High Impedance Fault Location in Distribution Systems: A Novel Approach With Enhanced Metrics and Intelligent Algorithms

Locating faults in a distribution system (DS) is a challenging task, especially with the increasing integration of distributed generation (DG). Among the various fault types in DSs, high impedance faults (HIFs) are particularly difficult to address due to their low fault currents and erratic behavio...

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Main Authors: Gabriela Nunes Lopes, Pedro I. N. Barbalho, Jose Carlos Melo Vieira, Denis V. Coury
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: IEEE 2025-01-01
Series:IEEE Access
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Online Access:https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/11048546/
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author Gabriela Nunes Lopes
Pedro I. N. Barbalho
Jose Carlos Melo Vieira
Denis V. Coury
author_facet Gabriela Nunes Lopes
Pedro I. N. Barbalho
Jose Carlos Melo Vieira
Denis V. Coury
author_sort Gabriela Nunes Lopes
collection DOAJ
description Locating faults in a distribution system (DS) is a challenging task, especially with the increasing integration of distributed generation (DG). Among the various fault types in DSs, high impedance faults (HIFs) are particularly difficult to address due to their low fault currents and erratic behavior, often resulting from contact between a conductor and a low-conductivity surface. Despite of the numerous papers addressing HIFs, there is still a lack of consensus on the most effective metrics and techniques for their detection and location. This article proposes a comprehensive analysis aiming to identify the adequate metrics for artificial intelligent algorithms to locate HIFs in a DS in the presence of DG. This analysis provides valuable insights into developing more efficient HIF location methods. Therefore, these insights are applied to develop a new HIF location method, based on artificial intelligence. The analysis is carried out by evaluating the correlation between almost 11,000 metrics with the HIF distance. The metrics showing the strongest correlation with HIF location are then used as input data for intelligent algorithms designed to accurately estimate the HIF position. Subsequently, these algorithms are evaluated and compared based on their error rates in locating HIFs. Finally, a new intelligent-based method for HIF location in DSs is proposed and extensively evaluated, including a comparison with existing approaches and a generalization analysis, which showed high successful rates and strong potential for practical application.
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spelling doaj-art-54c138f0cd0f4c2ca73afb7a2a968d452025-08-20T03:27:17ZengIEEEIEEE Access2169-35362025-01-011310846610848010.1109/ACCESS.2025.358235911048546High Impedance Fault Location in Distribution Systems: A Novel Approach With Enhanced Metrics and Intelligent AlgorithmsGabriela Nunes Lopes0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3540-6401Pedro I. N. Barbalho1https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9344-3796Jose Carlos Melo Vieira2https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0732-9453Denis V. Coury3https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6581-3470Department of Electrical Engineering, School of Engineering, Federal University of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, BrazilDepartment of Electrical and Computer Engineering, São Carlos School of Engineering, University of São Paulo, São Carlos, São Paulo, BrazilDepartment of Electrical and Computer Engineering, São Carlos School of Engineering, University of São Paulo, São Carlos, São Paulo, BrazilDepartment of Electrical and Computer Engineering, São Carlos School of Engineering, University of São Paulo, São Carlos, São Paulo, BrazilLocating faults in a distribution system (DS) is a challenging task, especially with the increasing integration of distributed generation (DG). Among the various fault types in DSs, high impedance faults (HIFs) are particularly difficult to address due to their low fault currents and erratic behavior, often resulting from contact between a conductor and a low-conductivity surface. Despite of the numerous papers addressing HIFs, there is still a lack of consensus on the most effective metrics and techniques for their detection and location. This article proposes a comprehensive analysis aiming to identify the adequate metrics for artificial intelligent algorithms to locate HIFs in a DS in the presence of DG. This analysis provides valuable insights into developing more efficient HIF location methods. Therefore, these insights are applied to develop a new HIF location method, based on artificial intelligence. The analysis is carried out by evaluating the correlation between almost 11,000 metrics with the HIF distance. The metrics showing the strongest correlation with HIF location are then used as input data for intelligent algorithms designed to accurately estimate the HIF position. Subsequently, these algorithms are evaluated and compared based on their error rates in locating HIFs. Finally, a new intelligent-based method for HIF location in DSs is proposed and extensively evaluated, including a comparison with existing approaches and a generalization analysis, which showed high successful rates and strong potential for practical application.https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/11048546/High impedance faultsfault locationdistributed generationartificial intelligence
spellingShingle Gabriela Nunes Lopes
Pedro I. N. Barbalho
Jose Carlos Melo Vieira
Denis V. Coury
High Impedance Fault Location in Distribution Systems: A Novel Approach With Enhanced Metrics and Intelligent Algorithms
IEEE Access
High impedance faults
fault location
distributed generation
artificial intelligence
title High Impedance Fault Location in Distribution Systems: A Novel Approach With Enhanced Metrics and Intelligent Algorithms
title_full High Impedance Fault Location in Distribution Systems: A Novel Approach With Enhanced Metrics and Intelligent Algorithms
title_fullStr High Impedance Fault Location in Distribution Systems: A Novel Approach With Enhanced Metrics and Intelligent Algorithms
title_full_unstemmed High Impedance Fault Location in Distribution Systems: A Novel Approach With Enhanced Metrics and Intelligent Algorithms
title_short High Impedance Fault Location in Distribution Systems: A Novel Approach With Enhanced Metrics and Intelligent Algorithms
title_sort high impedance fault location in distribution systems a novel approach with enhanced metrics and intelligent algorithms
topic High impedance faults
fault location
distributed generation
artificial intelligence
url https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/11048546/
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AT josecarlosmelovieira highimpedancefaultlocationindistributionsystemsanovelapproachwithenhancedmetricsandintelligentalgorithms
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