Fault location considering load uncertainty and distributed generation in power distribution systems

A proposal of a fault location technique for power distribution systems considering distributed generation (DG) and uncertainties associated to the fault resistance, load magnitude and model, fault type and faulted node is presented in this study. The approach presented here uses only single end measurements at the main power substation and at the DG source. To demonstrate the good performance of the proposed approach, tests on the 24.9 kV IEEE 34 nodes test feeder, which includes three-phase and single-phase laterals, are performed. According to the results, a high performance is obtained in the fault distance estimation, considering the shunt faults and the uncertainties in the proposed test scenarios. Finally, it is demonstrated that the proposed approach helps to maintain high continuity indexes by speeding up the fault location task in modern power distribution utilities.