Electrical Power and Energy Systems 25 (2003) 59±69

www.elsevier.com/locate/ijepes

A wavelet multiresolution analysis for location

of faults on transmission lines
D. Chanda, N.K. Kishore*, A.K. Sinha
Department of Electrical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur 721302, India
Received 9 May 2001; revised 1 October 2001; accepted 13 February 2002

Abstract
Faults on EHV lines are quite common. They cause disruption in power supply. Accurate location of faults will result in faster maintenance
and restoration of supply. This paper presents a new method for the location of faults based on wavelet multiresolution analysis (MRA).
EMTP (Microtran) is employed to generate the time domain input signal. Daubechies eight (D-8) wavelet transforms of the three phase
currents on transmission lines from both the ends are used. The effects of fault inception angle and fault impedance are examined. Extensive
simulation work has been carried out and results indicate that the proposed method is very effective in locating the fault with a high accuracy.
q 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Wavelet transforms; Multiresolution analysis; EMTP; Fault location; Power systems

1. Introduction as one of the variables. This requires updating whenever the

The performance of a power system is frequently affected
by faults, which give rise to disruption in power ¯ow.
Usually digital fault recorders placed at the two buses
connecting the transmission line monitor the line voltages
and currents and record disturbance incidents as digital fault
records. These records are transferred to a central location
for detailed study and analysis. The analysis of faults
includes the type and location of fault.
The determination of the location of fault quickly with a
reasonable accuracy helps in faster maintenance and
restoration of supply resulting in improved economy, safety
and reliability of power system.
Most of the fault location schemes are based on travelling
wave propagation on the transmission line. Another method
called pulse radar method is also used in which a measure-
ment of the period from emission to return of the pulse is
involved when an electrical pulse is transmitted on the line
[1]. Counter relays for distance protection [2,3] depend on
the measurement of the impedance up to the fault point.
These assume zero fault resistance which is not valid in
many cases of actual faults. The algorithm proposed by
Westlin and Bubenko [4], for fault location uses Newton±
Raphson method with source impedance of the remote end
* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: kishor@ee.iitkgp.ernet.in (N.K. Kishore).
0142-0615/03/$ - see front matter q 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
PII: S 0142-061 5(02)00021-2
system topology undergoes changes. Takagi et al. proposed
a fault location algorithm based on Fourier transform [1]
and Laplace transform [5] assuming loss less circuit
elements. It results in appreciable errors for a realistic
lossy system. The accuracy of the result is also affected
by the angle of voltage wave at the time of fault and dc
offset current. Thorp et al. [6] proposed R±L differential
equation approach for the faulty circuit to eliminate the
effect of fault resistance, assuming current in the faulty
circuit to be zero at the instant of measuring the impedance
up to the fault point. The problem of measuring instant of
zero current with only one side measurement and measuring
both voltage and current from a single sample are the major
drawbacks of this method, as it leads to signi®cant errors in
results.
Richards and Tan [7] locate faults by a comparison of
voltage and current at one end of a real line with a digital
model of the line using an optimization procedure. But
it requires accurate model of the network and iterative
calculations.
Wiszniewski [8] proposed a non-iterative technique for
fault location based on standard calculation of resistances
and reactances and simultaneously correcting the error due
to fault resistance. But the change in the fault current distri-
bution factor with the system con®guration requires its
determination at the fault condition. Sachdev and Agarwal
[9] also proposed a non-iterative procedure for fault location
60 D. Chanda et al. / Electrical Power and Energy Systems 25 (2003) 59±69

