09-F-PDS-0238

A New Technique for Detection of High Impedance Faults in Power Distribution System Based on Current Harmonic Analysis
M. Jannati and L. Eslami Electrical Engineering Department in University of Kurdistan mohsen.jannati@uok.ac.ir and Laleheslami@yahoo.com)

Keywords : High Impedance Fault, Fault Detection, Distribution Systems and EMTPWorks

Abstract : In every distribution system, physical contact between conductors of a phase and substances around them like trees, walls of the buildings and surfaces below them, always is possible. These conditions, known as High Impedance Faults (HIFs), can lead to death due to electricity congestion, burning or ignition via arc or heat of the substances. On the other hand, the whole energy produced by the power company doesnt achieve by the arbitrary loads and a part of them is lost that this loss is harmful for the power supply companies. Current relaying in distribution systems is only capable of detecting short circuit conditions leads to flowing significant amount of generated electric power to the earth without achieving by the load. It is very difficult to detect HIFs by protection equipments. Because occurrence of them just leads to slight increase in the amount of load current. So it can be considered as a usual increase in the value of load current incorrectly. However, various solutions for detecting high impedance faults have been

proposed. Most of these approaches are complicated or difficult in implementation. In this paper, a novel approach for detecting high impedance faults based on harmonic analysis of current in distribution systems has been presented. Various simulations in EMTPWorks environment have validated that proposed approach is simple in implementation and has great accuracy. NTRODUCTION HIGH Impedance Fault (HIF) is defined as an electric connection between an energized conductor and an external dielectric substance [1-2]. Dielectric substances, regarding their nature, have a great resistance against the current and only a limited value of current can cross from them. So such a fault is not considered as an unusual situation for protection equipments. A current with low amplitude flows from the energized conductor to the earth, ignoring how the connection has been established. This current flows to the earth via the connected substances which have

A New Technique for Detection of High Impedance Faults in Power Distribution System Based on 24th International Power System Conference

high potential now. This high potential can leads to human damages [3-6]. Usual types of HIF occur when the conductors of the distribution system impact with the foliage, concrete walls and earth surface. These cases subjected to undesirable

Most of the proposed approaches dont have enough accuracy or their implementation is very complicated. In this paper a new approachhas been represented to detect HIF based on harmonic analysis of current in distribution systems. Various simulations in EMTPWorks environment validate that this approach has a great accuracy for HIF detecting in addition of its simplicity and simple implementation Dynamic Model of Hif Arc The HIF arc used in this paper is based on a general model used in [23]. In this model that is based on the thermal equations, following equation is used to determine the variable conductance of the arc:
dg 1 (G g ) dt

(1)

Fig. 1 Possibility for connection between conductors and branches of a tree

connections are usually around the conductors of distribution system lines. Such a distribution system that its conductors are prone to connect with branches of trees has been shown in Fig. 1. As the main property of HIF is its difficult detection, unlike the other faults that leads to current with very high amplitude, the fault current in HIF is very low. So the usual protection systems like the over current protection cannot detect this type of fault. If HIF detection is Unsuccessful, it can incur human damages or leads to firing [7-10]. In recent years, many researchers represented various techniques in HIF detection. These techniques generally consist of: low frequency components of energy method [11], neural network method [12-13], kalman filtering method [14], low order harmonics ratio of current method [15-16], fault current flicker and half-cycle asymmetry method [17] and fractal analysis techniques [18]. In most above approaches signals generated by arc have been used to HIF detection. Also Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) method has been used in [19-22] that is an appropriate tool in analysis of transient phenomenons.

Where g is the time varying arc conductance, G i / Varc is arc stationary conductance, i is the absolute arc current, Varc is constant value of the arc voltage and is arc time constant. The parameters of the above equation are determined so that their results are validated by experimental results. The characteristic in [23] has been used for calculating these parameters. The following equation is used for calculating the value:

Ae Bg

(2)

Where A and B are constants that have different values in two positive and negative half cycle of fault voltage and current and are computable by the experimental results. Calculated values of positive half cycle in [23] are: Varc 2520V , A 6.6 E 5 , B 41977 and values of negative half cycle as: Varc 2100V , A 2.0E 5 , B 85970.30 . The dynamic model of HIF arc has been shown as a general block diagram in Fig. 2. Under Study Distribution System Fig. 3 is a single line diagram of a 20 kV unearthed distribution system simulated in EMTPWorks. The line frequency dependent

