IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 26, NO.
3, JULY 2011
Adaptive Protection of Parallel Transmission
Lines Using Combined Cross-Differential
and Impedance-Based Techniques
Majid Sanaye-Pasand, Senior Member, IEEE, and Peyman Jafarian, Student Member, IEEE
Abstract—This paper introduces a state-diagram-based pro-
tective algorithm for parallel circuit transmission lines using
local information obtained at the relay bus. A new cross-dif-
ferential technique is proposed which compares the currents in
the corresponding phases of the parallel circuits in a 2-D space.
A companion impedance-based algorithm is used to cover the
evolving faults and some conditions in which the cross-differential
technique is not able to discriminate the internal faults alone.
The effect of the mutual coupling between parallel circuits on
the measured impedances is adaptively compensated according
to the status of the parallel circuit currents in the segmented 2-D
space. The proposed state-diagram-based algorithm combines
the outputs of the cross-differential and impedance-based tech-
niques to provide a reliable response under all of the operating
statuses of the parallel circuits. Extensive simulation studies using
PSCAD/EMTDC software indicate that the proposed approach
provides very reliable protection for the double-circuit transmis-
sion lines. It covers intercircuit and evolving faults, and is able to
reliably select the faulted phases.
Index Terms—Adaptive protection, cross-differential technique,
digital relaying, mutual coupling, parallel transmission lines.
I. INTRODUCTION
ARALLEL circuit transmission lines installed on the same
P towers are extensively utilized in high-voltage transmis-
sion systems due to their significant advantages (i.e., high-power
transfer capability, availability, and sharing the same right of
way). On the other hand, the different possible configurations
of parallel circuits depending on the transmission-line operating
status, combined with the mutual coupling effect as well as pos-
sibility of the occurrence of intercircuit faults, make their pro-
tection a challenging problem [1].
The longitudinal current differential technique using a com-
munication link between the transmission-line ends could pro-
vide a secure and dependable solution for the protection of par-
allel transmission lines [2], [3]. Nevertheless, the reliability of
this protective scheme is dependent on the reliability of the com-
munication channel. Therefore, a stand-alone protective algo-
rithm, which is only based on the local information obtained at
Manuscript received September 18, 2010; revised December 13, 2010; ac-
cepted April 05, 2011. Date of publication May 19, 2011; date of current ver-
sion June 24, 2011. Paper no. TPWRD-00715-2010.
The authors are with the School of Electrical and Computer Engi-
neering, Control and Intelligent Processing Center of Excellence, College
of Engineering, University of Tehran, Tehran 14395-515, Iran (e-mail:
msanaye@ut.ac.ir).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TPWRD.2011.2142014
0885-8977/$26.00 © 2011 IEEE
1829
the relay location, is greatly useful for the protection of parallel
transmission lines.
It is well known that if the conventional distance relay is ap-
plied to protect parallel lines assuming them as independent cir-
cuits, the relay performance would be degraded due to the ef-
fect of the mutual coupling between the parallel circuits. If the
setting of a distance relay is adjusted at 85% of the line posi-
tive-sequence impedance, it might only cover 50% of the line
length when both parallel circuits are in operation. Meanwhile,
the coverage of this relay could become more than 100% when
one of the parallel circuits is out of service and grounded at both
ends [4].
To measure the fault-loop impedance more accurately, the
compensation of the adjacent line zero-sequence current is
suggested in [5]–[7]. Even though this approach obviates the
distance relay underreach problem when both of the parallel
circuits are in operation, it may not be able to improve the
impedance estimation accuracy for the latter operating status
of the parallel lines (i.e., when one of the circuits is out of
service and grounded at both ends). This is due to the fact
that the current transformers (CTs) are installed behind the
circuit breakers (CBs) and, therefore, when the CB is open, the
transmission-line current is not available [8].
To achieve the optimal performance for the distance protec-
tion of parallel transmission lines under different possible con-
figurations, an adaptive method based on the availability of the
adjacent line zero-sequence current is proposed in [9]. It adjusts
the relay operation using some extra input signals indicating the
transmission-line operating status. This method covers a higher
percentage of the transmission line under different configura-
tions compared to a fixed-set distance relay. Nevertheless, it
may not be able to correctly select the faulted phases in the
case of intercircuit faults between dissimilar phases of the par-
allel circuits. Meanwhile, when the adjacent line zero-sequence
current is not available, the relay setting should be reduced too
much so that external faults beyond the remote bus do not cause
first-zone false tripping due to the overreach problem.
The cross-differential technique is based on the comparison
between the currents in the corresponding phases of the par-
allel circuits. It identifies an internal fault when the difference
between the two circuits currents exceeds a certain threshold
[10]–[12]. This technique is immune to the mutual coupling ef-
fect and provides faster operation speed compared to the dis-
tance algorithm. An alternative approach is to compare the mea-
sured impedances for the corresponding phases of the parallel
circuits [13]. Nevertheless, these techniques can be employed
1830
only when both parallel circuits are in operation, and should be
disabled promptly under other operating statuses. In addition,
the cross-differential technique is not able to identify remote
faults occurring at the end part of the transmission line as well
as some intercircuit faults involving similar phases of both par-
allel circuits.
Reference [14] describes a nonpilot protection algorithm for
parallel transmission lines based on detecting the operation of
the remote CB. The superimposed currents are used to detect the
opening of the remote CB. Therefore, the second zone operation
of the distance relay is accelerated for internal faults occurring
at the end part of the transmission line. However, the perfor-
mance of this algorithm is not verified for the case of evolving
faults, where the fault extends to the other phases after some
time delay. Since an evolved fault causes some changes in the
superimposed waveforms, it could be mistaken for the operation
of the remote CB and may lead to relay maloperation.
