IET Generation, Transmission & Distribution

Research Article

ISSN 1751-8687
Kalman filter based incipient fault detection Received on 7th June 2014
Revised on 28th April 2015
method for underground cables Accepted on 8th June 2015
doi: 10.1049/iet-gtd.2015.0040
www.ietdl.org

Teymoor Ghanbari ✉
School of Advanced Technologies, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran
✉ E-mail: Ghanbarih@shirazu.ac.ir

Abstract: An incipient and self-clearing arcing fault can be utilised as a precursor of an imminent permanent failure for
monitoring of underground cables. Due to very short duration of the incipient faults, generally they cannot be detected
by conventional protection relays. This study presents a new method for detection of incipient cable failures by using
measured current and voltage at one end of the cable. The incipient faults are detected using an innovation signal
calculated from the measured fault current via a Kalman filter. Upon change detection by the innovation signal, the
change is checked for discriminating possible incipient fault from other similar conditions. The proposed method is
evaluated using several simulations and field data collected from a real network. The results confirm that the method
can achieve high accuracy and speed for detection of cables incipient faults.

1 Introduction
Underground cables may experience incipient, self-clearing arcing
faults before occurrence of imminent failure. The incipient faults
typically occur near peak of voltage waveform and quench at the
first zero crossing of current waveform. These events may last a
sub-cycle or multi-cycle [1]. Root causes of the incipient cable
faults are electrical overstress in conjunction because of
mechanical defects and deterioration of the insulation due to aging
process, unsuitable environmental condition, and mechanical
damage to the cable [2].
The main cause of the incipient fault is penetration of water into
the cable splices. In this condition, an insulation breakdown occurs
by an arc. The arc leads to rapid water evaporation and hence the
high vapour pressure inside the splice extinguishes the arc quickly
[1, 2]. Typical duration of this process is about one-quarter cycle
to multi-cycle [1]. The characteristics of the incipient faults
depend on the location of the fault on the cable and incipient
angle of the fault on the voltage waveform [2]. Conventional
over-current protections cannot detect incipient faults, due to the
short duration and low magnitude increment of these faults [2].
Generally, conversion of an incipient fault to a permanent failure
is a gradual phenomenon and may last several months. During
conversion of an incipient fault to a permanent failure, frequency
of the incipient fault occurrence increases. An accurate and fast
algorithm is essential for developing the conventional protection to
detect the incipient faults and preventing the relevant catastrophic
failures [3, 4].
Several approaches have been presented in literature for detection
and location of faults for underground cables [4–20]. However, the
techniques in which voltage and/or current are employed via
one-terminal monitoring are more attractive [4, 5]. In [13] a good
survey is presented regarding fault location techniques of electrical
distribution networks. Some methods are based on the main
characteristics of voltage and current waveforms during incipient
fault condition [14, 15]. The methods are based on voltage
and current processing in the frequency domain, time domain, and
frequency-time domain. Some of well-known fault detection and
location approaches are the methods based on travelling wave [6],
impedance [7, 8], and intelligent system [9, 16]. In the frequency
domain based approaches by using some tools such as wavelet and
S-transform, the harmonic components of the arc current and/or
voltage are utilised [10, 17]. The time varying characteristics of
arc voltage and/or current of the incipient faults such as positive
and negative sequences as well as current peaks are analysed in
the time domain based techniques [7, 8]. It should be noted that
due to sub-cycle duration of the incipient faults, some of these
techniques have essential restrictions. Having a suitable arc model
in such study is very important. Different arc models have been
proposed in literature, which can be used for detection and
location of cable incipient fault [18–20]. In [19] an incipient fault
detection and location algorithm has been proposed taking into
account the fault arc voltage. In [20] the model of self-clearing
faults is considered as simple as possible so that the proposed
incipient fault location algorithm can be applied to complex
circuits of centrally monitored substations. In [21] fault diagnosis,
location, and characterisation in a typical power cable are
investigated. The fault resistance is characterised and location of
the defect determined using a combination of infra-red imaging
and time-difference-of-arrival location.
Generally incipient faults may occur as either sub-cycle or
multi-cycle faults. The sub-cycle type always occurs near the peak
of voltage, at which the arc ignites and lasts until the arc current
crosses zero. The multi-cycle type also occurs near the peak of
voltage, at which the arc ignites but lasts 1–4 cycles. This fault
type self-clears when the arc is quenched [1].
The incipient faults commonly occur in cable splices following
penetration of moisture into the splice. The moisture leads to the
insulation break down and the generated arc evaporates the
moisture. This phenomenon creates high pressure vapours which
extinguishes the arc and self-clears the fault. Some of the unique
characteristics of these faults are as follows:
(i) Generally the incipient faults starts near the positive and
negative peaks of the voltage waveform and finishes when the arc
cools off at zero crossing of the arc current
(ii) The arc voltage waveform resemble a distorted square wave
with a blip occurred in each half cycle of the arc voltage. In
addition, arc current and voltage are in phase
(iii) Fault duration may be less than one cycle (even 1/4 cycle) to
four cycles
(iv) Frequency occurrence of the incipient faults increase over time
and it rapidly increases before converting to permanent fault
(v) Due to low increment of current amplitude and duration of the
incipient fault, they cannot be detected by conventional over-current
relays

