A New Fault Location Method for Underground

Cables in Distribution Systems

OD Naidu Neethu George Debasish Pradhan

Senior Scientist, Control Research Associate Scientist, Control Research Masters Student
ABB Corporate Research Centre ABB Corporate Research Centre Dept. Of Electrical Engineering
Bangalore, India Bangalore, India IIT Kharagpur, India
od.naidu@in.abb.com neethu.george@in.abb.com asish.pradhan93@gmail.com

Abstract— This paper proposes an accurate fault location Reference [2] discloses a section-based fault location
method for underground power cable in power distribution approach using the fault loop impedance. One disadvantage of
systems. The cable is modelled using PSCAD EMTP simulation this method is that it only ranks the possible faulted sections.
tool. The cable core as well as sheath and various grounding Further, it also does not consider the sheath currents or the
modes were considered in the cable modelling. The algorithm various grounding modes.
uses voltage and current measurements recorded at the terminal
where the fault locator is placed. The simulation studies have
proved that the proposed algorithm gives very accurate outputs Reference [4] has an improved fault location algorithm
even under various grounding modes and fault conditions. which is an extension of the traditional method, which is used
to calculate the apparent impedance of cables. This has been
Index Terms—Fault location, underground cable, core-sheath- done for single phase to ground fault and three-phase fault.
ground fault, fault resistance The method proposed compensates for the capacitive nature of
the underground cables. However, the model does not take
I. INTRODUCTION into account the sheath currents. It also does not consider the
various grounding modes in the cable system.
The benefits of underground cables over overhead lines have
led to wider application of cables to electrical distribution
The fault location algorithm in reference [5] has extended
systems. They are reliable than overhead lines in bad weather
the already established and proved fault location algorithm
not susceptible to trees, cheaper for short distances and
from Takagi [6] to underground cable networks. The taps and
requires lower maintenance. However, underground cables
the various cable sections have been modelled using sequence
have few disadvantages also including the fact that they are
impedance models. The major sources of error in the
more prone to permanent faults after a flash-over and difficult
traditional impedance based methods are taken care of by
for fault location.
optimizing the result by taking into consideration the cable
capacitance effects. However, this algorithm also doesn’t
Majority of the faults in underground cable systems are
account for sheath currents.
permanent in nature and are usually one among the following:
core to sheath to ground fault, core to ground fault and core to
A multi-terminal input based fault location algorithm
sheath fault. The accurate identification of the faulted location
which is more suitable for aged cables have been presented in
of permanent faults in cables is very important for power
reference [7]. The relative permeability and the sequence
distribution networks for better reliability, to ensure power
capacitances of the cables are greatly influenced by the aging
quality, quicker restoration process, lesser outage time,
of the cables. The fault localization method is based on phasor
reduced repairing cost etc.
measurements from multiple terminals of the cable. Also the
different grounding modes in cable or the influence of sheath
II. LITERATURE REVIEW
currents have not been considered.
Various fault location methods for cables have been discussed
in literature. One major method is the one using fundamental
This paper introduces a better fault location algorithm for
phasors measured at the terminals and the system impedance
underground cable systems. The algorithm uses single-
parameters.
terminal data - voltage and current measurements from the
terminal at which the fault locator is placed. The cable
Reference [1] provides a fault detection method in
modelling is done in PSCAD. The core as well as sheath and
underground cables using Fourier analysis on voltage
the various grounding modes have been considered in the
measurements. The cable model however is not very robust
modelling. The algorithm also compensates for the sheath
and accurate since it does not consider the various grounding
currents, which makes it more accurate.
modes. Neither does it account for the sheath currents.

