Optimal Voltage Sag Monitor Locations

F. Salim

K. M. Nor

Electrical Engineering Department,

College of Science and Technology,
Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, MALAYSIA.

Electrical Power Engineering Department,

Faculty of Electrical Engineering,
Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, MALAYSIA.

Abstract-Many methods have been proposed to detect the

occurrence of voltage sag in the utility system. By using a suitable
method, a minimum number of power quality monitor can be
allocated to monitor the entire system. This paper focuses on a
monitor positioning program to determine the optimal number of
monitors and to decide their locations for a given distribution
system. In order to find the best location of the monitor, voltage
magnitude during fault with further analysis has been used. The
monitor location is decided to ensure that, voltage sag that occurs
will be recorded by three different monitor locations. To validate
the proposed method, it is tested with the IEEE 30-bus system.

and known as monitor reach area (MRA). Based on this matrix,

the exposed area for the chosen bus is determined by setting
the threshold voltage at which the monitor start recording. The
method of fault positions used in this work is only applied for
symmetrical three-phase fault.
Power quality monitoring can be used to obtain the average
power quality of the network. Ideally, the whole system should
be monitored by placing power quality monitor at each
substation and then integrate the entire monitor through the
communication facility, but this method is not cost effective
due to a huge amount of redundant data. Optimal decisions
I. INTRODUCTION
regarding the number of meters and their locations are needed
Power quality is a general term related to voltage and current
so that the number of meters is minimized without missing any
disturbances. During the last decade, power quality has been
essential information.
recognized as a global problem [1]-[4]. The increased attention
The target of this paper is to ensure that all voltages and
to power quality problems most probably results from the
currents for all the buses in the system are observable and can
increased in number of electrical equipment that is sensitive to
be validated. At the same time, it also will use the minimum
low power quality than before. Some of the power quality
number of power quality monitors and each monitor is able to
issues are voltage sags (undervoltage), swell (overvoltages),
identify the occurrence of voltage sag in the entire system. The
voltage interruptions, transients, flicker, harmonics and
symmetrical and unsymmetrical faults have been considered to
frequency variation [5][6]. Among these types of power quality,
achieve the objective. Then, the voltage recorded for every bus
voltage sag is the most important problem to be considered
must be observed by at least three different monitors location.
especially by the industries [7]-[9].
Three monitor is needed to confirm that the reading is correct,
According to the IEEE standard, voltage sag is a momentary
for validation purposes and to ensure the reliability of the
decrease about 10% to 90% in the rms voltage magnitude with
monitoring system.
the duration longer than a half cycle and less than one minute
[10]. The main properties to characterize voltage sag are the
II. VOLTAGE SAG
magnitude, the duration and the sag frequency. The sag
magnitude is the remaining voltage during the occurrence of
voltage sag. The magnitude of voltage sag due to faults at A. Balanced Voltage Sag Magnitudes
certain point in the system depends on the type of the faults,
When applying the method of fault positions, various faults
the distance from the fault, the system configuration and the
fault impedance. The most common fault occur in power are generated all over the network. To calculate voltage sag
system is single phase-to-ground and the rarest is symmetrical magnitudes caused by a symmetrical fault, single-phase
modeling can be used. In radial system, the calculation of
three phase fault.
In voltage sag calculation, two methods can be used; method voltages during a fault is based on superposition theorem [11].
of fault positions and method of critical distance. By using In meshed systems, the calculation of voltages is based on
method of fault positions, a number of faults with different Thevenins theorem and the network impedance matrix [11].
According to the Superposition theorem, voltages in the
characteristics are generated throughout the system and the
voltage sag magnitudes are calculated and determined in the system during voltage sag are the sum of voltages before the
network. This procedure is repeated many times for different event and voltages due to the change in voltage at the fault
fault locations and fault types to determine the voltage sags position. The voltages before the fault are denoted as Vref. The
voltage at any node k during a fault at node f can be interpreted
distribution.
In [12], method of fault positions has been used to determine as matrix relation is given by (1) with Vk is the change in
the suitable location of power quality monitor. The voltage voltage at node k due to the fault.
magnitudes during fault is then organized in the matrix form
V
=V
+ V
(1)
df(k)

2008 Australasian Universities Power Engineering Conference (AUPEC'08)

ref(k)

