Positive and Negative Sequence Estimation for

Unbalanced Voltage Dips

Rafael A. Flores

, Irene Y.H. Gu

and Math H.J. Bollen

Dept. of Signals and Systems

Dept. of Electric Power Engineering
Chalmers University of Technology
Gothenburg, 41296, Sweden
AbstractThis paper proposes the use of a complex Kalman
lter for the estimation of positive and negative sequences from
three phase voltages. A complex voltage is obtained by applying
the -transform followed by the dq-transform using a rotational
operator. The algorithm for three phase voltages containing K
harmonics is also given.
In the conventional method, estimation of positive and negative
sequences is performed through two steps: the magnitude and
phase-angle in each individual phase of the voltages are rst
estimated and the symmetrical component transformation is then
applied. The proposed method offers a direct estimation of the
positive and negative sequences that may reduce the estimation
errors. In addition, the proposed method has a reduced compu-
tational cost since the number of state variables is reduced to 2/3
as compared to that in the conventional method. An experiment
was performed on measured three phase voltage data. Results
have shown that the proposed method offers a good estimation.
I. INTRODUCTION
Positive and negative-sequence voltages were originally
introduced to speed up calculations involving non-symmetrical
faults, and as such are introduced in almost any text book on
electric power systems. More recently their application lies
in the diagnostics of power systems during non-symmetrical
operation including faults. A method for characterizing the un-
balanced voltage dips from the positive and negative sequences
has been proposed in [1] and [2]. The two-component method
used in [2] is based on the idea that the positive and negative-
sequence source impedances are equal for static circuits.
To achieved reliable and fast characterization and thereby a
correct identication of voltage dips, a good estimation of the
positive and negative sequence voltages is required.
Several methods for estimating positive and negative se-
quences have been proposed: [3] has proposed the use of
a weighted least squares, and [4] has proposed to use of
Kalman lters. In [4] the magnitudes and phase-angles were
rst estimated using three Kalman lters (one for each phase),
and the positive and negative sequences were then obtained by
using the symmetrical-component transformation, as shown in
Fig.1(a). Since the negative sequence voltage and the phase-
angle between the positive and negative sequence voltages
are sensitive to estimation errors, these methods may suffer
from inaccuracies due to the presence of noise and harmonic
distortions. Note that the angle between positive and negative-
sequence voltage is an important parameter in determining
the dip type in [2]. Consequently, it may, in some cases,
lead to wrong dip characterization. Therefore, more reliable
methods for estimating positive and negative sequences are
desirable. Symmetrical component voltages and currents are
also a suitable tool for describing load behavior during voltage
dips and other disturbances [5].
In this paper we propose an improved approach for esti-
mating the positive and negative sequences using a complex
Kalman lter. Comparing with the conventional 2-step method
used in [4], this method offers a direct estimation of the posi-
tive and negative sequences, and may reduce the estimation
errors. As shown in Fig.1(b), the proposed method simplies
the structure used for the estimation: instead of three Kalman
lters, only one Kalman lter is required. Further, the total
number of variables to be estimated in Fig.1(b) is reduced to
2/3 of that required in Fig.1(a).
v
a
(n)
v
b
(n)
v
c
(n)
a)
b)

A
c
,

A
a
,

a
Kalman
Filter
Kalman
Filter
Kalman
Filter
X
V
2
V
1
V
1
V
0
V
2

A
b
,

b
Kalman
Filter
T
3
v
a
(n)
v
b
(n)
v
c
(n)
e
jn
T
1
v
dq
(n) v

(n)
Fig. 1. (a) Conventional method (b) PN estimator
In the proposed method, the sampled values of three phase
voltages v
a
(n), v
b
(n) and v
c
(n) are -transformed to a
complex voltage v

