Increasing the utilization ratio of the location device and reducing the cost is one of the keys to research in wide area traveling wave location. In fact

the traveling wave transmission path is related to the fault location. All the lines in the network are set to fault branch in advance

and the serious conditions of the fault location at both ends of the line are considered. Then

the complicated network is simplified to a network without loops. And the transmission path of the initial wave head is analyzed to obtain the common configuration set. At the same time

the condition in which the line exits operation is considered. The constraint condition based on the configuration set is established

and the optimal configuration scheme using the particle swarm optimization algorithm based on the simulated annealing is obtained. The scheme can guarantee that any fault in the system can be observed. Meanwhile

by combining the D-type traveling wave algorithm and combined location algorithm

the number of wide-area location units is effectively reduced. The simulation results show the feasibility of the configuration scheme.