DRPT2008 6-9 April 2008 Nanjing China
Diagnosis of Commutation Failure in HVDC
Systems Based on Wavelet Transforms
Qing Zhong Yao Zhang Lingxue Lin
Abstract-- Fast diagnosis of commutation failure in HVDC
systems can improve the level of operation in the power systems.
It is also the base to realize the prevention of commutation
failure. By application of wavelet transform, the rapidity and
correctness of faults diagnosing are enhanced. AC voltage and
DC voltage in inverter side are taken as the signals for wavelet
analysis. Wavelet coefficient d6 changed suddenly when fault
occurred. This paper studied a diagnosing method based on the
variance of wavelet coefficient d6. With moving sample windows,
the sampling signals in the windows are analyzed with wavelet
and the variance of wavelet coefficient d6 in real time. Therefore,
the fault diagnoses are realized in real-time. The functions are
realized in MATLAB/Simulink. The results of simulations show
that the method can output the alarm signals after about half
cycle when fault occurred. It can also tell out the AC fault
without CF and DC line fault with CF fault. Above all, the
diagnosing method using wavelet analysis ameliorates the
rapidity and correctness of faults diagnosing.
Index Terms-- Commutation failure, fault diagnosis ,HVDC ,
Wavelet Transforms
I. INTRODUCTION
C OMMUTATION FAILURES (CFs) are very common
dynamic events in high voltage dc (HVDC) transmission
systems [1]. Failure to complete commutation before the
commutating voltage reverses is referred as commutation
failures. Commutation failures occur in HVDC systems due to
ac voltage dips (possibly caused by an ac systems short-
circuit), increased direct current, late ignition or a combination
of these, [2]. The inverter is more prone to commutation
failures than rectifier because its firing angle is much larger
and its commutation margin is much smaller [3].
Commutation failures cause the sudden overshoot of the direct
current and decrease of the dc voltage. Repeated commutation
failures may cause interruption of transmitted power and stress
on the converter equipments [4]. In most serious situations, the
power transmission of HVDC will be cut off with
commutation failures, and it will make the power systems
unstable [5].
With the development of power system, HVDC systems
play important roles in power grids, especially because of their
huge capacity and long distance transmission. As in China
South Power Grids (the CSGs), there will be 7 HVDC
Qing Zhong, Yao Zhang and Lingxue Lin are with Electrical Engineering
College, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510640, China
(e-mail: epqzhong@scut.edu.cn, epyzhang@scut.edu.cn,
snowerlin@tom.com)
978-7-900714-13-8/08/ ©2008 DRPT
transmission systems in the grid in 2015 [6]. Since the inverter
sides are very close to each other, the interactions between ac
and dc system make the research on Commutation failures
more complicated [7]. The mechanics about commutation
failures in multi-infeed HVDC transmission system were
researched in [8, 9]. The studies showed that if the existing
controls or preventions of commutation failures are not
suitable, the results of commutation failures will be very
dangerous, because of the interaction between ac and dc
systems.
The dips of ac voltage with the faults are the most reasons
causing the commutation failures; therefore, the commutation
failures have strong relationship with the frequency spectrum
of the ac network. The probability of the commutation failures
can be reduced by raising the frequency of the dominant low-
frequency mode of oscillation [10]. In order to identify and
prevent the commutation failures, many authors have done a
lot of work on it. In [11], single-phase faults in ac systems are
mainly concerned. By computing the changes of voltages in ac
side with digital signals processor (DSP), it is possible to
avoid a number of commutation failures. In [12], a novel shunt
thyristor turn-off circuit for the shorted legs can avoid
conduction loss during normal operation and improve the
robustness of the inverter during the voltage dips. Neural
network can also be applied into the fault identification of
commutation failures as described in [13].
Through the enhancement of the topologies or the control
strategies, people can avoid the commutation failures a little.
But more advanced methods are still in high demand to
ameliorate the performance of the inverter to reduce the risk of
having commutation failures in HVDC systems. Wavelet
transform is a novel method in signals processing, which not
only decompose a signal into its frequency components, but
also provide a non-uniform division of the frequency domain,
whereby it focuses on short time intervals for the high-
frequency components and long intervals for low frequencies
[14]. Wavelet transform is better suited for analysis of certain
types of transient waveforms in power systems than Fourier
transform approach [15]. Wavelet transformers are widely
used in power systems for transient signal analysis, for
example, the power quality issues [16], disturbance analysis
and compression [17], protection [18] and so on. In HVDC
systems, the line transient protections are used wavelet multi-
resolution signal decomposition of dc voltage. The criterion
based on the high frequency transient is proposed to
discriminate between faults inside the HVDC line and the
 DRPT2008 6-9 April 2008 Nanjing China
2