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The value of Vk can be calculated with assumption that all

other voltage sources in the system are short-circuited. With
this information, Vk can be write as

Vk = Z kf I f

(2)

Once during fault voltages for every sequence have been

determined, the phase voltages can be calculated by
multiplying the symmetrical components transformation with
(6), (7) and (8). The results can be written as
p

Va = Vref + V + V + V

At the fault position where k = f, the value of Vk will be

equal to Vref(k). Thus If in (2) will become

Vref(k)
If = Zff

(3)

Z kf
Z ff

(4)

1 Z1,2 1 - Z1,3
Z2,2 Z3,3
1 - Z2,3
0
Z3,3
Z3,2
1
0
Z 2,2
1 Z 4,2 1 - Z4,3
Z 2,2 Z3,3

1 - Z1,4
Z 4,4
1 - Z 2,4

Z 4,4
1 - Z3,4
Z 4,4

(5)

Vdf = Vref + V
n

Vdf = 0 + V

Vc = aVref + a V + a V + V

(10)
(11)

For a single-phase fault, the expressions for the components

voltages are

p
a
Z pkf

a
Vdf = Vref p
.
V
ref(f)

n
z
Zff + Zff + Zff

(12)

n
Znkf

a
. Vref(f)
Vdf = - p

n
z
+
+
Z
Z
Z
ff
ff
ff

(13)

z
Zzkf

a
.
V
Vdf = - p
ref(f)
n
z
+
+
Z
Z
Z
ff
ff
ff

(14)

The phase voltage equations are showed below with the

assumption that the pre-fault voltage (Vref) is equal to unity.

p
n
z
Z + Zkf + Z kf
= 1 - kfp
n
z
Z ff + Zff + Zff

(6)
(7)

(15)

2 p

n
z
2 a
a Zkf + a Z kf + Z kf

a
Vb = a Vref
. Vref(f)

p
n
z
+
+
Z
Z
Z
ff
ff
ff

The analysis of unbalanced voltage sag magnitudes can be

done by using symmetrical components theory. The
superposition theorem can still be used but it has to be split
into its three components; a positive sequence network, a
negative sequence network and a zero sequence network.
Before the fault, the voltage only contains a positive sequence
component. Thus, the pre-fault voltage matrices for zero
sequence and negative sequence are zero. By using this
information, (1) can be written into its three components; Vdfz
for zero sequence, Vdfp for positive sequence and Vdfn for
negative sequence as shown below.

Vdf = 0 + V

p
n
z
a

Z + Z kf + Zkf
a
Va = Vref kfp
. Vref(f)

n
z
Z
Z
Z
+
+
ff
ff

ff

B. Unbalanced Voltage Sag Magnitudes

C. Single-Phase Faults

The N by N matrix of Vdf(k) as in (5) contains the voltage sag

magnitudes observed at each bus of the network caused by a
fault at each one of the buses. The diagonal of matrix Vdf(k) is
the during fault voltages when a fault occurs at that bus. The
value is zero for a solid three-phase fault. The off-diagonal
elements of matrix Vdf(k) are the during fault voltages at a
general bus k due to fault at bus f .

0
Z2,1
1 Z1,1

Vdf =
Z3,1

1 Z
1,1
1 Z4,1
Z1,1

(9)

Vb = a Vref + a V + a V + V
p

By assumption that the pre-fault voltages are normally close to

unity, (1) can be approximated as

Vdf(k) = 1 -

2 a 2 Z p + a Z nkf + Z zkf
kf
=a -
p
n
z
Zff + Zff + Zff

p
2 n
z
a
a Z kf + a Zkf + Zkf

a
Vc = a Vref
. Vref(f)

p
n
z
+
+
Z
Z
Z
ff
ff
ff

p
2 n
z
aZ + a Zkf + Zkf
= a - kfp
n
z
Zff + Zff + Zff

(16)

(17)

D. Phase-to-Phase Faults
For a phase-to-phase fault, only the positive and the negative
sequence networks will be involved in the analysis. The zero
sequence voltages and currents are zero. The positive and
negative voltages are

(8)

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p
p
a
Z

a
Vdf = Vref p kf n . Vref(f)

Zff + Zff

(18)

n
n
Z

a
Vdf = p kf n . Vref(f)

Zff + Zff

(19)

The phase voltages is shown in (20) until (22), again with

the pre-fault voltage unity.

