Analysis of power disturbances from monitoring multiple levels and locations in a power system

This paper proposes a new methodology for diagnosing the original source and underlying causes of power system disturbances, where voltage and current recordings from different locations of a power system are collected. In the proposed method, disturbances are first pre-classified based on the number of transition segments. The spatial zone of the source of disturbances is coarsely determined from voltage recordings only. Disturbances are then further analyzed and characterized by extracting information from both voltages and currents. Finally more accurate information about the location of the source of disturbances is obtained by different techniques depending on the type of disturbances. Several underlying causes are analyzed and classified by using the proposed features extracted from both voltage and current waveforms. Finally, the location of the source of disturbances is refined once the underlying causes are found. Case studies were performed on a large grid-connected wind farm with disturbances from several underlying causes, including: fault, unit tripping, transformer, capacitor, and cable energizing generated by PSCAD/EMTDC.