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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 20, NO. 2, APRIL 2005

Automated Fault Location System for

Primary Distribution Networks
Eduardo Cesar Senger, Giovanni Manassero, Jr., Clovis Goldemberg, and Eduardo Lorenzetti Pellini

AbstractThis paper presents the development, simulation results, and field tests of an automated fault location system for primary distribution networks. This fault location system is able to
identify the most probable fault locations in a fast and accurate
way. It is based on measurements provided by intelligent electronic
devices (IEDs) with built-in oscillography function, installed only
at the substation level, and on a database that stores information
about the network topology and its electrical parameters. Simulations evaluate the accuracy of the proposed system and the experimental results come from a prototype installation.
Index TermsDistribution system automation, fault location.

I. INTRODUCTION

INCE the deregulation process has started, most of the research on power distribution systems focused on improving
the performance of the electricity utilities. In other words, improvement of performance means delivering power in a more efficient way (in terms of quality, reliability, and end-user price).
Besides, the advances and widespread use of intelligent electronic devices (IEDs), such as digital disturbance recording devices, relays, metering devices, and power-quality devices, have
promoted progress in measurement, monitoring, protection, and
control techniques applied to distribution networks.
Despite all of this technological progress and the need for
performance improvements, the fault location process employed
nowadays is still based on trouble calls from the affected customers. When a permanent fault occurs, the operators at the operation center identify the faulted feeder and the possible area
of occurrence. Then, a maintenance crew is sent to patrol that
area, in order to identify and isolate the fault.
Under certain circumstances, this procedure proves to be
inefficient, since it requires the maintenance crew to patrol a
large area and to switch protective devices in order to locate the
fault point. Besides, when a transient fault occurs, the operation
center will not receive any phone calls from customers and no
information about its occurrence and location will be available.
However, it may be important to investigate these faults with the
purpose of preventing them from becoming permanent ones.
A. Fault Location Algorithms
Most of the proposed fault location algorithms were developed for power transmission systems. Few methods were pro-

Manuscript received December 29, 2003; revised February 27, 2004. Paper
no. TPWRD-00659-2003.
The authors are with Universidade de So Paulo, So Paulo 01424-000, Brazil
(e-mail: senger@pea.usp.br; giomanjr@pea.usp.br; epellini@pea.usp.br).
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TPWRD.2004.834871

posed for distribution networks due to the following reasons [1],

[2].

Variety of conductors and structures: Along a typical

distribution feeder there are different cables and configurations (cross-arm, twisted, spacer, underground,
etc.); therefore, there is no linear relation between the
line impedance and the distance between the fault location and the substation.

Lateral branches: Unlike transmission lines, typical

distribution feeders have several lateral branches.
Thus, short circuits in different geographical locations
can produce the same currents and voltages measured
at the substation. Consequently, the fault location
procedure may result in several different points as
possible locations.

Load distributed along the feeder: The current measured at the substation during a fault includes a contribution given by the sum of the load currents at each
node and, in contrast to transmission systems, it is impossible to estimate these currents accurately.

Modifications in the feeder configuration: Distribution

networks are subject to constant modifications in their
topology. As a result, any fault location algorithm
must have access to a database, periodically updated,
in order to give a better estimate of the fault point.
Basically, there are two different approaches for locating
faults in distribution networks. One is based on fault detectors
installed along the feeders [3], whereas the other is based on
algorithms that use measurements of voltages and currents
signals provided by IEDs located only at the substation level
[1], [2], [4][6]. The system presented in this paper is based on
the second approach.
The solution proposed by [4] describes a fault location
algorithm based on the voltage and current signals provided by
digital disturbance recorders installed at the substations. The
fault location algorithm uses the symmetrical components of
the voltage and current phasor quantities, estimated from these
records. The methodology can only be applied to balanced
networks.
Reference [5] describes a fault location system based on artificial intelligence methods (fuzzy logic). The proposed system
requires a large set of information (short-circuit currents, atmospheric conditions, information provided by fault detection devices installed along the feeders, etc.). An estimate of the fault
distance is obtained from the current measured by the digital
overcurrent relays, considering no fault resistance. As a result,
this method will estimate a fault location that, in most cases, is
far from the actual one.

