Considerations for the autonomous insulation fault location in HV distribution systems

The autonomous detection and location of insulation faults is an important issue for electrical companies. With an autonomous fault location system, time and costs required to carry out the corrective maintenance work and the subsequent power supply restoring can be considerably reduced. This paper presents a research of the transient and permanent signals behavior associated with short-circuits when an insulation fault occurs in HV distribution systems. The variables associated with the short-circuit phenomenon, that allow single-phase faults to be discriminated are analyzed. The characterization of the phenomenon is useful for the efficient development of a fault location monitoring system.