Distribution Network Fault Location Method Based on Limited Measurement Information

Due to the complex structure and large number of nodes in distribution networks, it is difficult to achieve full coverage of synchronous phasor measurement units (μPMUs) in actual engineering projects, resulting in limited available measurement data. To address this issue, this paper proposes a distribution network fault location method based on limited measurement information. First, the distribution characteristics of the node positive-sequence voltage measurement deviation (NPSVMD) following a fault occurrence are analyzed. On this basis, a principle for faulted line identification is established by exploiting the common-path property between the measurement point exhibiting the maximum NPSVMD and the reference node. Furthermore, the fault current is equivalently derived using the nodal voltage variation equations (NVVE), and a distance estimation function is constructed by incorporating the NPSVMD values at the measurement nodes on both sides of the faulted line, thereby enabling accurate determination of the fault location. Simulations on the IEEE 33-bus distribution system verify that the proposed method can accurately identify the faulted line and achieve high-precision distance estimation using limited measurement information, demonstrating strong robustness and superior adaptability.