NEW PRINCIPLES TO DETECT FAULTS DURING POWER SWING
Shaohua Jiao, *Zhiqian Bo, Wanshun Liu, Qixun Yang
North China Electric Power University, Beijing 100085 CHINA
*ALSTOM T&D Protection & Control Ltd, UK
ABSTRACT
This paper presents new principles to detect the faults
during power swing. Faults during power swing can be
classified as non-earth faults and earth faults. Since the
difference in fault resistance between two types of faults
could be very large, different principles are applied to
detect different types of faults during power swing. This
paper presents a new principle to detect the non-earth
faults during power swing by describing waveform of
swing center’s voltage (WSCV). It also presents a new
principle to detect the earth faults during power swing by
introducing a new concept, the synthetic negative
sequence vector (SNSV), which is derived by combining
the three phase negative sequence components. Studies
show that WSCV and SNSV can be used as ideal fault
exponents to detect faults during power swing, even for
condition where three phases faults occurred at swing
center and earth fault resistance reaching 300 ohm at the
remote end of transmission line during power swing. The
technique is also able to provide fast and reliable fault
detection. Results from simulation studies using EMTP
are presented in the paper.
1. INTRODUCTION
One of the most important issues for power line
’ and an earth fault with 300 R resistance at the end of
protection is to detect the fault during a power swing
condition. Distance protection relays are more likely to
mal-operate during power system swing because of the
changing impedance. For example, the local voltage and
current of swing center could be the same value as that in
a three phases fault condition. In order to avoid the mal-
operation, power swing blocking is introduced.
However, this will inevitably delay the operation of relay
when a fault occurred during power swing. Therefore,
fault detection during power swing is an important area
for research and extensive studies are required to
develop reliable techniques.
Faults during power swing can be classified as earth
faults and non-earth faults. The resistance of the earth
fault can be very high; the maximum earth fault
resistance can be lOOR for 220 kV system and 300R for
500 kV system. Whereas fault resistance of non-earth
faults is the fault arc resistance, and generally several
ohms. Since the difference in fault resistance between
Developments in Power System Protection, Conference Publication No.479 0 IEE 2001.
two types of faults can be very large, different principles
are applied to detect faults during power swing.
Several techniques have been developed to address the
problem of fault detection during power swing. For
example, the transient reactance caused during the pre-
to post-fault transition period is used to detect faults
during power swing blocking [2]. In this paper, a new
principle is presented to detect the non-earth faults
during power swing by describing waveform of swing
center’s voltage (WSCV). There is a great difference
between the waveform of swing center’s voltage non-
earth faults and that of power swing. The fast algorithm
for WSCV and the detecting logic are introduced in this
paper. In order to detect earth faults during power swing.
A new concept, synthetic negative sequence vector
(SNSV) is proposed. The current SNSV is used to
identify the earth fault during power swing. WSCV and
SNSV can be used as ideal fault components to detect
faults during power swing. In the new technique, the
principles are first defied and the fast algorithm for
fault identification using the vector is then derived.
Extensive simulation studies with respect to different
types of fault conditions were carried out using EMTP,
results show that the proposed technique is able to
accurately detect the fault during power swing. In
particular, three phases faults occurred at swing center
transmission line during power swing can be detected
fast and reliably.
2. DESCRIPTION OF WAVEFORM OF SWING
CENTER’S VOLTAGE
The basis phase vectors during power swing are
proposed in Fig.1 in ideal condition. U c o q is
approximately equal to swing center’s voltage. It is used
as an exponent to detect non-earth faults. In the past, the
magnitude of Ucoq is used to distinguish faults from
power swing. Nevertheless, the threshold is difficult to
set. In this paper, new principle is proposed by
describing the waveform of Ucoq.
Fig. 2 shows the waveform of u c o q during power
swing, Fig. 3 is the waveform of Ucoq when a three-
phase-fault occurred during power swing. Obviously, the
waveform of Ucoq has changed when a fault occurred.
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 1 . 5 ~ 01 6 , I
And the slope of UCOVwaveform is different.

t'
o J - 1- 5( x '1 O

E, U, U , E2 I
Figure 4 Characteristic sections of Ucov

3. FAST ALGORITHM OF SWING CENTER'S

VOLTAGE

It is necessary to design a fast algorithm in order to apply

the new principles in real time.
Figure 1 Basis phase vector during power swing
U[k] is the sample point of U , , I[k] is the sample point
of I,, k = 0,1,2,3 ,..., n , the sampling rate is 12 points per
cycle.
,rj=u, -- U,,,cosm + j U , sinwt
= U, cos& + j U , cos(m - 90')
1
200 1 0 0

Figure 2 Waveform of Ucov during power swing

s.mp1.
Let U,,,COW = qk], then

>x,os U , cos(wt - 90°)= U [ k - 31 0i.e.

