Remote sensing of power system arcing faults

Electromagnetic radiation in the form of atmospheric radio waves (or sferics) originate from power system apparatus when transient fault currents are present. A system to monitor these events via the detection of the induced Very High Frequency (VHF) sferic radiation has been in operation since November 1998. This system is part of an ongoing research program to develop overhead line fault detection and location equipment. This paper details the implementation of the sferic monitoring system and the latest developments that aim to improve event detection and triggering efficiency. Example transient sferic radiations records taken from the extensive data archive are presented. Fourier time frequency domain analysis is employed to extract features from the sferic signal data. Finally the future application of such monitoring technologies to power distribution networks is discussed.