Thesis (MScEng)--University of Stellenbosch, 2003. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis describes the development of a GPS Based Time Stamping and Scheduling System for power system applications. These applications include Wide Area Measurements (WAMs) of electrical power system quantities and high-voltage transmission line fault location. The developed system employs a microcontrolIer and a GPS receiver to synchronise an onboard microsecond-accurate clock to a global time standard. The system is therefore able to provide an accurate GPS-synchronised time stamp of a received trigger signal for use in highvoltage transmission line fault location. The system is also able to generate a trigger signal at a pre-programmed time for initiation of data acquisition runs on electrical power systems. The system was constructed and tested in a laboratory environment. Although the system is designed to operate in stand-alone mode, a host computer software program was also developed for system control and data downloading. The software program was used to time stamp a number of trigger signals and data was downloaded to a host computer. Trigger signals were also generated at predefined times. The acquired data was validated and presented. In conclusion, the low system cost, relative to existing commercial systems, accuracy and programmability of the developed system makes it suitable for a wide variety of time-critical data acquisition applications. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie tesis beskryf die ontwikkeling van 'n GPS gebaseerde tyd stempel en skedulerings sisteem met die oog op kragstelsel toepassings. Ingesluit by hierdie toepassings is wye area metings op elektriese kragstelsels, asook foutopsporing op hoogspanning transmissielyne. Die ontwikkelde sisteem gebruik 'n mikrobeheerder en 'n GPS ontvanger om 'n aanboord mikrosekonde-akkurate horlosie te sinkroniseer met 'n internasionale tyd standaard. Dus kan die ontwikkelde sisteem 'n akkurate GPS gesinkroniseerde tyd stempel aan 'n snellersein heg. Hierdie tyd stempel kan gebruik word in hoogspanning transmissielyn foutopsporing. Die sisteem kan ook 'n snellersein genereer op 'n vooraf geprogrammeerde tyd. Hierdie snellersein kan gebruik word om belangrike data van elektriese kragstelsels te versamel, deur gebruik te maak van bestaande dataversamelingstelsels. Die sisteem was ontwerp en getoets in laboratorium toestande. Alhoewel die stelselontwerp is om alleenstaande te funksioneer, is 'n beheer rekenaar gebruik om, met die hulp van ontwikkelde sagteware, die sisteem te beheer en data af te laai. 'n Tyd stempel is aan 'n aantal snellerseine geheg en hierdie data is afgelaai na 'n beheer rekenaar. Die sisteem is ook geprogrammeer om 'n aantal snellerseine te genereer op vooraf gedefinieerde tye. Die data wat uit hierdie toetse versamel is, is bespreek. In vergelyking met bestaande kommersiële stelsels is die ontwikkelde stelsel se lae koste, akkuraatheid en programmeerbaarheid eienskappe wat die stelsel geskik maak vir 'n wye verskeidenheid van tyd-kritieke dataversameling toepassings.

This work takes place in the context of distribution power system protection and tries to improve the detection and location of earth faults. The protection problem is vast and many ideas emerge every year to enhance the reliability of the grid. The author has focused his energy into the compensated and isolated network protection in the specific case of single phase earth fault. This PhD thesis is divided in two main parts that might be considered as independent. The first part studies the detection of single phase earth fault and the second analyzes the fault location of such fault.<p><p>Pragmatism was asked during these three years because a product development was necessary especially regarding the fault detection problem. The first part of the thesis took 18 months of research and development to obtain a prototype of transient protection able to detect single phase earth fault in compensated and isolated network. The sensitivity of the algorithm has been emphasized regarding the fault impedance and to detect earth fault up to 5 kOhm depending on the network characteristic. The fault location problem has been much more theoretical although the problem links to the accuracy of the algorithm and its robustness regarding wrong fault location indication has been strongly considered.<p><p>Compensated networks and in some conditions isolated networks are distribution from 12 kV up to 110 kV mostly used in East and North Europe but also in China. Others areas also work with such networks but they also have others systems and they do not use them on all the territory. These networks have the particularity to obtain very small fault current in case of single phase earth fault. Low current means the difference between a faulty and a sound feeder is not significant. Therefore classic overcurrent protection is completely useless to protect the network, forcing the development of more complex algorithm. A possibility to overcome the problem of the small fault current is to develop a transient protection. The transient occurring at the beginning of the fault has strong information to distinguish a faulty from a sound feeder. In this work I have chosen to use not only the transient but also the steady state to get the best sensitivity.<p><p>Then the fault location has been investigated but the small information coming from the faulty feeder is not sufficient to have a precise enough position of the fault. Therefore, active system has been suggested to be implemented in the grid to increase the faulty current and have enough power for a precise location. Different existing algorithms based on the steady state at the nominal frequency are compared using a tool developed during this work. Recommendations are then made depending on the topology, the network parameters, the measurements precision, etc. Due to the complexities of the problem, a simulator has been coded in Matlab .The user of a possible fault location must then use this tool to understand and see the future fault location precision that he could obtain from different algorithm on his network. / Doctorat en Sciences de l'ingénieur / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

published_or_final_version / Mechanical Engineering / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / abstract / Computer Science / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Mechanical Engineering / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Mechanical Engineering / Master / Master of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Mechanical Engineering / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

