATP simulation. Further, investigations have been carried out to address some practical issues related to the insertion of TCSC unit at one end or both ends for a given line. Section 2 describes the operation of the TCSC with its basic operation modes, and how TCSC voltage drop is computed by considering its operation modes under fault conditions. The system configuration and improvements to the new algorithm are given in sections 3 and 4. Practical issues concerned in TCSCs for fault estimation location are given in section 5. The results and conclusions along with the algorithm are provided in section 6 and 7.

2.4 Calculation of TCSC Voltage Drop To simplify the voltage drop computation, it is assumed that TCSC has two branches where the line fault current is divided and dependant on the level and duration of the fault current. Series capacitor in it will form the first branch. The expressions for the instantaneous capacitor voltage drop could be obtained with respect to the instantaneous fault current (If (t)) as follows:

V cp (t ) = V cp (t T ) + I f (t) = I f (t T ) +

C V cp (t) V cp (t T ) + V cp (t 2T ) + T (2) g V cp (t) V cp (t T )

T I f (t ) + I f (t T ) 2C

(1)

2. SERIES TCSC MODEL

Fig 1 shows the basic structure of TCSC. During the fault period, TCSC operates in 3 modes [2] that are dependant on the fault current and the duration. 2.1 Vernier Mode Under the Vernier mode TCSC behaves as a continuous controllable capacitive reactance. This is a common operation of the transmission network. Therefore, in this mode protection function of the TCSC device does not operate. Normally, TCR branch is triggered by predefined firing angle. Voltage or current signals may include sub synchronous resonance oscillations. 2.2 Block Mode This mode is also known as blocked-Thyristor Mode or waiting mode where the firing pluses to the thyristor values are blocked. In this mode, TCSC operates as a fixed capacitive reactance and over voltage protection is provided by the MOV. 2.3 Bypass Mode When energy absorbed in the MOV is exceeded the protection limit, TCSC will enter into a Bypass mode and protects the MOV and capacitor from overloaded or damaged. In this mode, the TCR branch conducts in the whole cycle and TCSC operates as a small value inductance. The voltage and current signals will include the sinusoidal signals with exponential dc offset. Due to the above operation modes, characteristics of TCSC can no longer be considered as a simple polynomial equation, where voltages and currents have well defined relationship [4]. Therefore, the fault locator must have operational chart of the TCSC such that V-I characteristics of the TCSC can be obtained prior to the estimation of fault distance. In this case, VI data must be obtained in accordance with the present fault case considering the operation modes of TCSC.

where the equations (1) and (2) refer to the current and voltages of capacitor branch and its protective device. In these expressions, VCP refers to the instantaneous voltage drop across the TCSC at a given time t. The protection device operation data can be used to estimate the gradient g at time t. It can be shown that if more than two branches are present in the equivalent circuit of TCSC, similar approach can be applied to compute the instantaneous voltage drop across the TCSC. Fig. 2 shows typical instantaneous capacitor voltage drop computed using the above methods, for a 2P-G fault simulated in the ATP program with time period of 70 ms after the fault initiation. It also shows the actual voltage drop as simulated by ATP program for comparison purpose. Fig. 3 indicates the difference between actual and computed values during the capacitor voltage computations.

Fig. 2: Capacitor voltage drop (Actual Vs Calculated)

Fig. 3: Accuracy of TCSC computation error

3. SYSTEM CONFIGURATION
Consider the transmission network shown in Fig. 4 with a typical TCSC series compensation of 80% located at the centre of the transmission line. This network is fed from both ends, and it is assumed that fault occurs at a distance d from the local end prior to the TCSC operation.
GPS Receiver Sending GPS Receiver Receiving

[VD] is the 3x1 column matrix has the computed voltage drop of the TCSC unit, as shown in section 2. 4.1 Fault distance During the fault, at a given time t, equation (5) can be solved to obtain distance to the fault d, using instantaneous values:
d (t 0 ) = V A (t 0 ) V B (t 0 ) + V D (t 0 ) + VZ R (t 0 ) VZ S (t 0 ) + VZ R (t 0 )

(6)

TCSC
ZSS FaultLoc ES dZLB (1-d)ZLB ZSR

RF

ER

where t0 is the sample values computed using measured instantaneous values. In equation (6) all terms are represented in 3x1 column matrices. 4.2 Fault resistance

