Fast fault location in power transmission networks using transient signatures from sparsely-placed synchrophasors

This paper explores real-time fault location in a power transmission network using measurements of transients from sparsely-placed synchrophasors. The fault-location problem is abstracted to a statistical hypothesis-testing or detection problem, wherein the linearized dynamical models corresponding to different fault conditions must be distinguished in the face of fault-clearing and measurement uncertainty. A maximum a posteriori probability (MAP) detector is constructed. A strategy for real-time implementation of the fault-locator is discussed, which is based on pre-computation of detector parameters using state-estimator and contingency-analysis data, along with on-line collection of synchrophrasor data and implementation of the hypothesis test. Numerical case studies of the 11-Bus two area power system verify that the proposed fault-location algorithm can locate a faulted line accurately and quickly.