IET Gener. Transm. Distrib., 2015, Vol. 9, Iss. 14, pp. 1988–1997
1988 & The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2015
 However, the other transients in power systems such as: lightening
stroke, switching action, load change, etc., may have similar
characteristics. Therefore, finding an accurate and reliable
technique for development of the conventional protections to
detect incipient cable faults are important.
In this paper, a new proficient incipient fault detection technique is
proposed for underground cables monitoring. In the proposed
method, the incipient faults are initially detected by using a
residual signal. The fundamental component of the current is
estimated using a Kalman filter (KF) with slow dynamic. The
wavelet transform as a suitable alternative for KF has some
restrictions, such as the impact of mother wavelet selection,
adequate detection thresholds on the results, the need for different
sampling frequencies for different frequency sub-bands, extreme
sensitivity of noise superimposed on the signal, and expensive
computational burden. Upon fault occurrence, the estimated signal
cannot track the fault current increment during the initial moments
after the incipient fault occurrence. Therefore, a residual signal
which is the difference between the measured current and its
estimated value is generated. Following the current estimation, arc
voltage is also estimated using another KF with fast dynamic. A
square wave is fitted to the estimated voltage using minimum least
square (MLS) method. Whenever a change is detected by the
residual signal, correlation of the estimated voltage and the fitted
one is calculated to confirm or cancel the initial decision.
Performance of the proposed method is evaluated by plenty of
simulations and using field data collected from a real network. The
results confirm the capabilities of the method.

2 Proposed incipient faults detection algorithm

In the proposed approach, incipient fault is detected using an

innovation signal generated by the estimated and measured fault
currents. A KF with slow dynamic is utilised to estimate
fundamental component of incipient fault current. Since the
estimated signal cannot swiftly track the measured current
increment during the initial moments after the fault occurrence, a
difference occurs between the measured and estimated currents’ Fig. 1 Proposed algorithm for incipient fault detection
values. This difference is used as current residual signal for
change detection and initial decision in the proposed method.
Parallel with the current estimation, fundamental component of where, cn denotes an additive zero-mean random term, considered to
arc voltage is also estimated using another KF with relatively fast represent the possible model errors, including slight amplitude,
dynamic. A square wave is fitted on the estimated arc voltage phase, or frequency deviations.
using MLS method. Furthermore, voltage residual signal is Current signal noise due to the measurement and other factors can
calculated by subtracting the estimated voltage signal and the fitted be superposed on the pure current signal, therefore:
square wave. After the initial decision by the current residual
signal, in the last step, variance of the voltage residual signal
yn = Sn + vn (3)
during each half-cycle of power frequency is calculated to confirm
or reject the initial decision. In Fig. 1 a schematic of the proposed
algorithm is presented. In this flowchart, Vn and In are the where, Sn is the fundamental component of the current signal and vn
monitored voltage and current in the beginning of the feeder, n is is a zero-mean random term, representing the noises.
time index, Vsn, and Isn are the estimated voltage and current, To construct a KF to estimate the fundamental component of the
Vfitted is the fitted square wave, Rn and Cn are the residual and current signal, the dynamic equation in (2) needs to be converted into
correlation signals as well as T1n and T2n are the selected a state space form. Therefore, (2) and (3) for the fundamental
thresholds for Rn and Cn, respectively. component can be rewritten as follows:
In the estimation process, the fundamental component of the
current is estimated in real time by a KF with slow dynamic. A Xn+1 = MXn + bcn
mathematical model of the current in state space variable form is (4)
used as KF model. A discrete sinusoid current signal with an yn = hT Xn + vn
arbitrary amplitude and phase is considered for the model. Let us
consider the current signal as: where,