This paper introduces a state-diagram-based algorithm for
the protection of double-circuit transmission lines. The pro-
posed algorithm combines the outputs of cross-differential and
impedance-based techniques to provide a fast and reliable pro-
tective scheme. A new cross-differential technique is proposed
which compares the currents of corresponding phases of the
parallel circuits in a 2-D space. The 2-D space is segmented
into six areas covering all possible operating statuses of the
parallel circuits. A companion impedance-based algorithm is
used to cover the evolving faults and some conditions in which
the cross-differential technique is not able to discriminate the
internal faults alone. The impedance-based algorithm adap-
tively compensates for the mutual coupling effect depending
on the status of the parallel circuits currents in the segmented
2-D space. For some operating statuses in which one of the
parallel circuits is out of service and grounded at both ends,
the zero-sequence current of the grounded circuit is estimated
to avoid the relay overreach problem. The proposed state-dia-
gram-based algorithm uses the sequences of transitions between
different defined states to help discriminate the internal faults.
Furthermore, it covers the end part of the transmission line via
detecting the operation of the remote CB using the sequence of
transitions.
Extensive simulation studies are carried out by using the
power system simulation software PSCAD/EMTDC to in-
vestigate the proposed algorithm performance under different
conditions. The obtained results show that the proposed algo-
rithm provides very reliable protection for the double-circuit
transmission lines under all possible operating statuses. It
covers intercircuit and evolving faults, and is able to reliably
select the faulted phases.
II. PROPOSED RELAY PRINCIPLES
Fig. 1 depicts the circuit diagram of a typical double-circuit
transmission line, which will be referred to in the following de-
scriptions. It is assumed that the CBs operate in the single-pole
tripping (SPT) mode. However, if SPT operation is not avail-
able, the proposed protective algorithm can also be employed so
that the CB opens all of the three phases whenever an internal
fault is identified by the algorithm.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 26, NO. 3, JULY 2011
Fig. 1. Circuit diagram of a typical double-circuit transmission line.
A. Proposed 2-D Cross-Differential Technique
The relay under study is installed at bus S, and is composed
of three identical units for the three phases. Each unit protects
the corresponding phases of the parallel circuits simultaneously.
The basic principle of the cross-differential technique relies on
the symmetry of currents in the corresponding phases of the
parallel circuits. It can be simply described by the following
relationships [12]:
Trip circuit
Trip circuit (1)
where and denote the currents in the corresponding phases
of circuit 1 and circuit 2, respectively. If the difference between
the amplitudes of the parallel circuits currents exceeds the
threshold , a trip signal would be sent to the associated CB.
The threshold is set in accordance with the maximum asym-
metry experienced during the nonfaulty condition. Meanwhile,
when a remote fault occurs on one of the circuits, the difference
between the parallel circuits currents could also be less than the
defined threshold. As a result, the cross-differential algorithm
cannot cover the total length of the transmission line.
The cross-differential technique provides high sensitivity and
fast fault clearing when both of the parallel circuits are in opera-
tion. Nevertheless, when one of the circuits is out of service, the
aforementioned criterion is not valid anymore. In these condi-
tions, the cross-differential algorithm must be disabled promptly
to prevent the relay maloperation. As a result, this algorithm is
not able to identify evolving faults, where the fault extends to
the other line subsequently.
Moreover, in the case of single-pole tripping schemes, the
conventional cross-differential technique may incorrectly trip
a healthy phase after opening the faulted phase by single-pole
operation of the associated CB. This problem arises when the
remote CB operates after some time delay. Fig. 2 depicts the
current waveforms of phase C for a phase-A-to-ground fault
on circuit 1 of the parallel transmission line shown in Fig. 1.
The fault is cleared after some cycles by single-pole tripping of
the CB BR1 at bus S. It is found that when the faulted phase is
opened, the current in phase C of the healthy circuit increases
whereas the current in phase C of the faulted circuit decreases.
This condition remains until the remote end breaker BR3 opens
the faulted phase as well, and may cause a false trip on phase C
of the healthy circuit. A similar problem could arise for intercir-
cuit faults between dissimilar phases of parallel circuits.
A solution is to adjust the threshold value ( ) so that the
maximum asymmetry of currents in the healthy phases of the
parallel circuits during through and after single-phase faults re-
mains less than the defined threshold. Nevertheless, this ap-
SANAYE-PASAND AND JAFARIAN: ADAPTIVE PROTECTION OF PARALLEL TRANSMISSION LINES
Fig. 2. Current waveforms of phase C for a phase-A-to-ground fault on the
circuit 1. (a) Current of circuit 1. (b) Current of circuit 2.
Fig. 3. Two-dimensional space segmentation of the proposed cross-differential
algorithm.
proach reduces the coverage of the cross-differential relay for
the end part of the parallel transmission line.
To obviate the aforementioned problems, this paper pro-
poses comparing the currents of the parallel circuits in a 2-D
space. Fig. 3 illustrates the 2-D space segmentation of the
proposed cross-differential algorithm. As can be found, six
areas are defined based on the possible transmission system
conditions under different parallel circuits operating statuses.
Table I describes the possible transmission system conditions
corresponding to each area.
