Location of Multiple Types of Faults in Active Distribution Networks Considering Synchronization of Power Supply Area Data

Abstract

When a short circuit occurs in the power supply area of a distribution network with a high-permeability distributed generation, the line current will increase, the voltage will drop sharply, and the fault characteristics will be more complex. Therefore, the automatic, quick, and accurate location of fault sections is of great significance to the reliability of power supply. In order to prevent large-scale power outages in the power supply area caused by the failure of feeders and transformers, this paper proposes a novel method to locate fault sections in active distribution networks by taking into account the data of the power supply area. On the basis of the synchronization of calculated and measured time and the observability of the fault state, a limited number of intelligent terminals are reasonably arranged in the distribution network feeder and power supply area. Additionally, the fault location equation is established based on the three-phase voltage change values of the nodes before and after the fault collected by intelligent terminals, so that the fault section is determined by comparing the residuals. Finally, the proposed method is verified by the improved IEEE 37-node and IEEE 123-node three-phase distribution networks. The results show that it has high accuracy in locating fault sections in multiple fault scenarios.