Fast Broken Conductor Detection for Wildfire Prevention

#PES #WiP #IEEE #Wildfire #WIE

A large percentage of all power line caused wildfire ignitions involve broken conductors. One idea to quickly detect broken conductors and de-energize the falling conductor before hitting the ground will be presented. The basic principle is based on the concept of connection impedance between two points in the power system. This method requires simple point to point communications, to calculate the connection impedance. If the power line is not broken, the connection impedance is nearly equal to the line impedance. If the power line is broken, the connection impedance is significantly increased, and its value is mainly related with the load equivalent impedance. A very small load current change after the power line is broken, can trigger the calculation of connection impedance. Hence, this method is sensitive and theoretically applicable to detect the broken conductor under transformer unloaded or lightly loaded conditions or back-feed conditions. This method will only detect the broken conductor between two points and with respect to protection coordination, it is fully selective.