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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY
Identification of High-Impedance Earth Faults in
Neutral Isolated or Compensated MV Networks
Ari Nikander, Member, IEEE, and Pertti Järventausta, Member, IEEE
Abstract—This paper introduces novel methods for the identi-
fication and location of very high impedance one phase-to-earth
faults in medium-voltage (MV) networks in order to improve the
electrical safety and reduce the number and duration of outages to
customers. The examination is restricted to neutral compensated
and isolated MV systems which are the prevailing neutral treat-
ment practices in Europe. The main target of the study was the
development of the new method for the identification and loca-
tion of earth faults up to very high fault resistances. The method
is technically applicable in actual use because it utilizes standard
measurements available at all 110/20 kV primary substations. No
new measuring instruments or devices are needed. The major al-
gorithm is based on the calculation of the fault resistance for every
MV feeder. Field experiments in real networks have also been con-
ducted for testing the methods. The indication method presented
can identify and locate faults approximately up to 100–200 k .
Index Terms—Distribution network, earth fault,
impedance earth fault, medium-voltage (MV) network.
I. INTRODUCTION
E ARTH FAULTS or secondary faults developing from
earth faults form the most common fault group in Nordic
medium-voltage (MV) networks. In Finland, more than 80%
of the annual outage costs of customers are due to faults in
the public MV distribution networks. Most of the outage costs
are accumulated during the time taken to locate and isolate
the fault. Faults may also cause a hazard to the customers
and the public which is an essential issue considering the
high-impedance earth faults (HIEFs) which cannot be detected
and located by applying conventional feeder protection. The
early indication and location of developing earth faults would
considerably improve the safety and reduce the time needed for
fault location.
The earthing of the neutral of the MV network has a major in-
fluence on the system not only steady state but also dynamic be-
havior during an earth fault. Electric companies functioning in
Finland have extensive experience in operating the 20 kV sys-
tems with isolated neutrals. This practice leads to small earth
Manuscript received December 13, 2013; revised June 07, 2014; accepted
July 10, 2014. This work was supported in part by the National Smart Grids and
Energy Markets (SGEM) research program. Paper no. TPWRD-01397-2013.
The authors are with the Department of Electrical Engineering, Tampere Uni-
versity of Technology, Tampere FI-33720, Finland (e-mail: ari.nikander@tut.fi;
pertti.jarventausta@tut.fi).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TPWRD.2014.2346831
0885-8977 © 2014 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.
See http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
1
fault currents. The fault current can be further limited by con-
necting a suitable reactance between the neutral point of the net-
work and the earth. This so-called Petersen coil has a positive
effect on the extinction of the earth fault arc too. Neutral com-
pensated MV networks are widely used in Europe. In the Nordic
countries, MV networks have mainly isolated or compensated
neutrals. The neutral compensated MV networks have increased
rapidly during the past years due to, for example, increasing un-
derground cabling also in rural areas and high-quality require-
ments of electricity distribution. Customers have become less
tolerant of even short interruptions of supply. These days, short
interruptions due to autoreclosing are taken into account in net-
work business regulation.
An HIEF leads to very low fault current whose magnitude
high- can be only some tenths of amperes. Thus, the detection of such
faults is a very challenging task. The continuous supervision
of each MV feeder in order to make the early detection of the
developing earth faults possible is clearly needed. It supports
preventive maintenance strategies too.
