Distributed System for High Impedance Fault Detection in Power Distribution Systems

• Grant number: 24/16135-7
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date: January 01, 2025
• End date: December 31, 2027
• Field of knowledge: Engineering - Electrical Engineering - Power Systems
• Principal Investigator: José Carlos de Melo Vieira Júnior
• Grantee: Maurício Pavani da Silva
• Host Institution: Escola de Engenharia de São Carlos (EESC). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Carlos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

High Impedance Faults (HIFs) are common events in Medium Voltage Distribution Systems (DSs), and are responsible for exposing people, animals and property to the risk of electric shocks and fires. HIFs are more complex to detect then low impendance short circuits. This complexity is caused especially by the low magnitude of the event's current, sometimes comparable to the magnitude of the system's normal operating current. Thus, the detection of these events has been widely explored in the literature. However, there is still no solution available capable of detecting these faults safely and reliably. Therefore, this is still a field with several gaps to be investigated, mainly regarding detection methodologies based on detectors distributed throughout the network and the strategies used for their allocation. In this sense, this project aims to develop an optimized allocation methodology for HIF detectors to compose a distributed system for identifying and locating this type of disturbance. It will also include the improvement of an HIF model to represent these events in a simulation environment and the analysis of how the characteristics present in the current of the HIF propagate throughout the system. Therefore, it is expected to contribute to the advancement in the understanding of these faults and to the development of tools capable of detecting them in a robust and reliable way.