A Generalized Closed-From Solution for Wide-Area Fault Location by Characterizing the Distributions of Superimposed Errors

Wide-area fault location (WAFL) refers to the estimation of fault distance on the faulted line using PMU data. A system of linear equations is formulated for WAFL, taking advantage of both voltage and current synchrophasors. This results in a generalized closed-form solution for the fault distance using the weighted least-squares method. The main contribution of the letter is the rigorous derivation of the equation weights based on the statistical distributions of the superimposed errors, i.e., the differences between the errors of the corresponding pre- and post-fault synchrophasors. The method's effectiveness, robustness against different factors, and superiority over existing methods are demonstrated by extensive simulations and comparison studies conducted on the IEEE 39-bus test system.