In a general sense, the term “HIEF” means an earth fault
whose resistance is above the tripping range of the conven-
tional feeder protection. HIEF is defined as a fault with a fault
impedance from 10 k up to several hundred kilo-ohms. In a
general sense, “fault indication” means the detection of the ex-
istence of a fault somewhere in the network. In this paper, “earth
fault location” means the determination of the faulty feeder.
This meaning is often used in the international literature too.
It may also mean locating a fault along the feeder. Then, the
distance to a fault is estimated.
The main motive for the indication of HIEFs is electrical
safety. No live parts that can cause dangerous hazardous volt-
ages for humans are allowed. For example, in Sweden, earth
faults of up to 20 k fault impedance are to be detected when
the capacitive earth fault current of a 20 kV network is 50 A
at the most. The mandatory limit for line disconnection is 5 k
[1]. The secondary target is anticipation of developing phase-
to-earth faults and avoiding the interruption for customers. With
the help of fault indication, the zone affected by the developing
fault can be limited before an interruption.
Although the touch voltage regulations [2] do not require the
tripping of HIEFs, such faults may cause unsafe situations. Con-
ventional feeder protection cannot even detect an earth fault
with high fault impedance.
II. CONVENTIONAL INDICATION OF HIEFS IN NEUTRAL
ISOLATED OR COMPENSATED NETWORKS
In overhead line networks, HIEFs may appear due to, for ex-
ample, trees leaning against a conductor or when a conductor
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2 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY
falls to the ground with high resistivity. These faults also de-
velop when the load-side end of the broken conductor has an
earth contact. Faults with covered conductors often have very
high impedance. A broken overhead line pin insulator, cable ter-
minal, or faulty surge arrester can also cause a HIEF. All such
faults tend to evolve into a full-scale earth fault. The location
of HIEFs is largely based on information from the public. The
situation is problematic from the safety point of view.
The fault current with HIEF is very small and difficult to dis-
tinguish from current due to capacitive unbalance of the system.
The second problem is that there are almost always very small
variations of neutral voltage in the sound system too. These vari-
ations can be from conditions such as:
• weather conditions (e.g., snowfall, rain, thunderstorms);
• switching operations (change of galvanic length and un-
balance of system);
• opening or closure of disconnector poles at slightly dif-
ferent times;
• adjustment of compensation coil.
These changes of neutral voltage are difficult to distinguish
from HIEFs. This type of fault can even reduce a neutral voltage
by accidentally compensating the capacitive unbalance of the
system. Thus, the monitoring of only the effective value of the
neutral voltage may be ineffective. The detection of the HIEF
can, to some degree, be achieved by neutral voltage relays. The
lowest chosen voltage threshold value depends on the neutral
voltage present during the normal operating state.
According to [3], the typical resistance of an unseasoned tree
is in the range of 20–80 k . According to [4], the typical fault
resistance that is composed of an unseasoned tree is approxi-
mately in the range of 15–200 k , including the resistance of
the tree and its grounding resistance. These resistance values
are valid in those seasons when the earth is not frozen. In the
winter, much higher resistances, ranging up to several hundreds
of kilo-ohms or some megohms can be found. Most faults of
this type are out of range of the neutral overvoltage relays.
III. INDICATION OF HIEFS
A. Neutral Isolated and Compensated Networks
There is a group of methods developed to detect phase-to-
earth faults using steady-state data. These methods are based
on the calculation of the phase-to-earth resistance of the feeders
[5]–[7]. In [6], the method is based on the superposition of the
voltage signals of a certain frequency for the detection of low-
