Fault location in underground power networks: A case study

The present paper addresses the topic of fault location in power networks with cable lines. In the era of smart-grid the demand of intelligent measurement systems capable of providing quickly and with high accuracy the right location of faults in power networks is growing fast. Many proposals can be found in literature relevant to different approaches. Some commercial instrumentation is also available on the market for this purpose. Protection relays implementing this feature can either be found. This paper presents the experimental results of a measurement campaign carried out in the MV power network in the city of Milan (Italy). For this purpose the local Utility (A2A SpA) is using a commercial distributed measurement system (the ALTEA FLS) for locating both faults and also fast transients due to customers' loads operation. Preliminary experimental results have shown good performance. They have been better analyzed in order to investigate over the reliability and the accuracy of such measurement system.