Unbalanced Distribution Network Cross-Country Fault Diagnosis Method with Emphasis on High-Impedance Fault Syndrome

Abstract

Unusual fault scenarios can occur on the utility grid in a power system network. Cross-Country Faults (CCFs) connected to the High-Impedance Fault (HIF) syndrome are more prone to occur in forested areas due to thunderstorms, cyclones, and improper vegetation management and tree pruning. Finding and categorizing CCFs associated with HIF syndrome is a great challenge. This study employed the cross-correlation method to reconstruct the signals produced by CCFs with HIF, which were shown to be complicated, aperiodic, asymmetric, and nonlinear. A decreased sensitivity to random noise means that a given modification might not affect equally all component peaks. This allows for more precise signal recovery. The maximum voltage cross-correlation coefficients were carefully evaluated as distinguishing elements in the development of a suggested fault detection technique. The proposed concept was evaluated on a modified imbalanced IEEE 240 bus system under different case studies. These case studies cover a wide range of scenarios, such as the switching of a capacitor bank, feeder energization, and the effects of nonlinear loads under noisy conditions.