978-1-5090-3498-7/16/$31.00 ©2016 IEEE

 phasors at the terminal M respectively; and IMc is the
III. CABLE MODELLING IN PSCAD measured core current at the sending end M. VMs are the know
sheath voltage based on grounding method. For example VMs
The cable was modelled in PSCAD EMTP simulation tool are zero if cable is grounded at terminal M.
using the frequency dependent model, which is te most
accurate. The conductor as well as sheath are included in the From the core voltage and current measurements and the
model, as shown in figure 1. Varius grounding modes have already known cable parameters, the core and sheath fault
also been modelled. In figure 1, the sheath has been grounded point voltage Vfc and Vfs can be calculated as
at the sending end M of the cable system.
Vfc VMc  Zc ZcsIMc Yc YcsVMc
V  =   −d I  −dY Y V  (1)
V Z Z
 fs   Ms  sc s  Ms  sc s  Ms
where d is the distance of the location of fault from the
 Z c Z cs 
Z Z s 
sending end M;  sc is the known per unit cable
 Yc Ycs 
Y Ys 
impedance matrix;  sc is the known per unit cable
admittance matrix and IMs is the sending end sheath current.
The subscripts ‘c’ and ‘s’ stands for corresponding core and
sheath values.
The fault current IF can be calculated as
Fig.1. PSCAD model of the test system
 I Fc   I Mfc   I Nfc 
I  = I  − I  (2)
IV. FAULT LOCATION ALGORITHM  Fs   Mfs   Nfs 
where IMf is the current flowing in the cable before the fault
point and INf is the current flowing in the cable after the fault
point.
IMf can be calculated as below

 I Mfc   I Mc   Ycd Ycsd  VMc + V fc 

 I  =   − Y ×
Ysd  VMs + V fs 
(3)
 Mfs   I Ms   scd

 Ycd Ycsd 
Y Ysd 
where  scd is the impedance matrix for the section
Fig.2. Cable sections during single phase core-sheath-ground fault
of the cable before the fault point.
Figure 2 depicts the line diagram of the cable sections INf can be calculated as below
during a core to sheath to ground fault in phase A. As it can be
observed from the figure, the sheath currents in all three  I Nfc  V fc 
phases have also been accounted for in the method. The fault  I  = Yeq × V  (4)
point is at a location of distance (d) from the terminal at which  Nfs   fs 
the fault locator is placed. The cable sections are represented
by pi models as depicted in the figure. Zd and Yd are where Yeq is the equivalent impedance from fault point to
respectively the series impedance and the shunt admittance of load, which can be calculated easily from the single line
section before fault location. Also ZL-d and YL-d are diagram as
respectively the series impedance and the shunt admittance of
the section after fault location. The measured parameters are
VMc, IMc and VMs; where VMc are the measured core voltage
 [ ]
 Yeq Yeq cs  These four equations shall be solved to find the values of the
Yeq =  c 
−1
= YL−d + Z L−d + YL−d + Z load [ ]
−1 −1
three unknowns, namely the fault location, (d) and VMs or IMs
Yeq sc Yeq s  (5)
at the two unfaulty phases. Now, substituting these quantities
fault current can be calculated using equation (2).

The term
[YL−d
−1
+ Z load ]
−1
in the above equation varies
Fault resistance for various values of fault distances can be
calculated using the fault currents and fault point voltages
depending on whether the receiving end is grounded or not. If obtained by the equations discussed before. For the various
the receiving end is not grounded the term shall be replaced as types of faults in phase A, fault resistance can be calculated
in the following equation using the following equations.
For core to sheath fault (CSF)
−1
YcL−d + Zload
−1
YcsL−d  V fca − V fsa
[Y L−d
−1
+ Zload ]
−1
=  RF cs = a
I Fc
, a
I Fc a
= − I Fs
 YscL−d YsL−d 
(6) For core to ground fault (CGF)
(10)

On the other hand if the receiving end is grounded the term V fca
RF c = a
shall be as follows I Fc ,
a
I Fs <ε (11)

] = [Y ] For core to sheath to ground fault (CSGF)

0
−1

[Y
−1
−1 −1 +YcsL−d +YscL−d + Zload V fca V fsa
L−d +Z cL−d

load
RF c = RF s =
 0 0 (7)
a
I Fc ,
a
I Fs (12)
a a
Now, equation (3) can be rearranged as Where I Fs and I Fc are core and sheath fault currents.
The exact location of fault can be calculated using the fact that
[ ] [ ] [
I Mfc   I Mc − Ycd C − Ycsd F − Ycd D + Ycsd G VMs − Ycd E + Ycsd H I Ms  ] the imaginary part of fault resistance is zero at the actual fault
I  =  − Y C − Y F − Y D + Y G V
[ ] [ ] [ 
− −U + Ycsd E + Ysd H I Ms  ] point.
 Mfs   csd sd csd sd Ms

