Zou et al.

Protection and Control of Modern Power Systems (2017) 2:15

DOI 10.1186/s41601-017-0047-z
Protection and Control of
Modern Power Systems

ORIGINAL RESEARCH Open Access

Novel transient-energy-based directional

pilot protection method for HVDC line
Guibin Zou1* , Qiang Huang1, Shenglan Song2, Bingbing Tong3 and Houlei Gao1

Abstract
This paper proposes a novel directional pilot protection method based on the transient energy for bipolar HVDC
line. Supposing the positive direction of current is from DC bus to the DC line, in the case of an internal line fault,
the transient energies detected on both sides of the line are all negative within a short time, which denotes the
positive direction fault; while for an external fault, the transient energy on one end is positive, which means a
negative direction fault, but the transient energy on the opposite end is negative, which indicates that the fault
direction is positive. According to these characteristics, an integration criterion identifying fault direction is
constructed. In addition, through setting a fixed energy threshold, the faulted line and lightning disturbance can
also be discriminated. Simulation results from UHVDC transmission system show the validity of the proposed
protection method.
Keywords: Transient energy, HVDC line, Directional pilot protection, Fault direction, Lightning stroke

1 Introduction Aiming at these problems mentioned above, many

Compared with the high voltage AC power transmission, protection methods have been put forward. In [7],
HVDC power transmission has some advantages, such authors analyze the performances of HVDC line pro-
as larger transmission capacity, longer transmission tection for different fault transition resistance, fault
distance, lower line loss, etc., which is becoming an position, etc., and finally present several improvement
important power transmission way on asynchronous grid suggestions. Through analyzing the harmonic current
interconnection and clean energy power integration [1–3]. characteristics of converter station, a protection scheme
Because of the long distance and passing through the based on the transient harmonic current is present for
valleys and mountains, HVDC lines easily suffer from the HVDC line in [8]. According to the boundary character-
faults caused by lightning, storm, and so on. Therefore, to istics of HVDC line, some protection methods only
ensure the safety and stability of DC transmission system, using one-end information are proposed in [9–12].
a fast, reliable and sensitive HVDC line protection is Although these methods have fast speed, their sensitivity
indispensable. and reliability are still influenced by the fault resistance,
At present, the primary protections used in HVDC in addition, it is also difficult to set the threshold value.
line are traveling wave protection and voltage vari- In [13, 14], authors propose the distance protection
ation protection, which have poor ability to resist the methods for HVDC line, but the high ground re-
high ground resistance fault [4]. Additionally, their sistance fault still has a negative influence on their
performances are also affected by other disturbance protection performances. To improve the reliability of
signals. HVDC line differential protection used for protection, the hybrid protection schemes based on
the back-up protection also has certaion shortcom- different principles are put forward in [15–17], but
ings, such as slow operation speed and requiring the implementing these schemes is still a challenge in
synchronous data [5, 6]. actual HVDC transmission engineering.
In [18] and [19], the transient-energy based protection
methods are proposed for HVDC line, which can identify
* Correspondence: [email protected]
1
Key Laboratory of Power System Intelligent Dispatch and Control of Ministry an internal or external fault by comparing the amplitudes
of Education, Shandong University, Ji’nan, China of the transient energies on both ends of the line, these
Full list of author information is available at the end of the article

© The Author(s). 2017 Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and
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Zou et al. Protection and Control of Modern Power Systems (2017) 2:15 Page 2 of 10

