Low-voltage characteristic voltage based fault distance estimation method of distribution network

The traditional medium-voltage distribution network fault location method uses mainly the voltage and current measurements of the medium-voltage side, which results in problems such as high installation costs at the measuring points and complicated postoperation and maintenance work. Therefore, a fault location idea based on the distributed measurement of low-voltage side voltage is proposed in this paper. First, the characteristic voltage is adaptively selected according to the fault type. Second, the suspected fault section is determined by comparing the characteristic voltage amplitude of each measuring point. Third, the fault section is located using the section unit characteristic voltage drop defined for each suspected fault section. Finally, fault distance estimation is achieved based on the voltage difference matrix and characteristic voltage analysis. This method achieves accurate fault distance identification based on the distribution difference of the characteristic voltage of the low-voltage side under the fault state. This work provides a new economical and practical idea for determining the fault locations of distribution networks. The effectiveness of this method is evaluated by considering a 10 kV distribution network in Guangdong Province built in PSCAD/EMTDC.