System and method for detecting ground faults in power distribution grids

A method of detecting faults in three-phase power lines, comprising:

• sampling current from the three phase power lines using a set of three sensors each located on a respective power line of the three phase power lines;
• processing the current samples from each of the three power lines and translating them to a representation of the current in the respective power lines using a processor provided in each of the sensors;
• wherein one of the sensors serves as a master sensor and two of the sensors serve as slave sensors;
• transmitting from the slave sensors to the master sensor the representation of the current using a transceiver provided in each sensor;
• calculating at the master sensor, a representation of a three phase current in the three phase power lines from the representation of the current from the master sensor and the slave sensors;
• and
• identifying at the master sensor, a fault in the three phase power lines responsive to the calculated representation of the three phase current.

A system for detection of faults in a three-phase power line, comprising:

• a set of three sensors located each on a respective power line of the three phase power lines;
• wherein each sensor is configured to sample current from the respective power line on which the sensor is located;
• wherein each of the sensors comprises a processor configured to process the current samples and translate them to a representation of the current samples in the respective power line;
• wherein each of the sensors comprises a transceiver;
• wherein one of the sensors serves as a master sensor and two of the sensors serve as slave sensors;
• wherein each of the three sensors is configured to generate a single phase trigger identifying a fault in a single phase when a change in the current samples exceeds a predetermined threshold value;
• wherein the master sensor is configured to communicate identified fault information to a central server via a network of sets of three sensors deployed on the three phase power lines;
• wherein when a slave sensor generates a single-phase trigger the master sensor is configured to request the slave sensors to transmit information of the representation of the current samples at the slave sensor;
• and the master sensor is configured to generates a zero sequence representation of the current in the power line from the representation of the current samples;
• when the master sensor detects in the zero sequence a current above a predetermined threshold or a change of zero sequence current above a predetermined threshold, the master sensor detects a fault in the power line and notifies the central server.