current phase-to-earth faults.
In [5], [8], and [9], three methods are presented for the
detection of resistive single-phase-to-earth faults in a neutral
compensated system. The algorithm called DESIR is based
on the comparison of the residual currents of the feeders or
their variations. The method called DDA also uses the varia-
tion of the residual currents. In addition, the variation of the
neutral voltage, phase-to-earth voltages, and the values of the
phase-to-earth admittances of the feeders are needed [5], [8].
The DDA algorithm requires a periodic injection of a residual
current by the automatic tuning system for the arc suppres-
sion coil. The influence of the fault resistance, fault duration,
and the frequency of transient oscillations on the accuracy
of the algorithm are evaluated in [9]. Reference [3] presents
a corresponding method for earth fault indication. The fault
impedance can be determined in terms of the measured voltages
and the zero-sequence impedance of the network. The method
detects the existence of the fault somewhere in the network
and faulty phase. The change of zero-sequence current of the
individual feeder caused by an earth fault is compensated by
using the zero-sequence impedance of the appropriate feeder
[3]. Reference [10] proposes a phase asymmetry parameter for
improving the reliability and efficiency of the HIEF detection
process especially with neutral compensated systems.
References [11] and [12] present a wavelet-based
high-impedance fault detector for arching faults. In [4], the
condition monitoring and fault detection of the MV covered
conductor lines has been studied based on partial-discharge
(PD) measurements.
B. Neutral Grounded Networks
The behavior of the solidly earthed or low-resistance earthed
MV system is completely different with an earth fault compared
to neutral isolated and compensated systems. Thus, the indica-
tion of the high-impedance fault (HIF) in a network with such
neutral earthing practices is a completely different task than in
a network with an isolated or resonant earthed neutral system.
Earth faults in networks with a solidly earthed neutral with an
equipotential earth bounding system are normally detected by
simple overcurrent relays. Fuses are also commonly used for
the overcurrent protection. An HIF in solidly earthed networks
is characterized by a fairly low fault current and random arcing
between a downed conductor and earth [13]. HIFs typically
occur when an overhead line conductor breaks and falls to the
ground. This results in an energized high-voltage (HV) con-
ductor coming within the reach of the personnel. In addition,
arcing accompanies many HIFs, resulting in a fire hazard. Al-
though the fault current with HIF may be several tens of am-
peres, it is unlikely that conventional protection (e.g., fuses, re-
lays, reclosers) will operate [14]. The dimensioning of the fuse
can be, for example, 100 A. Phase relays function as an overcur-
rent protection and the settings are typically much higher than
the current rating of the fuses. Thus, HIFs must be cleared man-
ually in such systems [13].
Generally, a “high impedance fault” is a broad classification
for all faults not classified as overcurrent faults. Hence, there
is no unique set of characteristics attributable to such a wide
range of fault activity. One fault may arc, another may not. One
may have high harmonic content, another may not. One may
result from a broken conductor with a corresponding load loss.
Another might result in increased current from contact with a
tree limb without breaking the conductor [13]. Because of the
widely varying characteristics of HIFs, it is unrealistic to expect
a single algorithm to detect even the majority of faults reliably
and safely.
There is a large range of methods for the detection of HIFs
in solidly or low-resistance earthed distribution networks based
on energy variance and randomness algorithms [15], harmonic
analysis [16], fuzzy set theory [17], and artificial-intelligence
methods [14], [18].
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NIKANDER AND JÄRVENTAUSTA: IDENTIFICATION OF HIGH-IMPEDANCE EARTH FAULTS 3

