Faulted Section Identification in Mixed Conductor Circuits Using Traveling Wave Magnitudes

A faulted section identification method for mixed conductor circuits is proposed in this paper using magnitudes of current traveling waves available at the line terminals. The ratios of initial aerial-mode magnitudes are used to identify the faulted section. The attenuation and transmission properties of traveling waves are utilized to formulate the proposed method. The method does not require data synchronization. The effectiveness of the proposed method is assessed for faults simulated on a 400 kV transmission network with variations in fault parameters. Accurate identification of faulted sections as well as junctions is achieved by the proposed method, even with the uncertainties in line parameters and traveling wave magnitude estimation. Comparative assessment results show that the proposed method is more accurate compared to the available methods for faulted section identification of mixed conductor circuits.