The concentration of this work is in estimating fault locations in power systems. After describing the basic concepts of fault locating methods, this work describes improving the fault location estimates, applying the fault locating methods, and implementing the methods in a software. Every work described in the Chapter will be evaluated whether by actual field data or simulated data based on field parameters. / text

a control, power quality and stability perspective. This is chiefly due to the future influence on power system behaviour resulting from the rapid cumulative growth of grid integrated wind power, and the improved control characteristics afforded by modern variable speed wind power generators. There is consequently strong motivation to enhance the inherent control robustness, power quality and fault-ride-through characteristics of modern wind power generators. By so doing, the attributes essential for power system operation regarding security of supply, reliability, and power quality can be assured. The work presented in this thesis employs a two-fold methodology in order to improve the inherent control, power quality and fault tolerance characteristics of a modern wind power generator based on a 2MW medium-voltage directly-driven permanently-excited architecture employing full-scale power conversion. Firstly, due to the complexity of modern wind power generators, accurate and complementary detailed non-linear (circuit orientated) and linear analytical (state-space based) wind generator models are developed. Collectively, these facilitate a wide range of detailed transient and smallsignal, control, stability and fault analysis studies. Ultimately, this facilitates the means by which advanced AC voltage controls are developed that significantly extend the wind power generator stable operating range for grid strength variations (grid impedance variation). Secondly, a supercapacitor based electrical energy storage system is designed and integrated within the developed wind generator models in order to facilitate the means by which fault-ridethrough characteristics and power quality can be improved. Fault-ride-through characteristics are ultimately improved by absorbing a proportion of generated power in the integrated storage system during grid-side faults. Power quality is ultimately improved by effectively buffering wind speed fluctuations in the integrated storage system so that a ‘smoothed’ version of the generated power results at the wind generator terminals.

Neste trabalho foi desenvolvido um método de localização de faltas em linhas de transmissão constituídas de circuitos simples ou duplos, admitindo trechos não transpostos e com derivações, além de terminais com medições dessincronizadas. O método utiliza os fasores de tensão e corrente, pré-falta e pós-falta, medidos nos terminais, local e remoto, para determinar as informações da falta, as quais são: trecho de ocorrência, distância, resistência e tipo. O método de localização de faltas proposto neste trabalho é composto pelo: processo de obtenção dos fasores, onde os sinais de tensão e corrente são filtrados; algoritmo de montagem da matriz de admitâncias da rede; algoritmo de estimativa de cargas e algoritmo de localização de faltas. O método desenvolvido tem como principal característica a localização de faltas em linhas de transmissão constituídas por circuito duplo com derivações utilizando dados de somente dois terminais, não descartando a possibilidade da utilização de dados de outros terminais caso disponíveis, e a pesquisa por trechos da rede através da minimização de funções objetivo. Para avaliar a eficiência do método de localização de faltas desenvolvido, diversas simulações foram realizadas no programa ATP (Alternative Transient Program), tais como: variação da distância de falta, da resistência de falta e do tipo de falta, bem como simulações de erros no módulo e no ângulo dos fasores, erros nos parâmetros da linha de transmissão e erros nos equivalentes. / In this work was developed a fault location method on transmission lines constituted of single or double circuits, allowing non-transposed lines sections, with derivations. The method uses the pre-fault and post-fault voltage and current phasors measured at local and remote terminals to determine the fault information, which are: section of occurrence, distance, resistance and, type. The fault location method proposed in this work is composed by: phasor obtaining process, where the voltage and current phasors are filtered; the network\'s admitance matrix building process; the load estimation algorithm and; the fault location algorithm. The developed method has as main features the fault location on double circuit transmission lines with derivations using data of two terminals only, without discarding the possibility of using another terminals data, case available, and the search for the fault location on transmission line\'s sections by objective functions minimization. In order to evaluate the efficiency of the developed fault location method, a lot of simulations were conducted in ATP (Alternative Transient Program), such as: fault distance, resistance and, type variations as well as errors on phasors\' module and angle, transmission line parameters and, terminals\' equivalent.