Reflected Traveling Wave Based Single-Ended Fault Location in Distribution Networks

Traveling wave (TW)-based fault-location methods have been used to determine single-phase-to-ground fault distance in power-distribution networks. The previous approaches detected the arrival time of the initial traveling wave via single ended or multi-terminal measurements. Regarding the multi-branch effect, this paper utilized the reflected waves to obtain multiple arriving times through single ended measurement. Potential fault sections were estimated by searching for the possible traveling wave propagation paths in accordance with the structure of the distribution network. This approach used the entire propagation of a traveling wave measured at a single end without any prerequisite of synchronization, which is a must in multi-terminal measurements. The uniqueness of the fault section was guaranteed by several independent single-ended measurements. Traveling waves obtained in a real 10 kV distribution network were used to determine the fault section, and the results demonstrate the significant effectiveness of the proposed method.