A new methodology for distribution systems faults identification, location and characterization

The electrical energy market liberalization has encouraged utilities to make new investments at distribution level so as to attain higher quality levels. Service continuity is one of the aspects of greater importance in the definition of the quality of the electrical energy, for this reason, the research in the field of faults diagnostic for distribution systems is spreading ever more. In this paper, a new methodology for diagnostic management of automated distribution systems is presented. The technique is based on the use of circuital models of the electrical system resulting from the composition of quadripoles. In this way, matrix relations and thus a non linear system can be deduced. The solution of the latter gives as a result the identification of the type of fault, of its characteristic parameters and location. The paper shows an application of the proposed methodology in which also its precision and robustness to parametric variations are tested.