methods are similar to the current differential protection,

and they need strict data synchronization. Different from
the aforementioned methods, this paper presents a novel
directional pilot protection method based on the polarity
characteristic of transient energy. For a fault inside the
DC line, the transient energies detected on both sides of
HVDC line are negative; while the transient energy on
one side is positive, and that on the other side is negative
for an external fault. On the basis of this fact, an integral Fig. 2 Fault superimposed circuit for a positive-pole to earth fault
criterion identifying the fault direction is constructed. By
analyzing the fault directions on both sides, the internal
fault can be discriminated from the external fault. Due to 2.1.2 Transient energy characteristics for pole-earth fault
only using the directional information, the proposed If a pole-earth fault occurs on the positive pole line,
protection method does not require the synchronous data Fig. 2 shows an equivalent fault superimposed circuit.
at all. To verify the performance of the proposed method, In Fig. 2, L denotes the length of DC line; F is the fault
a bipolar HVDC transmission system model is built, and point; Zx is the line impedance from F to terminal M,
extensive simulations are carried out. and Z(L-x) is the line impedance from F to terminal N; RF
is the fault resistance; uF represents the fault superim-
posed voltage source; Δum+ and Δim+ are the fault
2 Methods components of voltage and current at terminal M,
2.1 Characteristic analysis of transient energy respectively; Δun+ and Δin+ are the fault components of
2.1.1 Simplified equivalent circuit of HVDC transmission voltage and current at terminal N.
system According to Fig. 2, the following equations can be
To simply analyze, the converter may be approximate obtained:
equivalent to a series of voltage source and impedance,
this equivalent circuit does not produce an obvious Δumþ ¼ −Z eq Δimþ ð1Þ
influence on the fault analysis. Figure 1 shows the Δunþ ¼ −Z eq Δinþ ð2Þ
equivalent circuit of single-pole HVDC system, where
Zeq denotes the equivalent impedance of the converter From (1) and (2) it can be seen that the polarities of Δum
station; ZL is the impedance of DC line; um+ and im+ are + and Δim+ are opposite, so are the polarities of Δun+ and
the voltage and current at terminal M, respectively; un+ Δin+. Therefore, the variations of transient power on both
and in+ are the voltage and current at terminal N, sides of the line ΔPm + = Δum +Δim + and ΔPn + = Δun +Δin +
respectively; u1 and u2 are the equivalent voltage sources are all negative, further their integral values shown in (3)
at two converters. Here, supposing the positive direction and (4) are also negative.
of current is from DC bus to DC line, as shown in Fig. Z τ
1. The main fault types for bipolar DC line include the S mþ ¼ ΔP mþ ðt Þdt ð3Þ
single pole to earth faults and pole to pole fault, where 0
the single pole to earth faults contain the positive pole Z τ
to earth fault and the negative pole to earth fault. The S nþ ¼ ΔP nþ ðt Þdt ð4Þ
0
analyses of internal and external faults for HVDC line
are described as below. where, Sm+ and Sn+ denote the transient energies
measured at terminals M and N of the positive pole line,
respectively; τ is the integral time. Here, the reason that
introduces the transient power integral is to decrease
the influence from disturbance and improve the reliabil-
ity of protection.
Similarly, if there is a pole-earth fault occurring on the
negative pole line, the transient energies Sm- and Sn-
detected at terminals M and N of the negative pole line
are also negative.

2.1.3 Transient energy characteristics for pole-pole fault

If a bipolar line fault occurs on the HVDC lines, the
Fig. 1 Simplified equivalent circuit of DC power transmission system
fault superimposed circuit is shown in Fig. 3, where F1
Zou et al. Protection and Control of Modern Power Systems (2017) 2:15 Page 3 of 10

Fig. 3 Fault superimposed circuit for a pole-pole fault

Fig. 4 Fault superimposed circuit for a fault occurring on the

and F2 are the fault points on the positive pole line and
rectifier side. a Fault occurring on the converter valve or DC bus.
negative pole line, respectively. Δum- and Δim- are the b Fault occurring on the AC side
fault components of voltage and current at terminal M
of the negative pole line; Δun- and Δin- are the fault
components of voltage and current at terminal N. the fault point to both sides of the rectifier station. For a
According to Fig. 3, the following equations can be fault occurring on the AC side at the rectifier station,
obtained: the fault superimposed circuit is shown in Fig. 4b.
8 From Fig. 4, Δum+ and Δim+ can be expressed as:
> Δumþ ¼ −Z eq Δimþ
>
< Δu ¼ −Z Δi  
nþ eq nþ Δumþ ¼ Z eq þ Z L Δimþ ð6Þ
ð5Þ
>
> Δum− ¼ −Z eq Δim−
: Δu ¼ −Z Δi
n− eq n− Δunþ ¼ −Z eq Δinþ ð7Þ

