Permanent Fault Location in Distribution System Using Phasor Measurement Units (PMU) in Phase Domain

Abstract

This paper proposes a new method for locating high impedance fault in distribution systems using phasor measurement units (PMUs) installed at certain locations of the system. To implement this algorithm, at first a new method is suggested for the placement of PMUs. Taking information from the units, voltage and current of the entire distribution system are calculated. Then, the two buses in which the fault has been occurred is determined, and location and type of the fault are identified. The main characteristics of the proposed method are: the use of distributed parameter line model in phase domain, considering the presence of literals, and high precision in calculating the high impedance fault location. The results obtained from simulations in EMTP-RV and MATLAB software indicate high accuracy and independence of the proposed method from the fault type, fault location and fault resistance compared to previous methods, so that the maximum observed error was less than 0.15%