Fault Location Method for Distribution Networks Based on Leakage Energy Function

Abstract

To localize the fault in distribution networks effectively, a novel fault location method on wide area measurement systems is proposed. This method takes the advantage of the fastness and reliability of the measured data from the wide area measurement system. An leakage energy function is proposed on the basis of analyzing arc-suppression coil action and the waveform features of faulty phase. For the fault-free section, its energy function shows little difference with the normal working condition when the fault occurs in other sections. And for the faulty section, its energy function will increase and then decrease over time and the peak value is reached from the fault occurring to the arc-suppression coil outputs stable offset current. The proposed method localizes the faulty section according to the characteristic of energy function. And the experiments on PSCAD/EMTEC software manifest the effectiveness of our proposed method.