IV. IDENTIFICATION OF HIEFS

With permanent earth faults, the overall aim is to indicate the
presence of an earth fault and the faulty feeder, to determine the
distance to a fault, to isolate and remove a fault in order to reduce
outage costs, and to ensure as high a safety level as possible. The
unfaulted part of the feeder is restored as quickly as possible.
The aim of this study was to develop a method to indicate and
locate HIEFs in order to improve the electrical safety and reduce
the number and duration of outages to customers.

A. Basic Objectives and Requirements

Calculation of the fault resistance using the measured neu-
tral voltage and sum current of the feeder requires information
on the phase-to-earth susceptance of the feeder. The fault cur-
rent calculation is currently based on the phase-to-earth suscep-
Fig. 1. Equivalent circuit of an MV distribution system during an earth fault.
tance values obtained from the manufacturers of the conduc-
tors and cables. Updating the susceptance values can be made,
for example, via the supervisory and control data-acquisition
(SCADA) system. With neutral compensated systems, a mea- phase-to-phase capacitance;
surement-based method for the determination of the phase-to- neutral-to-earth impedance;
earth susceptance of the feeder is also available. Therefore, cor-
fault impedance;
rect information on the “electric length” of the feeder corre-
sponding to the actual switching state of the feeder is available. fault location.
The unbalance of the phase-to-earth admittances produces a The neutral voltage during a fault can be calculated using the
low neutral voltage for the network during the healthy state too. sum of phase-to-earth voltages as follows:
The sum currents of every feeder include a current component
caused by the natural unbalance of that feeder. It is important (1)
to eliminate the influence of this natural unbalance on the mea-
sured neutral voltage and sum currents. When the phasor of the When phase currents are considered, the phase-to-phase ca-
change of the neutral voltage or sum current is used instead of pacitances must also be taken into account. The charging
the single measured value, the influence of the unbalance on cal- currents of the phases can be calculated using the charging ca-
culation results can be avoided. pacitance (C). The charging capacitance per phase can be calcu-
lated as the sum of the phase-to-earth and phase-to-phase
B. Modeling of Phase Currents During a Phase-to-Earth Fault capacitances ) as follows:
Fig. 1 presents the equivalent circuit of an MV system for
the calculation of the distribution of charging currents and volt- (2)
ages during an earth fault. Only the steady state of the system
at its rated frequency is considered. The three-phase voltage The charging phase current during a healthy state can be cal-
source is supposed to be balanced and sinusoidal. The results culated using the following formula:
are also valid for the loaded system because loads do not have
(3)
any significant effect on the neutral voltage or sum currents. At
first, phase-to-earth capacitances are supposed to be balanced. where is the symmetric phase-to-earth voltage.
In Fig. 1, the following symbols are used.
C. Currents of Balanced Feeders
, , balanced positive-sequence source
voltages; The following subsection presents phase currents during the
healthy state of the system. The direction of the capacitive cur-
, , phase-to-earth voltages during an earth rent from a substation to a feeder is defined as positive. Leakage
fault; resistances and longitudinal impedances of the lines are ignored
neutral voltage; in this context because very low currents are studied. The phase
currents of Feeder i during a healthy state (Subscript H) can be
, , charging currents of phases during an
expressed by
earth fault;
current of the neutral-to-earth impedance;
and (4)
earth fault current at the fault location;
phase-to-earth capacitance per phase;
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4 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY

where

, and load currents of phases A, B and C;

, and unbalanced phase-to-earth voltages
of phases A, B, and C in the healthy
state.
The sum current during a healthy state of Feeder i is

(5)

where is the neutral-to-earth voltage during the healthy

state. If the system is completely symmetrical, the neutral
voltage and, therefore, the sum current are zero with the healthy
state. The phase currents of faulty Feeder i (faulty Phase A) Fig. 2. Simplified equivalent circuit of a neutral compensated distribution
during a faulty state (Subscript F) can be expressed by system.

phase-to-earth capacitance of the background

and network per phase;
(6) inductance of the compensation coil;
The sum of the symmetric source voltages is zero. The sum resistance of the neutral-to-earth resistor.
of load currents is also zero regardless of a possible load unbal-
ance. Therefore, the sum current of three phases during a faulty D. Sum Current of the Unbalanced Feeder
state of Feeder i is The identification of very high fault impedances is difficult
due to the neutral voltage prevailing during normal operating
(7) conditions of the network. It is mainly caused by the natural un-
balance of the feeders. It means that the phase-to-earth admit-
where is the neutral-to-earth voltage during a faulty state. tances (Fig. 2) are not exactly the same as a consequence of the
Normally, a network consists of several feeders. imperfect or missing transposition of phases and the geometry
Fig. 2 presents the simplified equivalent circuit of an MV of the cross-arm constructions.
system. The total sum current of individual feeder i consists of two
The sum current of the faulty feeder is equal to the fault cur- parts: one component due to the neutral voltage and an-
rent fed by the background network including the neutral-to- other component due to the unbalance The phase-to-earth
earth impedance if it exists. The sum current of the faulty feeder susceptances are replaced by the corresponding phase-to-earth
can be calculated using admittances (11). The effect of the phase-to-earth conductances
is also thereby included
(8)
(11)
where
The sum current of healthy feeder i can be determined by
phase-to-earth voltage of the faulty phase;
phase-to-earth capacitance of the faulty feeder.
The sum current of the healthy feeder is
(12)
(9) where
where is the phase-to-earth capacitance of the healthy phase-to-earth admittance of Feeder i;
feeder.
, , phase-to-earth admittances of phases
The earth fault current is equal to the phase-to-earth voltage
A, B, and C of Feeder i;
of the faulty phase divided by fault impedance. Considering all
components of the earth fault current, (10) can be written. When , , symmetric source voltages (Fig. 2).
an additional neutral-to-earth resistor is used in parallel with the The sum current of faulty Feeder i can be determined by
coil, the current of the resistor branch must also be added

