Modern fault location technique for the utility

Fault location (FL) is one of the most important diagnostics tasks in transmission and distribution networks. Due to long distances of the power lines, the search and repair can take a long time, while modern microprocessor technology can help automate the FL process and give a precise (up to a span) location of the fault. The fault extinction time is reduced dramatically. In this report, the basic sources of FL inaccuracy in existing techniques are discussed. The new algorithms and solutions are offered in order to reach higher accuracy of the fault position estimate in application. The proposed techniques of FL and power system modeling have been tested and put in operation, which approved its characteristics conformance. The application issues of the FL implementation in autonomous intelligent electronic devices (IEDs) are outlined on the basis of a response of a large utility.