Sn = a cos (v0 n + w) (1)


2 cos (v0 ) −1
Xn =[S
˙ n Sn−1 ]−1 , M=
˙ ,
1 0
where, ω0 = 2πf0/fs, in which f0 and fs are the current signal and
sampling frequencies, respectively, and n is the time index. b=[1
˙ 0]T , and h=[1
˙ 0]T
Using basic trigonometric identities, Sn can be recursively
computed as follows:
The dynamical current is now completed. The fundamental
component of the current signal could be estimated using classical
Sn+1 + Sn−1 = 2 cos (v0 )Sn + cn (2) iterative KF equations presented in the Appendix. The residual

IET Gener. Transm. Distrib., 2015, Vol. 9, Iss. 14, pp. 1988–1997
& The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2015 1989
signal is calculated as: As a result, k0 and k1 are calculated by the following equation:
 N 
  N 
RCn = Sn − yn (5) N nDt k0 Varc,s (n)
n=1
N N n=1
= N (8)
n=1 nDt n=1 (nDt)2 k1
n=1 (nDt)Varc,s (n)
The same formulation is required for calculation of the voltage
residual signal. Consequently, depending on incipient angle of the
fault occurrence, the residual signal has positive or negative Average of the fitted signal without DC component for each
variation. Consider stationary process models (qn = q) and half-cycle drives the fitted square wave on the arc voltage as follow:
stationary observations (rn = r) in steady state condition of the filter
(see Appendix). Noise covariance matrixes q and r act as tunable 1 m
parameters to balance the dynamic response of the filter. Ratio q/r x(n) = (g(n) − k0 ) (9)
m n=1
rather than their actual values determines the dynamic response. It
can tune a balance between sensitivity to noise and dynamic
response of the filter. The second residual signal, which is calculated by subtracting the
In the MLS fitting, suppose that the original signal has N samples. estimated voltage signal and the fitted square wave, is used for
Amplitude and phase of the fitted square wave to the arc voltage is calculation of the second criterion. The second criterion is defined
such that estimated the most resemblance to the signal is achieved. as variance of square of the voltage residual signal during each
The squared error is defined as follows: half-cycle of power frequency and calculated by:


N Cm = Var[(Varc,s − x)2 ] (10)
SS = [Varc,s (n) − g(n)]2 (6)
n=1
in which m denotes number of the half-cycle.
Different simulations show that for the incipient fault conditions,
in which, Varc,s(n) is the voltage signal and g(n) is the fitted one
criterion Cm increases considerably more than the other conditions
such as load variation, capacitor switching, etc. It should be noted
g(n) = k0 + k1 (nDt), v = 2 p f0 (7) that, the estimated arc voltage has more resemblance with a square
wave than the measured arc voltage. Therefore, it is used to
where f0 is the power system frequency and Δt is the sampling time. compare with the square wave in this research. Based on this fact
The ki coefficients are determined in such a way that the error is that the arc voltage waveform resembles a distorted square wave,
minimised. similarity between the estimated arc voltage and the fitted square

Fig. 2
a The network, in which the field data have been measured
b Location of the voltage and current sensors

