Stator Single-Phase-to-Ground Fault Protection for Bus-connected Powerformers Based on Hierarchical Clustering Algorithm

Abstract

The traditional stator single-phase-to-ground fault protective schemes are hard to completely satisfy the requirement of selectivity for bus-connected Powerformers. In order to overcome the aforementioned problem, a new stator single-phase-to-ground fault protective scheme based on the hierarchical clustering algorithm is proposed in this paper. The direction and magnitude of zero-sequence current and leakage current are discussed and selected as feature vectors. Then, the data set are divided into two groups by hierarchical clustering algorithm, and cluster center of each group is calculated. Finally, the space relative distance among detected pattern and two cluster centers is calculated to discriminate the faulty Powerformer. The fundamental component and the third harmonic component of the data set are combined to realize 100% coverage of fault detection for the stator windings of Powerformer. Simulation results have shown that, under different fault conditions, the new scheme can distinguish internal faults from external faults reliably, and can detect in which machine a stator single-phase-to-ground fault is occurring even if the fault resistance is at 5 kΩ.