(10) (13)
The theory of compensated power systems defines the unbal-
where ance of the system using the unbalance coefficient [19]. The
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NIKANDER AND JÄRVENTAUSTA: IDENTIFICATION OF HIGH-IMPEDANCE EARTH FAULTS
total phase-to-earth capacitance depends on the electrical length
of the feeders of the system. It is advisable to use the total
phase-to-earth capacitance of the system in its normal
state as a reference. Then, the sum of the unbalances of the
feeders is equal to the unbalance of the entire system. The value
for can be obtained by measurements or using network
data. By using coefficient and capacitance , the sum
current of the healthy feeder i can be written in the following
form:
(14)
where
unbalance coefficient of feeder i;
value for a normalizing capacitance;
, phase rotation operators ( and ).
The unbalance is a normalized complex parameter indi-
cating the phase and the magnitude of the asymmetry of the
three phases to earth. Its value depends on the topology and the
nature of the system (overhead lines, underground cables). The
typical value of is between 0.001 and 0.03 [20]. Analogously
with the feeder unbalance, it is possible to define the unbalance
of the entire system using the corresponding admittance and ca-
pacitance values of the entire network.
The fault impedance can be calculated for all feeders by ap-
plying the generalized formula based on (13)
(15)
The sum current component caused by an unbalance
does not depend on the neutral voltage. Thus, the unbalance
can usually be ignored with low-impedance earth faults. With
a HIEF, the significant part of the total sum current is caused
by an unbalance. When a low-impedance earth fault exists, the
phase-to-earth admittance of the healthy feeder can be calcu-
lated fairly accurately by using only the sum current of the
feeder and the neutral voltage. With the healthy state of the net-
work when the neutral voltage is low (normally 0.5%–10%),
the phase-to-earth admittance must be calculated using two dif-
ferent values of the neutral voltage and sum current. The use of
the changes of the neutral voltage and sum current eliminates the
influence of the unbalance on the result. An earth fault causes a
change to the sum current of the healthy feeder and
to the sum current of the faulty feeder as defined by
the following formulas:
(16)
(17)
where
5
neutral voltage during the healthy state of the
network;
neutral voltage during the faulty state of the
network.
(16) can also be applied for determining for a healthy
feeder. According to (17) the fault impedance for all feeders can
be calculated applying the following formula [5].
(18)
A benefit of (15) compared to (18) is that no deviation of the
neutral voltage or sum current is needed for the calculation of
fault impedance if the current remains constant.
V. ADVANCED METHOD FOR THE CALCULATION OF FEEDER
FAULT RESISTANCE
The measuring accuracy does not allow the accurate de-
termination of the phase-to-earth conductance of the healthy
feeder which is normally in the order of magnitude of 1–10 .
According to real field measurements, the calculated values of
the phase-to-earth conductance are of the order of magnitude
10–100 for healthy feeders which cannot be physically
correct. Thereby the real part of the calculated phase-to-earth
admittance can be considered to be partly a virtual result from
the measuring inaccuracies. It is more reasonable to suppose
to be zero. Instead, the calculated phase-to-earth suscep-
tance has a reliable value representing the electric length of the
feeder according to experiences from field tests. More reliable
values for fault resistances and thereby more sensitive fault
indication compared to earlier known methods can be achieved
if the phase-to-earth admittances are assumed to be capacitive
susceptances and only an imaginary part of the determined
phase-to-earth admittance is utilized. Thus the reactive compo-
nent of the sum current is separated and it alone is used for the
calculation.
The measured signals during a HIEF are very low compared
to rated signal levels of instrument transformers. Thus the per-
centage measuring errors of the instrument transformers may
be high. The changes of the measured sum currents and neu-
tral voltage caused by a HIEF are likewise very small and in
some cases the neutral voltage may even reduce due to a HIEF.
Because of very small changes the voltage and current errors
and angle errors have presumably the same direction with both
measurements. This is the case especially when modern sen-
sors are used but also with instrument transformers. It is ob-
vious that measuring errors does not change significantly if the
change in the measured quantity is very low. Thus a major part
of the measuring errors will be eliminated when the difference
phasors of neutral voltage and sum current are used instead of
single phasors.
The indication of the faulty phase and calculation of the fault
resistance start in every feeder when (19) has been fulfilled.
The phasor is the neutral-to-earth voltage phasor resulting
from an earth fault (Fig. 3). The change of the neutral voltage
may also be caused by some other event of the system as an
earth fault. Phasor represents the sum current of the
feeder due to an earth fault. The current component due to the
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6 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY

Due to the network unbalance, the neutral voltage may

be of any direction. If the neutral voltage changes, for example,
due to a switching operation, it is possible that some phase-to-
earth voltage lags phasor by 90 . The likelihood of this
situation is small, however, but at least the calculated fault resis-
tance indicates that none of the feeders are faulty. The reasoning
for the faulty phase is only a precondition of the calculation of
the fault resistance.

B. Indication of the Faulty Phase in a Neutral Compensated

System
In a compensated system, the neutral voltage and
phase-to-earth voltage of the faulty phase make a curve
as a function of the fault resistance (Fig. 3). The radius of
the curve depends on the compensation degree. The upper-
most semicircle corresponds to the infinite overcompensation
and the lowest semicircle the unearthed case. With a neutral
Fig. 3. Voltage phasors of a neutral isolated and compensated system when
phase A is faulty. compensated system, it must be taken into account that the
compensation degree of the system affects the phase angle
between phasors and during an earth fault.
unbalance of the feeder remains constant in spite of an earth In a compensated system, the phase angle of phasor
fault. Thus, the influence of the unbalance on the sum current referenced to is negative if the system is undercompen-
will be eliminated when the difference phasor is used. sated and positive if the system is overcompensated. The ab-
The phase angle of is referenced to the phasor . solute value of is close to 90 if the reactive compo-
After that, the reactive component of phasor is calcu- nent of the earth fault current is predominant compared to the
lated using active one. With tuning very close to the resonance, the ab-
solute value of the phase angle is close to 180 . The
(19) phase angle of referenced to can be between
(20) and (undercompensated system) or between 90 and
180 (overcompensated system). With a low compensation de-
where gree, the phase angle is close to 90 and with a highly
overcompensated system, it is close to 90 . The changes of
measured neutral voltage before a change; the neutral voltage caused by, for example, switching operation
measured neutral voltage after a change; are more likely to lead to the situation where the phase angle
of some voltage phasors is within the limits defined be-
specified threshold value of the neutral voltage; fore. Fault resistances for all the feeders are calculated using
reactive component of phasor ; the phase-to-earth voltage whose phase angle fulfills the pre-
viously presented condition and, therefore, the calculated fault
phase angle of referenced to .
resistance indicates that none of the feeders is faulty however.
With resonance tuning, phasor is of the opposite direc-
tion compared to phasor (Fig. 3). In a fully compensated
A. Indication of Faulty Phase in a Neutral Isolated System system, the magnitude of the phasor is always the lowest
Fig. 3 illustrates balanced phase-to-earth voltages compared to other phases.
, unbalanced phase-to-earth voltages of
C. Advanced Method for the Calculation of Fault Resistance
healthy state , unbalanced phase-to-earth
voltages during an earth fault , neutral When information on the faulty phase is available, the fault
voltage of healthy state , neutral voltage due to an resistance of Feeder i can be calculated using (21). The fault
earth fault , and the change of neutral voltage . impedance is supposed to be a pure resistance. Only the reac-
Phase-to-earth voltages , , and are unbalanced tive component of the earth fault current has been applied. Like-
as a consequence of the unbalance of the system. Phase A wise, only the phase-to-earth susceptance is applied. The fault
is assumed to be the faulty one. In a neutral isolated system, resistance is calculated for the faulty phase of all feeders. The
the neutral voltage and phase-to-earth voltage of the same method can be applied in neutral isolated and compensated
faulty phase make a semicircle as a function of the systems. A neutral voltage, phase-to-earth voltage, and sum cur-
fault resistance. This means that the phasor leads the rents of feeders are known as measured values at all 110/20 kV
phasor by 90 during an earth fault irrespective of the substations
fault resistance. The phase, whose voltage lags the reference
phasor by 90 , is interpreted as faulty. According to the
(21)
field measurements, the error margin is typically about 2–3 .
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NIKANDER AND JÄRVENTAUSTA: IDENTIFICATION OF HIGH-IMPEDANCE EARTH FAULTS 7

