Distance Protection Based on Travelling Waves

Abstract

A technique is presented for rapid measurement of the distance to a fault using fault initiated travelling waves. The measurement uses the time it takes a given surge to travel from the relaying point to the fault and back. A correlation technique is used to recognise the surge returning from the fault and distinguish it from other surges present on the system. For a three phase transmission line, the modal components describing the incident wave are delayed and cross-correlated against the respective components reflected by the fault. Maximum output occurs when the delay corresponds to twice the fault distance.