A Simplified Energy-Oriented ROCOTW Scheme for Fault Location and Identification in HVDC Transmission Lines
Year: 2026
Type: conference-paper
Abstract: Protecting transmission lines is especially important in High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) systems as faults behave very differently compared to AC networks. When a fault occurs in an HVDC line, a traveling wave is generated that propagates at a very high speed and gradually decays as it moves along the line. Due to this rapid behavior, fault detection and protection in HVDC systems require quick and reliable methods. In recent years, many protection schemes based on the rate of change of traveling-wave (ROCOTW) voltage have been proposed. These methods are capable of detecting faults even under fault resistances and operating conditions. Most of these approaches rely on a waveform similarity method and complex signal processing techniques, which increase computational effort and make real-time relay implementation more challenging. To overcome these issues, this paper presents a two-stage protection framework for HVDC transmission lines using ROCOTW-based detection, which is less time-consuming. Instead of comparing full waveforms, ROCOTW energy and ROCOTW energy gradient are produced to identify internal faults. Once an internal fault is detected, a traveling-wave threshold detection-based fault location method is applied to estimate the fault distance along the DC line. The proposed approach does not require synchronized measurements or communication links, which is suitable for practical applications. The PSCAD simulation, along with the MATLAB results, shows that the method can distinguish between internal and external faults while maintaining low computational complexity.
Institution: Power Grid Corporation (India)
Language: English
Subfield: Control and Systems Engineering
Field: Engineering
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W7204910787