Method and apparatus for providing offset compensation

Claim 1

A fault locating device adapted for use in a power system network to determine a fault location on a faulted power line within a few cycles after fault occurrence from measured signals representative of the voltage and current of the faulted power line, said measured signals including a transient decaying exponential offset component initiated by said line fault, said fault locating device including: means coupled to a power line in said power system network for measuring the voltage and current thereof and for generating signals representative of said measured voltage and current; means for sampling the amplitudes of at least one said voltage and current signals at a sampling rate which renders M+1 amplitude samples per cycle of the power line frequency; offset compensating means for removing substantially said transient decaying exponential offset component from said at least one of said voltage and current signals by operating on the sampled amplitudes of said one signal X to generate compensated amplitude samples therefrom in accordance with the following relationship: ##EQU12## where X N denotes an instant amplitude sample taken by said sampling means, X N-1 through X M denote the previous M consecutive sample amplitudes, whereby the M+1 amplitude samples form a set of samples which set moves in time with each taking of a new instant amplitude sample by said sampling means, where X N-P denotes an amplitude sample within each sample set P samples from said instant amplitude sample X N , and where Y N-P denotes a corresponding compensated amplitude sample for each sample set; and fault locator for determining the fault location on the faulted power line from the compensated amplitude samples generated by said offset compensating means, whereby the determination of the fault location may be performed within a few cycles of the fault occurrence without being hampered by the transient offset component.