Cable fault location in a DC microgrid using current injection technique

The idea of accurate fault location in distribution system expedites maintenance process, quick restoration and shorten the power outage duration. In DC microgrid, an existing fault location technique that assumes the natural frequency of the system is equal to damped resonant frequency of probe current supplied by probe power unit(PPU) evidences significant error in calculation of fault location. To estimate all possible location of line fault in low voltage DC microgrids, a portable current injection kit (CIK) is proposed in this paper. Calculating attenuation and damping frequency of the injected current the fault distance is obtained. The validity of the proposed method is tested considering high fault resistance, different fault types and radial and looped network topologies. Using MATLAB, the performance studies of the proposed fault location algorithm have been carried out through detailed simulations and more accuracy is evidenced.