A Novel Fault Location Method for MMC-HVDC Grid Based on Gram Angle Difference Field

Abstract

When a short-circuit fault occurs along the transmission line of a modular multilevel converter high-voltage direct-current (MMC-HVDC) grid, the sub-module capacitors discharge, causing the fault current to rapidly rise, posing a threat to the safe operation of the system. Therefore, this paper proposes a novel fault location method based on the Gram Angle Difference Field (GADF). The column corresponding to the maximum differential value in a sliding window is used to identify the fault moment and locate faults in MMC-HVDC transmission lines. In order to effectively distinguish normal fluctuations from fault mutations and avoid false alarms, a dynamic threshold is set based on the statistical characteristics of normal data. This method utilizes the unique feature extraction capability of the GADF matrix, the adaptive mechanism of the dynamic threshold, and the stability of line-mode voltage to achieve fast and accurate fault location. Finally, this method is validated using a simulation model. The results show that the proposed method can accurately locate faults in different conditions.