(n).
Then, this complex voltage v

(n) is dq-transformed, re-

sulting in a complex voltage v
dq
(n), as it is shown in Fig.1(b).
The result contains the embedded positive and negative se-
quences. The positive and negative sequences are modelled
by the state-space equations, and the complex Kalman lter is
used to estimate the state vector iteratively.
In this paper the method will be used to estimate
symmetrical-component voltages. The method can be applied
in a similar way to estimate symmetrical-component currents.
II. ESTIMATION OF POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE SEQUENCES
In this section, the -transform and the dq-transform (or,
the Parks transform) will be described. The complex Kalman
lter for estimating the positive and negative sequences will
also be described, where the three phase voltage is modelled
as consisting of voltage of fundamental frequency (50Hz
in Europe or 60Hz in USA) under harmonics and noise
distortions.
A. The -transform and the dq-transform
Consider a three-phase system with the following voltages:
v
a
(n) =

2V
a
cos(n +
a
)
v
b
(n) =

2V
b
cos(n +
b
) (1)
v
c
(n) =

2V
c
cos(n +
c
)
Where v
a
(n), v
b
(n) and v
c
(n) are the sampled phase voltages,
V
a
, V
b
and V
c
are the rms or effective value,
a
,
b
and
c
are the phase-angles, is the discrete angular frequency, and
n is the discrete time index.
Dene the -transform for the three-phase voltages as
follows:
v

(n) =
2
3
[v
a
(n)e
a
+v
b
(n)e
b
+v
c
(n)e
c
] (2)
where e
a
= 1, e
b
= e
j
2
3
= a and e
c
= e
j
2
3
= a
2
= a

,
and a is a rotational operator representing a rotation over 120

.
(2) can be interpreted as the projection of three voltages onto
the -space.
The dq-transform (or Parks transform) is then applied as
follows
v
dq
(n) = v

(n)e
j
o
n
(3)
It should be noted that both v

(n) and v
dq
(n) are complex
voltages as a function of time. The transformation could be
interpreted as a synchronization of the -space at angular
frequency
o
, set to be equal to the fundamental voltage
frequency in this paper.
The symmetrical component voltages are dened from the
complex phase voltages V
a
= V
a
e
j
a
, V
b
= V
b
e
j
b
and V
c
=
V
c
e
j
c
as follows
_
_
V
0
V
1
V
2
_
_
=
1
3
_
_
1
1
1
1
a
a
2
1
a
2
a
_
_
_
_
V
a
V
b
V
c
_
_
(4)
where V
0
= V
0
e
j
0
, V
1
= V
1
e
j
1
and V
2
= V
2
e
j
2
are the
symmetrical component voltages (zero, positive and negative
sequences), which are dened as complex phasers.
Re-writing (1) in the complex form and combining with (4)
to calculate v
dq
(n), it follows,
v
dq
(n) =

2
_
V
1
+V
2

e
j2n
_
. (5)
For sinusoidal phase voltages as in (1), the rst component V
1
in (5) is a complex constant number, while the 2nd component
V
2
in (5) is a complex number rotating with an angular speed
of 2. Any unbalance in the three phase system will appear
as an non-zero rotating V
2
in the dq-space. The positive and
negative sequences are estimated separately in the dq-space
from (5) as detailed in next section.
B. Estimation of positive and negative sequences
Using state-space modelling, the positive and negative se-
quence voltages in (5) can be estimated by a complex Kalman
lter. The state equation and observation equation associated
with a Kalman lter can be described as follows
X(n) = A(n 1)X(n 1) +U(n)
Y (n) = H(n)X(n) +V (n) (6)
where X(n) is a complex state vector sized 2x1, A(n) is a
transition matrix sized 2x2, U(n) is a vector containing model
noise which is zero-mean with
2
u
variance, and V (n) is a
vector containing observation noise which is zero-mean with

2
v
variance.
1) State-space modelling of the three-phase system: For the
three phase system described in (1), dene the following state
vector
X(n) = [x
1
x
2
]
T
n
=
_
V
1
V
2

e
j2n

T
(7)
It follows that the state equation of the Kalman lter in (6)
associated with (5) is
_
x
1
x
2
_
n
=
_
1
0
0
e
j2
_ _
x
1
x
2
_
n1
+
_
u
1
u
2
_
n
(8)
and the observation equation in (6) becomes
y(n) =

2 [1 1]
_
x
1
x
2
_
n
+v(n) (9)
The negative sequence is found by applying
V
2
= x

