Apparatus and method for fault positioning in electrical grids

A system for detection of a fault location in an electric grid, the system comprising:

• a plurality of traveling wave fault recording units configured to be installed at locations in the electric grid, to detect and record arrival times of traveling waves generated by occurrence of a fault or an event in a given feeder line, and
• a processing arrangement communicably coupled with the plurality of traveling wave fault recording units, wherein the processing arrangement is configured to:
• receive, from the plurality of traveling wave fault recording units, information about the recorded arrival times of the detected traveling waves and the location coordinates thereof in the electric grid,
• identify a primary fault location candidate in a faulty feeder line in the electric grid based on the received information,
• receive, from one or more sensor units, installed in the faulty feeder line, one or more measured current values during the occurrence of the fault, wherein a given measured current value corresponds to a fault current value in the faulty feeder line when the given measured current value represents a phase-to-phase, phase-to-neutral, or phase-to-ground fault,
• identify one or many secondary fault location candidates in the faulty feeder line, based on a processing of the received fault current value for each corresponding branch from amongst a plurality of branches of the faulty feeder line,
• determine the fault location based on a comparison of the identified primary fault location candidate and the one or many secondary fault location candidates in the faulty feeder line, and
• wherein the processing arrangement is further configured to:
• calculate line distances from each traveling wave fault recording unit of multiple pairs of the plurality of traveling wave fault recording units to the primary fault location candidate in the faulty feeder line, based on time differences between the recorded arrival times of the detected traveling waves for each traveling wave fault recording unit of the multiple pairs of the plurality of traveling wave fault recording units;
• and
• identify the primary fault location candidate in the faulty feeder line based on the calculated line distances.