using the fundamental frequency voltages and currents at

the line terminals. But the percentage error is high and
increases with the increase in the fault resistance. Abur
and Magnago [10] uses time-delays between modal com-
ponents in a wavelet-based fault location method employing
line model based on frequency dependent parameters. In
this method, the error in the fault location is a function of
the sampling rate chosen and hence modal propagation velo-
city, which changes with system con®guration. Liang et al.
[11] proposed a wavelet correlation function for fault
location. It requires more than one sub-band information Fig. 1. Four hundred kilovolts transmission line system used for the simula-
tion studies.
and two types of wavelet transform (i.e. Harr and spline).
The wavelet multiresolution analysis (MRA) is a new and
powerful method of signal analysis well suited to fault impedance faults with fault resistance as high as 500 V
generated signals [12]. The windowing of wavelet transform and the algorithm works satisfactorily.
is adjusted automatically for low and high frequencies, i.e. it The method is simple and generalized, it is independent
uses short time intervals for high frequency components and of the effects of fault inception angle, fault distance and fault
long time intervals for low frequency components and impedance.
thereby each frequency component gets treated in the
same manner without requiring any reinterpretation of the
results. This gives the wavelet transform much greater 2. Wavelet analysis and MRA
`compact support' for the analysis of the signals with local-
Wavelets are functions that satisfy the requirements
ized transient components. The time frequency localization
of both time and frequency localization. The necessary
means that more energetic wavelet coef®cients are localized
and suf®cient condition for wavelets is that it must be
and therefore `sparse' in the transform domain. This is
oscillatory, decay quickly to zero and have an average
useful for feature extraction. Therefore, it is well suited
value of zero. In addition, for the discrete wavelet transform
for the fault location problem in power systems.
(DWT) considered here, the wavelets are orthogonal to each
The identi®cation of fault is based on the peak absolute
other.
value of third level output for the three phase currents, mean
Wavelets are localized in both time (through translation)
of these three phase currents and the absolute value of the
and frequency (through dilation). Wavelets can provide
summation of these three peak values. The classi®cation
multiple resolutions in both time and frequency. The signal
algorithms [19] are based on the summation of third level
can be accurately reproduced with the wavelet analysis
wavelet transform output S or the ratio of summation of
using relatively small number of components [13]. The
third level wavelet transform output. In Ref. [18], the
analysing wavelets are called the `mother wavelets' and
sharp variation values of three phase detail signals are
its dilated and translated versions are called the `daughter
used for the identi®cation of faults while relative ratios of
wavelets'. It has a digitally implementable counterpart
sum of the ®rst three sharp variation values of three phase
called the DWT. The generated waveforms are analysed
detail signals are used for the classi®cation of faults. It also
with wavelet MRA to extract sub-band information from
requires the calculation of zero-sequence component of
the simulated transients. Daubechies eight (D-8) wavelet
current for classi®cation purpose. Also, in Ref. [18], total
is used in this work for the analysis as it is localized, i.e.
time period considered for the analysis is 0.25 s as against
compactly supported in time and hence is good for short and
0.04 s for the proposed algorithm.
fast transient analysis [14]. In this paper, wavelet coef®-
This work presents an application of wavelet MRA tech-
cients of the signal are derived using matrix equations
nique for fault location in combination with the method of
[15] based on decomposition and reconstruction of a
cubical interpolation. The third level MRA detail signal is
discrete signal using Mallat's algorithm [13].
found to be most suitable for this purpose and only this is
The derivation for the determination of wavelet coef®-
used for the wavelet analysis. This reduces the computa-
cients using matrix equations for signal decomposition
tional burden considerably. The fault location is based on
and reconstruction as employed for fault location problem
the current signals obtained from both the ends of the line.
are discussed in Appendix A.
For simulation and testing of the proposed method, faults
are applied at every 10 km interval over the entire length of
the line. As the fault inception angle a F (angle of voltage 3. Simulation
phasor at the instant of fault occurrence) has considerable
effect on current signals, therefore, its effects are also The model power system considered for the analysis is
considered. shown in Fig. 1. The base values of the voltage and the
The fault location algorithm is also applied to high power in the system are taken as 400 kV and 100 MVA.
 D. Chanda et al. / Electrical Power and Energy Systems 25 (2003) 59±69
The transmission line parameters are R 0 ˆ 0:38848 V=km;
X 0 ˆ 3:25083 mH=km; C0 ˆ 0:00845 mF=km; R1 ˆ 0.02336
V=km; X 1 ˆ 0:95102 mH=km; C1 ˆ 0:01237 mF=km:
The total impedance of the generator and the transformer
taken together is …0:2 1 j4:49† V; while the load impedance
considered is …720 1 j1:111† V (this corresponds to a load
of 200 MVA at a power factor of 0.9 lag) and the frequency