Unlike the conventional cross-differential algorithm, the pro-
posed algorithm is able to discriminate between the normal and
faulty conditions in which the difference between the currents
in corresponding phases of the parallel circuits is less than the
threshold (e.g., remote faults at the end part of the transmission
1831
TABLE I
POSSIBLE SYSTEM CONDITIONS CORRESPONDING TO DIFFERENT AREAS OF
THE PROPOSED 2-D CROSS-DIFFERENTIAL RELAY
line). Meanwhile, the circular border considered for the area S1
provides high flexibility to define an appropriate threshold for
the previously described single-pole tripping case. This is due
to the fact that while the current of one of the parallel circuits
increases, the current in the twin phase of the other circuit de-
creases and, therefore, the locus of the parallel circuits currents
for the healthy phases would remain inside a circular area.
Another advantage of the proposed 2-D cross-differential al-
gorithm is that the transitions of trajectory of the parallel circuits
currents between different areas could be used to detect the op-
eration of remote breakers, by which the relay operation for the
remote faults could be accelerated.
The proposed approach covers all of the parallel circuits op-
erating statuses and it is not necessary to be disabled when one
of the circuits is out of service. However, in some areas (i.e.,
S1, S2, S4, and S6), some additional criteria are required to dis-
criminate internal faults occurring on the protected transmission
line. This is due to the fact that in these areas, different scenarios
are possible for the transmission system condition as presented
in Table I.
B. Adaptive Compensation of the Adjacent Line Zero-Sequence
Current
The mutual coupling between parallel circuits affects the
phase voltages measured at the relay bus. As a result, a distance
relay, which does not include the mutual coupling effect in
calculation of the impedance, would measure the fault-loop
impedance inaccurately. The worst scenario is the occurrence
of faults when one of the parallel circuits is out of service and
grounded at both ends. In such a condition, the conventional
distance relay would overreach, and external faults occurring
beyond the remote bus may be seen inside the relay first pro-
tective zone [5], [9].
1832
Fig. 4. Two possible conditions in which one of the parallel circuits is out of
service. (a) Switched-off circuit is grounded at both ends. (b) Switched-off cir-
cuit is open at both ends.
A compensating factor using the adjacent line zero-sequence
current improves the impedance calculation accuracy for the
faulted circuit. However, this approach might cause false trip-
ping on the healthy circuit for a close-in fault on one of the par-
allel lines. Therefore, an extra criterion is required to determine
the faulted circuit and apply the mutual coupling compensation
only for the faulted circuit [9].
The proposed 2-D cross-differential technique provides a
suitable approach to decide whether the impedance should
be calculated including the mutual coupling compensation or
without compensation. For this purpose, when the locus of
the parallel circuits currents lies inside the second or third
areas, the impedance of the circuit 1 is calculated including
the mutual coupling compensation, whereas the compensa-
tion is not applied in impedance calculation for the circuit 2.
Similarly, when the currents locus lies inside the fifth or sixth
areas, the impedance of circuit 2 is calculated including the
mutual coupling compensation, whereas the compensation is
not applied in impedance calculation for circuit 1. For the cases
in which the currents locus lies inside the first or forth areas,
the mutual coupling compensation is included for both of the
parallel circuits.
However, in some operating statuses, the zero-sequence cur-
rent of the adjacent line may not be accessible by the relay. This
is due to the arrangement of the current transformers at the relay
bus. As shown in Fig. 4, the current transformers are installed
behind the CBs and, therefore, when the CB is open, the current
of the respective line is not accessible by the relay. Unfortu-
nately, such a condition arises for the worst scenario in which
one of the circuits is switched-off and grounded at both ends.
A solution is to install additional CTs so that the transmis-
sion-line currents are always available. However, this solution
might not be practical. An alternative approach is proposed
in this paper which estimates the zero-sequence current of
the grounded circuit using the local information accessible by
the relay. Referring to Fig. 4(a), if circuit 2 is out of service
and grounded at both ends, its zero-sequence current can be
estimated by
(2)
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 26, NO. 3, JULY 2011
where and denote the zero-sequence currents of the
circuit 1 at the sending and receiving ends, respectively; and
are the positive- and zero-sequence impedances of the cir-
cuit 2; is the zero-sequence mutual coupling impedance
between the parallel circuits; and is the per-unit distance be-
tween the fault point and the relay location.
It should be noted that is not a local signal available at
the relay bus, and is an unknown parameter. However, when
an external fault occurs beyond the remote bus, the zero-se-
quence current of the grounded circuit can be estimated accu-
rately by only using the local measurements
(3)
The overreach problem is not acceptable for a protective
scheme. Using the zero-sequence current estimated by (3), the
undesired distance relay overreach can be prevented. In other
words, external faults beyond the remote bus will not cause
false tripping on the protected parallel lines. However, in the
case of internal faults, the zero-sequence current estimated by
(3) is not accurate. In these conditions, the estimated current is
higher than the actual value. Therefore, since the zero-sequence
current of the grounded circuit is in opposite direction to that of
the circuit in service, the measured impedance would be greater
than the actual value and the distance relay would underreach. It
should be considered that in this case, the underreach problem
is not as serious as the relay overreach problem. Moreover,
for internal faults occurring at the end part of the transmission
line, the error caused by neglecting the effect of the remote-end
zero-sequence current ( ) is not considerable and, therefore,
the result of using (3) becomes more accurate.
Fig. 4 depicts two possible conditions in which one of the
parallel circuits is out of service. In both of these cases, the
zero-sequence current of the switched-off circuit is not acces-
sible by the relay. In the first case shown in Fig. 4(a), the zero-se-
quence current could flow in the grounded circuit whereas for
the second case shown in Fig. 4(b), the zero-sequence current is
zero. By virtue of the arrangement of the voltage transformers at
the relay bus, one can distinguish between these two conditions.
