Fault Location in Radial Distribution Systems: Comparative Analysis for Decomposition Tools Using Traveling Waves

The regulatory standards have become more stringent regarding power quality and reliability. However, interruptions in the electricity supply significantly affect the system's indices, and consequently, utilities are financially penalized. In this context, this article presents a fault location method based on traveling waves in radial distribution systems. The proposed method uses voltage data collected through high-frequency meters. The wavelet transform and empirical mode decomposition are then used to obtain the instants of the discontinuities generated during a fault and, based on propagation time, estimate its distance from the substation. To validate the proposal, simulations were performed in the PSCAD™/EMTP™ software using a 14-bus medium voltage test distribution system from CIGRE. The results are promising, as the average error was below 0.61 % with a standard deviation of 0.41 %. Thus, the proposed solution represents an efficient and alternative solution to reduce the utility maintenance time and improve the quality and reliability indices.