An alternative approach to fault location on main line feeders and laterals in low voltage overhead distribution networks

In this study, a digital fault location and monitoring technique for overhead power distribution lines with laterals is presented. The technique is based on utilising the fault voltage and current samples obtained at a single location of a typical distribution system with laterals; these are then filtered after the analogue to digital conversion process by using digital filtering techniques to obtain power frequency components of voltage and current samples. In the implementation of the algorithm, superimposed voltage and current components rather than total values are used to minimise the effects of pre-fault loading on the accuracy. The effectiveness of this method is verified through electromagnetic transients program (EMTP) simulations.