Series arc fault detection and line selection based on Non-Intrusive Load Monitoring Method

Abstract

The series arc faults are a common cause of household fires. Low fault current amplitude is the reason for the difficulties in implementing effective arc detection systems. The paper presents a novel arc detection and line selection method. It can be easily used in the low-voltage Alternate Current (AC) network to enhance the functionality of the Non-Intrusive Load Monitoring (NILM) system with arc detection for the whole household. Unlike existing methods, the proposed approach exploits not only current signal but also voltage signal time domain analysis. In the case of arc fault detection, line selection is based on the mean values of changes in the consecutive current signal periods during the arc and comparing them with current waveforms for each appliance in non-arc conditions. Tests have been conducted with up to 6 devices operating simultaneously in the same circuit. Single period arc detection accuracy was 98.47%, with recall at 97.5% and F-score of 0.983. The arc detection accuracy in terms of the IEC 62606:2013 standard was 99.33%, Fscore of 99.33. Line selection accuracy was 91.57%.