When the switched-off circuit is grounded at both ends, the mea-
sured voltage by the relay is nearly zero. On the contrary, when
the line ends are open, the measured voltage is equal to that in-
duced due to the mutual coupling between the parallel circuits.
Therefore, in the proposed algorithm, the zero-sequence current
is estimated by (3) for the case of the grounded line, and is con-
sidered zero for the case of the nongrounded line.
III. PROPOSED STATE-DIAGRAM-BASED
DECISION-MAKING LOGIC
A. State-Diagram-Based Algorithm
To combine the outputs of the cross-differential and the
impedance-based techniques, a state-diagram-based algorithm
is proposed in this paper. This way, the sequence of different
events in the transmission system could be recognized, which
helps the relay to make fast and reliable decisions. It should be
considered that combining the outputs of different relays using
a simple “OR” logic does not solve the problems that they may
SANAYE-PASAND AND JAFARIAN: ADAPTIVE PROTECTION OF PARALLEL TRANSMISSION LINES
encounter in the protection of parallel lines individually. For
example, if an impedance relay is used to protect the paralleled
lines beside a cross-differential relay, it may cause a false trip on
the healthy line for a close-in fault on the adjacent line. As the
second example, when one of the paralleled lines is switched
off, the conventional cross-differential techniques should be
disabled promptly to avoid generating false trip on the line in
service. As the third example, when a remote fault occurs at
the end part of the transmission line, none of the conventional
cross-differential and impedance-based techniques are able to
discriminate the fault.
The proposed impedance-based distance algorithm consists
of two modules called and assigned for protection of
circuit 1 and circuit 2, respectively. Each of the impedance mod-
ules itself is composed of six elements. For each phase, three of
these elements cover all possible fault types in which the phase
under protection gets involved in the fault (e.g., for phase A,
-G, - , and - elements of are used). The output
of each element becomes high when one of the following cri-
teria is satisfied.
• The measured impedance by the element is located inside
the first protective zone.
• The measured impedance by the element is located inside
the second protective zone and its associated timer has ex-
pired.
Unlike the conventional distance relay in which a multiphase
fault is detected if the output of any of the phase-to-phase
elements becomes high, the proposed algorithm identifies
multiphase faults using the output of the phase units. The
phase-to-phase elements of each unit are responsible to only
determine whether the fault involves the phase under protection
of any of the parallel circuits or not. This way, the outputs of
impedance modules are supervised by the cross-differential
technique through the state-diagram-based algorithm to ensure
correct identification of faulted phases in the case of intercircuit
faults. Meanwhile, the mutual coupling effect between the
parallel circuits is adaptively compensated based on condition
of the parallel circuits currents in the segmented 2-D space.
For ease of illustration, some notations are adopted throughout
this paper to indicate the method of compensating the mutual
coupling effect. Hereafter, and denote the impedance
modules whose fault-loop impedances are calculated without
compensating the mutual coupling effect between the parallel
circuits. and indicate that the mutual coupling effect
is compensated using the measured zero-sequence currents,
and and indicate that the estimated zero-sequence
current of the adjacent circuit is used to calculate the fault-loop
impedance.
As presented in Table II, six states are defined based on the
different conditions of the locus of the parallel circuits currents
in the segmented 2-D space. The proposed state-diagram-based
algorithm is designed by performing extensive analysis and sim-
ulation studies under different conditions. Fig. 5 depicts the pro-
posed algorithm, which is divided into three parts for ease of il-
lustration, and each part is explained separately.
1) Part I: Fig. 5(a) illustrates the first part of the proposed al-
gorithm. It covers internal faults occurring on one of the parallel
circuits when both of the circuits are in operation. If a fault oc-
1833
TABLE II
TRANSMISSION-LINE CONDITIONS UNDER DEFINED STATES
curs on circuit 1, the locus of the parallel circuits currents would
move from the normal condition (i.e., the area S1), and lie inside
the area S3. In this condition, an internal fault on circuit 1 is con-
cluded and a trip command would be sent to the associated CB
BR1. When BR1 opens, the current in the associated phase of
the faulted circuit would decrease to almost zero, and the system
state would transit to state 6. During the transient interval, the
currents locus could lie inside the area S5 for a short period. The
current amplitude in the twin phase of the healthy circuit might
remain above the normal condition until the fault is cleared by
opening the remote CB BR3. During state 6, the impedance
module continuously measures the line impedance and if
its output becomes high, an evolving fault would be concluded.
As previously mentioned, does not include compensation
for the mutual coupling effect. This is done to avoid generating
false trips on the healthy circuit when close-in faults occurs on
the other circuit.
If the fault evolves to the same phase of the circuit 2 before
opening BR1, the currents locus would transit from state 3 to
state 4. In this condition, the output is used to identify the
evolved fault on circuit 2 and to trip the associated CB BR2.
Similarly, in the case of faults on circuit 2, the locus of the
current amplitudes of the parallel circuits lies inside the area S5
and, consequently, a trip command would be sent to the associ-
ated circuit breaker BR2. When BR2 opens, the current in the
associated phase would decrease to zero, and the system state
would transit to state 2. During state 2, the impedance module
continuously measures the line impedance and if its output
becomes high, an evolving fault would be concluded.
2) Part II: Fig. 5(b) illustrates the second part of the pro-
posed state-diagram-based algorithm. The locus of the parallel
circuits currents could lie inside the area S4 under different sce-
narios (i.e., remote faults occurring on one of the parallel lines,
intercircuit faults involving similar phases of both circuits, and
external faults). Table III summarizes the possible sequences of
state transitions for different scenarios.
