Fault location method based on traveling-wave instantaneous frequency for HVDC transmission lines

In the transmission line fault location based on traveling wave, the organic unity between the arrival time of the traveling wave and the wave speed is a serious problem. The relationship of instantaneous frequency and the wave speed was analyzed. On the basis, a novel traveling wave fault location algorithm for HVDC transmission lines was proposed, in which the organic unity of the arrival time of wave-front and wave speed was considered. The improved Hilbert-Huang transform was used to obtain the time frequency diagram, through which the arrival time of the traveling wave and the instantaneous frequency was determined. Then the wave speed was obtained by the corresponding instantaneous frequency. The algorithm has been performed for a large amount of simulation cases in PSCAD. Results show that the proposed method is independent to transition resistance and fault type, and the fault location accuracy is high at different fault distance. This algorithm is also verified by field-recorded data. © 2016 Chin. Soc. for Elec. Eng.