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A New Method for Fast Power Swing Detection Using the Rate of Change of
Energy in the Current Signal

Conference Paper · April 2019

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 27th Iranian Conference on Electrical Engineering (ICEE2019)

A New Method for Fast Power Swing Detection

Using the Rate of Change of Energy in the Current
Signal

Behrooz Taheri Sirus Salehimehr Farzad Razavi

Young Researcher and Elite Club, Young Researcher and Elite Club, Faculty of Electrical, Biomedical and
Qazvin Branch, Islamic Azad Qazvin Branch, Islamic Azad Mechatronics Engineering, Qazvin
University, Qazvin, Iran. University, Qazvin, Iran. Branch, Islamic Azad University,
behrooztaheri1372@gmail.com sirus.salehi@yahoo.com Qazvin, Iran.
farzad.razavi@qiau.ac.ir

Abstract—In order to maintain power system stability, modern has problems with selecting a proper setting. Wavelet
transmission networks need a high fault detection speed. transform (WT) has been used for power swing detection in
Therefore, a high level of protection security is required. [5]. This method requires a high sampling rate. The authors in
Distance protection due to its fast fault clearance feature is a article [8] have been presented a method based on the reduction
commonly used relay for transmission lines. The variation in of DC component in fault current. A method based on
voltage and current signals during power swing is often the root supervised learning methods, such as Support Vector Machine
cause for incorrect operation of distance relay. As a result, the (SVM) has been proposed in [9]. An Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy
distance relay may initiate a trip command to the breaker to Inference System (ANFIS) has been used in [10] to detect
isolate transmission lines unnecessarily. Therefore, power swing
power swing. SVM and ANFIS methods have the proper
blocking (PSB) function is necessary for the distance relay to
avoid unwanted tripping of the transmission line. A power swing
accuracy and speed for power swing detection, but they need a
detection technique is proposed in this paper using the rate of lot of offline simulations to train different fault rates and power
change of energy in the current signal. This method can also swings. A power swing detection technique based on Moving
detect faults occurring simultaneously with power swings. The Window Averaging (MWA) is proposed in [11]. In [12],
practicality of the proposed method is shown in the standard 39- transient monitoring has been used to detect the power swing.
bus test system using the MATLAB and DIgSILENT software. A method independent of the power system parameters is
The proposed method is also implemented on a relay and is tested presented in [13]. In [14], a method based on detection of a
using a relay tester device made by Vebko Amirkabir Co. short circuit during the power swing is proposed using the
monitoring the asymmetric coefficient of current signal seen by
Keywords-Power swing; Faults occurring during the power the relay. The effects of UPFC have been examined in four
swing; Distance relay; Power system protection. different PSB methods in [15]. A realistic test of the PSB
function is expressed in [16]. In [17], a new method for power
I. INTRODUCTION swing detection is presented based on the superimposed
Power swing is often caused by disturbances, such as components of voltages magnitude. The blinder scheme is the
switching of the transmission line, loss of generation, and commonly used method for detection, which detects the power
power system faults. One of the most challenging problems of swing by difference of rate of variation in positive sequence of
distance relays is the detection of the faults occurring the impedance [18]. The blinder scheme is practical, however
simultaneously with a power swing. Failure to detect finding the proper setting for blocking the relay during the
simultaneous faults with power swing can cause serious stable power swing and unblocking during the unstable power
damages to power system equipment. To avoid this event, swing, especially in large power systems is very complicated.
different methods are presented for detecting the power swing In [19], a new method is proposed based on the rate of
and faults occurring during the power swing in distance relays. variation in RMS value of current.
The most common method for detecting the power swing is A power swing detection technique is proposed in this
to use the rate of change of impedance in a specific area [1, 2]. paper using the rate of change of energy in the current signal.
The schemes based on this method cannot detect the This method can also detect faults occurring simultaneously
symmetrical faults during the power swing. The reason for this with power swings. The practicality of the proposed method is
is that power swing and symmetrical faults are both balanced shown in the standard 39-bus test system using the MATLAB
phenomena [3-6]. In [7], a power swing detection technique and DIgSILENT software. The proposed method is also
has been proposed using Swing Center Voltage (SVC). In implemented on a relay and is tested using a relay tester device
addition delaying in power swing detection, this method also made by Vebko Amirkabir Co.

978-1-7281-1508-5/19/$31.00 ©2019 IEEE

 27th Iranian Conference on Electrical Engineering (ICEE2019)