IET Gener. Transm. Distrib., 2015, Vol. 9, Iss. 14, pp. 1988–1997
1990 & The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2015
Fig. 3 Typical sub-cycle incipient fault
a Upper: measured current and its estimation lower: the residual signal
b Measured voltage and its estimation, fitted square wave, and the variance signal (simulation)
wave essentially increases during the incipient faults. This similarity
is used as the second criterion for confirming or cancelling the initial
decisions.
3 Considerations relevant to implementation of
the method in the under study system
In Fig. 2a single line diagram of a part of the network, in which the
field data have been measured are presented. In this figure,
information of the network and some feeders are presented. The
measured data are recorded from F2, which has 6 km underground
cable (type XLPE).
In the under study system, several reports have been recorded by
the operators regarding anomaly operation of some power electronic
devices such as uninterruptable power supply systems. Following
these complaints, it is cleared that they are relevant to strike out of
their protection system. A power quality monitoring instrument
was installed in the system. The logged current and voltage
waveforms clear that the origin is similar to fault occurrence, but it
has not lead to trip the breakers. The acquired information raised
suspicions about the possibility of an incipient fault in an
underground cable feeder (F2), which has several splices. By
inspecting the splices, an anomaly sound is heard near one of
them and more investigation appeared some signs of insulation
burning.
In the experiment, the voltage and current sensors are installed at
the substation in the beginning of the feeder. In Fig. 2b location of
the voltage and current sensors are illustrated.
IET Gener. Transm. Distrib., 2015, Vol. 9, Iss. 14, pp. 1988–1997
& The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2015
The recorded voltage and currents are logged using a data logger,
which has sampling time 128 µs and it can be set to log voltages and
currents of the system in abnormal condition. In this research, the
field data are recorded by the data logger, and then the gathered
data are processed in MATLAB software using a program which
is based on the proposed algorithm.
However, the proposed algorithm of the monitoring system for
detection of incipient fault can also be implemented on a DSP or
even dsPIC (16-bit or 32-bit) processor as an incipient fault
detector relay. Since the intervals relevant to process of the
measured voltage and current are about one cycle of power
frequency, conventional voltage and current sensors can be utilised
in this application. Therefore, the already installed CT and PT in
the substation’s feeder can also be used for this relay.
Selection of the voltage and current sensors and their locations
have essential role in the monitoring system. Some of the
important factors for selection of the sensors are as follows:
(i) Suitable frequency response
(ii) Cost-effectiveness
(iii) Size
(iv) Noise and interference immunity
One can select more suitable sensors based on the above
mentioned factors.
Of course, more details regarding implementation of the proposed
protection in real applications need more investigations, which are
out of concern of this research.
1991
Fig. 4 Typical multi-cycle incipient fault
a Upper: measured current and its estimation lower: the residual signal
b Measured voltage and its estimation, fitted square wave, and the variance signal (simulation)

Fig. 5 Typical load change

a Upper: measured current and its estimation lower: the residual signal
b Measured voltage and its estimation, fitted square wave, and the variance signal (simulation)

