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Locating faults in a power network has been a common chore for utility personnel. However, with the increasing demand in consumer expectations nowadays, fault location time needs to be shortened so that supply can be restored as soon as possible. Considerable amount of time can be saved if an automated mechanism is available to direct the repair crew to the region of fault. Transmission system has already adopted the automated fault location algorithm in their relay. However, implementing such an approach in wide‐area distribution network would require huge capital expenditure and resources. This paper presents a reliable, automated fault location algorithm within a wide‐area distribution network using a limited number of monitoring devices. In addition, the proposed algorithm is also capable of offering a means of predictive maintenance strategy for the utilities. The algorithm is able to identify the faulted branches in a radial distribution system with high accuracy. In most cases, the calculated fault location is very close to the actual one. This algorithm has also overcome the drawbacks of existing techniques for automated fault location in wide‐area distribution network. © 2011 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

This paper proposes an approach to accurately estimate the impedance value of a high impedance fault (HIF) and the distance from its fault location for a distribution system. Based on the three-phase voltage and current waveforms which are monitored through a single measurement in the network, several features are extracted using discrete wavelet transform (DWT). The extracted features are then fed into the optimized artificial neural network (ANN) to estimate the HIF impedance and its distance. The particle swarm optimization (PSO) technique is employed to optimize the parameters of the ANN to enhance the performance of fault impedance and distance estimations. Based on the simulation results, the proposed method records encouraging results compared to other methods of similar complexity for both HIF impedance values and estimated distances.

Malaysia is one of the many countries that experience high lightning related activities. In fact, according to Malaysian Meteorological Department the Ground Flash Density (GFD) in Malaysia, it is rated at the fifth place in the ten most lightning cities of the world, with a high keraunic level, which is 240 thunderstorm days per year, and in other words, a Ground Flash Density (GFD) of 48.3 flashes per square kilometer per year. In the power systems, high keraunic level would contribute to high possibility of power interruptions such as disruption, degradation, damage and downtime. These outages would ultimately lead to revenue losses and reduction of network reliability. These lightning related interruptions may be in terms of direct lightning strikes to the lines or to the equipments in the substation. By the use of Mat Lab GUI (Graphic Users Interface), this study presents a simple computer program which uses the electro-geometric model (EGM) for the designing of substation shielding systems. The EGM uses the concept where the protection zone of a lightning system lies within the radius where the upward channel initiates and propagates through the air terminal to meet the downward leader. This interception point is called "the point of discrimination" and is where the downward leader decides its final jump. The distance at which the last jump occurs is known as the striking distance. With the use of the striking distance and the mathematical equations developed by Young, Brown-Whitehead, IEEE-1992 (IEEE T&D Committee Equations) and IEEE-1995 (IEEE Substations Committee Equations). This project aimed to investigate, understand and analyse the substation protection by means of masts and shield wires. The analysis is extended to account for lightning protection provided by single mast to two masts as well as from single shield wire to double shielding wires. The outcomes of these four equations will be compared.