Accurate location of inter-circuit faults on double-circuit transmission lines based on sparse wide-area voltage measurements

Inter-circuit fault is a type of fault in which phases from two or more circuits at a single geographical location are connected. This type of fault is more likely to occur on a double-circuit transmission line located on a single tower structure. This paper proposes a location algorithm for inter-circuit faults on a double-circuit transmission line based on sparse wide-area voltage measurements. The proposed algorithm is based on bus impedance matrix theory. This method is applicable to both transposed and untransposed double-circuit transmission lines. Wide-area measurements are captured by phasor-measurement units (PMUs) from buses which may be far away from faulted line. The need of fault type information is eliminated, and distributed parameter transmission line model is adopted to fully consider shunt capacitances. The proposed method has been evaluated with simulation studies based on Electromagnetic Transients Program (EMTP). Quite accurate location results are yielded, and representative results are presented in the paper.