of the system is 50 Hz. From the simulations, the current
signals for each phase are recorded with a sampling time of
80 ms at both the generator and the load ends for each point
of fault. These generated time domain signals are then used
for the analysis using wavelet transform. Through an
exhaustive experimentation for identifying the distinguish-
ing features of different type of faults and their location, it is
found that the sum of third level output for the three phases
is best suited for this problem. The types of faults considered
in the analysis are L±G, L±L±G, L±L and L±L±L faults.
The simulations show that fault inception angle has a
considerable effect on the current signals and therefore on
the wavelet transform output. As the waves are periodic, it is
suf®cient to study the effect of inception angle in the range
0±1808. The effects of fault distance and fault impedance
are also examined.
For each type of fault and for each inception angle con-
sidered in the analysis, simulations are carried out at 31 fault
locations at an interval of 10 km for a total line length of
300 km. For each of these fault locations, simulations are
carried out for a total of 11 inception angles at an interval of
188 between 0 and 1808 for all the four different types of
faults. Thus, a total of …31 £ 11† £ 4 ˆ 1364 simulations are
carried out. Based on these simulations, the fault location
algorithm is established.
The data considered in the analysis are assumed to be of
®nite duration and of length 2 N, where N is an integer. If N is
chosen to be 9, the total duration of the analysis comes out
to be 2 9 …ˆ 512† £ 80 ms ˆ 40:96 ms; which is about two
cycles and is suf®cient enough for the fault analysis. With
N ˆ 9; there are …N 1 1† ˆ 9 1 1 ˆ 10 wavelet levels and
if these 10 levels are added together, then the original signal
is faithfully reproduced at each of the sample points [15].
The wavelet transform is applied to all the three phase
current signals for each fault initiation angle. As the data
length is of ®nite duration and the total duration of the
analysis is about two cycles, hence, the value of summation
S indicates the summation of third level output for this
total period of two cycles. Hence, the value of S varies
with types of fault, fault location, fault inception angle
and fault resistance.
4. Algorithm for fault location
In this method of fault location, it is assumed that the fault
is identi®ed and classi®ed before hand as in Ref. [19]. Prior
knowledge of the type of fault is a requirement of the
algorithm.
61
The time domain signals are generated by EMTP. Now,
fault is itself a phenomena involving large disturbance in the
system and the parameter selected for the fault location is
the summation of third level output. Hence, in the presence
of `noisy data' found in real recordings, there will be only
minor variations in the summation values of third level
output as the magnitude of disturbance created by faults
are always much larger as compared to the noisy data.
Also, noise consists of high frequency signals, whereas
the third level output of wavelet transform contains signal
only in the frequency range 97±195 Hz. Therefore, the
noise signal will in general be ®ltered out from the third
level output. This makes the fault location technique very
effective.
The third level output is selected as the parameter for
fault location as the summation of third level output satis®es
the necessary conditions for all types of faults [19]. The
third level output corresponds to a frequency band of 97±
195 Hz, i.e. it includes second and third harmonic com-
ponents which are predominant in case of faults. Also, the
simulation results show that the summation of third level
output for all the inception angles considered in the analysis
are higher as compared to that of other level outputs. It
indicates that total area under the characteristics of third
level output are more than that of other level outputs. In
the wavelet analysis, the band of frequency is involved
with precise time localization but in other techniques like
DFT, individual frequency components are involved with-
out any time localization. As a result, the determination of
sum of third level output involving second and third harmo-
nic components in wavelet analysis will be simpler and
different from that of DFT involving determination of
second and third harmonic components individually. More-
over, DFT is not suitable for non-stationary signals. Hence,
for power system transients like faults in transmission lines
where the waveforms are non-stationary in nature, wavelet
analysis is more suitable.
In practice, the current signals need to be normalized
before they are sampled by A/D converters. Hence, all
the data used in the analysis are normalized to p.u. values
so that the technique developed becomes general and can
be applied to systems of all voltage levels without any
modi®cation. P
If Sa ˆ Nkˆ1 I3a …k†; where I3a …k† is the magnitude of third
level wavelet component for the current in phase a at the kth
instant and N is thePtotal number of samples.
Similarly,
PN Sb ˆ Nkˆ1 I3b …k† for the current in phase b and
Sc ˆ kˆ1 I3c …k† for the current in phase c.
For L±G faults, either Sa ; Sb or Sc is considered depend-
ing on whether phase a, b or c is the faulted phase, i.e. Sp is
considered, where p [ …a; b; c†:
For other types of faults, S is considered, where S ˆ Sa 1
Sb 1 Sc for L±L±L fault, or S ˆ Sa 1 Sb or Sb 1 Sc or Sc 1
Sa for L±L±G and L±L faults depending on the faulted
phases.
Once the wavelet analysis is done, the values of Sp for
 62
Table 1
Percentage error in fault location for different types of interpolation from the generator end side

