Modeling and Simulation of Impedance Distance Relay for Fault Location and Protection of Single Wire Earth Return Line

Different technologies and resources are utilized to provide electricity access for the rural population around the world. Single wire earth return (SWER) line gets prominent attention around the globe to electrify low load profile customers and remote load like telecom base stations by extending from the nearby medium grid. SWER distribution system is designed by tapping from medium voltage distribution line using an isolation transformer. Unlike other distribution systems, the secondary side of a transformer has an only single line with dedicated perfect grounding system. SWER lines are considered as a cost-effective solution, compared to the threephase grid extension by electric utility companies. Since line route is mostly in rural areas with different geographical topologies, natural and human-made faults are inevitable scenarios on the line. According to a preference of utilities and geographical locations, SWER lines are equipped with overcurrent relay, surge arrestors or reclosers to isolate faulty line during the fault. The two main challenges on SWER line protection are to back up existing overcurrent protection relay when it fails to clear the fault and to locate the location of fault for line maintenance. Technicians patrol up to hundreds of km along SWER line to locate a fault. This activity will be inefficient and time-consuming way of locating the fault. In this paper, we model and simulate the impedance distance relay to back up existing protection system and locate the fault. Our model successfully backs up definite time overcurrent (DTOC) relay for a single line to ground (SLG) faults across the line. Consequently, fault locator-block locates the faulty line position.