Traveling Wave Method for Event Localization and Characterization of Power Transmission Lines

Abstract: Traveling wave theory is deployed today to improve the monitoring of transmission lines in electrical power grids. Most traveling wave methods require prior knowledge of the wave propagation of the transmission line, which is a major source of error as the value changes during the operation of the line. To improve the localization of events on transmission lines, we propose a new online localization method that simultaneously determines the frequency-dependent wave propagation characteristic from the traveling wave measurements of the event. Compared to conventional methods, this is achieved with one additional traveling wave measurement, but the method can still be applied in different measurement setups. We have derived the method based on the complex continuous wavelet transform. The accuracy of the method is evaluated in a simulation with a frequency-dependent transmission line model of the IEEE 39-bus system. The method was developed independently of the type of event and evaluated in test setups considering different lengths of the monitored line, line types and event locations. The localization accuracy is compared with existing online methods and analyzed with regard to the characterization capabilities. The method has a high relative localization accuracy in the range of 0.1\,\% under different test conditions.