From (5) it can be seen that the variations of transient In (6) and (7), the polarities of Δum+ and Δim+ at the
power on each side of bipolar line are all negative and, rectifier side are the same, while those of Δun+ and Δin+
after the integral calculation, the transient energies are at the inverter side are opposite. Therefore, the transient
also negative. power variation ΔPm+ is positive, but ΔPn+ is negative
Based on the above analyses, the following conclusions and, thus the transient energy Sm+ is positive while Sn+
can be drawn: for an internal DC line fault, whatever it is negative.
is a single pole to earth fault or a pole to pole fault, the When a fault occurs on the converter valve or DC bus
power variations on both sides of the faulted line are of the inverter side, the corresponding fault superim-
always negative, as well as the transient energies. posed circuit is shown in Fig. 5a and b illustrates the
fault superimposed circuit for a fault occurring on the
2.1.4 Transient energy characteristics for external fault AC side.
For HVDC line, external faults include two types, one As shown in Fig. 5:
type occurs on the DC side, and the other type occurs
on the AC side. Actually, the influence generated by an Δumþ ¼ −Z eq Δimþ ð8Þ
AC side external fault on HVDC line protection is  
similar to that generated by a DC side external fault, and Δunþ ¼ Z eq þ Z L Δinþ ð9Þ
the transient analyses for the external faults are dis-
cussed as follows. From (8) and (9) it can be seen that the polarities of
Δum+ and Δim+ at the rectifier side are opposite, while
2.1.4.1 Faults outside the positive pole line If a fault those of Δun+ and Δin+ at the inverter side are the same.
occurs on the converter valve or DC bus of the rectifier Therefore, the transient power variation ΔPm+ is nega-
side, the fault superimposed circuit is shown in Fig. 4a, tive, and ΔPn+ is positive, so the corresponding transient
where Zeq1 and Zeq2 are the equivalent impedances from energy Sm+ is negative while Sn+ is positive.
Zou et al. Protection and Control of Modern Power Systems (2017) 2:15 Page 4 of 10

determined. If the transient energy is negative, the fault

direction is positive; if the transient energy is positive,
the fault direction is negative. As a result, if the fault
directions on both sides of HVDC line are all posi-
tive, an internal fault will be discriminated. However,
If the fault direction on one side is positive, and that
on the opposite side is negative, an external fault will
be identified.
It has been specified that the substitution of transient
energy for fault component power is to improve the
reliability of protection.
To implement conveniently, the discretized transient
energy equation of (3) and (4) can be expressed:

X
j
S ηp ¼ Δt Δuηp ðk ÞΔiηp ðk Þ ð10Þ
1

where, Δuηp(k) and Δiηp(k) are the fault components of

voltage and current at the kth sampling point, which can
Fig. 5 Fault superimposed circuit for a fault occurring on the be extracted by filtering load component; j is the num-
inverter side. a Fault occurring on the converter valve or DC bus. ber of the sampling point used for integral calculation;
b Fault occurring on the AC side Δt is the sampling interval; η denotes the rectifier side
M or the inverter side N; the variable p denotes + or -,
2.1.4.2 Faults outside the negative pole line Similarly, which means the positive pole line or the negative pole
the same conclusions as the aforementioned cases can line. In actual calculation process, Δt may be omitted.
be drawn: for the faults outside the negative pole line, If a single pole to earth fault occurs, the transient
no matter a fault occurs on the rectifier station or on signals on the faulted line can be coupled to the normal
the inverter station, the polarities of the transient ener- line, which possibly affects the fault identification of the
gies detected on both sides of the negative pole line are normal line. Moreover, lightning stroke or normal
always opposite. operation can also generate disturbance signals. To avoid
these influences, a fixed energy threshold Sset is
2.2 Protection criterion for HVDC line necessary, which is defined as follows:
According to the analyses in Section 2.1, the following S set ¼ jk rel k i k u ð11Þ
conclusions can be obtained: in case of an internal fault
occurring on the HVDC line, the transient energies where krel is the reliable coefficient; ki and ku are the
detected on both the rectifier side and the inverter side proportional coefficients of rated current and rated
are all negative; but for a fault occurring outside the voltage, respectively. Note that the rated current and the
HVDC line, the transient energy on one side is positive, rated voltage are all expressed as per unit value here, so
and the transient energy on the other side is negative. that Sset can be applied to different HVDC system. In
Therefore, using the characteristic difference of transi- addition, for a long HVDC line, the probability of
ent energy after the fault, the fault direction can be lightning stroke is high. Therefore, lightning stroke line

