Detection of fault location, monitoring and control in underwater power system

The study of the undersea environment requires the use of scientific instruments at the bottom of the ocean and in the water column to collect useful data. The traditional methods of conducting such studies by sending ships or using bottom instruments and mooring are not able to provide the necessary data over a long period of time due to weather and energy limitations. The objective of the north eastern pacific Time series undersea networked experiment (NEPTUN) program is to construct an underwater cabled observatory on the seafloor of the northeast pacific ocean off the coast of Washington, Oregon, and British Columbia, encompassing the Juan de Fuca tectonic plate. This system features over a few dozens of science nodes for the connection of scientific instruments that enhance our ability to conduct continuous ocean studies in this region. This paper focuses on implementation issue of the NEPTUN power system and compare with Proposal system in Mediterranean. The power system associated with the proposed observatory is unlike conventional terrestrial power system in many ways due to the unique operating conditions of under-water cabled observatories including the high reliability requirements and low operability and controllability. A fault location algorithm is developed to identify a backbone cable fault by solving nonlinear equation with only shore station measurement. The same approach can be applied to underground power system. The results presented in this paper should be applicable to similar underwater system in the future.