outside ones reliably [19]. Commutation failures are dynamic Id p

disturbance in HVDC system, so Wavelet transform can
identify the disturbance and locate it at the same time [20]. In Lc
ea
[21], the wavelet multi-resolution signal decomposition of the i1 i3
signals monitored on the ac and dc side can classify the typical va
eb Lc
disturbance in HVDC systems including commutation failures. vd
The classification rules of commutation failure, dc short vb
ec Lc
circuit and single line to ground fault are easier with the vc
wavelet coefficients at different resolution levels.
Above all, wavelet is a good way to detect the occurrence of i2 n
commutation failure. Therefore, the way to identify using
Fig.1 Equivalent circuit during commutation
wavelet transform is the main topic in this paper. Windowed
U α β
sampling is used to extract the signals of dc voltage and ac
voltages in inverter side. By the mutli-resolution ua ub uc
decomposition of the signals, the coefficients at different ① ③ ⑤ ①
resolution levels are achieved. The variance of coefficients at ωt
level 6 is taken as the criterion to detect the commutation 0 120° 240° 360°
failures. The simulations are done in three cases and the ⑥ ② ④ ⑥
results show the validity of the diagnosis strategy. µ
γ
ωt
II. COMMUTATION FAILURES 0
Commutation is the transfer of current from one phase to
another. During the period of commutation, the current in
incoming valve increase from 0 to Id, and the current in the
outgoing valve reduces from Id to 0. Valve 1, 2 and 3 are
conducting just like figure 1, then Ud α β
di3 di Fig. 2 Voltage waveforms of inverter in normal operations
eb − ea = Lc − Lc 1 (1)
dt dt
where eb − ea is the commutation voltage. Commutation is U
ua ub uc
always possible as long as the commuting voltage is positive ① ③ ⑤ ①
and as long as the outgoing valve will have reversed voltage
applied to it after it extinguishes. In normal operation ωt
0 120° 240° 360°
conditions, the waveforms of ac voltage and dc voltage are ⑥ ② ④ ⑥
presented in figure 2.
The commutation can not be completed if the commutation T
voltage reverses with insufficient margin for de-ionization for
valves, which is called commutation failure. The relationship ωt
0
between ac voltage, dc current, ignition delay angle and
extinction angle is [1]：
2I d X c
cos α = − cos γ (2) Ud
E
Fig. 3 Voltage waveforms of inverter with single commutation failure from
where α is ignition delay angle, Id is dc current, E is the valve 6 to valve 2
magnitude of ac voltage, γ is extinction angle and X c = ϖLc
is equivalent commutation resistance. From (2) the extinction III. WAVELET TRANSFORM AND MULTI-RESULTION ANALYSIS
angle γ can represented as: Wavelet transform has been received wide attention for the
2Id X c analysis of transient disturbances and signals processing. By
γ = arccos( − cos β ) (3) using wavelet transform, a time varying signal could be
E transferred into different resolution levels and thus could be
where β is ignition advanced angle. The extinction angle γ
represented by time domain as well as frequency domain
means the margin for de-ionization of valve. If γ is less than
information. The sampling window of wavelet is adjusted
10◦, the commutation failure will occur. According to (3),
automatically for low and high frequencies [22]. Any changes
increased dc current, low alternating voltage, late ignition can
make γ decreasing, which is to say that cause commutation in the pattern of the signals could be detected and localized at
failure. The waveform of alternating voltage and dc voltage the finer resolution levels.
when commutation failure happens is shown in figure 3. Multi-resolution analysis (MRA) wavelet transform is
developed to represent a time domain signal f (t ) in terms of its
 DRPT2008 6-9 April 2008 Nanjing China
3