The proposed algorithm uses the sequences of the state tran-
sitions to identify remote faults occurring at the end part of the
transmission line, which cannot be covered by the conventional
cross-differential and impedance-based relays. As an example,
a remote fault on circuit 1 is rapidly identified as a close-in fault
by the relay installed at the remote bus. Therefore, the remote
1834
Fig. 5. Proposed state-diagram-based algorithm. (a) Part I. (b) Part II.
(c) Part III.
relay would trip the associated CB BR3. When BR3 opens, the
current in the twin phase of the healthy circuit (i.e., circuit 2)
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 26, NO. 3, JULY 2011
TABLE III
STATE TRANSITIONS FOR DIFFERENT SCENARIOS OF PART II
would decrease, and the system state would transit to the state 2
or the state 3 depending on the loading condition [Fig. 5(b)]. In
such a condition, a remote fault on circuit 1 is concluded and a
trip command would be issued to CB BR1.
Similarly, when a remote fault occurs on circuit 2, the remote
relay trips CB BR4 and, consequently, the system state transits
to state 5 or state 6 depending on the loading condition. In this
condition, a remote fault on circuit 2 is concluded and a trip
command would be issued to CB BR2.
In the case of external faults, the state diagram transits
from state 1 to state 4. It remains in state 4 until the fault is
cleared by the associated protective relay. When the external
fault is cleared, the state transits back to state 1. Meanwhile,
the impedance modules and provide backup protection
for the remote transmission line. These modules measure the
impedance, including the mutual coupling effect compensation
using the measured zero-sequence currents. If an external fault
is not cleared before expiration of the second zone timers of
and , CBs BR1 and BR2 would be tripped to isolate the
fault.
In the case of inter-circuit faults involving similar phases of
both circuits, the locus of the parallel circuits currents could also
lie inside the area S4. These faults are covered by the impedance
modules and . The impedance modules and pro-
vide fast operation speed for faults occurring in their first pro-
tective zone, and cover the end part of the transmission line in
their second protective zone. It should be considered that these
intercircuit faults rarely occur in practice due to the arrangement
of the three phases on the tower structure.
3) Part III: The third part of the proposed algorithm is il-
lustrated in Fig. 5(c). It is used to protect the transmission line
when one of the parallel circuits is out of service. As previously
mentioned, the zero-sequence current of the switched-off circuit
may not be accessible by the relay due to the arrangement of the
current transformers. As an example, when circuit 2 is switched
SANAYE-PASAND AND JAFARIAN: ADAPTIVE PROTECTION OF PARALLEL TRANSMISSION LINES
off, its phase currents are measured as zero, and the state tran-
sits to state 2. During state 2, continuously measures the
line impedance, and if its output becomes high, a fault would
be concluded. uses the estimated zero-sequence current to
compensate for the mutual coupling effect, where the distance
relay first zone overreach is prevented to avoid false tripping due
to external faults beyond the remote bus.
Similarly, when circuit 1 is switched off, the state transits to
state 6. During state 6, the impedance module continuously
measures the line impedance and protects the transmission line
in operation.
B. Implementation of the Proposed Algorithm
As described, the proposed algorithm uses the sequences of
transitions between the defined states to recognize different sce-
narios and make its decision. For this purpose, a buffer is used
to store the state transitions. The buffer length is selected as six,
and it is refreshed whenever the state changes. For each new
relay input sample, the present state is checked and if it is dif-
ferent from the last state stored in the top cell of the buffer, the
buffer would be shifted and the present state would be stored at
its top cell.
For the cross-differential module, a counter-based algorithm
is used to determine the area in which the locus of the par-
allel circuits currents is located. This is done to provide a ro-
bust algorithm during transient transitions between the states.
One counter is assigned for each of the six defined areas. Each
counter is increased by one, whenever a new sample lies inside
the corresponding area. Otherwise, if a counter is greater than
zero and the new sample is not located inside its corresponding
area, it would be decreased by two. An area index is used in
the relay and is changed to point to a new area when the corre-
sponding counter exceeds a certain threshold.
Similarly, a counter-based algorithm is used for the
impedance-based modules. The output of each impedance
module becomes active only if the number of measured
impedance samples located inside the relay zone is greater
than a certain threshold. This way, a robust fault detection
algorithm against the fault-induced transients is obtained for
the impedance relays.
The state-diagram-based algorithm continuously checks the
present state and accordingly performs the corresponding sub-
routine. In each subroutine, the state buffer is used to recognize
the sequence of various events and make the final decision.
IV. SIMULATION STUDIES AND ANALYSIS
Extensive simulation studies are carried out to evaluate the
performance of the proposed algorithm. The circuit diagram of
the transmission system under study is depicted in Fig. 6, in
which denotes the relay which protects the parallel trans-
mission line AB. The frequency-dependent distributed model
of the transmission line is used to accurately include the in-
fluence of the generated transients after the fault occurrence.
Meanwhile, an appropriate model of the capacitor voltage trans-
former (CVT) is employed to include the CVTs influences on
the measured voltage waveforms [15]. The parameters of the
simulated transmission system are given in the Appendix . The
1835
Fig. 6. One-line diagram of the simulated transmission system.
power system simulation software PSCAD/EMTDC is used to
perform the simulations. The sampling frequency is considered
to be 1440 Hz, which corresponds to the sampling rate of 24
samples per cycle. The simulation data are used in a MATLAB
program to implement the proposed algorithm.
The signals fundamental phasors are extracted by using
the full-cycle Fourier algorithm (FCDFT). The phasor esti-
mation error due to the decaying dc component is eliminated
by using the method proposed in [16]. The first zone setting
of the impedance-based relays is adjusted at 90% of the line
positive-sequence impedance.