0885-8977/$20.00 2005 IEEE

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1333

Fig. 1. Substation arrangement.

The solution presented by [6] uses a procedure somewhat

similar to [4] but the algorithm is based on a three-phase
power-flow calculation and can be applied to any kind of
distribution network. The fault location system proposed in this
paper is based on a similar procedure.
II. AUTOMATED FAULT LOCATION SYSTEM
The automated fault location system proposed in this paper
combines information provided by IEDs located only at the substations with knowledge of the distribution systems topology
and its electrical parameters. Whenever an overcurrent event occurs, the system automatically provides to the operators, at the
operation center, the most probable fault points.
To illustrate the system, consider the substation arrangement
depicted in Fig. 1. An IED, connected to each medium-voltage
feeder, is responsible for monitoring voltage and current signals and recording transient data whenever an overcurrent event
occurs.
A computer, located also at the substation, is connected to the
array of IEDs and to the computer at the operation center, via a
communication channel such as dial phone line, dedicated line,
radio link, tie to corporate local-area network (LAN), etc.
The fault location system consists of eight software modules. This software modularity enables future software upgrades
without the need to change the whole system. Part of these modules is installed at the substations whereas the rest are installed
at the operation center as illustrated in Fig. 2. The decision of
installing the fault location modules at the substations and at the
operation center was based on the following reasons.
Database update: The fault location system uses infor
mation stored in a database, which must be periodically
updated in order to reflect possible modifications in the
distribution networks. Therefore, this database and the
software modules that have access to it should be located at the operation center computers.

Communication channel overflow: Transferring all

transient data recorded by the IEDs to the operation
center would probably overflow the communication
channel that connects the substations computers to
the operation center computer. Therefore, it is convenient to preprocess the transient data and extract only
the information required by the fault location system,
which is transmitted to the operation center.

Fig. 2.

Fault location systemsoftware modules.

A. Substation Software Modules

1) Main Module: Responsible for scheduling and storing
data acquisition. It also coordinates and monitors all data
transfer among the other modules.
2) IED Interface Module: Converts the transient data
recorded by the IEDs into a COMTRADE format [7]. This
format is desirable to make the fault location system independent of the recording equipment in such a way that future IEDs
changes will not imply in major software upgrades. The information sets included in the COMTRADE file are as follows:

Detailed oscillography of the fault: phase voltages and

line currents;
Additional measurements: prefault and postfault measurements (active and reactive power, voltages and currents), circuit-breaker operation time, etc.

3) Digital Signal Processing (DSP) Module: Preprocesses

the transient data stored in the COMTRADE file. This software
module performs the tasks described below and stores the results
in an ASCII file, which is less than 1 kb and much smaller than
the COMTRADE file.

Determination of the fault occurrence instant: The algorithm developed to perform this task is based on
digital-signal-processing (DSP) techniques, which are
able to identify signal transition instants.
Estimation of prefault and fault phasor quantities: The
DSP module places two data windows (one at the prefault region and the other at the fault region) after the
fault occurrence instant is determined, and estimates
the phasor quantities using the discrete Fourier transform (DFT) method.
Fault type and phases involved: The algorithm developed to perform this task is based on the analysis of the
superimposed sequence components of the currents.
The DSP module compares the magnitudes and phases
of the positive-, negative-, and zero- sequence components to determine whether the fault is single line to
ground (AN, BN, or CN), line to line (AB, BC, or CA),
double line to ground (ABN, BCN, or CAN), or three
phase.

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Estimation of load rejection: The DSP module estimates the prefault and postfault active power to determine the amount of load rejection. This information is
used to classify the fault.