orthogonal basis which is the scaling function φ (t ) and wavelet normal operation, dc line short circuit fault and commutation
function ϕ (t ) . These functions can be scaled and translated to failure correctly.
decompose f (t ) at different resolution levels. This process
can be mathematically presented as:
J
f (t ) = ∑aJ (k )φJ ,k (t ) + ∑∑d j (k )ϕ j ,k (t ) (4)
k k j=1

where k is the sample number and j is the resolution level. aJ

represents the last approximate coefficients of low-frequency
level, dj represents the detail coefficients at jth high-frequency
level.
The signal f(t) is then be represented in terms of the
following expansion coefficients, where
C signal = [ a J d 1 d 2 " d J ] (5)
The process of decomposition is given in figure 4.
a j ,k a j +1,k " a j + n, k

d j +1 , k " d j + n ,k
Fig4 Decomposition of MRA
Only by using the compactly supported orthogonal wavelets,
Fig.5 Results of decompostion of Vdc_I in normal operation
the non-redundant representation and perfect reconstruction of
the original signal could be realized. Wavelets such as
Daubechies (dbN), Coiflet (coifN), and Symlet (symN) are
widely used for signal analysis.

IV. IDENTIFICATION OF COMMUTATION FAILURE

A. Decision criterion
As for short and fast transient disturbances, such as the cases
of this study, Daubechies wavelet would be better [14]. In this
study, Daubechies-4 (db4) wavelet is served as the wavelet
basis function for the detection and classification of faults.
DC voltage on inverter side in normal operation and
commutation failure are analyzed using db4 wavelet transform.
The resolution level is 6. The results of multi-resolution signal
decomposition are shown in figure 5 and figure 6 respectively.
In both figures, s is the reconstructed signal of dc voltage; d1-
d6 are coefficients in different levels. a6 is the low-frequency
component in level 6, as in the following formula:
CW = [a6 | d1 | d 2 | d 3 | d 4 | d 5 | d 6 ] (6)
By comparison of figure 5 and figure 6, there are obvious
sudden changes in d6, when commutation failure occurs. As
the consequence, d6 can be supposed to be the criterion to Fig.6 Results of decompositon of Vdc_I with CF
detect the commutation failure.
With the wavelet transform of dc voltage only, it is hard to
classify the dc line short circuit fault and commutation failure
only by the wavelet transform of dc voltage, because the
waveforms of dc voltage are very close in these two kinds of
faults. The wavelet transforms of ac voltages are then
introduced into the identification of the faults. Figure 7 and
figure 8 show the coefficient of 6th resolution level with dc Fig.7 Results of d6 of Vac_I with DC line fault
line short circuit fault and commutation failure. The value of
d6 in commutation failure is larger than it in dc line short
circuit fault. Therefore, the integration of d6 of both dc voltage
and ac voltage on inverter side is set to be the decision
criterion of commutation failure, which can classify the
 DRPT2008 6-9 April 2008 Nanjing China
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The commutation failure identifier is designed as shown in