Type Actual Linear interpolation Spline interpolation Quadratic interpolation Cubical interpolation
of fault point of
fault (km) (a) Calculated % error ˆ Calculated % error ˆ Calculated % error ˆ Calculated % error ˆ
point of ((a 2 b)/L) £ 100 point of ((a 2 b)/L) £ 100 point of ((a 2 b)/L) £ 100 point of ((a 2 b)/L) £ 100

D. Chanda et al. / Electrical Power and Energy Systems 25 (2003) 59±69

fault (km) (b) fault (km) (b) fault (km) (b) fault (km) (b)

L±G 275 274.70 0.10 274.70 0.10 274.71 0.097 274.70 0.10
225 230.00 21.67 227.30 20.768 227.29 20.763 227.30 20.768
175 172.60 0.800 172.70 20.768 172.66 0.780 172.70 20.768
125 124.80 0.067 124.90 20.033 124.88 0.040 124.90 20.033
75 78.70 21.23 78.60 21.20 78.65 21.22 78.60 21.20
25 22.30 0.900 22.30 0.900 22.31 0.897 22.30 0.900
L±L±G 275 274.30 0.233 274.40 0.20 252.61 4.13 274.40 0.20
225 222.30 0.900 222.60 0.80 222.63 0.790 222.60 0.80
175 178.30 21.10 178.30 21.10 178.25 1.083 178.30 21.10
125 125.80 20.267 124.90 0.033 124.90 0.033 124.90 0.033
75 73.60 0.467 74.20 0.267 67.09 2.637 74.20 0.267
25 23.30 0.567 23.30 0.567 23.33 0.590 23.30 0.567
L±L±L 275 273.50 0.500 276.00 20.333 276.02 20.340 276.00 20.333
225 222.20 0.933 228.30 21.10 228.33 21.11 228.30 21.10
175 177.40 20.80 177.00 20.667 177.02 20.673 177.00 20.667
125 125.60 20.200 124.90 0.033 124.89 0.037 124.90 0.033
75 71.80 1.067 72.00 1.00 68.66 2.110 72.00 1.00
25 28.70 21.10 28.00 1.00 28.00 21.00 28.00 1.00
L±L 275 280.00 21.67 280.00 21.67 278.86 21.287 273.50 0.50
225 222.30 0.90 222.30 0.900 222.45 0.850 222.50 0.833
175 177.40 20.80 177.40 20.80 177.13 20.710 177.10 20.70
125 125.10 20.100 124.80 20.067 124.86 0.047 124.90 20.033
75 78.30 21.10 71.30 1.233 66.07 2.977 71.90 1.033
25 26.00 20.333 26.00 20.333 26.00 20.333 26.00 20.333
Table 2
Percentage error in fault location for different types of interpolation from the load end side