Fig. 6 ±800 kV UHVDC transmission system model

Zou et al. Protection and Control of Modern Power Systems (2017) 2:15 Page 5 of 10

without causing fault must be correctly identified by the Table 1 Simulation results for a fault at F1
protection. The sampling frequency of the proposed Location RF (Ω) Pole Rectifier side Inverter side Result
method is relatively low (10 kHz) and integral calcula- Sm Dir Sn Dir
tion is used in the algorithm, which can filter high F1 300 + −1.96 1 −1.91 1 Internal
frequency components to some extent. Moreover, the
- / / / / Normal
amplitude of lightning current for direct stroke line is
low [20, 21], and generally the transient energy
caused by lightning disturbance will not exceed the station. The frequency-dependent line model is utilized
fixed threshold. for accurate simulation. As shown in Fig. 6, the length of
For convenient analysis, a rule is defined here. The UHVDC line is 2190 km, the transmission capacity is up
logic value of a positive directional fault is 1, and that of to 8000 MW, and the rated current is 5 kA.
the negative directional fault is equal to −1, and 0 means In Fig. 6, extensive internal and external faults will
there is no fault. Therefore, the transient energy direc- be simulated, and the sampling frequency is 10 kHz.
tion Dir[Sηp] is expressed as follows: Practical operating experience shows the polarity of
8 lightning current is generally negative, so the lightning
  < −1 S ηp ≥S set stroke mainly occurs on the positive pole line and a stand-
Dir S ηp ¼ 0 S ηp j< S set ð12Þ ard 2.6/50 μs lightning current is used in the simulation.
:
1 S ηp ≤−S set A multi-wave-impedance tower model, a flashover insula-
tor model and a nonlinear surge earth impedance model
The logic identifying fault is described as below: if the are included to evaluate the back-flashover accurately. For
logic values of fault direction detected on both sides of convenient analysis, the fault components of voltage and
HVDC line are equal to 1, an internal fault will be current, and the value of transient energy are all expressed
determined; if the logic value of fault direction on one in per unit value. Considering the lightning stroke inter-
side is 1, while that on the other side is −1, an external ference of 2 ~ 3 ms and the influence of fault resistance,
fault will be discriminated; otherwise, it is normal. the integral time is set as 5 ms, and the fixed threshold Sset
is set as 1 here.
3 Results and discussion
3.1 Simulation and analysis 3.1.2 Typical internal faults
3.1.1 Simulation model 3.1.2.1 Single-pole to earth fault When a fault occurs
To test the performance of the proposed protection on the positive pole line at F1 500 km from the rectifier
principle, using the actual parameters of ±800 kV Hami- station, and the fault ground resistance and fault initial
Zhengzhou HVDC transmission system in China, this instant are 300 Ω and 0 ms, respectively. The waveforms
paper constructs a simulation model of bipolar UHVDC of fault component voltage and fault component current,
system with a double 12-pulse valves at each converter

(a) (a)

(b) (b)

Fig. 7 Waveforms of fault components and transient energies Fig. 8 Waveforms of fault components and transient energies
detected on the positive pole line for a fault at F1. a Rectifier station. detected on the negative pole line for a fault at F2. a Rectifier
b Inverter station station. b Inverter station
Zou et al. Protection and Control of Modern Power Systems (2017) 2:15 Page 6 of 10

(a) (a)

(b) (b)

Fig. 9 Waveforms of fault components and transient energies

detected on the positive pole line for a fault at F2. a Rectifier station. Fig. 10 Waveforms of fault components and transient energies
b Inverter station detected on the positive pole line for a fault at F3. a Rectifier station.
b Inverter station

