Influence of Measurement Uncertainty on Parameter Estimation and Fault Location for Transmission Lines

Fault location algorithms for transmission lines use the parameters of the transmission line to locate faults after the faults have occurred along the line. Although these parameters can be estimated by the phasor measurement units (PMUs) at the terminal(s) of the transmission line continuously, the uncertainty in the measurements will give rise to stochastic errors in the measured values. Thus, the uncertainty in measurements definitely influences the estimations of the parameters of the transmission line, which, in turn, influences the results of fault location algorithms. Inaccurate results of fault location algorithms may lead to costly maintenance fees and prolonged outage time. Therefore, in this article, we estimate the parameters of the transmission line considering the uncertainty in the measurements so that a more accurate fault location can be derived. The uncertainty in the measurements will be modeled as a stochastic distribution, and the maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) method will be adopted to reduce the uncertainty in the measurements. In addition, as an illustration, the telegrapher's equations will be used to calculate the parameters of the transmission line, and the two-terminal positive sequence network fault location algorithm will be used to locate the fault. In a simulation, a case study of a real-life transmission line the influence of the uncertainty in the measurements on the transmission line parameter estimations and the effectiveness of the MLE method for estimations are simulated and analyzed. The results show that the influence of the uncertainty in the measurements on the positive sequence network fault location algorithm should not be neglected and that the proposed method is very effective in significantly reducing the influence of the uncertainty in the measurements.