CIRED 18th International Conference on Electricity Distribution
A NEW SENSITIVE DETECTION ALGORITHM FOR LOW AND HIGH IMPEDANCE EARTH
FAULTS IN COMPENSATED MV NETWORKS BASED ON THE ADMITTANCE METHOD
Thomas SCHINERL
Trench Austria GmbH - Austria
thomas.schinerl@trench.at
ABSTRACT
Since the majority of all electrical faults in distribution
networks are single line to earth faults, these events have a
significant impact on the overall quality of power supply. The
resonant earthing approach allows to limit the fault current
in case of single pole earth faults (ground faults) and leads to
a significant increased rise time of the recovery voltage.
Consequently, most of the arcing ground faults will self
extinguish and the quality of power supply is greatly
increased. As a result a general trend towards the use of
resonance earthing can be observed all over Europe.
Due to the minimised fault current continuous network
operation during sustained earth fault is possible. On the
other hand, sensitive and highly reliable earth fault
protection schemes are required to identify the faulty feeder
without unwanted interruption of supply.
In this paper, a new detection algorithm for low and high
impedance earth faults based on the admittance method is
presented.
INTRODUCTION
Traditional transient protection schemes are used to detect the
faulty feeder in case of low ohmic earth faults. For stationary
low ohmic earth faults the current transients can be detected
only at the beginning of the earth fault event, i.e. manual
search operations are not possible (sectionalizing).
Traditional protection schemes based on stationary
measurement of the electrical quantities (50Hz components),
e.g. the wattmetric protection scheme, could also be used for
sectionalising. However, this method can fail in case of
intermittent faults and cannot detect high impedance earth
faults.
Modern earth fault protection relays must distinguish between
transient and steady state fault characteristics to use the
proper algorithms for reliable earth fault detection [1]. Among
manual search operations modern protection schemes have to
fulfil additional requirements due to different network
configurations and non ideal measurements of the electrical
quantities.
The presented admittance method is based on the
measurement of the 50Hz components of the neutral to
ground voltage Vo (zero sequence voltage) and the zero
sequence currents Io1-Ion of the supervised feeders 1-n and can
detect earth faults up to a few 10 kOhm with a steady state
fault characteristic. This method is complemented with a
powerful algorithm for detection of transient earth faults (e.g.
intermittent faults) and implemented in real hardware [2].
It should be mentioned that the accuracy of the various earth
CIRED2005
Session No 3
Turin, 6-9 June 2005
fault detection algorithms is limited due to measurement
disturbances and when the effects of very high resistive earth
faults are less significant than those of the feeders natural
unbalance [3].
MEASUREMENT DISTURBANCES
The zero sequence voltage Vo could be measured directly at
the star-point of the transformer or of a neutral earthing
transformer. If a separate voltage instrument transformer (VT)
is used, the accuracy of the measurement is mainly given by
the accuracy class rating of the VT. If Vo is measured by
means of the instrument voltage winding of the arc
suppression coil, the accuracy depends additionally on the
actual coil position.
If case of the open delta connection the neutral-to-ground
voltage Vo is determined by geometrical addition of the three
phase voltages measured at three series connected voltage
instrument transformers . This kind of measurement can cause
voltage offsets due to different amplitude / angle errors
caused by various manufacturing tolerances.
L1
ideal: Vo=0 real: Vo > 0
L2
L3
E2 E2
E3
Vo
e E3
Vo
n E1 E1
fig. 1, measurement of neutral-to-ground voltage Vo by means
of the open delta connection, ideal symmetric network
If the zero sequence voltage as a function of the coil position
(resonance curve) is used as a criterion for the tuning of an
arc suppression coil (ASC) these measurement errors can
cause problems for controlling systems, especially in very
symmetric networks. If a relative (delta) measurement as
foreseen for the admittance method is used, these
measurement errors normally can be neglected.
It should also be mentioned that in some cases it is
advantageous to use the open delta winding (e.g. if a HV/MV
transformer with only 3 legs without compensating winding
and with a high zero sequence impedance is used).
The zero sequence current Io of the individual feeders can
either be measured by electrical addition with three separate
current transformers (also known as “Holmgreen”
connection) or by magnetical addition by means of a toroidal
core current transformer.
The accuracy of the Holmgreen - connection underlies in
principle the same problems as already described for the Vo -
measurement with the open delta connection. If one of the 3
CIRED 18th International Conference on Electricity Distribution Turin, 6-9 June 2005

