Faulty Feeder Detection for Single-Phase-to-Ground Fault in Distribution Networks Based on Transient Energy and Cosine Similarity

When a single-phase-to-ground (SPG) fault occurs in distribution networks, the existing faulty feeder detection techniques do not present reliable detection results. This paper introduces a novel faulty feeder detection method based on transient energy and cosine similarity. First, the fault characteristics of transient zero-sequence current (TZSC) are analyzed. It is found that the fault transient characteristics of transient components decrease as the grounding resistance increases. Second, to fully maintain the fault transient features, a fundamental frequency component (FFC) shifting method is introduced to remove FFCs. Next, the transient currents without containing FFCs are utilized to generate two fault indicators: transient energy within the first half power cycle and cosine similarity after the first half power cycle. After that step, to effectively merge the two fault indicators, the Laplace distribution is utilized. The fault possibility of each feeder can be quantitatively estimated by calculating the cumulative density function (CDF). Finally, the feeder with the maximum fault possibility is determined as the faulty feeder. The effectiveness and applicability of the proposed detection method are verified in the radial distribution network and the modified IEEE 34-bus distribution network. The results of the field test also indicate the feasibility of the proposed SPG detection method.