Enhancing Fault Location Performance on Power Transmission Lines

This paper discusses supporting algorithms for fault location on power transmission lines. The performance of fault location algorithm is strongly dependent on the accuracy of line model. Short circuit recordings contain valuable data, from which line parameters can be computed. Two algorithms for line parameter calculation are presented, as well as the results of application to field recordings. The advantages of statistical fault location algorithms are discussed. These algorithms can compute the expected value of the distance to the fault and evaluate margin of possible error. Obtained distribution of the fault distance allows to determine the best for particular conditions strategy for line inspection, leading to faster fault discovery and the optimized inspection costs.