Fault classification: Using information about the circuit-breaker status, after the fault clearance, and the
amount of load rejection, the algorithm is able to classify the fault as:
- Permanent faults isolated by breaker operation:
When the circuit breaker remains open after the
overcurrent event.
- Permanent faults isolated by the fuse operation:
When the circuit breaker remains closed after the
overcurrent event and there is load rejection (the
prefault active power is bigger than the active
power measured after the fault clearance).
- Transient faults: When the circuit breaker remains closed after the event and there is no load
rejection.
4) Communication (COMM) Module: responsible for automatically sending the ASCII file produced by the DSP module
to the computer at the operation center.

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 20, NO. 2, APRIL 2005

B. Operation Center Modules

1) Main Module: Responsible for scheduling and storing
data acquisition. It also coordinates and monitors all data
transfer among the other modules.
2) COMM Module: Responsible for receiving the data sent
by the substation computer and scheduling its processing
priority.
3) WEB-based interface: Provides graphical results of the
fault location procedure. The decision of using this kind
of interface was based on its flexibility and widespread
use of web-based tools. Besides, the results provided by
the system can be accessed from any computer connected
to the utilitys intranet, not only from the computers at the
operation center.
4) Fault Location Module : Performs the fault location
procedure, based on the algorithm detailed in the next
item, and provides the results to the web-based interface.
C. Database
The fault location system has access to a database that stores
information about the topology and electrical parameters of the
feeders. This database is obtained and periodically updated from
the electricity utilitys corporate database and contains the following information.

Topology: The distribution feeders are described using

the universal transverse mercator coordinates (UTM).
Therefore, it is possible to integrate information provided by the fault location system to any geographic
information systems (GIS) system;

Electrical parameters: Cable types and feeder geometry such as overhead, spacer, twisted, and underground, used to calculate the line impedances.
Nominal power of the distribution transformers and
connection schemes, etc.

Fig. 3. Typical distribution feeder.

III. FAULT LOCATION ALGORITHM

Primary distribution feeders are radial networks with several
lateral branches. This means that faults at different locations
may result in the same voltage and current signals recorded at
the substation. Therefore, the algorithm should investigate all
line sections in order to determine the possible fault locations.
Consider the feeder illustrated in Fig. 3, where a starting and
ending node identify each line section. The procedure adopted
to determine whether the th line section, generically delimited
by nodes and , has a possible fault location, consists of estifrom node , where a fault would
mating the fault distance
produce the same voltage and current signals recorded at the
substation. If the estimated distance is less than the sections
, the th line section has a possible fault location.
length
The methodology used to estimate the fault distance is described in item . It is based on a set of equations that depend
on the fault type, and on the following phasor quantities:

and

(1)

are the voltage phasor quantities at node , during the

where
are the current phasor quantities at line section ,
fault, and
during the fault, see Fig. 5.
Assuming that the fault current
and the load currents
to ) are known,
and
can be
during the fault ( ,
calculated using a three-phase power-flow algorithm.
Since it is impossible to correctly calculate the load currents
during the fault using data available only at the substation, a
procedure was developed to estimate them. This procedure consists of estimating the prefault complex power at each node, then
using it to calculate the prefault voltage and current phasor quantities (using a three-phase power-flow algorithm), and finally
calculating the complex power at each node during the fault by
means of modeling its behavior according to the voltage variation.
The fault location algorithm is recursive, which means that a
is calculated at each step. With this disnew fault distance
tance, the voltage and current phasor quantities during the fault
are recalculated (considering the fault to have occurred at the
new distance). The block diagram depicted in Fig. 4 presents
the procedure developed to locate the possible fault points. The
details of the block diagram are presented in items to .