(8) V. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

The evaluation studies which were used to test the proposed
Further, substituting equation (1) in equation (4), and fault location algorithm have been presented here. The
rearranging the following relation can be obtained algorithm was tested for a cable test system of length 20
kilometers. The absolute error is expressed as a percentage of
[ ] [ ]
INfc Yeqc (C−VMc) +YeqcsF + YeqcD+YeqcsG−Yeqcs VMs + Yeqc E+Yeqcs H IMs [ ] the total length of line and calculated using the equation given
[
 Nfs  eqsc Mc eqs eqsc ] [
I  =  Y (C−V ) +Y F + Y D+Y G−Y V + Y E+Y H I 
eqs eqs Ms eqsc eqs ] Ms [ ] below,
(9)
where %Absolute error =
(Actual location- Estimated location) ×100
2
C = 2VMc − dZ c I Mc + d Z cYcVMc + d Z csYcsVMc 2 Total length of the line

D = d 2 Z cYcs + d 2 Z csYs Figure 3 shows a sample test case where a core to sheath to
ground fault (CSGF) is located at a distance of 5 kilometers
E = − dZ cs from the sending end M. The imaginary part of fault resistance
U = Unit Identity Matrix calculated and plotted across the length of the line is shown.

F = −dZ cs I Mc + d 2 Z csYcVMc + d 2 Z sYcsVMc

G = 2U + d 2 Z csYcs + d 2 Z sYs
H = − dZ s

The current in the cable before and after the fault point
remains unchanged for the healthy phases. That is, the
magnitudes of IMf and INf will be equal for the healthy phases.
The before mentioned condition can be used in equations (8)
and (9) , to get four equations in terms of VMs and IMs, one of Fig.3. plot of imaginary part of fault resistance with distance for core-sheath-
ground fault (CSGF) on phase A at a distance of 5 km and Rf=1 Ohm
which depending on the grounding condition goes to zero.
It can be observed from the plot below that, as explained before, line length. Figure 6 shows the absolute error versus fault
the imaginary part of fault resistance passes through zero at the locations for various values of source to line impedance ratios.
fault point. The fault location solution obtained from the
algorithm is 5.07 kilometers, the error being only 0.3%.

Simulation studies were performed test the algorithm for fault

resistance, fault inception angle, fault location, fault types and
grounding modes on the accuracy of the proposed method.

Various fault resistances, 0.01, 1 and 5 ohms were used to test

the robustness of the algorithm and the errors were found to be
very less. A pattern of error increasing with Rf was observed
but the maximum error was always below 1%. The plot of
absolute error for various fault locations for different values of
fault resistance is shown in figure 4.

Fig.6. Absolute error Vs fault locations for different grounding modes

Similarly, the influence of types of fault, including core to

ground fault, sheath to ground fault and core to sheath to
ground fault, on the accuracy of the fault location algorithm
was tested for different fault locations. The maximum error
was found to be being below 0.6% of line length, as shown in
figure 7.

Fig.4. Absolute error Vs fault locations for different fault resistance

Another parameter for which the fault location algorithm was

tested was various points on the wave at which fault occurred,
0, 30 and 60 degrees. The maximum error observed is less than
0.9% and hence the algorithm was proved to be accurate in this
case also. The variation of absolute error with fault locations
for different points on wave is shown in figure 5.

Fig.7. Absolute error Vs fault locations for different types of fault

VI. CONCLUSIONS

An accurate method for faulted location identification in

Fig.5. Absolute error Vs fault locations for fault at different points on wave
The influence of various grounding modes on the accuracy of
the method is also tested. Test cases including the sending end
M only grounded and receiving end N only grounded were
tested. For all the cases the absolute error is below 0.5% of the
underground cables systems using single terminal
measurements has been developed. The cable modelling is
done for various grounding modes and the algorithm takes into
account the shunt capacitance and sheath currents as well. The
accuracy of the fault location method has been proved by
testing it under different various system and fault conditions.
The robustness of the algorithm was tested and proved against
fault resistance, point of fault on the wave, grounding
conditions and types of faults.
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