Broken Conductor Detection in Low Voltage Network Using TT Transform

Broken conductor faults in power distribution systems may be challenging for conventional protection schemes in detection/operation, since these faults produce no fault current. These faults, if remain undetected, can cause various problems such as risks to human lives and damage to electrical equipment. In this paper, the transient behavior of broken conductor faults in a low voltage system is extracted via an experimental setup that is then used to develop a fault detection algorithm using high frequency components of the current signal. Results show that the proposed method can identify broken conductor faults, while remaining secure against normal load switching events such as miniature circuit breaker (MCB) operation.