U = u[k]+ jU[k -31
in the same way, we can get,
I = I [ k ]+ j l [ k - 31 1 (3)
, x , a sO Figure 3 Waveform of Ucosy, when
O O*.,"PI. a O

S = U * I = (U[k]+ j U [ k - 31). ( I [ k ]- j I [ k - 31) (4)

three-phase-fault occurred during power swing P = uzcosp = Q k ] .f l k ] + U[k - 31. flk - 31 (5)
There are two rules to detect faults during power swing, Q = UZsinp = U[k - 31. I[k]-Cl[k]. T[k -31 (6)
1. magnitude of UCOVis very small
2. slope of U c o v in characteristic sections has changed u c o s p = PI I (7)

The characteristic sections of UCOVdetecting faults are

shown in Fig. 4. During characteristic sections the slope of 4. DEFINITION OF SYNTHETIC NEGATIVE
Ucoq is monitored by a fast algorithm. The slope of SEQUENCE VECTOR
Ucov is defined as below,
The ABC system is a coordination system of phasor in,
time domain. Space component of space phasor
At the beginning of a characteristic section, the slope of coordination system is made up from synthetic negative
sequence. The relationship between synthetic phasor and
UCOV is recorded as U,. Then Uck in the same ABC system is as follows:
characteristic section is calculated dynamically.
Definite 77[i] as

di]= - I (2)
(uc4'1+ 'KS
During power swing, U, is approximate equal to Uck, Where ( = wt , B = 2 x 1 3 , g,,, E,, gwrepresent space
so di] is about 0. When a fault occurred, Uck will
instantaneous positive, negative, zero sequence phasors
change, ~ [ iis]about 2. It is proper to deal with this type of hwl coordinate system. g,, g,and gcare
discrimination by fuzzy sets. The details are introduced in
reference 141. instantaneous values of each phasor in ABC coordination

51 6
system.
When ABC system is transferred into instantaneous
symmetrical components using 1, 2, 0 transformation,
different instantaneous negative sequence components
can be obtained by using different phase as reference
phase. The instantaneous negative sequence component
based on ABC phases are defined as g U r ,g b 2 ,gCz,
thus
synthetic negative sequence phasor is given as:
5. FAST ALGORITHM OF SYNTHTIC NEGATIVE
SEQUENCE PHASOR
The calculation of synthetic negative sequence phasor is
based on the instantaneous negative sequence
component, which uses ABC phase as phase reference.
Therefore the instantaneous negative sequence
component of each phase is first calculated. Time series
of 2, > g/), g, are s l h x i b e d as g , [k], g , [ k ] g , [k].
7
The sampling rate here is 36 points per cycle.
The SNSVg, is derived by using (10)-(12), which is
given as:
g J k 1 = gu*[kl + g , , P - 121+ g,,[k + 121
6. SIMULATION STUDIES
Figure 5 shows a test network with two power systems.
The capacity of system M is ten times as much as that of
system N. Z m 4 6 8 R OZm46.8 R Ofault resistance
Rg=5 Q 0 the relay is installed at location M. A three-
phase-fault occurred at point K, which is power swing
center. At that time the power angle is just equal to 180
degree. Fig. 15 shows the waveform of Ucoq. It is
obvious that the slope of WSCV has change during
characteristic sections. Fig. 16 shows the detecting result
of WSCV. When a fault occurred on power angle equal
to 180 degree at swing center, there is no any fault
exponent in voltage or current at all. It is the most
difficult situation for non-earth fault detecting. EMTP
simulation verified that the new principle is valid and
fast enough.
Figure 5 System used in simulation for non-earth faults
detection
Figure 6 shows a typical 300 km 500 kV dual
transmission line system. In the studies, the new
algorithm is incorporated in to the relay installed at
location for the protection of line section LINEl. The
power swing was created by a three-phase-fault occurred
at the end of LINE2 (F3) at 0.02 second. During swing,
at OSs, an A-to-earth fault occurred with 300R fault
'
resistance at the middle of the line section line-I (Fl).
The EMTP software package was used in the simulation
studies.
Figure 6 System used in simulation for earth fault detecting
Current negative sequence component obtained by using
typical fast sequence filter algorithm is shown in Figure
9. Figure 10 shows the response using the current SNSV.
As shown in Figure 9 and 10, the fault inception time is
clearly evident from Figure 10 for whch the new SNSV
algorithm is used. Figure 14 shows the SNSV for the
fault at the remote end of the transmission line with a
fault resistance of 300 R. Studies also show that the new
algorithm is less sensitive to the changing in system
frequency, therefore a criterion for fault detection during
(13) power swing can be designed easily. The detail analysis
is introduced in reference [4].
It can be seen that the current SNSV is usually zero
during the power swing period before the fault inception.
After fault inception, current SNSV increases to a very
high level. During power swing, when the power-angle
difference between the two ends of the equivalent
system's electric potential is 0" , the SNSV is maximum.
When power angle difference is 180" , the SNSV is
minimum. If the swing center is near to the location of
the relay, such as 6 = 180°, the magnitude of the SNSV
is zero. Theoretically, the proposed identification method
must rely on a time delay for fault detection in this
situation, that is to wait for power angle to depart from
180", so that the SNSV is large enough to reach the
presented threshold value. In practice, most earth faults
result from insulation breakdown. During power swing,
while system's voltage is maximum and requirement for
insulation is the strictest at 6 = 0". When 6 = 180", the
voltage at the swing center is zero, and voltage at the
relay point is very low, fault is impossible to occur.
Thus, an earth fault during swing will not happen when
6 = 180" when swing center is within the area.
517

