Novel Method for Identifying Fault Location of Mixed Lines

The identification and localization of a fault are a basic requirement for optimal operation of a modern power system. An effective fault identification method significantly reduces outage time, improves the electrical supply reliability, and enhances the speed of protection control. This paper proposes a novel method based on the theory of the two-terminal traveling wave range to identify the fault location in a voltage source converter based high voltage direct current (VSC-HVDC) system containing mixed cable and overhead line segments. It uses variational mode decomposition (VMD) and the Teager energy operator (TEO) as a new method to detect the traveling wave fault through a fault signal. The effectiveness of the proposed method is verified via time domain simulation of the hybrid VSC-HVDC transmission system using PSCAD/EMTDC and MATLAB software. Simulation results show that the proposed method demonstrates high fault location accuracy and excellent robustness with a slight effect on transient resistance and fault types, and that it performs better than the existing transient detection techniques, such as wavelet transform and ensemble empirical mode decomposition.