A Voltage Based High Impedance Fault Detection Scheme for Distribution Feeders Using Park and Wavelet Transform

This work focuses on the detection of High Impedance Faults (HIF) in electrical distribution networks. It proposes a method based on voltage signals measured at substation. The Park transform (DQO) is used to aggregate three phase signals into only one (direct-axis voltage) which is further processed with the wavelet transform. An adaptive algorithm is responsible for determining whether there is or not the occurrence of HIF. The proposed scheme have the ability to distinguish HIF from transients involving aspects of electrical power quality. The currents signals from the protective equipment are used to determine if the HIF occurs at the respective protection section under analysis. The results obtained from ATP simulations with IEEE 34 bus test system indicates that the proposed methodology can correctly detect high impedance faults with the capacity to differentiate it from the other transients due mainly to the intrinsic characteristics of the electrical arc.