A voltage-based fault location algorithm for medium voltage active distribution systems

Abstract

This paper addresses a fault location algorithm appropriate for unbalanced medium voltage overhead distribution systems with or without distributed generation. The proposed algorithm utilizes only synchronized voltage measurements from two measurement points inside the distribution system. The algorithm accurately estimates the fault position for any type of short-circuit faults by applying fundamental bus-impedance-matrix-based fault analysis. Fault resistance is considered in the algorithm but not explicitly included in the bus impedance matrix. Simulation results show a good performance of the fault location algorithm under various pre-fault operation conditions of a test distribution system.