Synchronized sampling improves fault location

Transmission line faults must be located accurately to allow maintenance crews to arrive at the scene and repair the faulted section as soon as possible. Rugged terrain and geographical layout cause some sections of power transmission lines to be difficult to reach. Therefore, robustness of the accurate fault location determination under a variety of power system operating constraints and fault conditions is an important requirement. This article introduces a unique concept of high-speed fault location that can be implemented either as a simple add-on to the digital fault recorders (DFRs) or as a stand-alone new relaying function. This advanced concept is based on the use of voltage and current samples that are synchronously taken at both ends of a transmission line. This sampling technique can be made readily available in some new DFR designs incorporating receivers for accurate sampling clock synchronization using the satellite Global Positioning System (GPS)