Fig. 4: Two ends transmission line network If the voltage sources are represented using complex phasors, the source voltage can be expressed in a matrix form:

Applying loop equation to the right side through the fault, equation can be obtained for the fault resistance:

[V F ] = [V R ] (1 x )[ZL ][I R ]

(7)

ES =

[E sa

E sb E sc ]

(3)

where VF is the voltage at the fault location. Details of computation of fault distance and resistance are published in previous paper. [4]

Where a, b and c are the three phases. Line impedances before and after the fault point can be written as:

Z L1 = d Z L and Z L 2 = (1 d ) Z L

(4)

5. PRACTICAL ISSUES
5.1 Locating fault with respect to TCSC During the fault, if the local current (IS) passes through the TCSC, then the TCSC voltage drop will need to be computed using IS or otherwise it must be computed using remote end fault current (IR). To solve this problem the following method can be applied: First compute the TCSC voltage drop using both IS and IR and use the equation (6) to compute the fault distances d1 and d2 considering the location of TCSC. If the computations are correct the actual fault distance must be in the range of 0 to 0.5 p.u or 0.5 to 1.0 p.u depends on the location of TCSC with respect to the fault. In this case, it is assumed that TCSC is located in the middle of the line. Using a logical approach, incorrect fault distance can be eliminated.

Where ZL is the total impedance of the line and d is fault distance. ZL also can be written in 3 phase, 3x3 impedance matrix. Diagonal terms of ZL represent the self impedance and off diagonals represent the mutual impedance between phases.

Fig. 5: other system configurations (a) TCSC at both ends of the line (b) TCSC at one end of the line

5.2 Location of TCSC As shown Fig. 5, there are several ways of configuring TCSC. If the TCSC is located near the local end, TCSC voltage drop must be computed using local fault current to estimate the fault location. Similar logic can be applied, if it is located at the remote end. If TCSC units are located at both ends of the line, fault equation can be simply modified to include TCSC voltage drops for local and remote ends. 5.3 Operation Modes of TCSC Accuracy of the fault location depends on the status of TCSC operation mode with respect to level of fault

4. FAULT LOCATION ALGORITHM

As shown in Fig. 4, if the fault distance from supply source is d, it can be shown that network equation of the faulted system can be written in matrix form [5]:

[V s ] x [Z L ][I S ] = [V R ] (1 x ) [Z L ][I R ] [V D ]

(5)

where s and r are prefix refer to local and remote ends of the line with respect to the fault locator. The term

current and the duration it exists. Since fault current level and duration are known to the fault locator, actual operation characteristics of the TCSC can be dynamically determined from TCSC operating chart, before applying to fault location algorithm. Details of this implementation will not be discussed in this paper, and will the subject of future paper. 5.4 Sampling Time The addition of TCSC to a transmission system will introduce several transient effects in estimating the fault location using instantaneous values. If the sampling time is increased, voltage drop computations will be more accurate and the same applied to the accuracy of fault location. On the other hand, sophisticated measuring techniques are required to monitor data signals with higher sampling rate [6]. Tests have been conducted with this algorithm to determine the optimum sampling rate required for reasonably accurate fault detection and summary of results are shown in Table 1.
TCSC in the middle of line Sampling Rate 10 KHz 50 KHz 100 KHz 150 KHz 200KHz TCSC Voltage Drop Error % 7.7 4.8 2.41 1.73 1.26 Fault Location Error% 0.86 0.52 0.11 0.08

algorithm. In this case line impedance matrix could be as large as 6x6 to include all mutual effects. In addition to this algorithm that will require further improvements to be applicable for long transmission lines, where shunt capacitance can not be neglected and hence will be considered in future investigations. The following section will discuss the tests conducted based on the algorithm presented in this paper.

6. TESTING OF THE ALGORITHM

6.1 Case Study The accuracy and some practical problems with locating faults in a series compensated transmission line using this algorithm have been tested using ATP model. The system configuration shown in Fig. 3 is modelled with ATP software with the line and simulation data given in Table 2. In these tests cases, TCSC is placed in the middle of the line. The transmission line is represented by 3 phase mutually coupled R-L sections specifying positive and zero sequence parameters.

