On-site safety evaluation for earth fault in mining power systems

Many mining power systems utilize ineffectively grounded sources to restrict the residual current of single-phase earth fault in order to reduce outage and shock hazard. In practice, with the system expansion, topology changing, and insulation aging, the potential residual current and zero-sequence voltage for earth fault vary dynamically and some arcing earth faults can easily cause over-voltage and induce multiple faults. In order to improve the system safety, on-site condition monitoring, safety evaluation, and preventive maintenance for earth fault are proposed in this paper. Some techniques for online parameters measurement based on resonance-measurement principle are presented. Power system operation states are classified into normal secure state, alert state, incipient fault state, and fault state. Some security enhancement methods (preventive action and remedial action) for each state are implemented. The prototype for safety evaluation has been developed and installed in industry power systems for several years.