Introduction

Electrical energy, after being produced at generating stations (TPS, HPS, NPS, etc.) is transmitted to
the consumers for utilization. This is due to the fact that generating stations are usually situated
away from the load centers. The network that transmits and delivers power from the producers to
the consumers is called the transmission system. This energy can be transmitted in AC or DC form.
Traditionally, AC has been used for years now, but HVDC (High Voltage DC) is rapidly gaining
popularity.

Faults In Electric Power System

A fault in an electric power system can be defined as, any abnormal condition of the system that
involves the electrical failure of the equipment, such as, transformers, generators, busbars, etc.
The fault inception also involves in insulation failures and conducting path failures which results
short circuit and open circuit of conductors.
Under normal or safe operating conditions, the electric equipments in a power system network
operate at normal voltage and current ratings. Once the fault takes place in a circuit or device, voltage
and current values deviates from their nominal ranges.
The faults in power system causes over current, under voltage, unbalance of the phases, reversed
power and high voltage surges. This results in the interruption of the normal operation of the
network, failure of equipments, electrical fires, etc.

Types Of Faults

Two broad classifications of faults are:

(i) Symmetrical faults
(ii) Unsymmetrical faults

Symmetrical Faults
Symmetrical faults also known as three phase fault or balanced fault can be defined as the
simultaneous short circuit across all the three phases.
This type of fault occurs infrequently, for example, when a mechanical excavator cuts quickly
through a whole cable, or when a line, which has been made safe for maintenance by clamping all the
three phases to earth is accidentally made alive or when due to slow fault clearance, an earth fault
spreads across to the other two phases.
Symmetrical faults can be further classified as:
a) L-L-L Fault (triple line fault)
b) L-L-L-g Fault (triple line to ground fault)
Unsymmetrical Faults
Unsymmetrical faults also known as unbalanced faults can be classified as below:
a) L-g Fault (line to ground fault)
b) L-L Fault (line to line fault)
c) L-L-g Fault (double line to ground Fault)
Single line to Ground (L-g) Fault
A short circuit between any one of the phase conductors and earth is called a single line to ground
fault. It may be due to the failure of the insulation between a phase conductor and the earth, or
due to phase conductor breaking and falling to the ground

Line to line (L-L) Fault

A short circuit between any two phases is called a line to line or phase-to-phase fault

Double line to Ground (L-L-g) Fault

A short circuit between any two phases and the earth is called a double line to ground or a two-
phase to ground fault.

Effects Of Faults

Heavy short circuit current may cause damage to equipment or any other element of the system due
to overheating and high mechanical forces set up due to heavy current.
 Arcs associated with short circuits may cause fire hazards. Such fires, resulting from arcing, may
destroy the faulty element of the system. There is also a possibility of the fire spreading to other parts
of the system if the fault is not isolated quickly.
 There may be reduction in the supply voltage of the healthy feeders, resulting in the loss of
industrial loads.
 Short circuits may cause the unbalancing of supply voltages and currents, thereby heating rotating
machines.

Current Situation
At distribution side whenever fault occurs, the relative circuit breaker will trip & then the
maintenance team will go for patrolling to identify the fault location, which is very time consuming
process. Because of this system reliability will decreases, and revenue losses also increases.
To increase system reliability, to decrease outage time & to decrease revenue losses we need to
identify fault location as soon as possible.
To locate the fault as soon as possible we are going to use “Fault Passage Indicator (FPI)

Fault Passage Indicator (FPI)

An Overhead Line Fault Passage Indicator detects and indicates faults that occur in an electrical
distribution network. It monitors the system 24×7 for fault occurrence and reduces downtime time
by quickly identifying the fault location. A Fault Passage Indicator is installed under live conditions
with the help of a hot stick and an adapter.
How does a Fault Passage Indicator work?
One Fault Passage Indicator is usually clipped onto each phase of the circuit allowing the utility or
Operation & Maintenance firm to monitor current and faults in each phase. By placing the FPI’s at
regular intervals along the line, the device can identify faults in the downstream section from its
point of installation by monitoring the electromagnetic field surrounding the conductor

. During the fault condition, the magnetic field around the conductor increases rapidly as a high
current will flow through that path for a fraction of time (di/dt) & then suddenly breaks to zero as
circuit breaker trips, this condition is sensed by the FPI & gives the alarm physically on-site &
remotely to SCADA centre.

In the case of a non-communicable type, the FPI will give alarm physically on-site by blinking the
RED Ultra bright LED & in the case of a communicable type the FPI gives alarm physically on-site
as well as send the data to the SCADA centre through DCU over GSM/GPRS.
The illustration below provides a basic topology of a communicable system.

Advantages
The main aim of an Overhead Line Fault Passage Indicator is to reduce the physical efforts needed
to identify the faults & that occur in distribution networks. There is a significant reduction in the
time, effort and manpower required for identifying faults
Communication
In recent times, however, the use of communications has widely spread to distribution grids. This
opens the door to diverse communication channels and protocols, where there is no actual consensus
between DNOs. Some of the channels that have been in use for communicative FPIs are radio-
frequency, mobile communications (2G, 3G), fiber optics, WAN, power line carrier,
LAN, CAN, Ethernet RJ-45 port (typically), RS485, GSM (eg. by means of SMS notifications) or via
a Remote Terminal Unit (RTU). Concerning the protocols, some examples are the IEC 60870-104,
IEC 60870-101 (power line carrier, low bandwidth), Telnet, SSH, HTTP (Web UI), Modbus, CAN or
DLMS/COSEM. 34
Moreover, with communications, the state of the FPIs can be monitored via SCADA interfaces,
which implies knowing the faulted section immediately at the control center. This allows the crew to
be sent directly to the switch to be maneuvered. This has led to a great reduction of the ENS, which
often justifies the cost of adopting communicative FPIs.
In general terms, the use of communications has been a major step in FPIs and improvement of
their functionalities. Despite the obvious advantages, the use of communications and remote
indication do not replace the visual indications, still useful in case of communication non-operation,
thus becoming a back-up indication.

Simulation Of FPI

The equipment used in the simulation are discussed below.

 Alternator (AC voltage source)
 Load bulb
 Resisters
 ACS712ELCTR-30A-T Hall effect sensor
 Arduino Uno
 LED
 Virtual terminal

The hall effect sensor is connected in with this circuit so it can measure the current and give the
output to the arduino uno. Here we have used two power sources of +5V DC to give power supply
to the hall effect sensor and to the arduino uno. LED is connected for the fault indication.

Arduino Uno senses the current value from the hall effect senser continuously, so when ever we are
creating the fault, current flow of the line will be increases. So we have to program Arduino as per
our need. Arduino programming is given in figure 4.2. Now in fault condition the current exceeds
the threshold value, which we have programmed the arduino then arduino will give indication by
turning on the LED. LED is giving the indication of high current flow from the line (or Fault in the
line). Once the LED turns on we have to turn off it by reset button which is given at the pin A1 of
Arduino, so if we creating the transient fault it will glow & we have to reset it by button given at pin
A1.
conclusion
In this chapter we have seen the simulation and the results of the simulation of the FPI. From this
we can say that the FPI gives the fault indication by glowing the LED. So if we have mounted this in
the system we can get the fault location between operating and non operating FPIs. By this we can
reduce the fault detection time