Optimal Placement of Synchronized Voltage Traveling Wave Sensors in a Radial Distribution Network

A transmission line fault generates transient high frequency travelling waves (TWs) that propagate through the entire network. The fault location can be determined by recording the instants at which the incident waves arrive at various points in the network. In single end-based methods, the incident wave arrival time and its subsequent reflections from the fault point are used to identify the fault location. In heavily branched distribution networks, the magnitude of the traveling wave declines rapidly as it passes through multiple junctions that cause reflection and refraction to the signal. Therefore, detecting the first incident wave from a high impedance fault is a significant challenge in the electrical distribution networks, in particular, subsequent reflections from a temporarily fault may not be possible. Therefore, to identify a high impedance or temporary faults in a distribution network with many branches, loads, switching devices and distributed transformers, multiple observers are required to observe the entire network. A fully observable and locatable network requires at least one observer per branch or spur which is not a cost effective solution. This paper proposes a reasonable number of relatively low-cost voltage TW observers with GPS time-synchronization and radio communication to detect and timestamp the TW arrival at several points in the network. In this regard, a method to optimally place a given number of TW detectors to maximize the network observability and locatability is presented. Results show the robustness of the proposed method to detect high impedance and intermittent faults within distribution networks with a minimum number of observers.