A Review of Fault Diagnosing Methods in Power Transmission Systems

Transient stability is important in power systems. Disturbances like faults need to be segregated to restore transient stability. A comprehensive review of fault diagnosing methods in the power transmission system is presented in this paper. Typically, voltage and current samples are deployed for analysis. Three tasks/topics; fault detection, classification, and location are presented separately to convey a more logical and comprehensive understanding of the concepts. Feature extractions, transformations with dimensionality reduction methods are discussed. Fault classification and location techniques largely use artificial intelligence (AI) and signal processing methods. After the discussion of overall methods and concepts, advancements and future aspects are discussed. Generalized strengths and weaknesses of different AI and machine learning-based algorithms are assessed. A comparison of different fault detection, classification, and location methods is also presented considering features, inputs, complexity, system used and results. This paper may serve as a guideline for the researchers to understand different methods and techniques in this field

A new approach to detecting and classifying multiple faults in IEEE 14-bus system

Faults in the power system generally provide considerable changes in its quantities such as under or over-power, over-current, current or power direction, frequency, impedance, and power factor. Reading data related to both currents and voltages is usually involved for detecting and situating the fault on the transmission network. These days, any outage of power in a power grid leads to heavy financial losses for commercial, industrial, and domestic consumers. Random and irregular faults in transmission grids contribute significantly to events of power outages. A significant contribution of this study is a new technique for simulating a multiple simultaneous faults model. The recommended approach is an effective technique for detection, classification and localization of faults in transmission networks of electric power. To attain this objective, a training procedure and a neural network simulation were carried out using m-file in MATLAB. A virtual bus has been proposed to analyze the fault which happens on the transmission line and bus. This technique has been applied on the IEEE 14 bus and multiple simultaneous faults have been mentioned in this study. The fault situations are simulated in m-files through the two-port network performance method, which is a highly enhanced scheme in comparison to the existing methods. The results have been arrived upon by subjecting different buses to varying types of fault. The results provide comprehensive information regarding fault current, post-fault voltages, and fault MVA on all the buses. The values at the bus for voltage, power consumption, and phase angles were specified. As suggested by the findings of the simulation, the proposed methodology is an effective technique for detection, classification and localization of fault

FAULT IDENTIFICATION ON ELECTRICAL TRANSMISSION LINES USING ARTIFICIAL NEURAL NETWORKS

Transmission lines are designed to transport large amounts of electrical power from the point of generation to the point of consumption. Since transmission lines are built to span over long distances, they are frequently exposed to many different situations that can cause abnormal conditions known as electrical faults. Electrical faults, when isolated, can cripple the transmission system as power flows are directed around these faults therefore leading to other numerous potential issues such as thermal and voltage violations, customer interruptions, or cascading events. When faults occur, protection systems installed near the faulted transmission lines will isolate these faults from the transmission system as quickly as possible. Accurate fault location is essential in reducing outage times and enhancing system reliability. Repairing these faulted elements and restoring the transmission lines to service quickly is highly important since outages can create congestion in other parts of the transmission grid, therefore making them more vulnerable to additional outages. Therefore, identifying the classification and location of these faults as quickly and accurately as possible is crucial. Diverse fault location methods exist and have different strengths and weaknesses. This research aims to investigate the use of an intelligent technique based on artificial neural networks. The neural networks will attempt to determine the fault classification and precise fault location. Different fault cases are analyzed on multiple transmission line configurations using various phasor measurement arrangements from the two substations connecting the transmission line. These phasor measurements will be used as inputs into the artificial neural network. The transmission system configurations studied in this research are the two-terminal single and parallel transmission lines. Power flows studied in this work are left static, but multiple sets of fault resistances will be tested at many points along the transmission line. Since any fault that occurs on the transmission system may never experience the same fault resistance or fault location, fault data was collected that relates to different scenarios of fault resistances and fault locations. In order to analyze how many different fault resistance and fault location scenarios need to be collected to allow accurate neural network predictions, multiple sets of fault data were collected. The multiple sets of fault data contain phasor measurements with different sets of fault resistance and fault location combinations. Having the multiple sets of fault data help determine how well the neural networks can predict the fault identification based on more training data. There has been a lack of guidelines on designing the architecture for artificial neural network structures including the number of hidden layers and the number of neurons in each hidden layer. This research will fill this gap by providing insights on choosing effective neural network structures for fault classification and location applications

Design and implementation of ANN based phase comparators applied to transmission line protection

There has been significant development in the area of neural network based power system protection in the previous decade. Neural network technology has been applied for various protective relaying functions including distance protection. The reliability and efficiency of ANN based distance relays is improving with the developing digital technologies. There are, however, some inherent deficiencies that still exist in the way these relays are designed. This research addresses some of these issues and proposes an improved protective relaying scheme. The traditional ANN distance relay designs use parameter estimation algorithms to determine the phasors of currents and voltages. These phasors are used as inputs to determine the distance of a fault from relay location. The relays are trained and tested on this criterion; however, no specific relay characteristic has been defined. There is a need for development of a new methodology that will enable designing of an ANN that works as a generic distance relay with clearly defined operating boundary. This research work presents a modified distance relaying algorithm that has been combined with a neural network approach to eliminate the use of phasors. The neural network is trained to recognize faults on basis of a specific relay characteristic. The algorithm is flexible and has been extended for the design of other relays. The neural network has been trained using pure sinusoidal values and has been tested on a 17-bus power system simulated in PSCAD. The training and testing of the neural network on different systems ensures that the relay is generic in nature. The proposed relay can be used on any transmission line without re-training the neural network. The design has been tested for different fault conditions including different fault resistances and fault inception angles. The test results show that the relay is able to detect faults in lesser time as compared to conventional relay algorithms while maintaining the integrity of relay boundaries