TABLE I
CALCULATED FAULT RESISTANCES (LENGTH
OF THE FAULTY FEEDER WAS 18 km)
(22)

where

change of sum current of Feeder i;

phase angle of phasor ;
phase angle of phasor referenced to ;
phase angle of phasor referenced to ;
phase-to-earth susceptance of Feeder i.
The method defined by (21) is not very sensitive in relation
to the error of the phase-to-earth susceptance , especially
when the electric length of the faulty feeder is low compared to TABLE II
the background network. CALCULATED FAULT RESISTANCES (LENGTH OF THE
FAULTY FEEDER IN 27 km)

VI. TESTING OF INDICATION METHODS—FIELD EXPERIMENTS

The aim of the field tests was to ascertain the functionality
and sensitivity of the indication methods in real network condi-
tions. The main objective is that the fault indication and loca-
tion can be carried out reliably based on the methods presented
in Section V.
The methods were tested using the measured data collected
from field experiments. The artificial earth faults with the staged
fault resistance were arranged. The standard voltage and cur-
rent measurements of a 110/20 kV substation were utilized. The
error due to measuring inaccuracies included in the calculated
value of the fault resistance normally does not prevent the valid
indication. In practice, the fault resistance value calculated for
a healthy feeder is a completely different order of magnitude
compared to a faulty feeder. Therefore, the faulty feeder can be
detected reliably.
A. Results of the Neutral Isolated System
The field experiments were carried out in normal network
conditions at one primary substation where the neutral of the
20 kV distribution network is isolated from the earth. The net-
work consists mainly of overhead construction. The earth fault
current of the network was about 23 A . The field
experiments were carried out using two lengths of the faulty
feeder, 18 and 27 km, respectively. The fault was situated about
6.5 km from the primary substation. The neutral voltage was
64 V in normal operating conditions as a consequence of unbal-
ance. The cable current transformers with a transformation ratio
of 50/1 were available at the substation. The measurements were
made using one 8-channel Yokogawa measuring instrument and
two 4-channel digital oscilloscopes. The sampling frequency
was 2 kHz, which corresponds to the sampling frequency of
modern feeder terminals. Staged resistors were used to simu-
late a fault resistance. The duration of the artificial fault was
between 5 and 10 s. The duration of the entire recording was 32
s with 2 kHz sampling frequency. The computational tool for
analyzing the test data was Matlab software.
Tables I and II present the fault resistances of the faulty and
one healthy feeder. The fault resistances were calculated for two
lengths of the faulty feeder. The phase-to-earth susceptances
were and for two lengths of
the faulty feeder. The phase-to-earth susceptance of the healthy
feeder was .
By applying (21), an explicit and reliable indication of the
fault, faulty phase, and faulty feeder could be achieved up to
the fault resistance 186 k in all cases. The calculated fault re-
sistances of the healthy feeder were of a totally different order
of magnitude in all cases. The maximum deviation of the phase
angle of the phasor from the ideal value (90 ) was about
2 . The accuracy of the calculated fault resistances was good
and adequate for practical application. The accuracy of the cal-
culated fault resistance or the phase angle did not practi-
cally depend on the magnitude of the fault resistance between
10.2–186.0 k .
B. Results of the Neutral Compensated System
The field experiments with staged fault resistances were car-
ried out in a neutral compensated network during normal net-
work conditions. At the primary substation, there were two par-
allel-connected fixed 17.3 A compensation units and one ad-
justable unit. The compensated current could be adjusted in
3 A steps. The current value 48 A corresponded approximately
to the resonance tuning. The capacitive earth fault current of
the network was thus approximately 83 A . The
network consists mainly of overhead construction but the faulty
 This article has been accepted for inclusion in a future issue of this journal. Content is final as presented, with the exception of pagination.

