Using ANFIS networks and current signals for locating faults in power distribution systems

Abstract

Fault location in power distribution systems is very important because of power service continuity requirements, mainly imposed by current electricity market quality standards. A fault location approach is adopted in this paper using current waveforms as measured at electricity substations, knowledge of protection-device settings and ANFIS networks. Good results were obtained from tests carried out in a prototype power distribution system to locate where faults were occurring. These results revealed variation in fault-locator precision due to using different current signal characteristics or descriptors. An error lower than 1% was obtained in the best case. Two more alternatives are also presented where errors were lower than 4%; such results validate the approach presented here.

Keywords

• power quality
• fault location
• signal characterisation
• ANFIS networks