Data-Driven Fault Location Scheme for Advanced Distribution Management Systems

There is now an increased interest among electric utility companies to implement advanced distribution management system (ADMS) software platform in their regular operational activities. ADMS provides smart grid functionalities, such as conservation voltage reduction, demand response, fault location, isolation, and service restoration (FLISR), etc. The ADMS platform improves power quality, increases reliability and resiliency, and manages the integration of distributed energy resources (DERs) effectively. This paper proposes a fault location scheme as a part of the FLISR program based on measurement from wireless sensors and smart meters deployed throughout the feeder. Sensors and smart meters use wireless sensor network and advanced metering infrastructure (AMI), respectively. The fault location scheme also considers the bi-directional power flow complexities with the integration of PV-based DERs at the edges of the grid. Initially, a modified depth first search is utilized to reduce the search space to find the faulty zone(s) bounded by two sensor buses; next, a voltage profile analysis is conducted in the specified zone(s) to find the actual faulty section(s). To demonstrate the robustness, the entire algorithm is tested in a utility scale feeder with various loading, DER penetration, and fault resistance condition using Monte-Carlo method.