phase current transformers (CT) has a different magnitude / With the ‘network method’ the network fault admittance
angle error than the other two, the measured zero sequence value YF respectively the network fault current IF can be
current is dependent from the actual load current. calculated by means of the measured zero sequence voltage
Vo and the reference parameters of the network model but
L1 L2 L3 without the need of measured zero sequence currents (global
L1 view). A global low or high ohmic earth fault message will be
generated if the network fault admittance value YF exceeds
L2 the threshold for low or high resistive earth faults.

L3 The ‘feeder method’ is used to calculate the feeder fault

admittance values YF1 ... YFn respectively the feeder fault
current IF1 ... IFn for each supervised feeder (feeder view) and
A is responsible for the selective earth fault indication. This
fig. 2, Holmgreen - connection method uses the measurement values of the zero sequence
voltage Vo as well as the individual zero sequence currents
Furthermore, current measurement disturbances dependent on Io1 ... Ion of the supervised feeders and the reference
the actual load current can also appear in case of ideal current parameters of the feeder model.
transformers:
If we consider a ring configuration (2 parallel feeders) with a If only the ‘feeder method’ detects an earth fault but not the
common load and if the series impedance Zs of the individual global ‘network method’, this is most probably caused by a
phases are not equal for feeder A and feeder B the load current measurement error, e.g. due to a changed load current
current distribution will be inverse to the series impedance of influence or a different feeder configuration (opening /
the individual phases, thus the different load current closing ring structures).
distribution influences the zero sequence current For a real earth fault on feeder n, obviously the calculated
measurement Io as shown in fig. 3. results of the global network method and of the feeder method
L1 L2 L3 IoA should be approximately equal, thus both methods must detect
IL1/2-∆ I Zs +∆ Z
IL1
the earth fault and so it is possible to distinguish between
IL3/2
IL2/2 Zs
measurement disturbances and real earth faults.
IL2

IL3/2 Zs
IL3
Fig. 4 shows a simplified 3 phase model where we assume
LOAD IL1/2
that the series impedance as well as the discharge
IoA= -∆ I
Icircle conductance of the feeders are negligible. The feeder
IL1/2+∆ I Zs
IoB= ∆ I
asymmetry Yai is reduced to one phase.
IL2/2 Zs Iind Io1

load
IL3/2 Zs
IL2/2

busbar IoB Ia1

fig. 3, load current distribution, circulating currents
Ya1 C1 C1 C1
Additional circulating currents Icircle due to inductive coupling
of neighbouring feeders may it make even more difficult to
design a reliable detection scheme. E1 Ion
E2
load

Although a relative measurement approach can not totally E3

eliminate all measurement errors, a combination with a well
Ian
designed detection algorithm can improve the protection IFn
function considerably. Vo
Go L Yan Cn Cn Cn YFn

THE ADMITTANCE METHOD fig. 4, simplified 3 phase model

L ... inductance of Petersen coil

The described admittance method is an advancement of the Go ... conductance of all network losses
European patent EP 0 812 427 from Trench Austria GmbH C1 ... Cn ... line to earth capacitance
and is based on a set of reference parameters calculated by Ya1 .... Yan ... feeder asymmetry admittance
means of a short-time detuning of the resonance circuit in the Ia1 .... Ian ... feeder asymmetry current
healthy state of the network [4]. If an earth fault occurs the YFn ... fault admittance due to earth fault
fault admittance YF respectively the fault current IF can be IFn ... feeder fault current
calculated using the reference values and actual measured Vo ... zero sequence voltage
values of the zero sequence voltage Vo and the zero sequence Io1 ... Ion ... zero sequence currents
currents Io1 ... Ion of the supervised feeders.
In order to take the above described measurement The global network model as well as the feeder model can be
disturbances as good as possible into account (especially the derived from this 3 phase model using symmetrical
current measurement disturbances), two different calculation components theory.
methods are used.