The performance of the proposed protective algorithm is
tested under different operating statuses of the parallel circuits.
Various simulation studies are carried out by changing the
fault location, the fault resistance, the fault type, and the fault
inception angle. For each fault, all three units assigned for
the three phases are simultaneously checked to ensure the
correct response of the proposed algorithm in the selection
of the faulted phases, which is necessary for the purpose of
single-pole tripping. The obtained results are described in the
following text. It should be noted that many simulation studies
were also performed for different loading conditions, and for
all of these cases, the proposed algorithm was able to correctly
identify the fault. However, due to the limited space, just
some representative cases are presented to verify the proposed
algorithm performance.
A. Close-In Faults
Some of the obtained results for close-in faults on the trans-
mission line AB are presented in Table IV. It should be noted
that since both of parallel circuits are identical, only the simula-
tion results for faults on circuit 1 are presented here. As previ-
ously mentioned, the proposed protective algorithm consists of
three identical units for protecting the three phases. Each unit
protects the corresponding phases of the parallel circuits. In the
case of multiple-phase faults, all three phases are tripped. How-
ever, in order to verify the proposed algorithm ability for the
classification of different fault types, the last column shows the
faulted phases identified by the proposed algorithm.
The problem associated with the close-in faults on parallel
transmission lines is false tripping on the healthy circuit, which
is caused by compensating the faulted circuit zero-sequence cur-
rent in calculation of the healthy circuit impedances. Fig. 7 de-
picts the impedance trajectory of the circuit 2 measured by the
A-G element for the sixth case presented in Table IV. As can
be seen in Fig. 7(a), if the healthy line impedance is calculated
1836
TABLE IV
PROPOSED ALGORITHM RESPONSE FOR CLOSE-IN FAULTS ON CIRCUIT 1
Fig. 7. Measured impedance trajectory of the circuit 2 for a phase-A-to-ground
close-in fault on circuit 1. (a) With compensating the mutual coupling effect. (b)
Without compensation.
with the compensation of the faulted circuit zero-sequence cur-
rent, the distance relay would incorrectly trip phase A of the
healthy circuit.
Since the proposed algorithm uses the state diagram to de-
cide whether the line impedance should be calculated with the
mutual coupling compensation or without compensation, it pro-
vides a very reliable response in identification of the close-in
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 26, NO. 3, JULY 2011
TABLE V
PROPOSED ALGORITHM RESPONSE FOR REMOTE FAULTS ON CIRCUIT 1
faults. If a close-in fault occurs on the circuit 1 when both of
the parallel circuits are in operation, the locus of the parallel cir-
cuits currents falls inside the area S3. As a result, referring to the
proposed algorithm shown in Fig. 5(a), the protective algorithm
identifies the fault rapidly. In this condition, the impedance of
line 2 is calculated without compensation.
For the first case of Table IV, the proposed algorithm identi-
fies the faulted phase in 10.4 ms by using the output of the pro-
posed cross-differential technique. Thereafter, unit A of the pro-
posed protective algorithm continuously checks the impedance
of circuit 2 to detect whether the fault will evolve to phase A of
circuit 2 or not.
When circuit 2 is switched off, the locus of the parallel
circuits currents lies inside area S6. In these conditions (i.e.,
cases 10–19 of Table IV), the impedance module uses the
estimated zero-sequence current of circuit 2 to compensate
for the mutual coupling effect. As previously described, if the
switched-off circuit is grounded at both ends, its zero-sequence
current is estimated by (3), and if the switched-off circuit is
open, its zero-sequence current is considered zero.
In all of the studied cases, the proposed protective algorithm
operates very reliably. It is able to well classify the faulted
phases, and no false trip is caused on the healthy phases. The
proposed algorithm provides a correct response before, during,
and after the fault-clearing interval.
B. Remote Faults
Table V presents some of the obtained results for remote
faults occurring at the end part of circuit 1. It should be consid-
SANAYE-PASAND AND JAFARIAN: ADAPTIVE PROTECTION OF PARALLEL TRANSMISSION LINES
Fig. 8. Locus of the current amplitudes in phase A of the parallel circuits for
the sixth case of Table V.
ered that a remote fault is rapidly identified by the remote relay
installed at bus B as a close-in fault. In the performed simulation
studies, it is assumed that the operation time of the remote end
breakers is two cycles.
When both of the parallel circuits are in operation, the locus
of the parallel circuits currents lies inside area S4 after the occur-
rence of a remote fault on any circuit. This condition indicates
that the transmission-line current is higher than the normal con-
dition which might be caused by an external fault beyond the
remote bus or an internal fault at the end part of the transmis-
sion line. The proposed state-diagram-based algorithm uses the
sequences of transitions between the defined states to detect the
operation of remote CBs due to internal faults. This way, the
relay operation is accelerated for the remote faults without using
any communication link.
As an example, the locus of the parallel line currents for the
sixth case of Table V is depicted in Fig. 8. In this case, a remote
phase-A-to-ground fault occurs at 125 km away from the bus
A. The fault is cleared by opening the remote CB BR3 after two
cycles. As can be seen, when opens the faulted phase, the
locus of the parallel circuits currents moves from the area S4 to
the area S3. Consequently, the proposed algorithm identifies the
fault as an internal remote fault on the circuit 1. For this case,
the relay operation time is about 54.2 ms, whereas the operation
time of the conventional distance relay scheme for such a fault
is up to several hundreds of milliseconds.
