A fault locating method for multi-branch hybrid transmission lines in wind farm based on redundancy parameter estimation

In order to solve the problem of “abandoned” wind caused by short circuit faults in a wind farm, a wind farm fault locating method based on redundancy parameter estimation is proposed. Using the characteristics of the traveling wave, transmission equations containing the position of the fault point are constructed. Parameter estimation from statistical theory is used to solve the redundant transmission equations formed by multiple measuring points to locate the faults. In addition, the bad data error detection capability of the parameter estimation is used to determine bad data and remove them. This improves locating accuracy. A length coefficient is introduced to solve the error enlargement problem caused by a transmission line sag. The proposed fault locating method can solve the fault branch misjudgment problem caused by the short circuit faults near the data measuring nodes of the wind farm based on the proposed fault interval criterion. It also avoids the requirements to the traveling wave speed of traditional methods, thus its fault location is more accurate. Its effectiveness is verified through simulations in PSCAD/EMTDC, and the results shows that it can be used in the fault locating of hybrid transmission lines.