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Flexible DC distribution networks have been widely developed because of their advantages of high efficiency, low cost, and easy access to renewable energy. However, as distribution networks have more ends than the two-terminal transmission line, it is more challenging to protect them and locate their faults. Therefore, this paper proposes a modified T-source circuit breaker to protect against DC faults. Based on the proposed circuit breaker, an integral fault location method using double-terminal asynchronous data is proposed. The accuracy of the algorithm is not affected by the fault resistance. There are no differential terms in the algorithm, which greatly reduces the sensitivity to noise. The integral algorithm can remain steady when the voltage and current are zero in oscillation and attenuation periods. This constitutes the main contribution of this paper. Finally, it is verified by simulation and experiment that the proposed circuit breaker can isolate the power source within a short time in the typical DC distribution network. Under a noise of 30 dB for simulation, the location error of the proposed algorithm is <0.4% when the fault resistance is 0.5 Ω–500 Ω. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The classical electromagnetic time reversal (EMTR) fault location method in power systems requires multiple simula-tions in the backward step, assuming different guessed fault loca-tions along the line. This process can be time consuming especially when a high location accuracy is desired, as it may require a significant number of guessed fault locations. To cope with this issue, the concept of EMTR in mismatched media has recently been introduced, allowing reducing the backward simulations to a single run and, thus, substantially improving the computation efficiency of the EMTR-based fault location technique. In this paper, we present a detailed study of the mismatched-media-based mirrored minimum energy property. This property has been applied in a few recent studies but never been theoretically studied and rigorously demonstrated. First, we infer a transfer function that relates the fault source to the voltage along the line resulting from back-injecting the time-reversed transients measured at a given observation point. We present a theorem according to which, at the fault switching frequency and its odd harmonics, the mirror-image point of the fault location with respect to the line center corresponds to a local minimum of the squared modulus of the transfer function. Then, it is proved that the mirrored minimum energy property is a corollary of this theorem. Based on these theoretical findings, we propose an algorithm that utilizes the reversed-time voltage energy as a fault location metric in the frequency domain. We further advance a data-driven strategy to maximize the computation efficiency of the fault location procedure. The applicability and robustness of the proposed frequency-domain fault location metric are numerically and experimentally validated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The demand for faster protection algorithms is growing due to the increasingly faster dynamics in the system. The majority of existing algorithms require empirically selected set-points, which may reduce sensitivity to internal faults and cause security problems. This paper addresses these challenges by proposing a settingless time-domain unit protection algorithm for medium-voltage lines. The main idea of the algorithm is to identify which model of a protected line, i.e. healthy or with an internal fault, is more consistent with the input measurements. This is done by solving a number of small-scale convex optimization problems, which at the same time determine the characteristics of an internal fault that best fit the measurements. Thus, the proposed algorithm merges protection, fault location, and fault type identification functionalities. The algorithm's performance is extensively tested on a small grid model in MATLAB Simulink and on the IEEE 34-bus distribution grid in EMTP-RV for different types of generation and grid operating conditions. The results demonstrate that the algorithm can operate quickly and reliably, and accurately estimate fault characteristics even in the presence of noisy measurements, non-ideal communication network conditions and the mismatch in the line model assumed by the algorithm and the model utilized for grid simulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Distance protection encounters some problems such as time coordination, protection of short lines, capacitive charging current and high impedance faults. Its shortcomings are extended in the case of protection of hybrid transmission lines, including overhead line and underground cable. To cope with the mentioned problems, in this paper, a novel approach is proposed for pilot protection of hybrid transmission lines. The proposed approach utilizes three phase voltage and current signals of both ends and transfer matrix of the hybrid line. Indeed, voltage and current angles of specific points on the line are calculated from both ends and the absolute values of the differences between the results obtained from the sending and receiving ends are computed for each point to detect the fault and identify its exact location and phase. The achieved results confirm the security, dependability, and efficiency of the algorithm in critical conditions of power system, i.e., high impedance fault occurrence, power swing, different strengths of equivalent sources at both ends, loss of time synchronization of remote end data, and different fault locations with various inception angles. Although the proposed method is very simple, its performance is surprisingly satisfactory and it is suitable for practical implementation in real-life applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a novel method for fault location in distribution networks using compressive sensing. During fault and prefault voltages are measured by smart meters along the feeders. The voltage sag vector and impedance matrix produce a current vector that is sparse enough with one nonzero element. This element corresponds to the bus at which a fault occurs. Due to the limited number of smart meters installed at primary feeders, our system equation is underdetermined. Therefore, the \ell ^1-norm minimization method is used to calculate the current vector. Primal-dual interior point (PDIP) and the log barrier algorithm (LBA) are utilized to solve the optimization problem with and without measurement noises, respectively. Our proposed method is implemented on a real 13.8-kV, 134-bus distribution network when single-phase, three-phase, double-phase, and double-phase-to-ground short circuits occur. Simulation results show the robustness of the proposed method in noisy environments and satisfactory performance for various faults with different resistances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]