A robust method for single phase fault location considering distributed generation and current compensation

In this paper, a methodology to face the problem of fault location considering distributed generation is presented. As one of most relevant characteristic of the proposed method, the fault current is estimated using the measurements of voltage and current obtained at the power substation and at the node where the DG is located. This last measurements avoid the modeling effort required to represent the power generator, and also it possibilities to take into account their variations in fault and prefault steady states. The proposed methodology uses a method based on the estimation of the fault impedance which considers the effect of distributed generation and the variation of the load current. The methodology presented is validated in the IEEE 34-nodes test system, which is modified to connect one generator in the longest feeder. Tests are performed considering single phase faults, resistances from 0 to 40 ohms and distributed generation participation of 10%. Also, this methodology is validated in three scenarios: power system considering constant impedance load models, power system considering constant impedance, current and power load models and finally a power system considering the last models load and variations at the customer demand [50%-120%].