8 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY

TABLE III VII. PRACTICAL IMPLEMENTATION ISSUES

CALCULATED FAULT RESISTANCES FOR FAULTY AND HEALTHY FEEDERS
The indication methods presented in this paper utilize the
standard measuring information available in all primary sub-
stations for modern numerical feeder terminals or a centralized
protection system. The indication method may also operate in-
dependently as a relay function. Thus, the electric state of all
the feeders can be monitored separately. It can also be imple-
mented as a central protection function utilizing measuring in-
formation collected from the MV bays [21]. The indication of
the earth fault also includes the information on the faulty feeder
and phase. When applied as a centralized functionality, the in-
dication results can be presented centrally and, for example, the
developing rate of the fault resistance can be monitored. After
fault indication, continuous monitoring of the developing fault
resistance makes it possible to evaluate the time available be-
fore tripping. The sensitivity of the practical implementation of
the method is 100–200 k [22].

VIII. CONCLUSION
The method for indicating the high-impedance earth faults
was developed and presented. The method was tested by ar-
ranging the field experiments in neutral isolated and compen-
sated networks. According to the tests, the indication algorithm
was able to detect and locate faults up to 100–200 k . Indi-
cation of the faulty phase and faulty feeder operating reliably,
and the accuracy of the calculated fault resistances seemed to be
adequate for reliable indication. The method is technically ap-
plicable in actual use because it utilizes standard measurements
available at all 110/20 kV substations.

feeder was composed of overhead lines and underground cables.
The neutral voltage in normal operating conditions was about
1363 V with resonance tuning of the coil (83 A). Cable current
transformers with a transformation ratio of 100/1 were avail-
able at the substation. The measurements were made using an
8-channel Yokogawa measuring instrument and a digital four-
channel oscilloscope. The sampling frequency was 10 kHz and
the length of the recording was 1.5 s. The fault was connected by
the switching device situated at the fault location. Two healthy
feeders were also measured and calculated as a reference. Fault
resistances over 40 k reduced the neutral voltage of the system.
Table III presents the fault resistances calculated using (21)
for one faulty and two healthy feeders. The phase-to-earth sus-
ceptance of the faulty feeder, healthy Feeder 1, and healthy
Feeder 2 were , , and , [7] J. J. Zamora, I. Zamora, A. J. Mazón, and K. J. Sagastabeitia, “Optimal
respectively. The term “u” refers to the undercompensated and
“o” to the overcompensated system.
In all cases up to 240 k , the value calculated for fault re-
sistance was obviously the lowest with the faulty feeder. Thus,
fault indication was feasible up to a fault resistance of 240 k .
The condition for a faulty phase of a compensated system de-
fined in Section V-B was valid with every case. Phase angles
of the phase-to-earth voltages of the healthy phases are outside
the defined region. Thus, reliable indication of the faulty phase
could also be achieved.
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Ari Nikander (M'13) received the M.Sc., Licentiate of Technology, and
Dr.Tech. degrees in electrical engineering from Tampere University of Tech-
nology, Tampere, Finland, in 1991, 1998, and 2002, respectively.
Currently, he is a Senior Researcher in the Department of Electrical Engi-
neering, Tampere University of Technology. His main interests focus on the
protection, fault location, and earth fault issues of electricity distribution.
Pertti Järventausta (M'12) received the M.Sc. and Licentiate of Technology
degrees in electrical engineering from Tampere University of Technology, Tam-
pere, Finland, in 1990 and 1992, respectively, and the Dr.Tech. degree in elec-
trical engineering from Lappeenranta University of Technology, Lappeenranta,
Finland, in 1995.
Currently, he is a Professor with the Department of Electrical Engineering
of Tampere University of Technology. His main interests focus on electricity
distribution and the electricity market.