p
n

Z Z kf
a
.
V
+ kfp
ref(f)
n
Z
Z
+
ff

ff

Va = Vref

p
n
Z Zkf
= 1 + kfp
n
Zff + Zff

(20)

] [

] [

n
2 p
z
z
2 p
n
2
(a Zkf a Zkf ) . Zff + (Z kf a Z kf ) . Zff
=a +
p
p
(Zff . Zffz ) + (Zff . Zffn ) + (Zffn . Zffz )

] [

a
ref(f)

2 -a 2 Zp + a Zn
kf
kf
=a -
p
n
+
Z
Z
ff
ff

(21)

p
2 n
a
-a Zkf + a Z kf

a
Vc = a Vref +
.
V
ref(f)

p
n
Zff + Zff

(22)

E. Two-Phase-to-Ground Faults
For a two-phase-to-ground fault, the three sequence
networks are connected in parallel. The component voltages
and the phase voltages can be calculated in the same way as for
the single-phase and phase-to-phase fault. The three sequence
voltages are

p
a
-(Zffn + Z ffz )

Vdf = Vref + p z
p
n
n
z
(Zff . Zff ) + (Zff . Zff ) + (Zff . Zff )

n
Zffz

Vdf = p z
p
n
n
z
(Zff . Zff ) + (Zff . Zff ) + (Zff . Zff )

p
a
Z kf . Vref(f)

(23)

n
a
Zkf . Vref(f)

(24)

z
Zffn

z
a
Vdf = - p z
Z . Vref(f)
p
n
n
z kf
(Zff . Zff ) + (Zff . Zff ) + (Zff . Zff )

(25)

] (V )

a
ref(f)

(28)

The method of fault positions is a straightforward method to

determine the expected number of voltage sag. The magnitudes
of the voltage sag are calculated for a number of fault positions
spread through the system. Then the voltage sag magnitudes
can be represented as in (5) and it can be graphically presented
on the one line diagram of the power system and it is called
exposed area. The exposed area of a bus k is also the area that
can be monitored by a power quality meter installed at bus k.
In [12], the application of this method has been used to
determine the suitable location of power quality monitor that
can observe the occurrence of voltage sags in the simplified
model of Colombia National Interconnected System 230 kV
and 500 kV. The voltage sag magnitudes have been determined
for a solid three-phase fault and it have been found that eight
suitable locations can be used to observe the system under
study when the threshold voltage is set to 0.9 pu.
For unsymmetrical faults, the exposed area can be defined
by using positive sequence, negative sequence and zero
sequence impedance matrices to perform the calculations.
IV. APPLICATION
A. System Description
The system used in this study is IEEE 30-bus system and is
illustrated in Figure 1. It characteristics are summarized in [13].
In this system the symmetrical and unsymmetrical faults are
tested on the bus to find the suitable locations to allocate the
power quality monitors.

Finally the phase voltages can be found by applying the

symmetrical component transformation.

] [

n
p
z
z
p
n
a
a
(Z Z ) . Zff + (Zkf Zkf ) . Zff
Vdf = Vref + kfp zkf
p
n
n
z
(Zff . Zff ) + (Zff . Zff ) + (Zff . Zff )

(27)

] [

2 n
p
p
z
z
n
c
a
(a Z kf a Zkf ) . Zff + (Zkf a Z kf ) . Zff
Vdf = aVref +
p
z
p
n
n
z
(Zff . Zff ) + (Zff . Zff ) + (Zff . Zff )

2 n
p
z
z
p
n
(a Z kf a Zkf ) . Zff + (Z kf a Z kf ) . Zff
=a +
p
z
p
n
n
z
(Zff . Zff ) + (Zff . Zff ) + (Zff . Zff )

] (V )

III. METHOD OF FAULT POSITIONS

2 p

n
2 a
-a Zkf + a Zkf

a
Vb = a Vref +
.
V
ref(f)

p
n
Zff + Zff

p
2 n
-aZkf + a Zkf
=a+
p
n
Zff + Zff

n
2 p
z
z
2 p
n
b
2 a
(a Zkf a Zkf ) . Zff + (Z kf a Z kf ) . Zff
Vdf = a Vref +
p
z
p
n
n
z
(Zff . Zff ) + (Zff . Zff ) + (Zff . Zff )