Type Actual Linear interpolation Spline interpolation Quadratic interpolation Cubical interpolation
of fault point of
fault (km) (a) Calculated % error ˆ Calculated % error ˆ Calculated % error ˆ Calculated % error ˆ
point of ((a 2 b)/L) £ 100 point of ((a 2 b)/L) £ 100 point of ((a 2 b)/L) £ 100 point of ((a 2 b)/L) £ 100

D. Chanda et al. / Electrical Power and Energy Systems 25 (2003) 59±69

fault (km) (b) fault (km) (b) fault (km) (b) fault (km) (b)

L±G 25.00 25.70 20.233 25.20 20.067 25.21 20.070 25.20 20.067
75.00 75.50 20.167 75.40 20.133 75.51 20.170 75.40 20.133
125.00 126.70 20.567 126.40 20.467 126.55 20.517 126.40 20.467
175.00 175.80 20.267 175.70 20.233 175.71 20.237 175.70 20.233
225.00 223.80 0.400 225.70 20.233 225.73 20.243 225.70 20.233
275.00 274.40 0.200 274.50 0.167 274.34 0.220 274.50 0.167
L±L±G 25.00 25.60 20.20 25.20 20.067 25.25 20.067 25.20 20.067
75.00 75.20 20.067 74.90 20.030 74.84 0.053 74.90 0.030
125.00 125.80 20.267 125.40 20.133 125.45 20.15 125.40 20.133
175.00 175.70 20.233 175.70 20.233 175.89 20.297 175.70 20.233
225.00 223.10 0.633 223.20 0.60 223.14 0.620 223.20 0.60
275.00 272.50 0.833 272.70 0.767 272.61 0.797 272.70 0.767
L±L±L 25.00 25.60 20.20 25.10 20.033 25.14 20.047 25.10 20.033
75.00 75.20 20.067 75.00 0 74.97 0.01 75.00 0
125.00 125.50 20.167 125.20 20.067 125.29 20.097 125.20 20.067
175.00 175.30 20.10 175.10 20.033 175.14 20.047 175.10 20.033
225.00 224.30 0.233 224.40 0.200 224.39 0.203 224.40 0.200
275.00 273.10 0.633 273.70 0.433 273.64 0.453 273.70 0.433
L±L 25.00 25.60 20.20 25.20 20.067 25.21 20.07 25.20 20.067
75.00 72.70 0.767 72.80 0.733 72.72 0.760 72.80 0.733
125.00 125.80 20.267 125.40 20.133 125.42 20.14 125.40 20.133
175.00 175.70 20.233 175.70 20.233 175.74 20.247 175.70 20.233
225.00 223.10 0.633 223.20 0.60 223.13 0.623 223.20 0.60
275.00 272.50 0.833 272.70 0.767 272.61 0.797 272.70 0.767

63
64 D. Chanda et al. / Electrical Power and Energy Systems 25 (2003) 59±69

L±G faults or the values of S for other types of faults are

plotted corresponding to different fault points at different
inception angles. The method of cubical interpolation is
then applied to ®nd out the location of fault.

