Fault Location in Meshed Distribution Systems Using a Minimum Number of Digital Fault Recorders

This paper presents a fault location method that can be used for radial or meshed distribution networks containing Distributed Energy Resources (DERs). The main advantage of the proposed approach is that it requires a minimum number of DFRs determined by the maximum degree among distribution network buses. Fault location is determined using the traveling wave based fault location algorithm. The IEEE 123 Node Test Feeder is used to validate the proposed method under different fault conditions using the EMTP RV and Matlab simulation tools.