CIRED2005

Session No 3
CIRED 18th International Conference on Electricity Distribution Turin, 6-9 June 2005

The global network method
Fig. 5 shows the zero sequence equivalent circuit for the
global network which is used by the global network method.
The total network capacity is represented by the capacitor Ceq.
The global network asymmetry is represented by the
asymmetry current Ia respectively as an asymmetry
admittance Ya and the source voltage Ea that feeds the
resonance circuit formed by L, Go and Ceq.
high impedance earth faults is achieved by an automatic
recalculation of the reference values and by comparison with
the original set of values.
Fig. 6a) shows the reference situation (healthy state of the
network), fig. 6b) represents the new situation with earth fault
(changed asymmetry) or a changed detuning / damping of the
network. Fig. 6c) is a mixed model for distinguishing between
earth faults and switching operations.

~ EaREF ~ EaRECALC ~ EaREF ~ EFRECALC

~ Ea ~ Ea ~ Ea ~ EF
n YaREF YaRECALC YaREF YFRECALC
Ia = ∑ Iai Ya Ya Ya YF
i =0 IaREF IaRECALC Ia IFRECALC
Ia Ia Ia IF Ieci Ieci
Ieci Ieci Ieci

Vo YoREF Vo YoRECALC Vo YoRECALC

Vo Vo Yo Vo Yo

n
L Go Ceq
IYo IYo
C eq = 3∑ Ci REFERENCE NEW SITUATION DISTINGUISH EARTH FAULTS
i =0 SITUATION RECALCULATION AND SWITCHING OPERATIONS
a.) b.) a.) b.) c.)

fig. 6, equivalent circuit, global network model

fig. 5, equivalent circuit, global network model
Eq. 4 & 5 result from eq. 2 & 3 applied to fig. 6c):
The parameters for the global network model are calculated
I FRECALC = Vo ⋅ YoRECALC − (EaREF − Vo ) ⋅ YaREF
by means of a short detuning (Ieci) of the resonance circuit and
are stored as reference values: I FRECALC
YFRECALC =
Yo ... network admittance E FRECALC − Vo (4)
Ya ... network asymmetry admittance
Ea ... network asymmetry source voltage, |Ea|=|E1| with the condition:

The angle of the network asymmetry source voltage Ea can be ∠(E FRECALC − Vo ) = ∠(I FRECALC ) (5)
determined with an additional assumption for the angle of the
asymmetry Ya. We considered a healthy state for the reference If the voltage change was due to a changed detuning /
situation (fig. 5a), eq. 1 must be fulfilled. damping of the network the recalculated fault admittance
I Yo = I a + I eci
YFRECALC is almost zero, if YFRECALC exceeds the preset
{ threshold for high / low ohmic earth faults we can set a global
0
earth fault signal and start searching the faulty feeder with the
VoREF ⋅ YoREF = (E aREF − VoREF ) ⋅ YaREF (1) feeder method.

After that the global network fault admittance value YF can be The feeder method
estimated applying eq. 2 according to fig. 5b).
Fig. 7a) shows the zero sequence equivalent circuit for
I Yo = I a + I F + I eci
{ feeder n in the healthy state.
0

Vo ⋅ YoREF = (EaREF − Vo ) ⋅ YaREF + (E F − Vo ) ⋅ YF

~ Ean ~ Ean ~ EFn

I F = Vo ⋅ YoREF − (EaREF − Vo ) ⋅ YaREF Yan Yan YFn

IF
YF = (2) Ian Ian IFn
E F − Vo Ion Ion

with the condition: ICeqn ICeqn

Vo Vo
∠(E F − Vo ) = ∠(I F ) (3) Ceqn Ceqn

because the fault admittance YF is assumed to be a real value.

Changed zero sequence voltages (Vo≠VoREF) result in
a.) healthy b.) earth fault

estimated fault admittance values YF > 0. If the zero sequence fig. 7, zero sequence equivalent circuit for feeder n
voltage becomes high it can be reliably concluded that the
reason is a real earth fault, for still low voltages Vo the The asymmetry admittance Yan and the capacity Ceqn of
necessary distinguishing between switching operations and feeder n are also calculated by means of a short-time detuning