A New Technique for Detection of High Impedance Faults in Power Distribution System Based on 24th International Power System Conference

model in EMTPWorks is intentionally selected to account for unsymmetrical faults. When the system and the fault modeling are combined in one arrangement, the network behavior during this fault can be investigated. In this study, the neutral of the main transformer is isolated consistent with an unearthed system. Although this system is not intentionally connected to the earth, it is grounded by the natural phase to ground capacitances. Therefore, the fault phase current is very low allowing a high continuity of service. Proposed Approach for Hif Detection A HIF has been created in the middle of line L4 in Fig. 3. The measurement devices have been set at the beginning of the line and HIF starts at t = 50 ms. The voltage and current waveforms in the fault location have been showed in Fig. 4.

DYg_1

L1 (40 km)
+ CP

2 20/0.4

DYg_2

1.5MW 0 Q Load5 1.5MW 0 Q Load4 1.5MW 0 Q Load3

L2 (34 km)
+ CP

DYg_3

20/0.4

L3 (29 km)
DY_1 1 2
+ CP

20/0.4 DYg_4 66/20 66kVRMS /_0 + AC2

+

L4 (36 km)
CP

2 20/0.4

Measuring point

1.5MW 0 Q Load2

Fig. 3 Distribution system used in EMTPWorks

i
i

Fault Current

Varc

i / Varc

It should be noted that available voltage and current are the voltage and current detected by the measurement devices at the beginning of the line, not the same voltage and current of the fault location typically. Hence voltage and current waveforms at the beginning of the L4 when the HIF is occurred in the middle of line L4 at t = 50 ms have been showed in Fig. 5. Its evident from these waveforms that none of them have any significant change before and after the fault. Therefore, these waveforms are not suitable for detecting this type of faults. As the voltage waveform in HIF doesnt have any significant change, the current waveform should be used in HIF detection.
3 x 10
4

Ae Bg

1 (G g )
Fault V oltage and Current

Voltage (V) 2

Current (*10E-5 A)

Control Signals

-1

-2

1 g
Return to the Netork

-3

0.01

0.02

0.03

0.04

0.05 Time (Sec)

0.06

0.07

0.08

0.09

0.1

Fig. 4 The voltage and current waveforms in the fault location

R
3 2 Fault Voltage and Current x 10
4

Voltage (V)

Current (*10E-2)

Fig. 2 Dynamic model of HIF arc

This figure illustrates the HIF characteristic. Voltage waveform doesnt have any significant change. But the current waveform is a periodic waveform as seen and its like a sinusoidal waveform, but in every zero crossing, arc is extinguished and starts again.

-1

-2

-3

0.01

0.02

0.03

0.04

0.05 Time (Sec)

0.06

0.07

0.08

0.09

0.1

Fig. 5 The voltage and current waveforms at the beginning of the line L4

A New Technique for Detection of High Impedance Faults in Power Distribution System Based on 24th International Power System Conference

So, the waveform of the current in is used ignoring in which phase the fault is occurred:
DF

8 7 6 5

Threshold

in ia ib ic

(3)

3 2

where in is residual current and ia , ib and ic are the phase currents at beginning of the line. The waveform of in in the case that HIF is occurred in the middle of L4 has been shown in Fig. 6. It is evident from Fig. 6 that in this case, in has the same behavior as HIF current in the fault location. Although different approaches based on harmonic analysis of the current for HIF detection have been proposed, but most of them have used only even or odd harmonics. In this paper a new criterion based on joint using of even and odd harmonics has been proposed:
DF H1 H 3 H2 H4

1 0 -1 -2

0.01

0.02

0.03

0.04

0.05 Time (Sec)

0.06

0.07

0.08

0.09

0.1

Fig. 7 DF criteria Corresponding to the waveform of current in in the Fig. 6

DistributionSystems

Sensors

Calculatein withindatawindow

(4)

ExtractingtheHarmonicsofin

Where H 1 H 2 H 3 and H 4 are the first, second, third and forth harmonics of in respectively and DF is the Detection Factor. Fig. 7 shows DF Corresponding to the waveform of current in in the Fig. 6. As specified on the Fig. 7, if the DF exceeds of value 2, it demonstrates that HIF has been occurred. This threshold is achieved by various simulations. Hif Detection Algorithm In proposed algorithm for HIF detection, the current of each three phases is detected at the beginning of under study line.
0.2 0.15 0.1 0.05 0 -0.05 -0.1 -0.15 -0.2