SENGER et al.: AUTOMATED FAULT LOCATION SYSTEM FOR PRIMARY DISTRIBUTION NETWORKS

1335

load current phasor quantities at node , during the

fault;
voltage phasor quantities at the substation, during
the fault;
current phasor quantities at the substation, during
the fault;
fault current phasor quantities;
load model used by the algorithm (Table I);
line and mutual impedances (in ohms per kilometer).
A. Estimation of the Prefault Complex Power
The first methodology used to determine the prefault complex power at each node was based on a procedure presented in
[8]. Basically, it consists of aggregating the representative load
curves of all consumers connected to each node of the feeder
[these curves provide the average active power consumed (in
per unit) in 15-min intervals, resulting in 96 intervals each day]
in order to determine the transformers loading in terms of complex power.
Preliminary tests, presented in item IV, indicated that minor
errors in the load estimation did not considerably affect the
algorithms accuracy and, since this methodology uses a large
amount of data to determine the complex power at each bus, a
simplified methodology was developed.
It consists of assuming that all distribution transformers connected to the feeder operate proportionally to their nominal apparent power. Consequently, the total complex power measured
at the substation is distributed at each node according to their
nominal power as in
(2)

Fig. 4. Fault location algorithmlogic diagram.

B. Prefault Power Flow

The prefault load currents and voltages at each node are
estimated using a three-phase power flow. The implemented
power-flow algorithm exploits the fact that distribution networks are almost always radial. Therefore, it does not use the
admittance matrix.
C. Investigation of all Line Sections

Fig. 5. Fault types.

The symbols used in the block diagram and in the following

equations are:
total number of nodes at the feeder;
prefault complex power measured at the substation;
nominal power of the transformers connected to
node ;
prefault complex power at node ;
complex power at node during the fault;
prefault voltage phasor quantity at node ;
voltage phasor quantity at node during the fault;

After estimating the prefault voltage and current phasor quantities, the algorithm starts investigating all line sections in order
to determine all possible fault points. First, the algorithm assumes that the load currents and node voltages, during the fault,
are equal to the prefault ones, and the fault distance is zero (i.e.,
the fault occurred at the beginning of the investigated line section).
D. Estimation of the Fault Current
The fault current is estimated by subtracting the fault current
phasor quantities (measured at the substation) from the load currents at the feeder, during the fault, as in
(3)

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TABLE I
LOAD EXPONENT VERSUS LOAD MODELS

TABLE II
RESISTANCE VALUES FOR ALL FAULT TYPES

E. Power Flow During the Fault

The current and voltage phasor quantities at each node, during
the fault, are estimated using the three-phase power flow, as in
item . The power-flow calculation uses the fault currents, located at a distance from node in the th line section, and
the load currents in each node. The fault currents are obtained as
presented in item and the load currents are calculated using
the following procedure.
First, the complex load power at each node, during the fault,
is calculated assuming that the loads connected to each node
depend on voltage according to Table I and

illustrate all possible fault types occurring in the line section delimited by nodes and

(4)
Then, the load currents at each node can be calculated using
the complex power previously calculated, and the voltage
phasor quantities at each node as in
(5)
From (4) and (5)

(8)
Depending on the fault type and phases involved, a set of
equations can be written using the linear system described in
(8). As an example, consider a double-line-to-ground fault, involving phases A and B. Equation (8) can be rewritten, resulting
in (9) and (10), as follows:

(6)

(9)

Rewriting (6)
(10)
(7)
Once the load currents, during the fault, are known, the voltages at each node can be calculated. As presented in (7), the
load currents at a certain node depend on the voltage phasor
quantities at the respective node. These currents can be obtained
through a typical power-flow iterative process.

and the fault resistances ( ,

, and
The fault distance
) can be calculated by separating (9) and (10) into its real and
imaginary parts and then solving the resulting linear system, as
in (11), shown at the bottom of the page. All voltage and current
phasor quantities presented in (11) were calculated using the
power flow described in item .
Similar equations to all fault types are described in [11].

F. Distance Calculation

G. Ranking all Possible Fault Locations

The algorithm presented in this paper is based on the solution of (8) that describes the fault condition. Fig. 5 and Table II

As previously mentioned, the fault location algorithm may

provide more than one possible fault point. In order to give a

(11)

SENGER et al.: AUTOMATED FAULT LOCATION SYSTEM FOR PRIMARY DISTRIBUTION NETWORKS

1337

up to 20 ohms, were simulated in the nodes illustrated in Fig. 6,

resulting in a total of 120 simulations. Loads were modeled as
constant impedances and the branches as nontransposed lines
(distributed parameters).
The system accuracy was checked against the influence in the
estimation of the load currents at each node and errors in the load
modeling. The results are presented in sections IV-AIV-C.
A. Influence of the Load Distribution

Fig. 6.