In addition, the technique for detecting earth fault during
power swing can be further reinforced by combining the
current SNSV and the zero sequence current
components, for which a criterion is given as follow:
Electric Power University, May, 1996 .
[4] Shaohua Jiao, “Research on New Technology of
Power System Intelligent Protection”, Doctor’s
Degree Thesis of North China Electric Power
University. Mar. 2000

ifxfx I
(A )

where, I , is the magnitude of current SNSV, and Io is 2500

the magnitude of zero sequence current. And I , is the

residual current, which is defined as the 15 percents of
-2500
normal load current.
I
200 400 600
S a m p l e points
5. CONCLUSION Figure 13 SNSV for a bc-n double phase to earth fault,
fault resistance = 100 R
In order to detect the non-earth faults during power
swing, this paper presents a new principle by describing 1500
ifxfx ( A )
waveform of swing center’s voltage (WSCV). In order to
detect the earth faults during power swing, a new 500
concept is presented in the paper, the synthetic negative
sequence vector (SNSV). The describing rules of WSCV
-500
and SNSV are first derived using real time computation
algorithm, and subsequently used to detect fault during
I
power swing. Studies show that an earth fault with high -1500
200 400 600
fault resistance at the remote end of the line section S a m p l e points

Figure 14 SNSV for a bc-N double earth phase to fault,

during power swing whch is up to 300 SZ and the three-
fauilt resistance = 300 R
phase-fault occurred on power angle is equal to 180
degree at swing center can be detected by the proposed 1.5~10~
technique. Simulation studies with respect to typical I
power line systems prove the feasibility of the technique.

6.ACKNOLEDGEMENT
-1 .5x106,j
U.L u.4 U.0 u.u .O
The authors are grateful to the China National t
Foundation of Nature Science for sponsoring th~sproject Figure 15 WSCV for a three-phase-fault during power
(contract No. 59577010). swing, which occurred at swing center
2.5
I

7. REFERENCE

[ 13 GEC, Protective Relays Application Guide. 3rd

Edltion. ALSTOM Protection & Control, Stafford,
UK, 1990 t I
0 0 2 0 4 0 6 0 8 I O
[2] P.JMoore, A.T.Johns, A New Method of Power
t
Swing Blocking For Digital Distance Protection, Figure 16 Detecting result with WSCV
Intemational Power Engineering Conference 1993,
Segapore
[ 3 ] Zhenyu Xu “Research on New Generation
Microprocessor based High-Frequency Directional
Protection“, Doctor’s Degree Thesis of North Chma

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