DF 2
Yes

No

HighImpedanceFault

Fig. 8 Flowchart of proposed approach for HIF detection

in

Then, residual current ( in ) is calculated. In next step, harmonics of current in is extracted by FFT technique or other methods. Then, index DF is calculated and if DF exceeds of threshold 2, it illustrates that HIF is occurred. The flowchart of proposed approach has been shown in Fig. 8. Simulation Results In this section several different cases has been considered to realize whether the new approach has the ability to detect HIF from similar situations or not. For this reason, 6 different situations are considered as below: a) Capacitor switching (out) b) Capacitor switching (in)

Fault Current (A)

0.01

0.02

0.03

0.04

0.05 Time (Sec)

0.06

0.07

0.08

0.09

0.1

Fig .6 The waveform of

in at beginning of the line L4

A New Technique for Detection of High Impedance Faults in Power Distribution System Based on 24th International Power System Conference

c) Load switching (HV) d) No load line switching e) Full load trans. switching f) High impedance fault Each of these situations has been assumed at the end of line L4. The waveform of HIF current with the DF index for these 6 different situations has been shown in Fig. 9 According to the Fig. 9, DF exceeds of given threshold, just when the HIF is occurred and it means that this index has an acceptable behavior in comparison with the other similar situations. This approach has a special simplicity in addition of high accuracy that simplifies its implementation and hence it can be under the attention of distribution system operators. Conclusion As the main property of HIF is its difficult detection, unlike the other faults that leads to current with very high amplitude, the fault current in HIF is very low. So the usual protection systems like the over current protection cannot detect this type of fault. If HIF detection is Unsuccessful, it can incur human damages or leads to firing. In this paper a new approach has been represented to detect HIF based on harmonic analysis of current in distribution systems. Various simulations in EMTPWorks environment validate that this approach has a great accuracy for HIF detecting in addition of its simplicity and simple implementation. Hence, using proposed approach can lead to detecting this type of faults faster and more accurately with increasing in system reliability. References [1] A. R. Sedighi, M. R. Haghifam and O. P. Malik Soft computing applications in high impedance fault detection in distribution systems, Electric Power Systems Research, Vol. 76, pp. 136-144, 2005. [2] A. S. Bretas, M. Moreto, R. H. Salim and L. O. Pires A Novel High Impedance Fault Location for Distribution Systems Considering Distributed Generation

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Transmission & Distribution Conference and Exposition: Latin America,pp. 1-6, 2006. N. Ramezani, M. Sarlak, S. M. Shahrtash and D. A. Khabori Design and implementation of an adaptive High Impedance Fault relay Power Engineering Conference, IPEC 2007, pp. 1131-1136, 2007. E. S. T. Eldin, D. K. Ibrahim, E. M. Aboul-Zahab and S. M. Saleh High Impedance Faults Detection in EHV Transmission Lines Using the Wavelet Transforms Power Systems Conference and Exposition, PES '09. IEEE/PES, pp. 1-10, 2009. T. Cui, Xin Dong, Z. Bo and S. Richards Integrated scheme for high impedance fault detection in MV distribution system Transmission and Distribution Conference and Exposition: Latin America, IEEE/PES, pp. 1-6, 2008. E. S. T. Eldin, D. K. Ibrahim, E. M. Aboul-Zahab and S. M. Saleh High impedance fault detection in mutually coupled double-ended transmission lines using high frequency disturbances Power System Conference, MEPCON 2008. 12th International Middle-East, pp. 412-419, 2008. C. J. Kim and B. D. Russell A learning method for use in intelligent computer relays for high impedance faults IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery, Vol. 6, pp. 109-115, 1991. S. R. Samantaray, B. K. Panigrahi and P. K. Dash High impedance fault detection in power distribution networks using timefrequency transform and probabilistic neural network IET Generation, Transmission & Distribution, Vol. 2, pp. 261-270, 2008. M. Sarlak and S. M. Shahrtash High impedance fault detection in distribution networks using support vector machines based on wavelet transform Electric Power Conference, EPEC 2008. IEEE Canada, pp. 1-6, 2008.

A New Technique for Detection of High Impedance Faults in Power Distribution System Based on 24th International Power System Conference

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A New Technique for Detection of High Impedance Faults in Power Distribution System Based on 24th International Power System Conference

Fig. 9 The waveform of HIF current with the DF index for 6 different situations: (a) Capacitor switching (out) (b) Capacitor switching (in) (c) Load switching (d) No load line switching (e) Full load trans. Switching (f) High impedance fault