Accelerated Protection Methodology for Broken Conductor Protection - An Implementation Case

Broken Conductor is caused when a fault breaks up the line cable and remains hanging at the pole or touches in a high impedance surface. This situation brings problems for traditional protection systems that acts in response only to an overcurrent measures. In certain situation, the temporary and permanent fault distinguishing can take long time until the final protection trip. This paper presents an Accelerated Protection based on dead-time recloser adaptation to improve the power system protection. The goal of this methodology is to adapt the dead-time reclosing, according to the protection zone, after a determined number of trials. As results, the paper brings real cases of implementation, considering ten feeders of a electrical substation, where the proposed methodology is analyzed on-field. The outcome of the work is the result of a R&D project hosted by ENEL Distribuição São Paulo called Urban Futurability.