Composite fault location for Distribution Management Systems

The problem of fault location is an integral part of Distribution Management System (DMS) solutions. This paper presents a method of locating fault in unsymmetrical networks, including both radial and meshed parts of the network. The real-time information regarding the topological condition of the network and the status updates of the Fault Indicators are used as input to the fault location (FLOC) algorithm. The algorithm itself is based on graph theory using mainly Depth First Search to divide the affected part of the network to possible faulty areas where the fault indicators serve as links connecting these areas. Finally, the close-loop operation of FLOC and Fault Isolation and Service Restoration (FISR) is discussed. The close loop operation plays an important role in the field of SMART grids.