Distribution feeder modeled in ATP.

TABLE III
ATP SIMULATION PARAMETERS

The fault location algorithm estimates the load currents by

proportionally distributing the total apparent power measured
at the substation to each node, according to their nominal apparent power, as in (2). However, the load distribution may not
be proportional to the nominal installed load. Therefore, a statistical approach was used to determine its influence.
This approach consisted of deliberately modifying the load
geographical distribution used by the fault location algorithm in
order to make it different from the one used in the ATP simulations. To accomplish this task, the prefault load power used by
the algorithm was calculated through the multiplication of the
load power, actually used in the ATP simulations, by a random
number, chosen from a normal distribution with mean one and
standard deviation . Then, the new nominal load power at
each node was properly adjusted to fit the total prefault power
measured at the substation, according to
(12)

better estimate of the fault location, the algorithm combines information about the fault type and load rejection (provided by
the DSP module) with the feeders topology and electrical parameters (stored in the database) to rank them by the most probable ones. Basically, the algorithm follows the rules described
below.

When the fault is permanent, isolated by breaker operation, the algorithm verifies which located points are
protected by fuses and ranks them as the less probable
ones.

When the fault is permanent, isolated by fuse operation, the algorithm verifies which located points are not
protected by fuses and ranks them as the less probable
ones. Among those who are protected by fuses, the algorithm ranks as the most probable one the point that
is protected by a fuse whose opening would cause an
amount of load rejection comparable to the load rejection measured by the IEDs.
IV. SIMULATION RESULTS
The automated fault location system was simulated using test
data produced by Alternative Transient Program (ATP). Several
simulations, shown in Table III, were performed using an actual
feeder, whose topology is illustrated in Fig. 6. This feeder is 25.3
km long, nominal voltage of 13.8 kV and total installed load of
8.1 MVA.
Table III presents the fault parameters used in the ATP simulations. Five fault types, with fault resistances varying from zero

(13)

where
random number;
randomly modified power at node ;
load power used in ATP simulations at node ;
actual load power used by the fault location algorithm, at node .
The difference between the load distribution used in the ATP
simulations and the load distribution used by the fault location
algorithm increases as the standard deviation
rises. Table IV
presents the error in the calculated distance as a function of
(due to the modified load distribution), for a fault occurring at
defines the error
node 158 (4264 m from the substation).
and
defines the percentage
in the distance calculation
of error in the distance calculation from the substation to the
located point.
Six different standard deviation quantities were tested and
even for large values (e.g.,
), which denote that the
load distribution used by the fault location algorithm was highly
different from the actual one, the error remained under 1%. This
behavior indicates that a variation in the load geographical distribution does not influence significantly the algorithms accuracy, due to the fact that in most cases, the magnitude of the load
currents is much smaller than the magnitude of the fault current.
Therefore, errors in the load distribution do not influence the algorithms response.

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TABLE IV
ERROR IN THE ESTIMATION OF THE FAULT DISTANCEFAULT BCN

TABLE V
ERROR IN THE ESTIMATION OF THE FAULT DISTANCEFAULT ABC

Fig. 7.

Error in the estimated distance.