and the waveforms of transient energies detected on the

rectifier side and the inverter side are shown in Figs. 7a (normal line) are shown in Fig. 9. Table 2 shows the rele-
and b, respectively. The corresponding simulation results vant simulation results.
are listed in Table 1, where RF denotes the fault ground From Fig. 8 and Table 2, it can be seen that the transi-
resistance, sign/means that the relay does not start. ent energies on both ends of the negative pole line have
Here, once the variation of voltage exceeds 0.2 times the same negative polarity and they both exceed the
rated voltage or the variation of current exceeds 0.1 fixed threshold. Therefore, the protection units at two
times rated current in three consecutive samples, the sides of the negative pole line identify a positive direc-
relay starts. tion fault, finally an internal fault occurring on the
For positive pole line, it can be seen from Fig. 7 and negative pole line is determined.
Table 1 that the polarities of fault component voltage Because of the coupling influence, the transient volt-
and current are opposite; the transient energies detected age and current can also be detected on the normal line.
on both the rectifier side and the inverter side are As shown in Fig. 9 and Table 2, the transient voltage
negative, and they all exceed the threshold value, so two
protection units on both sides of the positive pole line
identify a positive direction fault. According to the (a)
identification logic, finally an internal fault occurring on
the positive pole line is verified. Therefore, the result is
correct, and this method has a powerful ability to resist
the fault resistance.

3.1.2.2 Metallic earth fault at F2 For a fault at F2 oc-

curring on the middle of the negative pole line, Fig. 8 (b)
shows the waveforms of fault components and transient
energies detected on both ends of the negative pole line,
and the waveforms of fault components and transient
energies detected on both ends of the positive pole line

Table 2 Simulation results for a fault at F2

Location RF (Ω) Pole Rectifier side Inverter side Result
Sm Dir Sn Dir
Fig. 11 Waveforms of fault components and transient energies
F2 0 + −0.19 0 −0.19 0 Normal detected on the negative pole line for a fault at F3. a Rectifier
- −11.01 1 −11.52 1 Internal station. b Inverter station
Zou et al. Protection and Control of Modern Power Systems (2017) 2:15 Page 7 of 10

Table 3 Simulation results for a fault at F3 Table 4 Simulation results for a fault at F4
Location RF (Ω) Pole Rectifier side Inverter side Result Location RF (Ω) Pole Rectifier side Inverter side Result
Sm Dir Sn Dir Sm Dir Sn Dir
F3 0 + −27.41 1 −27.66 1 Internal F4 0 + 23.73 −1 −14.01 1 External
- −27.63 1 −27.72 1 Internal - 1.85 −1 −4.05 1 External

and current on two ends of the positive pole line rise at on the positive pole line, and the simulation results are
fault initial stage for a fault at F2, but the transient indicated in Table 4.
energies detected on both ends of the line don’t exceed From Fig. 12 and Table 4, it can be seen that the
the fixed threshold, thus the protection units at two ends transient energies detected on both ends of the positive
will not operate. Therefore, through setting a fixed pole line have obvious differences. The transient energy
threshold, a single pole to earth fault has no effect on detected on the rectifier side is positive while it is nega-
the fault identification of the normal line. tive on the inverter side. According to the fault identifi-
cation logic, the protection unit at the rectifier side
identifies a negative direction fault while the protection
3.1.2.3 Pole to pole fault at F3 For a pole to pole fault
unit at the inverter side identifies a positive direction
at F3 occurring on the middle of the bipolar line, Figs. 10
fault. Through analyzing the above results, an external
and 11 show the transient waveforms detected on both
fault is finally determined, and the same characteristic
ends of the bipolar line, and the simulation data are
exists in the negative pole line, so the identification
shown in Table 3.
results are all correct.
As shown in Figs. 10, 11 and Table 3, the transient
energies detected on the positive pole line and the
negative pole line exceed the fixed threshold, so the
3.1.3.2 External fault at F5 For a fault at F5 occurring
protection units at two ends of the bipolar line all
on the AC side of the inverter station, Figs. 13 and 14 il-
identify a positive direction fault. In combination with
lustrate the transient waveforms detected on the posi-
the results on the two sides, a fault inside both the posi-
tive pole line and the negative pole line, respectively,
tive pole line and the negative pole line is identified, and
and Table 5 lists the relevant simulation results.
the results are correct.
As shown in Figs. 13, 14, and Table 5, the polarities of
transient energies detected on both ends of the positive
3.1.3 Typical external faults line and the negative line are all opposite. Therefore, an
3.1.3.1 External fault at F4 Supposing a fault occurs at external fault will be identified and the discrimination
F4 on the DC bus of the positive pole line in the rectifier results are correct.
station, Fig. 12 shows the transient waveforms detected

