1170 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 29, NO.

6, NOVEMBEIUDECEMBER 1993

A Fault Location Technique

for Rural Distribution Feeders
Adly A. Girgis, Fellow, IEEE, Christopher M. Fallon, and David L. Lubkeman, Senior Member, IEEE

Abstract-This paper presents a digital fault location technique

for rural distributionfeeders, Using the voltage and current data
o i
at a single location. Rural distribution feeders include single-
phase, two-phase, and three-phase laterals off a main three-phase
primary distributionfeeder. The fault location scheme presented
here attempts to account for the multiphase laterals, the unbal-
anced conditions, and the iunsymmetrid nature of distribution
feeders by continually updating voltage and current vectors
at set locations within the system. The updated voltage and
wvw
Fig. 1.
Main feeder

Single line diagram of a rural distribution feeder.

current vectors are the estimates of the 60 Hz phasor quantities
obtained using a recursive optimal estimation algorithm. The
distance to the fault is then estimated using a method based on
the apparent impedance approach and the updated voltage and ............................................
current vectors. Another considerationis the ability to determine
the fault location on a lateral. A simulation of an actual rural ..............,..............................
distributionfeeder using the Electromagnetic lkansients Program
(EMTP)is used to illustrate the concepts of the approach.

I. INTRODUCTION
I ..I..;i
\-:fvrw
~ i
.......... ...................... ........... !..I
L;. “.I..............................................t...
D ISTRIBUTION feeders constitute the major links be-
tween the power supply and the consumers. Normally, Fig. 2. An actual recorded waveform for a short-duration single-line-to-
when a temporary fault occurs, the feeder breaker trips and
ground fault.

automatically recloses a number of times. If the fault clears

before the sequence is completed, no further action is taken. than twenty times the load current. Fault detectors, installed
If the fault is permanent, the recloser locks out. The fault in the feeder, did not record fault conditions due to the short
may be in the main feeder or in a single-phase branch. Short- duration of the voltage collapse. Longer-duration faults may
duration faults are those faults that are self cleared in 30-50 lead to a recloser operation, but the nature of the faults or their
ms and do not cause recloser operation. Actual measurements locations may still be unknown until a permanent fault occurs.
in a rural distribution feeder showed the frequent occurrence This feeder utilizes fixed capacitors for power factor im-
of these types of faults (once every two to three days). These provement. Other feeders may include a combination of fixed
faults may not cause damage to utility equipment, but certainly and switched capacitors for loss reduction, power factor im-
cause malfunction to customer computer-based or electronic provement and voltage regulation. The presence of these
switching equipment [ 11-[71. capacitors and harmonic generating loads may cause resonance
To define the problems associated with rural distribution conditions. Thus the current and voltage waveform may in-
feeder faults, consider the following example. Fig. 1 shows clude high frequency and harmonic distortion. Some of the
a distribution feeder service. The loads consist of industrial loads may also be dynamic in nature. These are factors that
and commercial customers. This feeder experiences repeated need to be considered in any new developments for fault
(every few days) short-term faults. In most of the cases, location.
the fault is a single-line-to-ground fault. Fig. 2 shows a A short duration fault was simulated using the Electromag-
current waveform recorded during a short-duration fault. In netic Transients Program (EMTP) for the distribution feeder
this situation the substation recloser (three-phase) did not shown in Fig. 1, for a fault at 3.5 mi from the substation
record any operation. The current, however, increased to more and 2 mi from a tap. The current waveform in the faulted
phase is shown in Fig. 3. This fault may be located within a
Paper ICPSD 91-43, approved by the Rural Electric Power Committee of the certain zone which includes numerous single-phase branches.
IEEE Industry Applications Society for presentation at the 1991 Rural Electric A technique capable of classifying the type of fault, i.e. three-
Power Conference, New Orleans, LA, May 3-5. This work was supported by
Clemson University Electric Power Research Association and the National phase, line-to-line (AB, BC, CA) or single-line-to-groundfault
Science Foundation. Manuscript released for publication March 17, 1993. (AG, BG, CG), would initially conclude whether the fault
A. A. Girgis and D. L. Lubkeman are with the Electrical and Computer was in the main feeder (three-phase) or in one of the single-
Engineering Department, Clemson University, Clemson, SC 29634.
C. M. Fallon, Duke Power Company, Charlotte, NC 28201. phase branches. Having access to a database that describes the
IEEE Log Number 9212387. characteristics of the protection devices in the single-phase
0093-9994/93$03.00 0 1993 IEEE
L

