A new fault location method for distribution networks using sparse measurements

•Proposing a new state estimation based fault location method.•The proposed method incorporates all measurements into calculations to provide the best result.•Minimizing the impact of measurement and load estimation errors and identifying gross errors.•Accurate results for different fault types, positions, and resistances.

In response to the growing demand to improve reliability and quality of power supply, distributed monitoring devices are gradually being implemented in distribution networks. On the other hand, utilities are demanding more accurate and reliable fault location systems to reduce the economic impact of power outages. This paper presents a novel method that takes full advantage of all available measurements to provide an accurate fault location. The developed method first uses an iterative state estimation based algorithm to find the nearest node to the fault location. It then examines all lines connected to the selected node and locates the fault. The performance of the proposed method is studied by simulation tests on a real 13.8 kV, 134-node distribution system under different fault scenarios. The results verify the accuracy of the algorithm and its robustness even under uncertain measured data. The method robustly handles measurement errors, and is applicable to any distribution network with laterals, load taps and heterogeneous lines.