Augmentation of situational awareness by fault passage indicators in distribution network incorporating network reconfiguration

Power distribution systems are profoundly inclined to disturbances like untimely switching of breakers & relays, sympathetic tripping, and uncertainties regarding fault location. Thus, system stability and reliability are greatly affected. In this way, situational awareness and system integrity are the crucial factors in developing power system security, as it empowers successful decision making & timely reaction by the operators to any disturbance and also maintaining continuity of power supply. This paper focuses on the enhancement of situational awareness by fault location through fault passage indicators (FPI) to improve nominal impedance-based methods in distribution networks. Also, the proposed method is validated by comparing it with Intelligent Electronic Device (IED) based fault location method. Further, simultaneous reconfiguration of the system is incorporated to maintain the continuity of supply. The analysis has been tested on IEEE 33 bus distribution system.