When one of the parallel circuits is out of service, the trans-
mission line is protected by the impedance module or , as
shown in Fig. 5(c). As previously mentioned, if the switched-off
circuit is grounded at both ends, for the case of internal faults,
the zero-sequence current of the grounded circuit estimated by
(3) is not accurate, which leads to the relay underreach. Never-
theless, the farther the fault occurs, the more accurate the estima-
tion is obtained for the grounded circuit zero-sequence current.
For the simulated parallel transmission system, it was found that
if the first zone setting of the impedance relay is adjusted at 90%
of the line positive-sequence impedance, is able to cover
83% of the line length by its first protective zone. The remaining
1837
Fig. 9. Impedance of circuit 1 measured by the AG element for the external
fault on transmission-line BC. (a) Measured impedance by the conventional
relay. (b) Measured impedance by the proposed algorithm.
part of the transmission line is protected by the relay second pro-
tective zone.
C. External Faults
Various simulation studies were performed to investigate the
proposed algorithm performance for the case of external faults.
If both of the parallel circuits are in operation, the lines im-
pedances are calculated including compensation for the mu-
tual coupling effect which provides an accurate estimation of
the fault location. If one of the parallel circuits is out of ser-
vice and grounded at both ends, the zero-sequence current of
the grounded circuit is not accessible by the relay due to the ar-
rangement of the current transformers.
Fig. 9 depicts the measured impedance for an external
phase-A-to-ground fault on the transmission line BC at 5 km
away from bus B, when circuit 2 is out of service and grounded
at both ends. As can be seen, the impedance measured by the
conventional distance relay is seen inside the relay first protec-
tive zone due to the mutual coupling effect between parallel
circuits and, therefore, the relay overreaches. On the contrary,
if the impedance is calculated by the proposed impedance
module , which uses the zero-sequence current estimated by
(3) to compensate for the mutual coupling effect, the overreach
problem is prevented. The estimated zero-sequence current of
the grounded circuit is depicted in Fig. 10. As can be seen,
for external faults, the proposed method provides accurate
estimation of the grounded circuit zero-sequence current.
D. High-Resistance Faults
Table VI presents some of the obtained results for the case of
high-resistance faults. Although a reasonable value for the fault
resistance in reality is rarely more than 50 , higher values of
fault resistance are also considered in the performed studies to
investigate the proposed algorithm performance.
The proposed cross-differential technique provides high
capability and sensitivity for discrimination of high-resistance
faults. As a result, when both parallel lines are in operation,
the proposed protective algorithm is able to well identify
high-resistance faults occurring on the protected transmis-
sion line. As an example, for the second case of Table VI, a
1838
Fig. 10. Estimated zero-sequence current of circuit 2 for the external fault on
the transmission-line BC.
TABLE VI
PROPOSED ALGORITHM RESPONSE FOR HIGH-RESISTANCE FAULTS ON
CIRCUIT 1
phase-B-to-ground fault occurs at 80 km from the bus A. The
fault resistance is 200 . The proposed algorithm is able to
identify this fault in 18.1 ms.
For the faults occurring at the end part of the protected trans-
mission line, the proposed algorithm is able to identify very
high-resistance faults after clearing the fault by the remote CB.
As an example, for the seventh case of Table VI, a high-resis-
tance fault occurs at 129 km from the bus A on the circuit 1. The
fault resistance is 200 . It is assumed that the remote CB
operates in two cycles. When the fault is cleared by opening
, the locus of the parallel line currents moves from the area
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 26, NO. 3, JULY 2011
TABLE VII
PROPOSED ALGORITHM RESPONSE FOR INTERCIRCUIT FAULTS
S4 to the area S3, and, therefore, the internal fault is identified
by the proposed protective algorithm.
In the other operating statuses of the parallel line, in which
one of the circuits is out of service, the proposed algorithm uses
the output of impedance-based modules to identify the internal
faults. Therefore, the first zone coverage of the protective algo-
rithm would be reduced by the increase of the fault resistance.
The worst condition for a high-resistance fault is the occur-
rence of the fault at the end part of the transmission line. The
quadrilateral characteristic used for the single-phase-to-ground
elements of the distance modules provides higher capability in
discrimination of high-resistance faults. It is able to identify
high-resistance faults up to several tens of ohms. The proposed
algorithm also covers very high-resistance faults in its backup
protective zones, although these faults rarely occur in prac-
tice. For example, the 11th and 15th cases of Table VI present
the simulation results for phase-A-to-ground faults, for which
the fault resistance is 100 . In these two case, the fault is
identified by the relay second protective zone. It should be
considered that the higher the fault resistance, the less the
fault current amplitude is. Therefore, the operation time of the
second zone is satisfactory for the cases of very high resistance
faults.
E. Intercircuit Faults
Many different simulation studies were performed to eval-
uate the proposed algorithm performance for intercircuit faults
where both of the parallel circuits get involved in the fault.
Some of the obtained results are presented in Table VII. These
faults are common in double-circuit transmission lines installed
on the same towers. Since in the case of intercircuit faults, the
impedance measured by the distance relay is not directly the
fault-loop impedance, identification of the faulted phases may
become difficult by the conventional impedance-based protec-
tive schemes. As an example, for an fault (i.e., an inter-
circuit fault between phase A of circuit 1 and phase B of circuit
2), the conventional distance relay scheme issues three-phase
trips on both parallel circuits.
SANAYE-PASAND AND JAFARIAN: ADAPTIVE PROTECTION OF PARALLEL TRANSMISSION LINES
Fig. 11. Measured impedances by A-B elements of the conventional distance
relay for the intercircuit A B G fault on the transmission line. (a) Impedance
of circuit 1. (b) Impedance of circuit 2.
