A novel fault-location method for HVDC transmission lines

This paper presents a method for locating faults on HVDC transmission lines using two terminal data. Different from those based on the traveling wave principle, the new fault-location algorithm can use any section of the postfault data to locate faults. The proposed method is developed based on the distributed parameter line model in which the voltage distribution over the line can be obtained from the voltage and current measurements at both terminals and point where fault occurs can be identified from the calculated voltage distribution. The fault-location algorithm is performed in time domain and thus a short data window is sufficient for it to achieve satisfactory accuracy in practice. The proposed algorithm is simulated using data of the frequency-dependent line model in EMTDC and data of an existing HVDC line as well. The simulations have shown that this method is valid and is capable of locating the faults occurring on HVDC transmission lines quickly and accurately.