Method for Online Detection of Arcing in Low-Voltage Distribution Systems

This paper presents an algorithm for online detection of arcing in low-voltage (230 V, 50 Hz) distribution systems. Electromagnetic radiation has been used as a feature for discrimination between arc and nonarc signals. The output of the electromagnetic radiation sensor has been analyzed in the spectral domain using the log-spectral distance metric for the detection of arcing. For validation of this method, a testbench comprising an arc generation setup has been developed in the laboratory. The algorithm has been tested against arc and arc-mimicking normal signals using the testbench to validate its effectiveness. Further, the algorithm is implemented online using xPC target (an embedded platform) for studying the feasibility and accuracy of its online implementation. A system based on this method can continuously monitor the health of a distribution network and, thus, can be very helpful in safeguarding against fire hazards due to electric arcing.