5. Fault location using cubical interpolation

The method of cubical interpolation is based on the

development of a set of third order polynomials for the
interval under consideration. Sets of points are estimated
by this interpolation technique within the interval under
consideration. From the simulation results and the calcu-
lated values of Sp or S of third level wavelet transform
output, it is found that cubical interpolation technique is
suitable as the accuracy of location is higher (,1%).
The comparison of percentage error in fault location by
various interpolation techniques are shown in Tables 1 and 2
which reveal that the percentage error as calculated for
cubical interpolation technique is the lowest for all types
of faults considered in the analysis and for measurements
from both the ends of the line. It may be noted that spline
interpolation technique is comparable to cubical interpola-
tion technique in all cases except for a L±L fault at the
generator end as shown in Table 1. In view of the above,
cubical interpolation technique has been chosen for the
algorithm.
The various steps followed in the interpolation technique
are as follows.
(1) At the generator end, the values of Sp in case of L±G
fault and S in case of L±L±L, L±L±G or L±L faults are
determined for all the intermediate locations on the line at
intervals of 10 km. This is repeated for all the inception
angles. All these values of S and Sp are stored in computer
memory.
(2) Step (1) is repeated at the load end.
(3) When the data for a given type of fault at an unknown
location are presented, the wavelet transform parameter Sp if
it is a L±G fault and S in case of L±L, L±L±G or L±L±L
faults is compared with that of the stored values for different
locations at both the ends.
(4) Step (3) is repeated for all the inception angles and the
closest location is determined for each case. If the wavelet
transform parameter Sp or S in step (3) for unknown fault
location falls outside the range of the set of stored values for
a particular inception angle, then that particular inception
angle is not valid as the fault location should always be
within the length of the line.
(5) Two more additional locations, one preceding and
another succeeding the nearest location are also determined
so that the unknown fault location falls within the range of
Fig. 2. A ¯ow chart for the fault location by cubical interpolation method.
these three locations. This is repeated for all valid inception
angles.
(6) Now, using cubical interpolation technique involving (7) Thus two such sets of locations, x1 from generator end
the three locations as determined in step (5) is used to and x2 from load end, are obtained corresponding to each of
estimate the location to a range of 1 km. This is also the valid inception angle.
repeated for all valid inception angles at both the ends. (8) Now, if the distance of the fault point is x from one
 D. Chanda et al. / Electrical Power and Energy Systems 25 (2003) 59±69 65

Table 3

Type Point of fault Inception Point of fault from Point of fault from % error ˆ
of fault (actual) (km) (a) angle (8) generator end load end (calculated) [(a 2 b)/L] £ 100
(calculated) (km) (b) (km) (c)

L±G 25 0 25.20 274.70 20.067

75 36 75.40 227.30 20.133
125 72 126.40 172.70 20.467
175 108 175.70 124.90 20.233
225 90 225.70 78.60 20.233
275 144 274.50 22.30 10.167
L±L 25 0 25.20 273.50 20.067
75 36 72.80 222.50 0.733
125 72 125.40 177.10 20.133
175 108 175.70 124.90 20.233
225 90 223.20 71.90 0.60
275 144 272.70 26.0 0.767
L±L±G 25 0 25.20 274.40 20.067
75 36 74.90 222.60 20.30
125 72 125.40 178.30 20.133
175 108 175.70 124.90 20.233
225 90 223.20 74.20 0.60
275 144 272.70 23.30 0.767
L±L±L 25 0 25.10 276.0 20.033
75 36 75.0 228.30 0
125 72 125.20 177.0 20.067
175 108 175.10 124.90 20.033
225 90 224.40 72.0 0.200
275 144 273.70 28.0 0.433

end of the line then its distance from the other end should
be L 2 x; where L is the length of the line. The summations
of the locations from both the ends, i.e. x1 1 x2 ; as found in
step (7), are calculated for all the valid inception angles
and compared with the total length of the line, i.e. 300 km
in this case and the absolute value of the difference is
determined.
(9) Now for whichever valid inception angle, the value of
…x1 1 x2 † is closest to L (the line length), that gives the
correct values of x1 and x2 and hence the correct fault loca-
tion and the fault inception angle.
In the event of changing fault resistance like in the case of
high impedance faults, the wavelet transform parameter Sp
or S at an unknown location is compared with the stored
values of Sp or S at different inception angles and locations
corresponding to different fault resistances and the closest
location is determined as described in the algorithm.
Hence, the algorithm for fault location will involve three
parameters, i.e. location, inception angle and fault resistance
and there will be stored values of Sp or S corresponding to
different fault resistances at different locations and inception
angles.