] [

n
p
z
z
p
n
(Z Z ) . Zff + (Zkf Zkf ) . Zff
= 1 + kfp zkf
p
n
n
z
(Zff . Zff ) + (Zff . Zff ) + (Zff . Zff )

] (V )

a
ref(f)

(26)

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TABLE II
DISTRIBUTION OF DURING FAULT VOLTAGES FOR CERTAIN BUSES

Fault Type
Bus Number

Three Phase Balances Fault

6
18
25
27

Fault
Position on Bus

#1
#2
#3
#4
#5
#24
#25
#26
#27
#28
#29
#30

Figure 1. IEEE 30-bus system

0.19
0.00
0.30
0.22
0.39
0.70
0.78
0.91
0.76
0.39
0.89
0.90

TABLE I

Fault Type
Bus Number

Single Line-to-Ground Fault

2
6
18
25
27

Fault
Position on Bus

#1
#2
#3
#4
#5
#24
#25
#26
#27
#28
#29
#30

0.20
0.00
0.29
0.21
0.38
0.67
0.76
0.90
0.74
0.38
0.87
0.89

0.38
0.25
0.30
0.15
0.43
0.63
0.71
0.88
0.65
0.26
0.84
0.85

0.46
0.36
0.36
0.22
0.52
0.49
0.58
0.87
0.66
0.38
0.84
0.86

0.41
0.30
0.33
0.19
0.46
0.26
0.00
0.54
0.19
0.16
0.60
0.64

0.40
0.28
0.32
0.18
0.44
0.42
0.32
0.68
0.00
0.08
0.51
0.56

0.33
0.21
0.25
0.12
0.37
0.57
0.67
0.85
0.64
0.22
0.81
0.82

0.39
0.29
0.30
0.18
0.45
0.43
0.63
0.84
0.63
0.32
0.81
0.83

0.35
0.24
0.26
0.14
0.39
0.22
0.00
0.51
0.18
0.13
0.56
0.60

0.34
0.22
0.25
0.13
0.37
0.36
0.27
0.64
0.00
0.07
0.46
0.51

TABLE IV
DISTRIBUTION OF DURING FAULT VOLTAGES FOR CERTAIN BUSES

Fault Type
Bus Number

0.23
0.00
0.35
0.26
0.45
0.73
0.81
0.94
0.76
0.46
0.91
0.92

0.33
0.23
0.26
0.15
0.39
0.35
0.25
0.62
0.00
0.10
0.45
0.49

Double Line-to-Ground Fault

2
6
18
25
27

DISTRIBUTION OF DURING FAULT VOLTAGES FOR CERTAIN BUSES

#1
#2
#3
#4
#5
#24
#25
#26
#27
#28
#29
#30

0.34
0.25
0.28
0.17
0.41
0.22
0.00
0.50
0.19
0.17
0.55
0.59

DISTRIBUTION OF DURING FAULT VOLTAGES FOR CERTAIN BUSES

As a first step, the voltage magnitudes during fault for all

types of faults have been determined by using PowerWorld
Simulator 12.0. All types of faults have been tested on all the
30 buses in this system. This is done to reduce the number of
non-monitored bus as one of the objectives of this work is to
eliminate the blind spot area. The blind spot area for the power
quality monitor can be defined as the area where the power
quality monitor cannot detect the occurrence of any event.
The resulting voltages have been placed in a large table
which has been used as a basis for further analysis. A portion
of the table is shown in Table I to Table IV. The data are
classified according to the types of fault. All the voltage
magnitudes are recorded in pu.

