Method and apparatus for ground fault protection

An apparatus for monitoring and controlling a power distribution system, comprising:

• a plurality of circuit breakers connected to a power source of the power distribution system;
• a node electronics unit in communication with a respective one of said plurality of circuit breakers, said node electronics unit being located remotely from its respective one of said plurality of circuit breakers;
• and
• a central processing unit in electrical communication with each of said node electronics unit, said central processing unit controlling each of said node electronics units to take a substantially synchronous sample of a condition of said power source so that said central processing unit can perform a comparison of said condition of said plurality of circuit breakers to determine a fault in the power distribution system.

A method for monitoring a power distribution system that includes a plurality of circuit breakers, the method comprising:

• sampling an electrical power condition at each of the plurality of circuit breakers in a synchronous manner;
• transmitting said electrical power condition of each of the plurality of circuit breakers to a central control processing unit;
• determining a presence and a location of a ground fault in the power distribution system based on said electrical power condition, wherein determining the ground fault presence and location comprises determining a ground fault presence and location based on current values received from a first set of current sensors and determining a ground fault presence and location based on current values received from a second set of current sensors wherein the first set of sensors is different than the second set of sensors;
• isolating the ground fault by opening one or more of said plurality of circuit breakers supplying power to the location;
• and
• resolving a conflict between a first determination of the ground fault based on the first set of sensors and a second determination of the ground fault based on the second set of sensors.