Table 4

Type Point Inception Point Point % error ˆ

of fault of fault angle (8) of fault of fault [(a 2 b)/L] £ 100
(actual) from generator from load
(km) (a) end (calculated) end (calculated)
(km) (b) (km) (c)

L±G 155 0 155 145 0

235 90 235.90 66.40 20.30
L±L 65 0 67.40 234.0 20.80
245 90 245.10 57.60 20.03
L±L±G 85 0 87.30 214.70 20.76
165 90 164.90 140.0 0.03
L±L±L 45 0 44.20 257.70 0.27
115 90 115.90 187.70 20.30
66 D. Chanda et al. / Electrical Power and Energy Systems 25 (2003) 59±69
Fig. 3. Variation of Sa with line length and approximation by cubical
interpolation for L±G fault involving phase a and ground at (1) aF ˆ 08
and (2) aF ˆ 908 at the generator end.
The complete ¯ow chart for the method is shown in
Fig. 2.
The percentage error expressed in terms of the total
length of the line (L), i.e. 300 km in this case is found
by determining the difference between the actual point
of fault at different inception angles and the point of
fault as calculated by the interpolation technique. Results
are tabulated in Table 3. It is found that the percentage
error is always less than 1% for all types of faults con-
sidered in the analysis.
The percentage error for L±L±L fault is minimum among
all types of fault considered. The maximum error, as seen
from Table 3, is only 0.767%. For high impedance faults
also, the percentage error is less than 1% as maximum error
found to be 0.80% for the sample cases studied in the analy-
sis as shown in Table 4.
Hence, it may be said that the fault location accuracy of
this technique is very high. Since, the fault resistance is not
equal to 0, hence, there will be a ¯ow of small current at the
Fig. 4. Variation of Sa with line length and approximation by cubical
interpolation for L±G fault involving phase a and ground at (1) aF ˆ 08
and (2) aF ˆ 908 at the load end.
Fig. 5. Variation of S with line length and approximation by cubical inter-
polation for L±L±G fault involving phases a, b and ground at (1) aF ˆ 08
and (2) aF ˆ 908 at the generator end.
load end as can be seen from the simulation results in Figs.
4, 6, 8 and 10, where the values of S are very small (of the
order of 10 27) as compared to that at the generator end in
Figs. 3, 5, 7 and 9, where values of S are of the order of 10 25.
Also, the current at the load end will increase with the
increase in fault resistance.
The variation of Sa or S with fault location and its
approximation by cubical interpolation at the generator
and the load end for inception angles of 0 and 908 are
shown in Figs. 3±10 for all the four kinds of faults con-
sidered in the analysis.
6. Conclusions
In this paper, an application of wavelet MRA theory in
combination with cubical interpolation technique is pro-
posed for the location of fault on a transmission line. The
property of multiresolution in both time and frequency using
Fig. 6. Variation of S with line length and approximation by cubical inter-
polation for L±L±G fault involving phases a, b and ground at (1) aF ˆ 08
and (2) aF ˆ 908 at the load end.
 D. Chanda et al. / Electrical Power and Energy Systems 25 (2003) 59±69 67

Fig. 7. Variation of S with line length and approximation by cubical inter- Fig. 9. Variation of S with line length and approximation by cubical inter-
polation for L±L fault involving phases a and b at (1) aF ˆ 08 and (2) aF ˆ polation for L±L±L fault at (1) aF ˆ 08 and (2) aF ˆ 908 at the generator
908 at the generator end. end.

wavelets and the property of cubical interpolation technique Corresponding wavelet equation is given by:
are found very effective for the scheme. This proposed new
technique is suitable at any voltage level. Using the techni- LX
21
que, the location of fault can be estimated with a very high W…x† ˆ …21†k ck w…2x 1 k 2 …L 2 1† …A2†
degree of accuracy. For practical systems, the scheme will kˆ0
be very effective in locating the fault point resulting in faster
restoration of power supply.
One way of solving the dilation equation is by an iteration of
the scaling equation

Appendix A. Wavelet analysis and MRA LX

21
wi …x† ˆ …21†k ck wi21 …2x 2 k† …A3†
A.1. Dilation and wavelet equation [16] kˆ0

The wavelet transform involves two fundamental equa-

tions: (i) dilation equation and (ii) wavelet equation. The until wi21 ù wi :
dilation equation links a scaling function w…x† and its trans- The initial value of w…x†; w0 …x†; is assumed to be a unit
lates w…2x†: This is given by box function, i.e.

