ReviewTime domain analysis for fault location in power distribution systems considering the load dynamics

•A time domain technique for fault location using a dynamic load model is presented.•A fault locator that includes the exponential recovery load model is presented.•The voltage and current signals during the transient and steady states are considered.•This technique uses sequence components to estimate the distance to the faulted node.•A sensibility analysis for uncertainties in the power system parameters is performed.

This paper presents a time domain technique used to solve the fault location problem for power distribution systems considering the dynamic load model. The proposed technique uses the voltage and current signals during the transient and steady states, measured at the main distribution substation, through time and phasor domain iterative analysis. The load dynamics is considered by its estimation at each sampling step. The accuracy of the proposed technique is determined by using a fault database obtained from the IEEE 34 bus distribution system. The fault locator is tested considering uncertainties associated with the fault type, fault resistance, voltage magnitude and angle unbalance at the source, load magnitude, power factor and the power system frequency. The obtained results show that the fault locator accuracy depends on the time of data acquisition, and the obtained performance is adequate for utility applications.