CIRED2005

Session No 3
CIRED 18th International Conference on Electricity Distribution
of the resonance circuit in the healthy state. This values are
stored as feeder reference values. With the existing feeder
reference values Yan, Ceqn of the equivalent circuit and the
measured zero sequence voltage Vo the setpoint value of the
zero sequence current IonSET can be calculated. Thus
calculating the feeder fault current IFn is achieved by:
I Fn = I on − I onSET
If the calculated global network fault current is close to the
sum of all calculated individual feeder fault currents, it can be
reliable concluded that an earth fault has occurred in the
supervised network area.
n well as of an individual feeder model.
I F ≈ ∑ I Fi
i =1
If we consider a low natural network asymmetry Ya the major
part of the fault current is flowing through the network
admittance Yo=(L||Ceq||Go). The active part of the calculated
fault current IFACTIVE is flowing through the conductance Go.
Consequentially, the faulty feeder itself is identified by the
highest active part of all calculated feeder fault currents.
CASE STUDIES
Decentralised compensated networks (feeders with external
arc suppression coils) can cause problems to the protection
relay, e.g. the wattmetric relay, because a part of the fault
current is flowing through the external arc suppression coil
and cannot be measured in the zero sequence current any
more. Either the protection engineer has to accept less
sensitivity or he has to adapt the threshold to the actual
network configuration.
With the admittance method the adjusted sensitivity can be
kept for all network configurations because the network fault
admittance YF is calculated without the need of measured zero
sequence currents Io .
In case of an earth fault on loop connected feeders (2 parallel
feeders in a ring configuration) the fault current distribution
is inverse to the series impedance of the feeders from the fault
position to the busbar. This can cause sensitivity problems to
single relays, for the worst case situation only half of the
complete fault current can be measured. With the admittance
method again the adjusted sensitivity can be kept for all
network configurations due to the global calculation
approach.
As already described measurement disturbances dependent on
the actual load current can also appear in case of ideal current
transformers. If the load current and it’s influence on the
current measurement is changing, the global network fault
admittance will not be influenced (no change or very small
changes in the zero sequence voltage), the calculated feeder
fault current will be equal to the changed load current
influence. Thus after recalculation the model parameters it is
again possible to distinguish this situation from a real earth
fault, the new parameters are accepted as new reference
values.
Constant amplitude errors of the measured zero sequence
currents of e.g. 10% results in a 10% error of the calculated
CIRED2005
Session No 3
Turin, 6-9 June 2005
feeder fault currents, the global network fault admittance and
thus the sensitivity of the detection system will not be
influenced.
The same is valid for constant angle measurement errors of
the current transformers.
(6) CONCLUSIONS
In this contribution the algorithm of the new admittance
method is presented. This method is based on a set of
reference parameters derived from a global network model as
(7)
Due to the inherent relative measurement concept and the
calculation of the global network fault admittance
independent from the measured zero-sequence-currents, most
of the disturbances due to non-ideal measurement values are
suppressed.
The major benefits of the new algorithm are:
- High sensitive and reliable earth fault protection for low
and high impedance earth faults (up to a few 10 kOhm)
- Equal sensitivity for different network configurations
(e.g. radial / loop connected feeders, external Petersen
coils, ...)
- Highest possible sensitivity and reliability in case of
disturbances of the measured electrical quantities
- Functionality is maintained also during earth fault search
operations (e.g. switching operations, sectionalising, ...)
The presented method is complemented with a powerful
algorithm for the detection of transient (e.g. intermittent,
restriking) earth faults and already implemented in real
hardware. Field and laboratory tests as well as feedback from
various installations confirmed the effectiveness of the new
algorithm.
REFERENCES
[1] Altonen J., Mäkinen O., Kauhaniemi K., Persson K.,
2003, "Intermittent earth faults – need to improve
existing feeder earth fault protection schemes",
Proceedings CIRED 2003, session 3, paper 48
[2] Trench Austria GmbH 2000, "EFD20 - User Manual”
[3] Welfonder T., Leitloff V., Feuillet R., Vitet S., 2000,
"Location Strategies and Evaluation of Detection
Algorithms for Earth Faults in Compensated MV
Distribution Systems", IEEE transactions on power
delivery, No.4, vol. 15, October 2000
[4] Haefely Trench Austria GmbH., 1996, “Verfahren zur
Erkennung eines einpoligen Erdschlusses in einem
Drehstromnetz”, European patent EP 0 812 427