Voltage Sag Data Utilization for Distribution Fault Location

Fault location in distribution systems is an important function for outage management and service restoration directly impacting feeder reliability. In this paper, a fault location method based on matching calculated voltage sag data and data gathered at some nodes in the network is proposed. A method for characterization of voltage sags is utilized to reduce amount of transferred data. The proposed method can pinpoint fault location precisely, and is applicable to any complex distribution systems with load taps, laterals, and sub-laterals, single-phase loads, as well as networks with heterogeneous lines. The performance of the proposed method is demonstrated on the IEEE 123-node distribution test system via computer simulations in Alternate Transients Program software.