GIRGIS et al.: A FAULT LOCATION TECHNIQUE FOR RURAL DISTRIBUTION FEEDERS 1171

4-Q
Fig. 4. Example one-line diagram

if the ratio of the change in its current is greater than or

equal to 0.75 [13]. With knowledge of the faulted phases, the
proper selected voltage and selected current can be choosen
accordingly. Upon the classification of fault type, a voltage-
- 6
0.00
; . ,
0.02
. I
0.04
. I
0.06
- I
0.08
. I
0.10
current pair is selected to compute the apparent impedance.
TIME (SEC)
To illustrate the fault location approach based on concept of
apparent impedance, an example will be demonstrated for a
Fig. 3. Current waveform due to A-G fault using EMTP simulation.
single line to ground fault on phase A. Consider Fig. 4, where
voltage and current data are assumed to be known at point x.
Using the fault boundary conditions and the sequence net-
branch leads to another capability. Comparing the duration
work parameters, the sequence voltages and currents at the
of the fault, using the phasor quantities of the current in the
fault may be described as
faulted phases, with the expected clearing time of branch fuses
or recloser operating times would lead to the identification
of protective devices that could have operated. Furthermore, VI, = v, - 1121
none of the protection device may respond to a certain fault. V2f = v 2 -I222
In this case, this might be due to incorrect setting of protective vo, = vi - IOZO.
devices, high unbalance or due to the fact the fault duration
is too short. Identifying the zone where this fault repeatedly
occurs and hopefully its exact location would improve the Also
continuity of service with least damage to customer loads or
devices.
It is essential for power companies to have accurate fault lo- where
cation techniques to speed service restoration and pinpoint the
trouble areas. Many researchers have developed digital fault vi = ith sequence voltage at bus x
location techniques with a major emphasis on transmission
I; = ith sequence current at bus x
lines [8]-[12].
However, the problem of fault location in rural distribution 2; = ith sequence impedance of the line section
feeders is more challenging due to the presence of multiple = ith sequence voltage at the fault point
taps of single- and two-phase branches. As data are usually i = 0 , 1 , 2 (zero, positive, and negative sequences).
available at one location in a distribution feeder, at the
substation, an approach based on the concept of apparent Applying the transformation relating phase and sequence
. impedance is proposed here. components and assuming that 2 1 and 2 2 are equal to (1) and
This paper starts with the concept of the apparent impedance (2) yields
method approach for a three-phase feeder with multiple single-
phase branches. This is followed by the simulation of an v, +
va,= - ( ( I 1 12)Zl 1 0 2 0 ) . + (3)
actual rural distribution feeder using EMTP for different types
of faults. Different configuration of line sections and actual Thus,
unbalanced load conditions were considered.
V, = ( I , kI0)Zi + 3IoRf + (4)
11. APPARENT
IMPEDANCE
APPROACH where
Apparent impedance is defined as the ratio of selected volt-
age to selected current based on fault type and faulted phases. k=-. 2 0 - 2 1 (5)
Upon the detection of a disturbance, the phasor quantities of 21
the voltages and currents are obtained using an estimation
program. The change in the magnitudes of the current phasors This method is based upon apparent impedance, which as
is used to classify the fault type and faulted phases. The PreViOUSlY defined is the ratio of the sekcted voltage to the
maximum change of the magnitude of the current phasors selected current according to fault type and faulted phases.
is used as a reference. A ratio of change of the magnitude
of the current phasor of each phase current to the reference
magnitude is calculated, where the ratio for the phase used Vselect = Rapp + j x a p p
zapp = - (6)
as a reference is one. A phase is determined to be faulted Iselect
-
1172 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 29, NO. 6, NOVEMBERDECEMBER 1993

where TABLE I
AND CURRENT
SELECTEDVOLTAGE PAIRSOF A THREE-PHASE
FEEDER FOB IMPUTATION
Rapp is the apparent resistance seen at the recording device
Fault Type Eomp
xapp is the apparent reactance seen at the recording device. SLGF A 310