2
e
j2n
.
2) Kalman Filter Algorithm: The algorithm for iteratively
estimating the state vector is summarized as follows, a more
detailed explanation can be found in [6]. The covariance
matrix of model noise is Q = E[|U(n)|
2
] =
2
u
I, where
I
n
is the identity matrix of order n. The covariance matrix
of observation noise is C = E[|V (n)|
2
] =
2
v
I. The initial
conditions are set as x(0|0) = [0 0]
T
and

P(0|0) = WI,
where W is a relatively large number (chosen as 100 in this
paper).
Prediction:
x(n|n 1) = A(n) x(n 1|n 1)
Prediction error covariance matrix:

P(n|n 1) = A(n)

P(n 1|n 1)A(n)
T
+Q
Kalman gain matrix:
K(n) =

P(n|n 1)H
T
[H

P(n|n 1)H
T
+C]
1
Filtering:
x(n|n) = x(n|n 1) +K(n)[y(n) H x(n|n 1)]
Error covariance matrix a posteriori:

P(n|n) = [I
n
K(n)H]

P(n|n 1)
50 100 150 200 250 300 350
0.8
0.85
0.9
0.95
1
1.05
1.1
msec
p
.
u
.
v
a
(n)
v
b
(n)
v
c
(n)
Fig. 2. Amplitude estimated by Kalman lter
C. Extension to three-phase systems containing K harmonics
The model used for the phase voltage in the preceding
paragraphs is that of a non-distorted sinusoid. In reality the
power-system voltage is always distorted. This distortion is
interpreted by the Kalman lter as a fast uctuation in the
amplitude and phase angle of the complex phase voltages.
Mathematically-speaking this is not incorrect. However, the
distortion of the voltages is generally described as the superpo-
sition of a fundamental and a number of harmonics at integer
multiples of the fundamental frequency. This harmonic model
can also be used as a basis for a Kalman lter estimating the
symmetrical components. Such a model would not only esti-
mate the fundamental complex voltages (either phase voltages
or symmetrical components) but also the complex voltages for
the harmonic components.
Consider a three-phase system containing K harmonics, to
be modelled through the following expression:
v
a
(n) =

2
K

k=1
V
k
a
cos(n
k
+
k
a
)
v
b
(n) =

2
K

k=1
V
k
b
cos(n
k
+
k
b
) (10)
v
c
(n) =

2
K

k=1
V
k
c
cos(n
k
+
k
c
)
Using the similar way as in the previous case, we may dene
the symmetrical components for each harmonic k as [7]
_
_
V
k
0
V
k
1
V
k
2
_
_
=
1
3
_
_
1
1
1
1
a
a
2
1
a
2
a
_
_
_
_
V
k
a
V
k
b
V
k
c
_
_
(11)
After some manipulations using (2), (3), (10) and (11), and
applying the dq-transform to the phase voltages modelled by
(10), it follows
v
dq
(n) =

2
_
K

k=1
V
k
1
e
j(k1)
0
n
+
K

k=1
V
k
2

e
j(k+1)
0
n
_
(12)
where the relation
k
= k
0
is applied.
50 100 150 200 250 300 350
40
42
44
46
48
50
52
54
56
58
60
msec
o

d
e
g
r
e
e
s
v
a
(n)
v
b
(n)
v
c
(n)
Fig. 3. Angle phase estimated by Kalman lter
1) Model for the three-phase system containing K harmo-
nics: Considering the system described in (10), the state vector
of the Kalman lter contains 2K elements and is dened as
X(n) = [x
1
x
2K
]
T
=
_
V
1
1
(V
2
1
)

e
j
0
n
V
1
k
e
j(K1)
0
n
(V
2
k
)

e
j(K+1)
0
n
_
T
(13)
The state equation associated with the system in (10)
becomes
X(n + 1) =
_

_
1
.
.
.
0

.
.
.

