Enhanced Local Measurement Based Online Fault Location Technique for Low Voltage DC Distribution Network

Recent advancements in Low carbon technologies has directed the interest of researchers toward Low Voltage Direct Current (LVDC) distribution network as an alternative of typical AC distribution system. LVDC network reduce the chances of losses during power conversions and provide additional controllability and flexibility. However, immediate fault detection and locating fault accurately is still a key challenge due to the power converters in LVDC, because power converters control the fault current which makes the fault detection and estimation of fault location difficult. Some of the communication based existing techniques for fault location are either rely on quick communication network or data synchronization. Further, the existing methods needed to be improved in terms of required time for location estimation and estimation error. Therefore, an enhanced local measurement based online fault location strategy is proposed with reduced estimation error for LVDC distribution network, which can further be used for immediate post fault maintenance. The purpose of this study is to locate different types of DC faults (pole-to-pole, pole to ground) in LVDC distribution network and optimize the estimation error in fault location by considering the contribution of multiple converters (i.e., connected within network) in fault current. A simplified LVDC distribution network is constructed by PSCAD/EMTDC, and the proposed algorithm is simulated by MATLAB. The proposed algorithm is validated against different types of faults on LVDC network and shown to be more accurate and reliable than existing techniques.