Location identification of high impedance faults using synchronized harmonic phasors

Abstract

This paper proposes a novel method to identify the location of a high-impedance fault (HIF) in a power distribution system. The developed method uses synchronized harmonic phasors with focus on the third harmonic component. Such harmonic synchrophasors could be provided in practice, e.g., by distribution level phasor measurement units, a.k.a, μPMUs. In this regard, the location of the fault can be estimated based on the impedance that is calculated from the third harmonic voltage and current synchrophasors produced by the fault and captured by the μPMUs. In this method, both resistance and inductance are estimated, to allow fault location identification even in a network with multiple type conductors. Note that, the fault does not need to be fully observable. As few as two μPMUs would be sufficient to estimate the HIF location at least to certain accuracy. The effectiveness of the proposed method is demonstrated through simulating the IEEE 33 bus test system in PSCAD.