Fault Signature Analysis Based on Digital Fault Recorder in Malaysia Overhead Line System

Overhead transmission lines are prone to various natural disaster and phenomena which lead to system fault. System fault causes tripping which can be due to various root causes such as lightning strikes, tree encroachment, crane encroachment and defect equipment. In this paper, fault characteristics from different root causes are studied and analyzed based on field data extracted from the Digital Fault Recorder (DFR). It is found that different fault types of overhead transmission line have identical fault signatures in terms of current and voltage waveform. Moreover, to quantify the fault signatures, several indices are extracted to identify the root cause of fault. The indices are based on pre-fault and fault event current and voltage waveforms. These findings can be beneficial to enhance the decision making on identifying the root cause of fault.