A method to replace the power-flow algorithm is to consider

the voltage phasor quantities at each node, during the fault, equal
to the voltage phasor quantities measured at the substation, also
. In this case, (7) can be rewritten
during the fault
as
The results presented in Table IV validate the use of a simplified methodology for the estimation of the prefault complex
power as described in section III.
B. Influence of the Load Modeling
According to (4) and Table I, the load exponent defines
the load model used by the algorithm. In the ATP simulations,
the loads connected to each node of the feeder were modeled
. However, with the aim of
as constant impedances
investigating its influence in the accuracy of the fault location
algorithm, different load exponents were adopted to represent
the loads connected to the feeder. Table V presents the error in
the calculated distance as a function of , adopted in the fault
location algorithm, for a fault occurring at node 158 (4264 m
from the substation).
As can be observed, the correct load modeling does not noticeably influence the response of the proposed algorithm. Five
different load exponents were used and the error was below 3%
for almost all simulation cases.
C. Additional Simplifications to the Proposed Algorithm
The fault location algorithm, illustrated in Fig. 4, requires a
power-flow calculation per iteration, in order to correctly estimate the fault location at a certain line section. However, the
power-flow algorithm is also an iterative process, since the load
currents at each node depend on the voltage at the respective
node, as in (7). Due to the computational burden imposed by the
procedure described above, the estimation of all possible fault
locations may become a time-consuming task.
This item presents an analysis of the impact of implementing
an additional simplification to the proposed algorithm, with the
purpose of reducing its computational burden. It consists of
replacing the power-flow algorithm by a simple equation, removing the iterative process. This decision is based on the results presented in sections IV-A and IV-B (as previously discussed, errors in estimation of the load modeling and geographical distribution do not noticeably influence the accuracy of the
fault location algorithm).

(14)

Fig. 7 illustrates the error in the estimation of the fault distance for all simulation cases. These errors were obtained using
the simplification described above and the constant impedance
.
model
It can be noticed that the error in the calculated distance was
less than 100 m for almost 70% of the simulations. The distance
between the farthest fault location (simulated in the ATP) and
the substation is 4264 m, which means that an error of 100 m is
less than 2.5% of the total distance.
The remaining simulations presented an error of more then
100 m. This error level is based on the fact that the bigger the
fault resistance becomes, the smaller becomes the magnitude
of the fault current. Due to the load modeling uncertainties,
the error in the distance calculation tends to increase when the
magnitude of the load current is comparable to the load current
magnitude. However, faults with large fault resistance (above
20 ) will not trigger the digital meter oscillography function.
For short-circuits with smaller fault resistances, the errors are
acceptable.
V. FIELD TESTS
A. Hardware Description
The system prototype was installed at one distribution substation from a Brazilian utility, similar to the one illustrated in
Fig. 1. It consists of two 88/13.8-kV transformers with double
secondary windings connected to four primary feeders. Therefore, there are 16 feeders per substation (note: in Fig. 1, only
one transformer was illustrated).
The IEDs (digital meters, model 3720 ACM Power Meter
from Power Measurements) are located in all feeders. The oscillography function was configured to trigger by overcurrent and
to record approximately 10 prefault and 22 postfault cycles.
This array of meters is connected to the substation computer
[IBM-PC compatible, Pentium III128-b random-access
memory (RAM)] via an Ethernet channel (10 Mb), and this

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1339

Fig. 8. Current signalEvent 1.

Fig. 9.

Fault location resultsEvent 1.

computer is connected to the utilitys intranet via dedicated

line.
B. Software Description
The system was coded in ANSI C, except for the web-based
interface, which was coded in ASP. The database used is SQL
Server. The operating system used by the utility is Windows
2000.
C. Field Results
The prototype installation was monitored for four
monthsfrom October 2000 to January 2001. One-hundred-thirteen overcurrent events occurred during the evaluation
period. Sixteen of them were permanent faults whereas the rest
were transient ones.
The performance of the fault location system was checked
only for the permanent events since it is not possible to retrieve
any information about the actual location of the transient faults.
The accuracy of the system was similar in all 16 permanent
events and it is detailed in the two permanent faults presented
as follows: 1) a single-line-to-ground fault, involving phase A,
the fault was cleared by fuse operation and the load rejection
was approximately 570 kW; 2) a single-line-to-ground fault, involving phase C and the fault was cleared by breaker operation.
Fig. 8 illustrates the current signal at line A of the first event.
The fault occurred at a lateral branch protected by fuse and, as
it can be observed, the fuse isolated the fault after five cycles.
However, the circuit breaker opened inappropriately after another five cycles. The investigation of this event revealed that
the relay misoperation was caused by an error in the implementation of a new protection philosophy.
If the fault location system were not installed, it would be
impossible to detect the implementation error. Therefore, it is
important to point out that all information provided by modern
IEDs should be investigated and used in order to improve performance and reliability of the electrical networks.
Fig. 9 illustrates the results provided by the fault location
system for the first event. Four points were located, and ranked
from number one, the most probable, to number four, the least
probable. The actual fault distance is less than 50 m from the
most probable one, calculated by the algorithm.
Fig. 10 illustrates the current signal at line C of the event
number two. It was a permanent fault cleared by breaker operation.

