A Hybridized Artificial Neural Network and Support Vector Machine Model in Power Transmission Fault Detection

Abstract

The detection of fault and its resolution are crucial in a power transmission line for ensuring unhampered and efficient power supply. These lines are often exposed to unpredictable environmental conditions and therefore encounter several challenges. Most failures in the power system are attributed to these, thereby necessitating the need for quick fault detection and resolution procedures. Research on hybridizing ANN and SVM is limited to fault detection and classification. Work on hybridizing ANN and SVM on IEE 39-bus for three simultaneous diagnostic tasks of fault type classification (LG, LL, LLG, LLL), faulted-line identification, and protection zoning defined as near-end versus far-end fault discrimination in a model is rare. This study bridges this gap by presenting a hybrid ANN-SVM model on fault type classification, fault line identification and protection zone identification in power transmission lines. The proposed framework employs ANN as a nonlinear feature embedding and a Radial Basis Function SVM subsequently classifies using an Error-Correcting Output Codes (ECOC) strategy. Evaluated on fault scenarios from the IEEE 39-bus New England test system simulated in MATLAB/Simulink R2025b, the hybrid model achieves fault type classification accuracy of 97.2%, protection zoning accuracy of 95.8%, and faulted-line identification accuracy of 97.7%, with ROC Area Under the Curve (AUC) values exceeding 0.90. These results consistently outperform standalone nd SVM baselines by 4% to 6% in fault type, 2.9% to 15.9% in protection zoning and 5% to 10% in fault line classification, validating the effectiveness of the proposed hybridisation strategy for intelligent transmission system protection.