New Fault Location System for Power

Transmission Lines Using Composite Fiber-

Optic Overhead Ground Wire (OPGW)

This paper appears in: Power Engineering Review, IEEE

Issue Date : Oct. 1989

Abstract

This paper describes a new method of locating the section where an electrical fault occurs on a power
transmission line using Composite Fiber-Optic Overhead Ground Wires (OPGWs). This fault location (FL)
method locates the fault section by measuring the current induced in the ground wire (GW), i.e., OPGW
in this system. The OPGW currents are measured at many towers which divide the power line into
sections. Data is transmitted to a central monitoring station as an optical signal through the optical
fibers included within OPGW. Prior to the development of this new FL system, a simulation of power line
faults using Electro-Magnetic Transients Program (EMTP) was conducted. As a result, the following two
points were clarified; 1) Since OPGW current changes with line condition, it is quite difficult to define a
fixed threshold level to locate fault sections accurately. 2) The distribution pattern of OPGW current
along the power line has clear features around the fault point, so it is possible for electric power
engineers to find the fault section by relative comparison. Therefore, the FL algorithm to be developed
should have the capability of finding out the fault section with a human-like method of recognition.
Fuzzy Theory, an attempt to include this kind of humanlike way of thinking into computers, was
investigated and a new FL method applying this theory was developed. Fig. 1 shows the OPGW current
distribution pattern of a typical grounding fault calculated by EMTP as an example.