Locating phase-to-ground short-circuit faults on radial distribution lines

This paper proposes a new single phase-to-ground short-circuit fault location algorithm for overhead three-phase radial distribution lines with single-ended measurements using the sinusoidal steady-state analysis method. By using this approach, two sinusoidal signals with different frequencies are first injected to the faulted line. By measuring the voltages and currents at the sending end and solving some nonlinear distributed-parameter equations, the distances and resistances of all possible fault candidates can be determined. A feature extraction method is derived to distinguish the actual fault from other pseudofault candidates. A fault locator based on the proposed approach is designed and implemented for a real-world problem. Physical model experiments and the field tests on radial distribution lines are presented to validate the proposed fault location approach.