0.06 0.61

Table 1 Estimation errors with sampling time 5.5 Synchronisation Error Since this algorithm is developed using measurements of signals from both ends of the line, data must be accurately synchronised for estimation of fault location. The data acquisition and controls are economically low in relation to todays technology. Accurate synchronisation is not a critical issue in designing fault location device. For an example, low cost digital fault recorders can be implemented with the assistance of GPS receivers to keep accurate time tags on the measured fault data. The performance of HP Smart Clock technology can produce the timing accuracy 110 nanosecond, with 95 % probability [9]. However, the present algorithm is tested introducing local and remote ends data synchronizing error up to 0.1 ms, and it was observed that the fault location error is still within 0.1% of the average previous result. 5.6 Transmission line configurations The present algorithm is tested only for single and two ends single transmission line configurations. However, in the case of parallel lines, mutual effects of adjacent lines need to be considered when developing the

Table 2 System data The series compensation unit consists of a capacitor and MOV and it has the V-I characteristics of ZnO surge arrester represented by a non-linear equation representing the V-I characteristics of the MOV. Further switches have been added to simulate the operation of TCSC modes during heavy fault cases. Voltages and currents from both ends of the line have been recorded at a sampling rate of 100 KHz in order to test the algorithm with higher accuracy. Fig. 6 shows a dynamic fault estimation using this algorithm for test case of two phases to ground fault simulated at a distance of 0.25 p.u. with fault resistance of 10 ohms.

[3] S. K. Kapuduwage, M. Al-Dabbagh A New Simplified Fault Location Algorithm for Series Compensated Transmission Lines, AUPEC 2002, Sep. 2002, ISDN 07326-2206-9 [4] M. Al-Dabbagh, S. K. Kapuduwage A novel Efficient Fault Location Algorithm for series compensated High Voltage Transmission lines, SCI 2003, July 2003, Vol. XIII, pp.20-25 [5] F. Ghassemi J. Goodarzi A.T. Johns Method to improve digital distance relay impedance measurement when used in series compensated lines , IEE Proc., Vol. 145, No.4, July 1998, pp 657-663 [6] M. Al Dabbagh, S. K. Kapuduwage A new Method for Estimating Fault Location on series compensated High Voltage Transmission lines EuroPES 2004 Power & Energy, Paper ID 442-259, 28-30 June, Rhodes, Greece. [7] S. K. Kapuduwage, M. Al-Dabbagh One End Simplified Fault Location Algorithm Using Instantaneous Values for series compensated High Voltage Transmission Lines, AUPEC 04, Paper ID 23, University Of Queensland, 26 29 Sep. 2004 [8] Flexible ac Transmission Systems (FACTS) Edited by Yong Hua Song and A.T. Johns, IEE Power and Energy Series 30, 1999 [9] Hewlett Packard Application Note 1276 Accurate Transmission Line Fault Location [10] MATLAB Version 6.5, Release 12-1 Help Reference Documents [11] Alternative Transients Program Rule book, 1989 edition

Fig. 6: Dynamic estimation of fault location 6.2 Results Evaluation Results found from these tests cases have 4000 computed results, and each result is computed using the instantaneous fault measurements data. It can be seen from Fig. 6 at some instances, results are quite inaccurate due the sampling error mismatching, during the instances of firing of MOV. In order to estimate accurate final result for the fault distance, the results array needs to be further processed and can be obtained by applying simple numerical processing to the results array. [6] The algorithm has been extensively tested for different fault cases comprising of fault locations, fault type and inception angle. From the analysis of statistical results, it can be concluded that the average fault location error, using this algorithm with stated practical issues does not exceed 0.5%.

7 CONCLUSIONS
This paper have investigates the influence of inserting thyristor controlled switched capacitor (TCSC) in place of just a SCU. The estimation of fault location was applied based on the developed algorithm. The algorithm is tested for robustness of the circuit given and the related issues to fault data synchronising errors were found acceptable. This requires understanding the operation of TCSC and the location with respect to fault occurrence. The modifications to the fault location algorithm [6] development have proven that it can be implemented with similar accuracy to estimate the location of fault subjected with the TCSC configuration.

8. REFERENCES
[1] Yu C.H., Liu C.W. A new PMU- Based Fault Location Algorithm for Series Compensated Lines, IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery Vol. 17, No.1, January 2002 pp. 33 -46 [2] Saha M.M., Jzykowski J., Rosolowski E. Kasztenny B. A new accurate fault locating algorithm for series compensated lines, IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery Vol.14, No. 3, July 1999, pp. 789-795