(a) (a)

(b) (b)

Fig. 12 Waveforms of fault components and transient energies Fig. 13 Waveforms of fault components and transient energies
detected on the positive pole line for a fault at F4. a Rectifier station. detected on the positive pole line for a fault at F5. a Rectifier station.
b Inverter station b Inverter station
Zou et al. Protection and Control of Modern Power Systems (2017) 2:15 Page 8 of 10

Table 6 Simulation results for internal DC line faults

(a)
Location RF (Ω) Pole Rectifier station Inverter station Result
Sm Dir Sn Dir
F1 (1 km) 10 + −34.02 1 −10.51 1 Internal
- −0.27 0 −2.44 1 Normal
200 + −5.64 1 −1.91 1 Internal
- / / −0.43 0 Normal
(b) 300 + −3.24 1 −1.13 1 Internal
- / / / / Normal
F2 (500 km) 10 + −0.17 0 −0.64 0 Normal
- −13.23 1 −9.33 1 Internal
200 + / / −0.04 0 Normal
- −2.85 1 −2.37 1 Internal
300 + / / / / Normal

Fig. 14 Waveforms of fault components and transient energies - −1.70 1 −1.71 1 Internal
detected on the negative pole line for a fault at F5. a Rectifier F3 (1000 km) 10 + −24.96 1 −25.01 1 Internal
station. b Inverter station
- −25.21 1 −25.09 1 Internal
200 + −8.13 1 −8.44 1 Internal

3.1.4 Simulation analysis of the influence factors - −8.20 1 −8.46 1 Internal

3.1.4.1 Fault location and fault ground resistance 300 + −5.37 1 −5.69 1 Internal
Both the fault location and the fault ground resistance - −5.40 1 −5.80 1 Internal
have certain impacts on the traditional DC line protec-
tion. To verify whether these factors have influences or
not on the proposed protection method, the following simulation results for lightning stroke disturbance and
simulations are carried out. Several faults with different lightning stroke causing fault, respectively. It has to been
fault ground resistances at different locations are set, explained, for direct lightning stroke, that only the posi-
and the simulation results for internal faults and external tive pole line is considered.
faults are shown in Tables 6 and 7, respectively. From Table 8 it can be seen, for lightning stroke without
As seen from Table 6, for the single pole to earth faults causing fault, that no matter it strikes on line or tower, the
or the pole-pole faults with different fault locations and identification results are all correct. Moreover, for lightning
different fault ground resistances, although the fault
resistance has a negative influence on the transient energy Table 7 Simulation results for faults outside the DC line
value, the proposed method can still identify these faults, Location RF (Ω) Pole Rectifier station Inverter station Result
and the results are all correct. Sm Dir Sn Dir
For external faults with different fault ground resis- F4 10 + 19.14 −1 −11.08 1 External
tances, the simulation results from Table 7 show that the
- 1.61 −1 −3.16 1 External
proposed protection method can accurately identify these
external faults, and the results are all right. 200 + 1.66 −1 −0.88 0 Normal
- / / −0.14 0 Normal
3.1.4.2 Lightning stroke As mentioned in Section 2, 300 + 0.83 0 −0.26 0 Normal
lightning stroke on line or tower without causing fault - / / / / Normal
may result in the maloperation of protective relay, so it F5 (AG) 10 + −2.70 1 2.94 −1 External
is necessary to study the influence of lightning stroke on
- −2.74 1 3.02 −1 External
the proposed method. Tables 8 and 9 show the
300 + / / / / Normal

Table 5 Simulation results for a fault at F5 - / / / / Normal

Location RF (Ω) Pole Rectifier side Inverter side Result F5 (BCG) 10 + −11.92 1 12.10 −1 External
Sm Dir Sn Dir - −11.50 1 12.22 −1 External
F5 0 + −11.08 1 12.24 −1 External 300 + / / / / Normal
- −11.20 1 12.48 −1 External - / / / / Normal
Zou et al. Protection and Control of Modern Power Systems (2017) 2:15 Page 9 of 10