0
.
.
.
e
j(K+1)
0
_

_X(n) +
_

_
u
1
.
.
.
u
2K
_

_
n
(14)
and the observation equation for the system in (10) becomes
y(n) =

2 [1 . . . 1]
_

_
x
1
.
.
.
x
2K
_

_
n
+v(n) (15)
The negative sequence associated with the fundamental
(k=1) and the harmonics (k [2, K]) can be found by
applying V
2
k
= x
k
2
e
j2kn
0
, k=1, ... ,K.
III. EXPERIMENTS AND RESULTS
The proposed estimation method has been applied to the
sampled voltages obtained from measurements in a public
medium-voltage distribution network. The voltage dip record-
ings were measured with a sample rate of f
s
=4800Hz in a
10 kV network. The fundamental frequency during the dip
was slightly different from the ideal 50Hz, and was estimated
to be 49.93 Hz. The conventional estimator [4] was applied,
amplitude estimation is shown in Fig.2 and phase angle
estimation is in Fig.3 for three voltage phases. The applied
method models like (10) where the harmonic number was set
to K=3.
Fig. 2 shows the standard dip in voltage amplitude due
to a non-symmetrical fault in the distribution network. The
corresponding phase angles are shown in Fig. 3 and are in
accordance with theory [1]. The fast uctuations in magnitude
and phase of the complex voltages are due to the distortion,
50 100 150 200 250 300 350
0.64
0.66
0.68
0.7
0.72
0.74
msec
e
f
f
e
c
t
i
v
e

v
a
l
u
e

(
p
.
u
.
)
Fig. 4. Amplitude for the positive sequence |V
1
|
50 100 150 200 250 300 350
52
50
48
46
msec
P
h
a
s
e

a
n
g
l
e
(
d
e
g
r
e
e
s
)
Fig. 5. Phase-angle for the positive sequence: V
1
the distortion modelled is within the given model variance. As
mentioned before these can be eliminated by using a higher
order Kalman Filter. In this example only harmonics up to
order 3 were considered whereas a large amount of distortion
is represented by higher harmonic orders. This can be done
by a straightforward extension of the method: increasing the
order of equations (13) through (15). This is however outside
of the scope of this paper.
The proposed estimation method was applied to the same
samples voltages to obtain the positive and negative sequence
voltages. The proposed estimation method does not estimate
the parameters (magnitudes and phases) of the complex phase
voltages, but directly estimates the complex positive and
negative sequence voltages. In Fig. 4 the amplitude of the
positive sequence voltage is plotted as obtained from the
proposed estimation method. The proposed method also gives
the phase angle of the positive-sequence voltage as shown in
Fig. 5.
Fig. 4 and Fig. 5 show the dip in positive-sequence voltage
due to the fault. This dip is what affects, among others, the
energy transfer to induction motor load.
In Fig. 6 the amplitude of the negative sequence voltage is
plotted and in Fig. 7 the negative sequence angle phase as re-
sulting from the proposed estimation method. The appearance
of a negative-sequence voltage component during the dip is
due to the non-symmetrical nature of the fault.
50 100 150 200 250 300 350
0
0.02
0.04
0.06
0.08
0.1
msec
e
f
f
e
c
t
i
v
e

v
a
l
u
e

(
p
.
u
.
)
Fig. 6. Amplitude for the negative sequence |V
2
|
50 100 150 200 250 300 350
200
150
100
50
0
50
100
150
200
msec
P
h
a
s
e

a
n
g
l
e

(
d
e
g
r
e
e
s
)
Fig. 7. Phase-angle for the negative sequence: V
2
IV. CONCLUSIONS
A method is proposed for estimation of the positive and
negative-sequence voltages from the dq voltages. This method
may give a smaller estimation error than the conventional
method using the complex phase voltages as an intermediate
step. The proposed method is computationally more efcient
because the number of state variables is only 2/3 of that for
the conventional method.
The basic version of the proposed estimation method models
the phase voltages as a non-distorted sine wave. The harmonic
distortion of that is always present with measured voltages
leads to fast uctuations in the estimated voltage. Although
mathematically not incorrect, distortion is normally modelled
through a sum of higher-frequency sinusoids superimposed
on the fundamental frequency. The basic version has been
extended to include estimators for the harmonic components.
Examples are shown in which the method has been applied
to measured voltages obtained during a fault in a medium-
voltage public distribution network.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This project is sponsored by the G oteborg Energi research
foundation.
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