SLGF B 310
Thus for a single line to ground fault on phase A
SLGF C 310
Vselect = Vn
Iselect = ( I n + IO) = 181 + j I s ~ . (7 LLF (AB) AIa - AIb
or ABG
Making the proper substitutions yields

-
LLF (BC) AIb -AIc
or BCG
LLF (CA) AI, - AIa
or CAG
where Z1 is the total positive sequence impedance to the fault 3-Phase DLGF
point.
To compensate for the unknown fault resistance, the current
fed into the fault must be considered. For this particular
example, a single line to ground fault, the compensating
current is assumed to be proportional to the total zero sequence
current. The equation for apparent impedance may now be
expressed as
Single
(9) Lateral

where
Icomp = the compensating current
Rf = the fault resistance
z1 = the positive sequence impedance of the
transmission line in (ohms or ps.)/mile
D = the distance to the fault in miles.
Equation (9) may be rewritten in terms of real and imaginary
components [15]. Now (9) may be expressed as
Load
Fig. 5. Example of a single-phase lateral.
form and can be applied to any fault type. Table I summarizes
the necessary values required to calculate a fault location for
each fault type.
A. Fault on a Single-phase Lateral
For single phase laterals, the possible fault types are limited
to single line to ground faults, as shown in Fig. 5.
The fault boundary condition may be described as

where k = a, b, or c, depending on the phase of the lateral.

where
Using updated voltage and current vectors at the tap location,
komp = I d + jIq the following relationship can be developed
Is2, = IZ1+ (11)
Eliminating the unknown R j , the distance to the fault can
be expressed as Combining equations (15) and (16) yields

where where is Ikf is the fault current. Thus

where zk is the series impedance of the lateral in ohms per

mile.
The preceding analysis pertains to the case of a single line Once in this form, the distance to the fault can be determined
to ground fault on phase A. However the technique can be similar to (10) through (14). The distance calculated for single-
applied to other fault types. Equations (6)-(14) are of a general phase laterals is the distance from the tap point.
7 -
GIRGIS ef al.: A FAULT LOCATION TECHNIQUE FOR RURAL DISTRIBUTION FEEDERS
Fig. 6. One line diagram with multiphase radial loads.
B. Updating Current and Voltage Vectors
Using Static Impedance Load Model
The data provided by a loadflow program can be used to
account for multiphase laterals and the voltage magnitude
at a load bus can be used to obtain an equivalent load
admittance [14]. The series impedance for each line section is
calculated from knowledge of construction configurations and
is then used to determine the voltage drop of the line section.
The voltage and current phasors at each bus are updated as
previously stated and as summarized by the equations below.
Consider the example shown in Fig. 6, the load current at
bus i may be described as
where
lid, = the load current vector at bus i
V , = the voltage vector at bus i
xd, = the matrix representing the load admittance at bus i .
The matrix representing the load admittance may be given as
[: 2 $cl-
Ya 0 0
[xd,l=
The values of the diagonal elements represent the admit-
tance of that phase at bus i. The value of any diagonal element
may equal zero if that phase is not present at the load tap.
In order to accurately calculate the load current at each bus,
the updated bus voltages must be known. The updated voltage
vectors are calculated as follows
[vi] = [Vabcl]- [V&]
where
Vabcl is the voltage measured at the line terminal
Vd, is the total voltage drop in the line sections up to bus i .
The equation for the total voltage drop may be stated as
where
Zabcj is the series impedance of line section j
Iabc, is the current flow in line section j.
The current flow in line section j may be determined as
1173
-2! . , . , . , .
0.015 0.030 0.045 0.060
Time (sec)
Fig. 7. Faulted phase voltage waveform
where 1l& is the summation of the load currents for all buses
previous to line section j. In symbolic terms, the total load
current drop before line section i may be expressed as
i-1
[h,]
= ClIld,].
j=1
The voltage drop and current changes are iteratively updated
for each line section.
C. Fault Location Test Case
The fault location approach presented in this paper was
tested using EMTP simulated data of a distribution system.
Figs. 7 and 8 show the faulted phase voltage and current
waveforms obtained from an EMTP simulation of a single
(20)
line to ground fault on phase A at seven miles along the main
feeder. Figs. 9 and 10 show the phasor magnitude and angle
estimates of the faulted phase voltage as a function of time
after the fault occurence. Figs. 1 1 and 12 show the phasor
magnitude and angle estimates of the faulted phase current as
a function of time after the fault occurence. Fig. 13 shows
the fault location estimate as a function of time after the fault
occurence compared to the exact fault location. Fig. 14 shows
the fault location estimate for a fault along a single phase
(21) lateral. For this case there were two possible fault locations,
one at two miles along a single phase tap and the second was
approximately 3.4 to 3.5 mi along the main feeder. In Fig.
14 the dashed line denoted with the letter M represents the
fault location estimate along the main feeder. The solid line
denoted by the letter T represents the fault location estimate
from the tap location. The actual fault location is 3.5 mi from
the substation, 1.5 mi along the main feeder and 2 mi from the
tap location. The technique was tested for all types of faults at
different locations. Some of the results are shown in Table 11.
111. CONCLUSION
Fault location techniques are essential to speed system
restoration and minimize power outages. Single-phase, two-
phase, and three-phase branches should be considered in the
fault location technique. Unbalance, fault resistance, and load
currents are sources of inaccuracy. However, in the technique
1174 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 29, NO. 6, NOVEMBEFUDECEMBER1993