IET Gener. Transm. Distrib., 2015, Vol. 9, Iss. 14, pp. 1988–1997
1992 & The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2015
Fig. 6 Typical capacitor bank switching
a Upper: measured current and its estimation lower: the residual signal
b Measured voltage and its estimation, fitted square wave, and the variance signal (simulation)
4 Results and discussion
The network shown in Fig. 2 is simulated in electro-magnetic
transient program (EMTP) including combination of an overhead
line and an underground cable. The cable is considered as 9
pi-sections with detailed model including capacitors. Different
scenarios, which are considered to evaluate the proposed
algorithm, are as follows:
(i) Different fault distances from the monitoring location in the
cable
(ii) Different fault resistances
(iii) Different fault types including balanced, unbalanced, grounded,
and ungrounded
(iv) Different fault inception angles
(v) Different unbalanced/balanced load variations
(vi) Different loads and capacitors switching
4.1 Simulation results
The real network in which the field data have been logged is
simulated in EMTP with the same specifications. In the following
some typical simulations from the abovementioned scenarios are
presented. In Fig. 3 a typical sub-cycle incipient fault is
considered. As shown in this figure, fault occurs at 0.1 s and last
for 4 ms. By use of the current residual signal shown in Fig. 3a
and a suitable threshold, fault can be detected <3 ms. Meanwhile,
the instance of fault clearance can also be determined by this
IET Gener. Transm. Distrib., 2015, Vol. 9, Iss. 14, pp. 1988–1997
& The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2015
signal, which leads to the second peak for the current residual
signal. In Fig. 3b the monitored voltage, estimated voltage, fitted
signal, and variance signal for such case are presented. It can be
observed that Cm dramatically increases in the fault condition.
Thus, by selection of a suitable threshold one can confirm the
previews decision half-cycle of power frequency after the initial
decision. It should be noted that, inherent delay of the Cm criterion
is about half-cycle of power frequency.
Fig. 4 shows the results for a typical multi-cycle incipient fault. In
this case, fault occurs at 0.1 s and last for 25 ms, as well. The current
residual signal in Fig. 4a straightforwardly determines instances of
incipient fault occurrence and clearance. Moreover, using the Cm,
one can confirm the initial decision, too. As shown in Figs. 3 and
4, the current residual signals vary about 4 units. Moreover, the
variance signal increases in three steps in case of the
multi-incipient fault, because the resemblance of each half-cycle
more than the previews one after the fault occurrence. In Fig. 5
the results in case of a load change are presented. Using the
current residual signal, one can detect a change in condition of the
system. Due to low amplitude of the current residual signal
variation, the initial decision is that the change is not an incipient
fault and may refer to a normal condition of the system. From
relatively low variation of the Cm, one can confirm the initial
decision.
One of the other similar conditions is capacitor bank switching,
which can also be discriminated by the proposed method. Fig. 6
shows the results in case of a capacitor bank switching. As shown
in this figure, peak of the current residual signal is lower than the
residuals relevant to the incipient faults. If T1 is set at the possible
minimum value (for having more sensitivity), this condition is
1993
Fig. 7 Typical sub-cycle incipient fault
a Upper: measured current and its estimation lower: the residual signal
b Measured voltage and its estimation, fitted square wave, and the variance signal (recorded field data)

Fig. 8 Typical sub-cycle incipient fault

a Upper: measured current and its estimation lower: the residual signal
b Measured voltage and its estimation, fitted square wave, and the variance signal (recorded field data)

IET Gener. Transm. Distrib., 2015, Vol. 9, Iss. 14, pp. 1988–1997
1994 & The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2015
Fig. 9 Typical load change
a Upper: measured current and its estimation lower: the residual signal
b Measured voltage and its estimation, fitted square wave, and the variance signal (recorded field data)

Fig. 10 Typical capacitor bank switching

a Upper: measured current and its estimation lower: the residual signal
b Measured voltage and its estimation, fitted square wave, and the variance signal (recorded field data)

