Fault section location of collector lines based on phase comparison of zero-sequence current using the Kaiser window

Abstract

To address the limitations of existing single-phase grounding fault location methods for collector lines in wind farms, especially their insufficient adaptability to multi-branch topologies, this paper proposes a fault section location method based on phasor comparison using Kaiser windowed Fast Fourier Transform (FFT). Collector lines in large-scale wind farms generally exhibit a multi-branch topological layout similar to traditional radial distribution networks, and existing methods are limited in terms of positioning accuracy and reliability under such complex structures. Analysis shows that when a single-phase grounding fault occurs in a section or branch of the collector line, there are significant phasor differences between the faulty section and healthy sections, as well as between the faulty branch and healthy branches. Utilizing this feature, this paper adopts the Kaiser windowed FFT algorithm, which effectively suppresses spectral leakage, to calculate the mean value of phasor difference sequences between measurement points, establishes fault discrimination criteria, and achieves accurate location of faulty sections and branches. Simulation verification demonstrates that the proposed method has good adaptability to multi-branch collector lines and can significantly improve the accuracy of fault location.