A fault location criterion for MTDC transmission lines using transient current characteristics

Abstract Multi-terminal DC (MTDC) transmission system is applied in modern power systems due to its technical features. In an MTDC system, the converter stations are generally connected in parallel. To smooth the DC current output from the converter, the smoothing reactors are integrated in the converter outputs, instead of in the DC transmission line. When a fault occurs on the DC transmission line of the MTDC system, the fault current will flow along the whole DC line. As a result, the protection scheme may not locate the fault accurately. Based on the characteristics of DC filter, this paper analyzes the impedance characteristics of the combinational circuits, and proposes a method to identify the fault location by the characteristic harmonic. A protection criterion of the non-integer harmonics comparison is composed with phase-frequency characteristics curve derived from complex wavelet transform. The inevitable blind zone is analyzed in theory which exists on the terminal of transmission lines just like distance protection in AC systems. The algorithm is successfully tested and compared with other techniques.