2016 International Symposium on Computer, Consumer and Control

Research on Protection Using One-end Current Based on

Improved Recursive Wavelet Transform in Four-terminal
HVDC System
Shu-Ping Gao#, Jing Xie #, Ruo-Ya Zhang*,Wen-Hao Li #
#
Department of electrical and control engineering, Xian University of Science and Technology,
No. 58 Yanta Road, Xian, Shaanxi, China
1
gao.sp2003@163.com
2
527149583@qq.com
4
544759558@qq.com
*
State Grid Shaanxi Baoji Electric Power Supply Company
No. 125 Daqing Road, Baoji, Shaanxi, China
3
160388359@qq.com

AbstractIn this paper, by installing a filter link in the converter
station of a multi terminal direct current (MTDC) system and
analyzing its impedance characteristics output, it illustrates that
the current measured by the shunt on the HVDC line would be
different when fault occurs on the line or not. The filter is made
of a smoothing reactor and HVDC filters. According to the
current difference, new protection principle is proposed. In
addition, the identification of fault pole can be implemented only
using one-end current signal when a fault occurs. The frequency
current signal is extracted using improved recursive wavelet
transform (IRWT) in order to meet the rapidity requirements of
protection. Historical data are used by this method with fast
recursive algorithm to ensure that the information is no
redundancy. Simulation results show that internal and external
fault can be identified, and the fault pole can be found using one-
end fault data. Compared with traditional protection methods,
the presented method has high reliability and appropriate
sensitivity. The research results of the paper have great
engineering practical value. It can replace the existing traveling
wave protection as the main protection of multi-terminal HVDC
transmission lines.
KeywordsMulti-terminal direct current (MTDC); Relay
protection; Improved recursive wavelet transform (IRWT);
Specific frequency
I. INTRODUCTION
Considering the fact that energy distribution and
the level of economic development are not balanced
in China, HVDC has played an important role in the
strategy of West to East, the national network and
laid a good foundation for the major regional and
national asynchronous unified networking due to its
advantages such as long distance transmission,
lower losses and large capacity [1]. Multi-terminal
HVDC system contains three or more converter
stations. Compared with the double terminal HVDC
transmission system, the operation of multi-
terminal HVDC system is more flexible and more
economical. Furthermore, it can achieve multi-
power supply and multi-placement power [2].
At present, traveling wave protection is used as
the main protection, while differential under-
voltage protection, current differential protection
and low voltage protection are used as backup
protection [3-7]. Traveling wave protection has
many advantages such as fast operation, less
susceptible to transient resistances and long-term
influence of distributed capacitances. However, it
still has disadvantages such as lacking
mathematical tools to represent traveling wave, no
universally applicable protection principle and
being easily inuenced by noise, depending on the
simulation results to set the threshold value [4]-[7].
A new boundary protection principle for HVDC
transmission lines is proposed based on boundary
characteristics [8]-[10]. The method is reliable and
can distinguish faults of lines from lightning
interference. However, high-frequency components
from 10Hz to 50 kHz are needed in this method,
causing inconvenience in sampling and calculation.
In addition, the method is affected by lightning
interference and the needed energy signal is lower
[11]-[12]. Therefore, it is necessary to further study
new principle of relay protection to improve the
safety of HVDC transmission lines.
Wavelet transform is a tool of mathematical
analysis and it is the original signal filtering process

978-1-5090-3071-2/16 $31.00 2016 IEEE 73

DOI 10.1109/IS3C.2016.29
in essence. Therefore, it has been widely used in 1 and the inverter station 1. DC filter unit is
power system for analysing harmonic, extracting composed of a flat-wave reactor and DC filters
failure data, identifying internal fault current and
III. FAULT CHARATERISTIC ANALYSIS OF INTERNAL
etc [13-14]. AND EXTERNAL LINE
In this paper, according to impedance
characteristics of filter units composed of a flat- A. DC line filter unit
wave reactor and DC filters, we can know that the A DC filter unit is shown in Figure 2. In Figure 2,
current measured at specific frequencies varies u
1
and i1 are the voltage and current measured on the
widely in internal and external DC lines faults. converter valve side respectively. u2 and i2 are the
According to the difference of the current, a new voltage and current measured on the DC
protection method is proposed. transmission line side.
Smoothing
i1 i2
II. FOUR TERMINAL HVDC TRANSMISSION SYSTEM reactor

Lp
shunt2
The structure of a four-terminal HVDC system is u1
shunt1

voltage
C1
L1
C1

L1
u2
voltage
AC divider2
shown in Figure 1. side divider1

C2 L2 C2 L2
Lp Lp Lp Lp
f3 f2 f4 f5 Rectifier
bridge
f1 C3 L3
L3 C3

DC filters

Fig. 2 The filter unit of DC line

In Figure 2, it is assumed that the impedance of

the smoothing reactor is Z 1 , the impedance of a
Rectifier Rectifier Inverter Inverter
single DC filter is Z 2 , the impedance of the DC
station 
2
filter is Z 3 , the angular velocity  . According to the
station
 1 station 1 station 2