figure 13. It has four inputs and an alarm output signals. Four
inputs include dc voltage and three phase alternating voltages
which are sampled from the electrical systems. The wavelet
analysis block is the core block in the identifier. It is realized
using S-function in Simulink.
Fig.8 Results of d6 of Vac_I with CF Initialize and set the threshold values
For the convenience of online calculation, the variance of a
signal can describe the abrupt change of it, so the variance of
d6 can be calculated as:
Sample the dc voltage and ac voltages on inverter side
1 n
var(d6 ) = ∑
n − 1 i =1
( d6 i − d 6 ) 2
(7)
where var(d6) is the variance of d6; n is the length of samples; Mutli-resolution signal decomposition and calculate the
variance of d6
d6i are coefficients of the 6th the resolution level and d 6 is the
average of the d6i , which are coefficients of the 6th resolution
level. var(d6) of dc voltage in normal operation and Is the variance over the threshold value?
commutation failure is given in figure 10, while the results of
alternating voltage in dc line short circuit fault and N Y
commutation failure is presented in figure 11. When
commutation failure occures, the var(d6) of the two signals Move the sampling window Output alarm signals
jump from very low to high value and the time of jumping is and to the next calculation
step
corresponded to the time when commutation failure happened.
By judging the var(d6) of windowed sampling, the
Fig.12 Flow chart of control strategy for CF
commutation failure can be identified online rapidly.

Fig.10 Variance of wavelet coefficient d6 of Vdc_I

Fig.13 Block diagram of fault diagnose in MATLAB/Simulink

Fig.11 Variance of wavelet coefficient d6 of Vac_I
By the method of fault identification proposed here, the
commutation can be detected less than half cycle, so the online
prevention control is possible to reduce the risk of
commutation failure. The flow chart of diagnosis strategy of
commutation failure in HVDC systems are proposed as in
figure 12.
Supposing there are three phase short circuit fault occuring
in ac systems. The fault inception time is 0.685s and the
duration is 0.1s (5 cycles). The shape of direct voltage and
current are shown in figure 14 and figure 15. The alarm signal
output by the identifier is shown in figure 16. When
commutation failure occurs, the alarm signal will change from
0 to 1. In the simulation, the alarm signal outputs 0.0101s after
the three short circuit fault, which is about half cycle. The
results show that the fault diagnosis based wavelet transform
and moving sampling windows is of real time. The fault
diagnosis method can be applied as on-line diagnosis for the
commutation failure.

V. SIMULATION RESULTS
The simulations are implemented in MATLAB/Simulink®.
The simulation model is monopole 12 pulses HVDC systems
just as shown in figure 14. The simulation HVDC system is
Fig.14 Vdc_I with CF
composed of rectifier, inverter, smoothing reactor, harmonic
filters, DC lines, master control, rectifier control/protection
and inverter control/protection [23]. The detailed parameters
of simulation system are given in the appendix.
 DRPT2008 6-9 April 2008 Nanjing China
5

Gamma margin: 1º
With VDCOL
DC line:
Length: 300km
Resistance: 0.015Ω/km
Inductance: 0.792e-3H/km
Capacitance: 14.4e-9F/km
Fig.15 Idc_I with CF Smoothing reactor 0.5H, 1Ω
Harmonic filters and reactive power compensator:
Capacitor: 600Mvar
11th harmonic filters
13th harmonic filters
High frequency harmonic filters

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Fig.16 Alarm signal
For other situations, just like the ac fault but causing no This work was supported by National Nature Science Fund
commutation failure and dc line short circuit fault, are of China (50337010).
simulated in the study. The identifier will not output the alarm
signals. The correctness of fault diagnosis method is testified.
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Qing Zhong, received Ph. D and MSc in South

China University of Technology in 2003 and 2000,
and BSc in North China University of Technology
in 1997, all in Electrical Engineering. He is now
teaching in College of Electrical Engineering,
South China University of Technology. His main
fields of interest include power quality, HVDC
transmission control, and power electronics control.

Yao Zhang, received the Ph.D. Master and

Bachelor degree from Tianjin University, in 1993,
1981, 1970, respectively. He is the Senior Member
of CSEE and dean of College of Electrical
Engineering South China University of
Technology. His main fields of research interests
include the power system stability and control,
voltage stability, and electric power market.

Lingxue Lin was born in Guangdong Province,

China, on August, 16th, 1979. She received MSc and
BSc in South China University of Technology in
2005 and 2002, all in Electrical Engineering. She is
now doing the Ph.D. study in Electrical Engineering
College, South China University of Technology. Her
main fields of interest include HVDC transmission
control and voltage stability.