Leveraging substation automation for faulted segment identification

This paper discusses the potential for identifying faulted segment(s) on single phase distribution laterals using limited IED (Intelligent Electronic Device) data from digital substations. Identifying faulted segment(s) in a timely manner speeds up fault isolation and restoration processes contributing to greater system reliability. Achieving this objective with minimum data requirements in terms of fault measurements lends itself in practice to a cost-effective solution that can be further used to optimize the requirements for feeder sensor placement. The methodology utilizes fundamental frequency current magnitudes from feeder head in conjunction with an approximate sequence model of the multiphase feeder including single-phase and double-phase line segment. The proposed methodology was evaluated on actual circuits and data from field-recorded faults demonstrating the extent with which IED data from substations alone can be fully leveraged to identify faulted segments for isolation purposes in real-time.