Bus Number
Fault
Position on Bus

0.40
0.31
0.32
0.21
0.47
0.43
0.64
0.83
0.65
0.34
0.82
0.84

TABLE III

B. During Fault Voltages

Fault Type

0.31
0.20
0.24
0.12
0.37
0.60
0.70
0.85
0.67
0.22
0.82
0.84

Line-to-Line Fault
6
18
25

27

Fault
Position on Bus

#1
#2
#3
#4
#5
#24
#25
#26
#27
#28
#29
#30

2008 Australasian Universities Power Engineering Conference (AUPEC'08)

0.53
0.53
0.47
0.61
0.50
0.75
0.82
0.94
0.79
0.56
0.91
0.92

0.65
0.48
0.58
0.49
0.57
0.61
0.73
0.73
0.78
0.69
0.76
0.76

0.68
0.62
0.60
0.55
0.63
0.64
0.75
0.89
0.74
0.58
0.87
0.88

0.64
0.57
0.56
0.52
0.58
0.54
0.49
0.68
0.51
0.49
0.70
0.72

0.49
0.56
0.49
0.55
0.53
0.60
0.57
0.59
0.66
0.65
0.59
0.56

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From Table I to Table IV, it can be seen that bus that is near
to a fault will experience severe voltage sag. The shaded cells
in the above table are the voltage magnitudes that are not in the
range of sag magnitude. Thus, it will be excluded from the
exposed area, i.e. it is in a blind spot where if a monitor is
placed at this bus, it is not able to detect that voltage sag has
occurred.
C. Exposed Area
Figure 2 shows the exposed area for bus 12 due to all type of
faults. It can be seen that the exposed area due to single-line toground fault does not cover two buses; bus 26 and 30. At the
same time, when line-to-line fault is applied to the system,
three buses are not in the exposed area. The buses are 26, 29
and 30. When three-phase fault and double-line-to-ground fault
are simulated, it shows that the exposed area cover the whole
system. It can be seen that bus 12 is not suitable to allocate the
power quality monitor because bus 12 is not able to detect the
occurrence of voltage sags at bus 26, 29 and 30 due to line-toline and single-phase-to-ground fault.

Figure 3. Contour lines illustrating the exposed area for bus 6

D. Method Comparison
Method of fault positions has been used by many authors to
detect the occurrence of voltage sag and to find the optimal
location of power quality monitor. One of them, is reported in
[12].
In [14], Kirchoffs Current Law and Ohms Law have been
used to find the optimum number of monitor. The location of
the monitor is chosen to ensure that the recorded voltages and
currents can be used to estimate the voltages and currents at the
other buses. This technique has been applied to the same
system in this work, IEEE 30-bus system. The result is that ten
monitors must be used to ensure that the entire system is
Figure 2. Contour lines illustrating the exposed area for bus 12
observable.
The comparison between the work done in this paper with
the work in [12] and [14] is shown in Table V. The comparison
By analyzing all voltage magnitudes during fault, it has been is based on:
found that the exposed area for bus 6, 18, 23 and 24 covers the
i.
Total cost.
whole system. Thus, these four buses are suitable to place the
ii. Events capture redundancy.
power quality monitors. The exposed area is shown in Figure 3.
iii. Capability to observe voltage sags due to unsymmetrical
In order to ensure a continuous monitoring, only three optimal
fault.
locations will be used to observe the whole system. Three
iv. Capability to observe the voltage sag of all buses in the
different monitor are used to ensure that each reading can be
event that one of the installed monitors malfunctions.
validated by the other two monitor readings. To avoid all three
v. The requirement of event time synchronization.
monitors to counting the same event as three different events,
time synchronization between the monitors must be done. Thus,
only bus 6, 18 and 24 will be used.

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TABLE V
COMPARISON WITH OTHER WORK

Total Cost
Events capture
Redundancy

One Monitor
Malfunction
Unsymmetrical
Fault Test
Time
Synchronization

REFERENCES

Work in
[12]
Cheap
Some
buses are
observed
by more
than one
monitor
unable to
monitor
the system

Work in
[14]
Expensive
Nil
designed to
have no
redundancy

Proposed
method
Moderate
All buses are
observed by
at least 3
monitors

unable to
monitor the
system

Not Tested

Not Tested

2 monitors
remains to
monitor the
system
Tested

Not
needed

Not needed

[1]
[2]
[3]
[4]
[5]

Needed, can
easily be
provided by
GPS

[6]
[7]
[8]

[9]
[10]
[11]

V. CONCLUSION
The optimum number and location of monitors for the same
system has been done by using different method as discussed
in [14]. By comparing the method in [14] with the method
proposed in this paper, a better result has been achieved. In the
case of IEEE 30-bus system, the number of monitor used has
been reduced to three and each monitor is able to detect the
occurrence of voltage sags in the entire system. The system is
more robust still able to observe voltage sag when one of the
monitors fail.

[12]
[13]
[14]

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2008 Australasian Universities Power Engineering Conference (AUPEC'08)

Paper P-096 Page 6

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