Fault Classification and Location Identification on Electrical Transmission Network Based on Machine Learning Methods

Power transmission network is the most important link in the country’s energy system as they carry large amounts of power at high voltages from generators to substations. Modern power system is a complex network and requires high-speed, precise, and reliable protective system. Faults in power system are unavoidable and overhead transmission line faults are generally higher compare to other major components. They not only affect the reliability of the system but also cause widespread impact on the end users. Additionally, the complexity of protecting transmission line configurations increases with as the configurations get more complex. Therefore, prediction of faults (type and location) with high accuracy increases the operational stability and reliability of the power system and helps to avoid huge power failure. Furthermore, proper operation of the protective relays requires the correct determination of the fault type as quickly as possible (e.g., reclosing relays). With advent of smart grid, digital technology is implemented allowing deployment of sensors along the transmission lines which can collect live fault data as they contain useful information which can be used for analyzing disturbances that occur in transmission lines. In this thesis, application of machine learning algorithms for fault classification and location identification on the transmission line has been explored. They have ability to “learn” from the data without explicitly programmed and can independently adapt when exposed to new data. The work presented makes following contributions: 1) Two different architectures are proposed which adapts to any N-terminal in the transmission line. 2) The models proposed do not require large dataset or high sampling frequency. Additionally, they can be trained quickly and generalize well to the problem. 3) The first architecture is based off decision trees for its simplicity, easy visualization which have not been used earlier. Fault location method uses traveling wave-based approach for location of faults. The method is tested with performance better than expected accuracy and fault location error is less than ±1%. 4) The second architecture uses single support vector machine to classify ten types of shunt faults and Regression model for fault location which eliminates manual work. The architecture was tested on real data and has proven to be better than first architecture. The regression model has fault location error less than ±1% for both three and two terminals. 5) Both the architectures are tested on real fault data which gives a substantial evidence of its application

Artificial neural networks and their applications to intelligent fault diagnosis of power transmission lines

Over the past thirty years, the idea of computing based on models inspired by human brains and biological neural networks emerged. Artificial neural networks play an important role in the field of machine learning and hold the key to the success of performing many intelligent tasks by machines. They are used in various applications such as pattern recognition, data classification, stock market prediction, aerospace, weather forecasting, control systems, intelligent automation, robotics, and healthcare. Their architectures generally consist of an input layer, multiple hidden layers, and one output layer. They can be implemented on software or hardware. Nowadays, various structures with various names exist for artificial neural networks, each of which has its own particular applications. Those used types in this study include feedforward neural networks, convolutional neural networks, and general regression neural networks. Increasing the number of layers in artificial neural networks as needed for large datasets, implies increased computational expenses. Therefore, besides these basic structures in deep learning, some advanced techniques are proposed to overcome the drawbacks of original structures in deep learning such as transfer learning, federated learning, and reinforcement learning. Furthermore, implementing artificial neural networks in hardware gives scientists and engineers the chance to perform high-dimensional and big data-related tasks because it removes the constraints of memory access time defined as the von Neuman bottleneck. Accordingly, analog and digital circuits are used for artificial neural network implementations without using general-purpose CPUs. In this study, the problem of fault detection, identification, and location estimation of transmission lines is studied and various deep learning approaches are implemented and designed as solutions. This research work focuses on the transmission lines’ datasets, their faults, and the importance of identification, detection, and location estimation of them. It also includes a comprehensive review of the previous studies to perform these three tasks. The application of various artificial neural networks such as feedforward neural networks, convolutional neural networks, and general regression neural networks for identification, detection, and location estimation of transmission line datasets are also discussed in this study. Some advanced methods based on artificial neural networks are taken into account in this thesis such as the transfer learning technique. These methodologies are designed and applied on transmission line datasets to enable the scientist and engineers with using fewer data points for the training purpose and wasting less time on the training step. This work also proposes a transfer learning-based technique for distinguishing faulty and non-faulty insulators in transmission line images. Besides, an effective design for an activation function of the artificial neural networks is proposed in this thesis. Using hyperbolic tangent as an activation function in artificial neural networks has several benefits including inclusiveness and high accuracy

Fault Detection and Classification in Transmission Line Using Wavelet Transform and ANN

Recent years, there is an increased interest in fault classification algorithms. The reason, behind this interest is the escalating power demand and multiple interconnections of utilities in grid. This paper presents an application of wavelet transforms to detect the faults and further to perform classification by supervised learning paradigm. Different architectures of ANN aretested with the statistical attributes of a wavelet transform of a voltage signal as input features and binary digits as outputs. The proposed supervised learning module is tested on a transmission network. It is observed that ANN architecture performs satisfactorily when it is compared with the simulation results. The transmission network is simulated on Matlab. The performance indices Mean Square Error (MSE), Mean Absolute Error (MAE), Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) and Sum Square Error (SSE) are used to determine the efficacy of the neural network