LX
21 (
1 0#x#1
w…x† ˆ ck w…2x 2 k† …A1† w0 …x† ˆ …A4†
kˆ0 0 x.1
where L is an even number.

Fig. 8. Variation of S with line length and approximation by cubical inter- Fig. 10. Variation of S with line length and approximation by cubical
polation for L±L fault involving phases a and b at (1) aF ˆ 08 and (2) aF ˆ interpolation for L±L±L fault at (1) aF ˆ 08 and (2) aF ˆ 908 at the load
908 at the load end. end.
68 D. Chanda et al. / Electrical Power and Energy Systems 25 (2003) 59±69

The numerical values of ck for D-8 wavelet considered in and if the levels are denoted by …y1 ; y2 ; y3 ; ¼; yN11 †; then
this work are taken from Refs. [16,17].
y1 ˆ …A0 †T a…1†; y2 ˆ …A1 †T a…2†;
If the input signal be denoted by g…x†: Then the decom-
posed signal is given by 6 7
6 a…2N21 1 1† 7
" # 6 7
a…3† 6 7
T6
6 . 7
7
X
3 y3 ˆ …A2 †T ; ¼; yn11 ˆ …AN † 6 .. 7
g…x† ˆ a0 w…x† 1 a1 W…2x† 1 ai W‰2x 2 …i 2 2†Š a…4† 4 5
N
iˆ2 a…2 †
X
7 …A9†
1 ai W‰2x 2 …i 2 4†Š 1 ¼
iˆ4
The original signal is reconstructed as
nX
11
2NX
21
Yr ˆ yk …A10†
1 ai W‰2N21 x 2 …i 2 2N21 †Š …A5† kˆ1
iˆ2N 2 1

A.4. Interpolation technique [20]

where ai represents wavelet coef®cients.
When a suitable model of a data set is created, then it is
possible to estimate the value of the dependent variable for
A.2. Calculation of wavelet coef®cients any desired value of independent variable. When the desired
value of the independent variable lies within the range of
The coef®cients ai are calculated using Mallat's algo- magnitude of the independent variable of the data set, then
rithm [13]. The calculation of ai requires the transformation the estimation is called interpolation.
matrices Li and Hi for i ˆ 1; 2; ¼; N which are of dimen- Hence, we ®nd that, if a function f …x† is given in an
sions …2i21 £ 2i †; where L and H are formed from low-pass interval a # x # b; and we want to approximate f …x† over
and high-pass D-8 ®lter coef®cients. that interval by a function g…x†:
The wavelet coef®cients are calculated using Li and Hi as Then, in the case of cubic interpolation technique, the
follows. If we de®ne function f …x† is approximated by a single polynomial of
! third degree over the entire interval a # x # b: However,
Y
N there will be oscillations between the common endpoints or
Ak ˆ Hk Li …A6† knots but it depends on the distribution of the data points in
iˆk 1 1
the function f …x†: Thus, if a function f …x† is approximated by
a function g…x† in the interval a # x # b by a cubic poly-
where k ˆ 0; 1; 2; ¼; N 2 1 and with HN ˆ AN and H0 ˆ 1; nomial, then the equation for g…x† is given by g…x† ˆ a 1
then bx 1 cx2 1 dx3 for a # x # b:
2 3 The order of the polynomial depends on the number of
A0
6 7 data points available. For nth order polynomial, it requires a
6A 7 minimum of …n 1 1† data points. Thus, for a cubic inter-
6 17
6 7 polation technique, there should be atleast four data points.
Gˆ6 . 7 …A7†
6 . 7
6 . 7 All the intermediate points in the entire interval is estimated
4 5
by the interpolation technique once the function f …x† is
AN
approximated by a cubic polynomial.
is a …2N £ 2N † dimension matrix.
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