Isolation of Faults in Distribution Networks With Distributed Generators

• Published in: IEEE transactions on power delivery Vol. 23; no. 4; pp. 2347 - 2355
• Main Authors: Perera, N., Rajapakse, A.D., Buchholzer, T.E.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York, NY IEEE 01-10-2008; Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Applied sciences; Benchmarking; Boundaries; Circuit faults; Connection and protection apparatus; Cooperative systems; Current measurement; Distributed power generation; Disturbances. Regulation. Protection; Electrical engineering. Electrical power engineering; Electrical power engineering; Exact sciences and technology; Fault currents; Fault diagnosis; fault location; Faults; Generators; Integrated circuit interconnections; Miscellaneous; Networks; power distribution protection; Power networks and lines; Power system protection; Power system transients; Protective relaying; Relay; Segments; Simulation; Testing. Reliability. Quality control; Wavelet coefficients; wavelet transforms; Performance evaluation; Relay; Power system transients; wavelet transforms; Cooperative systems; fault location; Protective device; Power system stability; Damage prevention; power distribution protection; Fault currents; Multiagent system; Electrical network; Wavelet transformation; Power distribution; Defect localization; Medium voltage; System simulation; Signal analysis; Distribution network; Comparative study; Defect detection
• ISSN: 0885-8977; 1937-4208
• DOI: 10.1109/TPWRD.2008.2002867

This paper presents an agent-based protection scheme for distribution networks with distributed generators. The distribution network is divided into several network segments. The relay agents, which are located at the boundaries of these segments, can determine the direction of fault currents using the transients generated by the fault. Fault directions determined by the relay agents located at different points of the network are combined to determine the faulted segment. A fault direction identification technique, which uses the wavelet coefficient of the measured line currents, was developed for relay agents. The performance of the proposed protection scheme is investigated through simulation of a benchmark medium-voltage distribution system.