2;of. ,. , . , . , ., . , . ,. , .I
0 5 10 15 20 25 3 0 35 4 0 45
0.015 0.030 0.045 0.060 Time (msec)
Time (sec)
Fig. 12. Faulted phase current phasor angle estimate.
Fig. 8. Faulted phase current waveform.

- 4
6.5
10 15 20 25 30 35 40 I 5
Time (msec)
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45
Time (msec) Fig. 13. Fault location estimate versus post-fault time.

Fig. 9. Faulted phase voltage phasor magnitude estimate.

3.30 I
-
8 3.25

3.20

3.15

3.10

3.05 j 1
3 . 0 0 - 1
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
Time (msec) 12 17 22 27 32
Fig. 10. Faulted phase voltage phasor angle estimate. Time (msec)
Fig. 14. Fault location estimates along the main feeder and lateral.
,
TABLE II
FAULTLOCATION
ESTIMATES

Location

7.03

0 5 10 1 5 20 2 5 30 35 4 0 4 5 REFERENCES
Time (msec)
Fig. 11. Faulted phase current phasor magnitude estimate,
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Christopher M. Fallon was born in 1966 in
Audubon, NJ. He received the B.S. and M.S.
’ degrees in electrical engineering from Clemson
University, Clemson, SC, in 1989 and 1990,
respectively.
He is presently with the Duke Power Company,
Charlotte, NC, working in the System Power Quality
Section. His areas of interest include power system
protection and control and computer applications in
power systems.
He is a member of Eta Kappa Nu.
David L. Lubkeman (S’80-M’83-SM’92) was
born in St. Louis, MO, in 1957. He received the
B.S., M.S.,and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engi-
neering from Purdue University, West Lafayette,
IN, in 1979, 1980, and 1983, respectively.
He joined the faculty of Clemson University,
Clemson, SC, in 1989, where he is presently
Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer
Engineering. Prior to this he was an Assistant
Professor at North Carolina State University,
Raleigh. His research focus is on computer
applications in power distribution system analysis and design and computer-
aided instruction.
Dr. Lubkeman is a member of the IEEE Power Engineering Society, the
IEEE Computer Society, and the Association €or Computing Machinery.

Adly A. Girgis (S’8&SM’8l-F‘92) received the

B.S., with distinction first class honors, and the
M.S. degrees from Assiut University, Egypt, and the
Ph.D. degree from Iowa State University, Ames, all
in electrical engineering.
He has taught at Assiut University, Iowa State
University, and North Carolina State University. He
is currently the Duke Power Distinguished Professor
of Power Engineering in Electrical and Computer
Engineering at Clemson University, Clemson, SC,
and the Director of Clemson University Electric
Power Research Association. He has publisher more than 90 technical
papers and holds four U.S. patents. His present research interests are real-
time computer applications in power system control, instrumentation and
protection, signal processing, and Kalman filtering applications.
Dr. Girgis is the recipient of the 1989 McQueen Quattlebaum-Faculty
Outstanding Achievement Award, the 1990 Edison Electnc Institute Power
Institute Engineering Education Award, and the 1991 Iowa State Professional ,
Achievement Citation in Engineering Award. He is a member of Phi Kappa
Phi and Sigma Xi, and is a registered Professional Engineer.