II. NEW METHOD

In this paper, for detection of power swing and faults
occurring during the power swing, first we take the samples
from the current signal individually in all three phase using the
signal window, which its length is obtained by following
equation:
Fs
window ' s length = (1)
F
Where Fs is the sampling frequency and F is the
fundamental frequency of the system. According to the
equation (2), the energy of signal for all sampled data in each
phase is calculated individually.
∞
Es =< x(n), x(n) >=  | x ( n) |
n =−∞
2
(2) Figure 1. Variations of the obtained fundamental value during the power
swing and fault.
Then, using equation (3) the sum of the obtained energies
will be calculated. As can be seen from Figure 1, during the power swing the
variations of fundamental amplitude is close to zero, whereas
its amplitude changes very significantly during the fault. Based
Sum( Es ) = Es (a) + Es (b) + Es (c) (3)
on the aforementioned discovery, the condition of power swing
can be expressed as follows:
Afterward, according to the equation (4), Fourier transform
is applied on signal energy obtained by equation (3) and then If Signal<K PSB detection
the frequency spectrum is extracted. The extracted fundamental (8)
frequency spectrum is used to distinguish between fault and else Signal>K Fault detection
power swing.
Where K is the threshold value.
N −1
X K =  xn e − i 2π Kn / N Figure 2 illustrates the algorithm of the proposed method.
n=0
(4)
Start
K = 0,...., N − 1
According to the equation (5), the abs value of equation (4)
should be calculated for the use of obtained fundamental value. Sampling
Signal = abs ( X K ) (5)
Calculation of energy
In the next step, by applying equation (6), the apparent
power of the mean value is calculated at the main frequency Calculation of the average value
using an averaging window.
t
1
T ( t −T )
Ave( S (t )) = S (t ).dt (6) Is the condition
No
Fault is detected
feasible?
1
T= (7) Yes
Ff

S (t ) and Ff are the input power signal and Is the impedance

Yes

Where in the third zone?

fundamental frequency respectively.
Figure 1 shows the variations of the obtained signal during No
the power swing and fault.
END

Figure 2. The algorithm of the proposed method

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 27th Iranian Conference on Electrical Engineering (ICEE2019)

The algorithm continues until the impedance remains into

the protective zone of relay. Hence, if a fault occurs
simultaneously with power swing, it can be detected by the
algorithm.
III. TESTING OF THE PROPOSED METHOD
For testing of the proposed method in this paper, the
standard 39-bus test system has been used. This system is
widely used in stability studies of the power system. This
system consists of 39 bus and 10 generators. 19 loads available
on the network consumes 6150.1 Mw and 1233.9 Mvar [20].
Figure 3 shows the single-line diagram of this system. In this
section, the proposed method is evaluated in three case studies
include power swing detection, detection of faults occurring
simultaneously with power swings, and detection of high Figure 5. The power swing entered into the protective zones of distance
impedance faults occurring during the power swings. relay.

In order to avoid the mal-operation of distance relay, the

PSB function using the proposed algorithm detects the power
swing. As shown in Figure 6, the algorithm presented in this
paper can detect the power swing in 8 ms.

Figure 3. The IEEE standard 39-bus test system used for evaluation of
proposed method

A. Case study 1: Power swing

In order to evaluate the proposed method for detection of
the power swing, a distance relay is located on bus No. 26 and
is used to protection of line 26-29. To simulate the power
swing on the relay, the lines 26-28 and 28-29 are isolated from
the network at one second. Figure 4 shows the power swing
seen by the distance relay. The entered impedance trajectory
into the protective zone of distance relay is shown in Figure 5.
According to this figure, it is clear that the impedance
trajectory of power swing can cause mal-operation of distance
relay. In this case, the PSB function should block the relay.

Figure 6. The operation of proposed algorithm during the power swing.

Figure 4. The power swing seen by distance relay

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 27th Iranian Conference on Electrical Engineering (ICEE2019)

B. Case study 2: Three Phase fault detection during the C. Case study 3: High impedance fault during the power
power swing swing
One of the more challenging problems with the power One of the most distressing faults that occur in the power
swing algorithms is the detection of a three-phase fault during system is the high impedance fault [21]. High impedance faults
the power swing. Three-phase fault detection due to its occur when conductors of transmission lines collision with
balanced nature is too difficult for PSB algorithms. However, high impedance surfaces such as soil, asphalt, and even
the proposed conditions in this paper for power swing branches of trees. High impedance fault is generally single-
detection, are designed such a way that, when a fault occurs phase fault, which the amplitude of current in this fault type is
during the power swing these conditions are violated by the not enough for the operation of the protective system [22]. If
transient state of fault initiation and as a result, the algorithm these type of faults not detected in the power system, it can
can detect the fault correctly. cause major dangers such as ignite fires and damage to the
energy transmission equipment [23, 24].
In order to evaluate the proposed method for detection of
the three-phase fault during the power swing, the lines 26-28 To evaluate a high impedance fault occurring during the
and 28-29 are isolated from the network at one second. power swing, a fault is applied at 4.2 seconds in the 25% of
Afterward, to simulate a fault during the power swing, a three- line 26-29. The value of impedance is considered 200 ohms. As
phase fault is applied at 4.2 s in the 25% of line 26-29. Figure 7 can be seen in Figure 8, when a high impedance fault is applied
shows the relay operation at the three-phase fault occurring the conditions of power swing are violated and the fault
simultaneously with power swing. This figure clearly shows occurring simultaneously with power swing can be detected by
that the relay has successfully detected the three-phase fault the relay.
after 8 ms and unblocks the relay.

Figure 8. The operation of the proposed algorithm during the High

impedance fault

Figure 7. The operation of the proposed algorithm during the three-phase

fault

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 27th Iranian Conference on Electrical Engineering (ICEE2019)

IV. PRACTICAL TEST • Detection of three-phase and high impedance faults

In order to test the proposed method, the algorithm of simultaneously with the power swing.
power swing blocking has been implemented on a distance • Implementation capability on a relay.
relay and is tested by a relay tester device made by Vebko
Amirkabir Co. ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to express their appreciation to the
Vebko AmirKabir Company, who provided the laboratory and
equipment for practical tests that greatly assisted the research.
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