Real Fault Section Estimation in Electrical Distribution Networks Based on the Fault Frequency Component Analysis

Ehsan Gord, Rahman Dashti, Mojtaba Najafi and Hamid Reza Shaker
Additional contact information
Ehsan Gord: Department of Electrical Engineering, Bushehr Branch, Islamic Azad University, Bushehr 7515895496, Iran
Rahman Dashti: Power System & Protection Lab., Engineering Faculty, Persian Gulf University, Bushehr 7516913817, Iran
Mojtaba Najafi: Department of Electrical Engineering, Bushehr Branch, Islamic Azad University, Bushehr 7515895496, Iran
Hamid Reza Shaker: Center for Energy Informatics, The Maersk Mc Kinney Moller Institute, University of Southern Denmark, 5230 Odense, Denmark

Energies, 2019, vol. 12, issue 6, 1-29

Abstract: Fault location in electrical energy distribution networks is an important task, as faults in distribution grids are among the main causes of electricity supply disruption. Fault location in the distribution systems, however, is a challenging task because of the topology of the distribution networks, as well as the main and side branches. Therefore, it is necessary to address these challenges through an intelligent approach to fault location. In this paper, fault location in electric energy distribution networks is addressed considering the changes in fault distance and fault resistance in the presence of different fault types. A new method for fault location is developed for conditions where the minimum information is available and only information at the beginning of the feeder is used. This facilitates wide adoption of the technique as it does not require significant investments in instrumentation and measurement. The proposed intelligent method is based on the impedance and transient state estimation. This technique employs a specific impedance analysis for determining possible fault locations considering the unbalanced performance of distribution systems, distances, and different fault resistances. To determine the real faulty section, real fault frequency component analysis and the simulated faults at possible fault locations are used. At this stage of the process, it is possible to eliminate multiple estimations with the help of comparison and identification of the similarities. Therefore, a real faulty section is determined. It is observed that some conditions of electric energy distribution networks affect the accuracy and performance of the proposed method significantly; thus, a detailed investigation is conducted to neutralize these conditions. Simulation results and calculations based on MATLAB along with a practical test of the proposed method in power network simulator confirm a satisfactory performance.

Keywords: electrical energy; distribution systems; fault location; natural frequency spectrum (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/12/6/1145/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/12/6/1145/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:12:y:2019:i:6:p:1145-:d:216780

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().