Open AccessEarth fault location determination independent of fault impedance for distribution networks
Author(s) -
Elsadd Mahmoud A.,
Elkalashy Nagy I.,
Kawady Tamer A.,
Taalab AbdelMaksoud I.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
international transactions on electrical energy systems
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.428
H-Index - 42
ISSN - 2050-7038
DOI - 10.1002/etep.2307
Subject(s) - transformer , fault indicator , fault (geology) , matlab , distribution transformer , voltage , engineering , electrical impedance , current transformer , distributed generation , stuck at fault , electronic engineering , computer science , fault detection and isolation , algorithm , electrical engineering , seismology , geology , renewable energy , actuator , operating system
Summary This article introduces a new earth fault location algorithm for both single and parallel feeders in distribution networks with single end measurements. The proposed algorithm depends on using the equality between the computed sequence components of the current at the fault point. The algorithm is independent of the dynamic arcing or static fault impedances. Then the faulted network can be decomposed into a prefault network and a pure fault network. The different types of connections of load transformer are considered in the study. This is because of their known influence on the direction of earth fault current in the faulty network. Moreover, the existence of distributed generation is considered during formulating the mathematical core of the proposed algorithm. Hence, the sequence current components at the faulty point can be derived without the need to measure the distributed generation current contribution or its terminal voltage with all varieties of load transformer connection. The proposed algorithm is tested via simulating a real 11 kV cascaded parallel‐radial earthed distribution feeder from the Egyptian distribution network using Matlab. Different test cases are examined to visualize the performance of the proposed algorithm with a variety of fault conditions, including the fault impedance, loading, load transformer connection, and existence of distributed generations. All applied simulation tests ensure the efficacy of the proposed algorithm for estimating the fault distance in distribution systems with considerable distributed generation insertion and considering all possibilities of load transformer connection.