The proposed protective technique uses three independent
units for protection of the three phases. In each unit, the
proposed 2-D cross-differential technique protects the corre-
sponding phases of both parallel circuits and supervises the
companion impedance-based modules. Unlike the conventional
distance relay in which a multiphase fault is detected if the
output of any of the phase-to-phase elements becomes high,
the proposed algorithm identifies multiphase faults by using
the output of the phase units. For all of the studied cases,
the proposed algorithm is able to classify intercircuit faults
very reliably and rapidly. The faulted phase of each circuit is
correctly identified and single-pole tripping can be used just for
the faulted phases.
If an intercircuit fault occurs between two dissimilar phases
of the paralleled lines, the fault is identified by the cross-dif-
ferential modules of the associated phase units. Fig. 11 depicts
the impedances measured by the A-B elements of the conven-
tional distance relay for the third case of Table VII. It is found
that the conventional distance relay scheme incorrectly iden-
tifies this fault as a phase-to-phase AB fault on both circuits.
On the contrary, the proposed algorithm can correctly identify
the faulted phases based on outputs of the 2-D cross-differen-
tial modules of units A and B. For such a fault, the outputs
of the impedance-based modules are not required for making
a decision.
If an intercircuit fault including similar phases of the paral-
leled lines occurs, the outputs of the impedance-based modules
are also incorporated into the decision logic. This is due to the
fact that for these conditions, the difference between the corre-
sponding phase currents of the paralleled lines is too small, and
the currents locus lies inside area 4. For instance, in the fifth
case of Table VII, which is an intercircuit fault, the
currents locus of the unit A lies inside area 3 while the currents
locus of unit B lies inside area 4. For this fault, the cross-differ-
ential module of unit A identifies an internal fault on circuit 1
and makes a decision without using the impedance-based mod-
ules outputs. But the cross-differential module of unit B cannot
discriminate the fault alone. Referring to the proposed algo-
rithm shown in Fig. 5(b), in this condition, the outputs of the
1839
impedance modules are incorporated into the decision-making
logic. As stated in Section III-A, in each phase unit, elements of
the impedance-based modules just determine whether the fault
involves the phase under protection or not. Unit B of the pro-
posed algorithm is responsible for determining whether the fault
involves phase B of any of the parallel circuits or not. Therefore,
although for this fault, the impedance measured by the -
element of the may be seen inside the relay zone, no trip
signal is issued for phase A of circuit 2.
F. Evolving Faults
Evolving faults in which the fault evolves to the other phases
after some time delay are common in transmission systems.
Therefore, a protective scheme should be able to identify the
faulted phases reliably not only for the initial incidence of a fault
but also throughout the entire duration of the fault. Many simu-
lations were performed to study the proposed algorithm perfor-
mance for the case of evolving faults. Various conditions were
modeled in which the initial fault evolves to the other phases
after 10–50 ms. It was found that the proposed algorithm is able
to well classify the faulted phases for all conditions of evolving
faults. Meanwhile, it does not cause any false trip on healthy
phases during the transient interval of the fault-clearing process.
V. CONCLUSION
This paper introduces an adaptive protective algorithm for
parallel circuit transmission lines using the local information
obtained at the relay bus. The proposed algorithm uses the
state diagram to combine the outputs of cross-differential
and impedance-based techniques. A new cross-differential
technique is proposed which compares the corresponding
phase currents of the parallel circuits in 2-D space. Unlike the
conventional cross-differential technique, it is not necessary
to disable the proposed algorithm when one of the parallel
circuits is switched off. The impedance-based algorithm is
supervised by the cross-differential technique and adaptively
compensates the mutual coupling effect depending on the status
of the parallel circuits currents in the segmented 2-D space. For
some operating statuses in which one of the parallel circuits is
out of service and grounded at both ends, the zero-sequence
current of the grounded circuit is estimated to obviate the
undesired overreach problem of the conventional distance
relay. The state-diagram-based algorithm uses the sequences
of transitions between different defined states to recognize the
possible different scenarios and makes the relay final decision.
The performed simulation studies show that the proposed pro-
tective algorithm is able to classify the faulted phases very reli-
ably. When both of parallel circuits are in operation, the pro-
posed algorithm operates quite fast, mostly in less than one
cycle due to the high sensitivity of the cross-differential tech-
nique. Meanwhile, it provides a correct response during the tran-
sient interval of the fault-clearing process. In contrast to most
other algorithms, the proposed algorithm covers intercircuit and
evolving faults correctly and reliably. Moreover, it covers the
end part of the transmission line by detecting the operation of
the remote-end CBs.
1840
Fig. 12. Configuration and parameters of the simulated double-circuit trans-
mission line.
APPENDIX
The equivalent source impedances are as follows:
The configuration and parameters of the transmission line
under study are presented in Fig. 12.
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Majid Sanaye-Pasand (M’98–SM’05) received the
electrical engineering degree from the University
of Tehran, Tehran, Iran, in 1988, and the M.Sc. and
Ph.D. degrees from the University of Calgary, Cal-
gary, AB, Canada, in 1994 and 1998, respectively.
His areas of interest include power system analysis
and control, digital protective relays, and application
of artificial intelligence. Currently, he is a Professor at
the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering,
University of Tehran, where he is also with the Con-
trol and Intelligent Processing Center of Excellence.
Peyman Jafarian received the B.Sc. and M.Sc. de-
grees in electrical engineering (Hons.) from the K. N.
Toosi University of Technology, Tehran, Iran, in 2003
and 2006, respectively, and the Ph.D. degree from the
University of Tehran in 2010.
His research interests include power system pro-
tection and control, digital protective relays, and real-
time control of flexible ac transmission systems.