Intermittent earth fault passage indication in compensated distribution networks

An intermittent or restriking earth fault is a special type of earth fault that is common mostly in compensated cable networks. A great deal of effort has gone into protection against this type of fault. However, locating this fault has not received much attention. Therefore, there is a need to have a reliable method for locating this fault to repair the damaged cable. In this paper, the principles of a new method developed for locating transient intermittent earth faults on distribution networks are presented. The proposed method employs negative and zero sequence currents, and no voltage measurement is required, which means the proposed method has the potential to reduce cost when implemented in practice. It is intended mainly for typical intermittent earth faults in cable distribution networks where the typical fault resistance is in the range of a few ohms. Real data obtained from practical field tests is used to explain the phenomenon. A series of disturbance recordings obtained from field tests validate the proposed method.