Table 8 Simulation results for lightning stroke disturbance

Condition Pole Sm Sn Result
Lightning stroke on line without causing fault 20 kA 100 km + 0.29 0.04 Normal
- 0.10 0.02 Normal
1095 km + −0.01 −0.01 Normal
- 0.03 / Normal
30 kA 10 km + 1.95 −0.05 Normal
- −0.13 0.05 Normal
1500 km + 0.17 0.15 Normal
- 0.07 0.13 Normal
Lightning stroke on tower without causing back-flashover 50 kA 1 km + / / Normal
- / / Normal
2100 km + / / Normal
- / / Normal
100 kA 10 km + / / Normal
- / / Normal
1800 km + / / Normal
- / / Normal

stroke on tower without causing back-flashover, the protec- protection criteria can effectively discriminate between
tion units will not start. lightning stroke disturbance and lightning stroke fault.
As shown in Table 9, for shielding failure and back-
flashover with different lightning current amplitudes and 4 Conclusions
lightning stroke locations, those faults can also be Using the characteristic differences of transient energy
correctly identified. Note that lightning stroke on tower on both sides of HVDC line after the fault, the paper
with the amplitude of 200 kA causes both the positive proposes a novel directional pilot protection method.
pole and negative pole insulators back-flashover, but for From the theoretical analysis and simulation results, the
lightning current of 120 kA, it only results in the insula- following conclusions can be obtained:
tor back-flashover of positive pole line. Therefore, the
1) Due to applying directional pilot protection principle
Table 9 Simulation results for lightning stroke causing faults and energy integral criteria, the proposed protection
Condition Pole Sm Sn Result method is rarely influenced by fault position, fault
Shielding failure 15 kA 1 km + −29.83 −9.14 Internal resistance and lightning stroke disturbance. For special
- −0.23 −2.13 Normal fault cases, such as close-up faults or high ground re-
500 km + −12.33 −8.77 Internal
sistance faults, the method can make a correct identifi-
cation, so it has absolute selectivity and high reliability.
- −0.10 −0.62 Normal
2) The proposed protection criteria can correctly
30 kA 300 km + −13.79 −8.48 Internal identify the faulted line for a single pole to earth
- 0.15 −0.84 Normal fault, so the method has good adaptability.
900 km + −10.84 −9.18 Internal 3) Because of only identifying the fault directions on
- −0.14 −0.27 Normal both sides of HVDC line, so the pilot protection
Back- flashover 120 kA 10 km + −38.95 −11.56 Internal
does not require the synchronous data.
- −0.34 −2.40 Normal Acknowledgements
This work was supported in part by National Natural Science Foundation of China
1200 km + −9.46 −12.06 Internal (51677109), and in part by National Key Research and Development Program of
- −0.57 0.88 Normal China (2016YFB0906003).

200 kA 1095 km + −28.07 −27.16 Internal Authors’ contributions

- −26.86 −28.61 Internal Guibin Zou carried out the protection principle studies, drafted the manuscript.
Qiang Huang participated in the sequence alignment. Shenglan Song and
2100 km + −25.49 −33.10 Internal Bingbing Tong carried out the simulation and analysis. Houlei Gao participated in
protection principle study and the design of study. All authors read and approved
- −25.23 −28.75 Internal
the final manuscript.
Zou et al. Protection and Control of Modern Power Systems (2017) 2:15 Page 10 of 10

Competing interests 20. Azizi, S., Sanaye-Pasand, M., Abedini, M., et al. (2014). A Traveling-Wave-
The authors declare that they have no competing interests. Based Methodology for Wide-Area Fault Location in Multiterminal DC
Systems. IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery, 29(6), 2552–2560.
Author details 21. Nanayakkara, O. M. K. K., Rajapakse, A. D., & Wachal, R. (2012). Traveling-
1
Key Laboratory of Power System Intelligent Dispatch and Control of Ministry Wave-Based Line Fault Location in Star-Connected Multiterminal HVDC
of Education, Shandong University, Ji’nan, China. 2State Grid Weifang Electric Systems. IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery, 27(4), 2286–2294.
Power Company, Weifang 261021, China. 3State Grid Langfang Electric Power
Company, Langfang 065000, China.

Received: 1 December 2016 Accepted: 21 March 2017

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