Fig. 10.

Current signalEvent 2.

Fig. 11.

Fault location resultsEvent 2.

Fig. 11 illustrates the results provided by the system for the

second event. Location one is the most probable since it is in the
main branch of the feeder. The actual fault distance is less than
90 m from the most probable one.
VI. CONCLUSION
This work presented a complete automated fault location
system for primary distribution networks and, more specifically,
an algorithm for the fault location. This system was installed
at an actual substation and its performance demonstrated that
it is a powerful tool for the operation and maintenance of the
electrical distribution networks.
The most important benefits provided by the fault location
system proposed in this paper are as follows:

Downtime reduction: decrease in the time spent by

maintenance crews to locate the faults.

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Operational costs reduction: the fast and accurate estimation of the fault location speeds up crew work and
reduces the total number of crews on stand by.
Larger profits: due to the reduction of the operational
costs and increase in the electricity supply.
Consumer satisfaction: downtime reduction and faster
system restoration increase customers satisfaction
with the electricity utility.
Corrective maintenance optimization: transient faults,
which do not cause permanent breaker operation or
fuse blowing, can be identified by the system described
in this paper. The identification of particular areas with
a high number of transient faults makes it possible
to schedule corrective maintenance work, such as tree
trimming or thermovision patrol.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The authors extend special thanks to engineers C. Fromen

and U. Castellano, who cooperated with them during the first
implementation and field tests at Eletropaulo utility, and to A.
Endrigo who contributed with the implementation of the second
version at Bandeirante utility.

[11] G. Manassero Jr. and E. Senger, Sistema de Localizao de Faltas Para

Redes Primrias de Distribuio, Dissertao (Mestrado), So Paulo,
Brazil, 2001.

Eduardo Cesar Senger was born in Brazil in 1954.

He received the B.Sc., M.Sc., and Ph.D. degrees
from the University of So Paulo, So Paulo, Brazil,
in 1977, 1983, and 1990, respectively.
Currently, he is Assistant Professor in the Department of Electric Energy and Automation Engineering
at the University of So Paulo, where he has been
since 1978. His research fields are protection, monitoring, and control of power systems.

Giovanni Manassero, Jr., was born in Brazil in

1974. He received the B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees from
Polytechnic School, University of So Paulo, So
Paulo, Brazil, in 1999 and 2001, respectively. He
is currently studying power transformer protection
using artificial intelligence.
His research fields are power system protection
and monitoring, and software integration.

REFERENCES
[1] M. Lehtonen, S. Pettissalo, and J. H. Etula, Calculational fault location for electrical distribution networks, in Proc. 3rd Int. Conf. Power
System Monitoring and Control (Conf. Publication no. 336), London,
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Clovis Goldemberg was born in Brazil in 1954. He

received the B.Sc., M.Sc., and Ph.D. degrees from
Universidade Estadual de Campinas, So Paulo,
Brazil, in 1980, 1992, and 1995, respectively.
Currently, he is Assistant Professor in The
Department of Electric Energy and Automation Engineering at the University of So Paulo, So Paulo,
Brazil. His research fields are industry automation
and power system control and monitoring.

Eduardo Lorenzetti Pellini was born in Brazil in

1975. He received the B.Sc. degree from the Polytechnic School of University of So Paulo, So Paulo,
Brazil, in 2000.
His research fields are real-time simulators, power
system control applications, hardware, and software
integration. The focus of his M.Sc. thesis is a realtime simulator for an application with excitation systems for hydroelectric generators.