A real-time monitoring and diagnostic procedure for electrical distribution networks

A monitoring and diagnostic approach based on the circuit theory is presented. The proposed procedure allows a continuous control of all network branch admittances, including conductances associated to insulation levels between phases and phase-to-ground. The detection of possible anomalies can be suitably used to activate proper protection or maintenance procedures. The monitoring process allows to prevent sudden, large-scale supply interruptions which might give rise to very serious problems in the operation of secondary networks. In addition, corrective maintenance of an electrical system can be usefully scheduled subdividing the network into different zones in order to achieve both considerable maintenance savings and remarkable quality improvements in distribution services. Finally, the possibility to promptly eliminate small anomalies can avoid more serious damages involving large network areas. An extensive simulation work was performed to test the proposed algorithm and results, mainly concerning the diagnosis of insulation between phases, are reported and discussed.