The FRTU-Based Fault-Zone Isolation Method in the Distribution Systems

In this paper, an intelligent feeder remote terminal unit (FRTU)-based operation and control strategy is proposed, which can improve the accuracy and quickness of the fault-zone determination and isolation from such problems as general fault, high impedance fault (HIF) and in-rush current (IRC) in the distribution system, including overhead and underground feeders. In the proposed method, each FRTU inferring the fault or inrush current determines whether its feeder is a fault or not, and whether its sink zone is a fault zone or not, by exchanging fault information (such as current value, voltage value, current direction) with the other FRTUs on the feeders under the ubiquitous-based distribution system that enables the FRTUs to be connected freely to the network. In order to explain the effectiveness of the proposed method, several cases are simulated for typical distribution using the developed simulator.