IET Gener. Transm. Distrib., 2015, Vol. 9, Iss. 14, pp. 1988–1997
& The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2015 1995
detected as an incipient fault. However, considering Fig. 6b, the
initial decision is straightforwardly rejected because variation of
Cm is negligible.
It is observed that, the variance signals vary slightly in case of load
change or capacitor switching, while it increases dramatically in case
of the incipient faults. Hence, the second criterion can reliably
confirm or reject the initial decision about half-cycle of power
frequency after fault occurrence.
4.2 Experimental results
In the following, the algorithm is evaluated with some recorded field
data from a real network. Figs. 7 and 8 show two typical sub-cycle
incipient faults. The incipient faults occur around positive and
negative peaks in Figs. 7 and 8, respectively. As shown in Fig. 7,
by using the residual signals, one can detect the incipient fault in
<3 ms. Furthermore, the initial detection can be confirmed about
half-cycle of power frequency after the fault occurrence. Fig. 8
also confirms capabilities of the proposed method in case of
another incipient fault occurring around negative peak. It can be
observed that when the incipient fault occurs around positive and
negative peaks, the current residual signal will be increased to
positive and negative values, respectively. However, Cm increases
in both the cases.
Fig. 9 shows the results for a typical load change. Based on
remarkable change in the current residual signal, this case is
detected as incipient fault in the initial decision. However,
considering variation of the Cm, the initial decision is rejected and
this condition is recognised as a normal condition of the system.
In Fig. 10, recorded data from a typical capacitor switching is
utilised to evaluate performance of the proposed method. As
shown in this figure, one can detect the change by the current
residual signal, but possibility of incipient fault occurrence can be
rejected by considering variation of the Cm in this case.
The method is evaluated by different other simulations and
experiments in the abovementioned scenarios. The results confirm
the performance of the proposed method. It is revealed that the
method can detect incipient faults <5 ms and confidently confirm
the decision in less than half-cycle of power frequency.
4.3 Comparison with some other similar methods
Many of the reports for incipient fault phenomenon of underground
cables have been dedicated to location rather than just detection of
incipient faults. However, most probable locations of incipient
faults such as splices are distinct. Therefore, this paper deals with
incipient fault detection topic and the proposed algorithm is only
compared with some reported incipient fault detection methods.
The accuracy of the proposed incipient fault detection method is
compared with other voltage and current based methods by
evaluating the methods using gathered voltages and currents from
150 different simulated cases of the mentioned scenarios and 16
recorded incipient faults in practice. To have a fair judgment, the
methods which are only based on measured current are not
considered. The first method is a simple algorithm based on the
five main characteristics of cable incipient fault listed in the
introduction [14]. The second method is based on artificial neural
network [16]. The third method is based on S-transform and
support vector regression [17]. The detection accuracies of
the methods are tabulated in Table 1. It can be observed that the
proposed algorithm has the maximum accuracy compared with the
rest of the methods.
Table 1 Compression of the incipient fault detection methods
Methods Detection accuracy, %
first method 89.2
second method 80.6
third method 83.5
the proposed method 91.5
1996
5 Conclusion
Due to importance of utilising high and medium voltage cables in the
modern electrical networks, underground cable monitoring is essential.
In this paper, a new incipient fault detection method based on KF for
underground cables is proposed. In the method, first the incipient fault
is detected by using current residual signal calculated by the measured
current and its estimated signal. Then, the initial decision is confirmed
or rejected by calculation of the variance signal. Performance of the
proposed technique is evaluated using different simulations and
experiments. The simulation and experimental results show that
the proposed method can reliably detect incipient faults and
discriminate these faults from other similar transients. The main
outlets of the results are (a) capability of the method for detection
of incipient fault in <5 ms (b) confirm or reject the initial detection
in less than half-cycle of power frequency (c) high reliability of
the method due to its detection is rely on two criteria based on
current and voltage signals (d) the experimental results agree well
with the corresponding simulation results, which not only confirms
the simulations, but verifies the high performance of the method in
practice (e) reliability of the method from the sensitivity and
accuracy points of view are also concluded considering the
simulation results of different similar scenarios.
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IET Gener. Transm. Distrib., 2015, Vol. 9, Iss. 14, pp. 1988–1997
& The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2015
7 Appendix Xn in the nth stage using the observations y1 to yn−1, and
X̂n+ =
˙ Ê{Xn |yn , . . . , y1 }is the a posteriori estimate of this state
KF process: vector after using the nth observation yn. Pn− and Pn+ are the state
vector covariance matrices before and after using the nth
(i) Set initial estimate of the state vector and its error covariance observation, respectively and are defined similarly.
matrix (X̂n− and Pn− ) (iv) Compute the error covariance for the update estimate using:
(ii) Compute the filter gain at instant n by: Pn+ = Pn− − Kn hT Pn−
Kn = (Pn− h/(hT Pn− h + rn )) (v) Project the filter ahead as: Pn+ = Pn− − Kn hT Pn− X̂n+1 = An X̂n ,
(iii) Update the estimate using the measurement at instant n by: P̂n+1 = An Pn+ ATn + qn bbT
X̂n+ = X̂n− + Kn (yn − hT X̂n− ) where, ˙ c2n },
q=E{ rn =E{v
˙ 2
n }, (vi) Start from 2
−
X̂n =˙ Ê{Xn |yn−1 , . . . , yn } is the a priori estimate of the state vector

IET Gener. Transm. Distrib., 2015, Vol. 9, Iss. 14, pp. 1988–1997
& The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2015 1997