Fig. 1 Structure of the four-terminal HVDC system theory of circuit, there is

Z 1  j L p (1)
From Figure 1, it can be seen that the four-
1 1
terminal mono-polar HVDC transmission system is  j L2  j L3
1 jC2 jC3
a parallel system including two rectifier stations and Z2   j L1   (2)
jC1 1
 j L2
1
 j L3
two inverter stations. jC2 jC3
The position f1 is an internal fault of the HVDC Z3 
Z2
(3)
2
line between the rectifier station 1 and the inverter
station 1. The position f2 is located outside of the B. Analysis of impedance characteristics of the filter unit
reactor at the rectifier station 1, which is an external In section A, qualitative analyses are made and a
fault point of the HVDC line between the rectifier conclusion can be drawn that the current value
station 1 and the inverter station 1. The position f3 measured by the shunt2 is larger when fault occurs
is an internal fault of HVDC line between the on the DC line than the current value when fault
rectifier station 1 and the rectifier station 2, which occurs beyond the DC line. In this section, fault
is an external fault of the HVDC line between the current and circuit topologies will be analysed.
rectifier station 1 and the inverter station 1. The The minimum input impedance circuit is given in
position f4 is located outside of the reactor at the Figure 3 when a fault occurs beyond the DC line. It
inverter station1, which is an external fault point of is noted that when the input impedance is the
the HVDC line between the rectifier station 1 and smallest, the current value measured by the shunt2
the inverter station 1. The position f5 is an internal is the biggest.
fault of the HVDC line between the inverter station
1 and the inverter station 2, which is an external
fault of the HVDC line between the rectifier station

74
 Smoothing
i reactor
Smoothing
reactor The characteristics of fault current at the DC
Lp
u C1 C1
DC
transmission
line
C1
L1
C1
L1
Lp
filters resonant frequency can be used to identify
L1 L1

C 2 L2 C
fault location, according to the analysis above.
L2 C2 L2 C2 L2
Zin 2
Therefore, when selecting a specific frequency
C3 L3 C3 L3 C3 L3 C3 L3 signal, the resonant frequency component of fault
DC filters
current should be considered preferentially. In order
to improve the reliability criterion [8], protection
Fig. 3 Minimum input impedance circuit when an external fault occurs criterion can be realized using the concept of
According to the definition of the impedance of average energy sum in[13].
DC filter in section A, there is The calculation of the magnitude of the selected
Z3
 j L p specific frequency current component measured by
Zin  j L p  2
Z3
(4) the shunt2 on the DC side can be implemented
 j L p
2 using the absolute value of the integral of a duration
The relation of the modulus impedance and the of data. The length of integral data window is
frequency in (4) is shown in blue solid line in arbitrary.
Figure 5 when a fault occurs beyond the DC line. In
BIdentification of fault pole
Figure 5, the DC filter parameters are derived from
a practical DC project in China. When a unipolar fault occurs on the DC line, the
Smoothing reactor i current of the fault pole can increase sharply. On
Lp C1
L1
C1
L1
HVDC
transmission
u the other hand, the current of non-fault pole can
C2 L2 L2
line
also rise due to electromagnetic coupling effect.
C 2
Z in However, coupling current of the non-fault pole
C3 L3 C3 L3
does not exceed a certain threshold. Criterion of
DC filters fault pole identification is as follows:
Fig. 4 Maximum input impedance circuit when an internal fault occurs 1 N
 i
N k 1
I set 2 (7)
In order to get the minimum current value
measured by the shunt2, the DC transmission line where k is a series of sampling data from 1, 2,
impedance is ignored and the smoothing reactor at to N , N is the number of sampling points of a 5ms
this end is open-circuited. According to the data window. I set 2 is the threshold value, which
definition of the impedance of DC filter in section equals 0.1 times I n .
A, the maximum impedance is
V. IMPROVED RECURSIVE WAVELET ALGORITHM
Z2
Zin  Z3  (5) Fourier analysis method is usually used in power
2
10
6 system to analyze the dynamic and transient signal.
But with the progress of the study, Fourier
Impedance amplitude | Z | 

4
10

2
transform has been unable to meet the requirements
10
of describing the signal mutation. Wavelet
0
10
transform provides a powerful tool for processing
10
-2

Impedance characteristics of internal fault unstationary and the singularity of emergency

Impedance characteristics of external fault
10
-4

0 1 2 3 4 5
signal, widely being applied to power system [15].
10 10 10 10 10 10
frequencyHz
VI. SIMULATION ANALYSIS
Fig. 5 Impedance characteristic curves of HVDC filter
A. The simulation results of fault f1 on the DC line
The relation of the modulus impedance and the
frequency in (5) is shown in red dotted line in Results of current and relay protection operation
Figure 5 when a fault occurs on the DC line. when a metallic ground fault occurs 1499km away
from the rectified side are shown in Figure 6.
IV. IDENTIFICATION OF FAULT TYPE
A Discrimination of internal and external fault

75
 Results of Current Judgement
Pole current/(A) 3000
pole current
In this paper, by analysing the difference of
2500

2000
impedance characteristics resulting from the filter
1500 link made of the smoothing reactor and HVDC
1000
0 50 100 150 filters, it is found that the current measured are
1000 starting current different whether a fault occurs on the HVDC line
Starting current/(A)

threshold value
500
or not. According to the different current, a novel
0
protection principle is proposed, which can be
-500
0 50 100 150 implemented and identify the fault pole only using
The square root of quadratic sum

20

15
the square root of quadratic sum
threshold value
one-end current signal.
10 The proposed method need lower sampling
5 frequency and can be implemented easily using
0
0 50 100 150 hardware with absolute selectivity and high
15
starting element
fault identification component
reliability. The research results of the paper have
great engineering practical value.
Action result

10 action result

5
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0
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Action result

10 fault identification component

5
0
0 50
Sampling Points
Fig.7 Results of current and relay protection operation when a metallic ground
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From Figure 6 and 7, it can be seen that the
proposed method can identify the fault position
when fault occurs on the DC line or beyond the DC
line.
Because of the limitation of the length of the
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VII.
action result
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CONCLUSION

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