Grounding faulted feeder protection in neutral noneffectively grounded distribution system based on hierarchical clustering technique

A scheme of single-phase-to-ground fault feeder protection in distribution system with the application of a hierarchical clustering technique is presented in this paper. First, the data sets are divided into fault group and non-fault group, and two cluster centers of the groups are calculated by hierarchical clustering technique. The space relative distance among a detected pattern and the two cluster centers is then calculated to discriminate the faulted feeder. The feeder protection is independent of the network neutral-point grounding mode, and can detect high impedance grounding faults (HIGF). The proposed scheme is implemented and verified using Electromagnetic Transients Program (EMTP)-generated signals. Simulation results show that the scheme has high fault tolerance, sensitivity and robustness.