Current Sag and Mismatch Based Earth Fault Location for Distribution Network with Renewable Energy Resources

Abstract

Fault diagnosis is increasingly becoming more challenging in distribution network due to complicated network topology and coupling disturbances introduced into the systems. This requires a higher level of rapidity and accuracy of fault diagnosis, location and recovery. This paper proposes an earth fault location algorithm for distribution network using current analysis. The fault information can be obtained by those measuring equipment that have already installed in critical nodes and generations. Then, the mechanism model is proposed to illustrate the equilibrium relationship of current flow in distribution network with renewable energy sources. The criterions named current sag and current mismatch are also proposed in this paper for fast fault area location and accurate fault node location. Assessment of this method is carried out using a distribution network model with renewable energy sources in PSCAD. The experimental results confirm the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed method in distribution network fault diagnosis over conventional methods.