Electric Power Systems Research 81 (2011) 13251333

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Electric Power Systems Research

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/epsr

High impedance fault detection methodology using wavelet transform and

articial neural networks
Ibrahem Baqui, Inmaculada Zamora , Javier Mazn, Garikoitz Buigues
Department of Electrical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Alameda de Urquijo s/n, 48013 Bilbao, Spain

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: This paper presents a new technique based on the combination of wavelet transform (WT) and articial
Received 11 February 2010 neural networks (ANNs) for addressing the problem of high impedance faults (HIFs) detection in electrical
Received in revised form distribution feeders. The change in phase current waveforms caused by faults and normal switching
15 December 2010
events has been used in this methodology. The discrete wavelet transform (DWT) used decomposes
Accepted 31 January 2011
the time domain current signals into different harmonics in time-frequency domain and extracts special
Available online 23 February 2011
features to train ANNs. This preprocessing reduces the number of inputs to ANN and improves the training
convergence. The ANN structure and learning algorithm used in this method is the multilayer perceptron
Keywords:
Articial neural networks
network and LevenbergMarquardt back-propagation algorithm, respectively.
Fault detection The signal data of several HIFs, low impedance faults (LIFs) and normal switching events have been
High impedance faults obtained by the simulation of a real distribution network, with ve feeders, under these different oper-
Wavelet transform ations conditions, using SimPowerSystem Blockset of MATLAB. The results obtained have validated the
effectiveness of the proposed methodology to detect HIFs and discriminate them from normal transient
operations.
2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction The rst methods developed to detect high impedance arcing

One of the main problems the electrical utilities have to cope
with in power distribution systems is the failure of the HIF detec-
tion, which may lead to a serious threat in electric shock or/and
re. These HIFs are caused by a downed energized conductor on
high impedance surfaces, such as dry ground, concrete, gravel,
high resistively soils and asphalt road. Additionally, sometimes
HIFs appear when the energizing conductor makes contact with
grounded objects such as tree limbs. Besides, the high difference of
potential between the two contact points can produce an electric
arc reignition.
In general, the current values that appear due to HIFs are lower
than the overcurrent thresholds, so the phase or residual overcur-
rent devices remain inactive. Moreover, the resulting current and
voltage waveforms are frequently characterized by random and
intermittent data, caused by the arcing and/or nonlinearity of the
fault impedance, which makes impossible to nd single parame-
ters. Hence, the detection of HIFs is really an important challenge
from the public protection and operational reliability point of view.
Although many detection methods have been developed up to now,
a perfect dependable and secure detection is still the objective of
continuous research.
Corresponding author. Tel.: +34 946014063; fax: +34 946014200.
E-mail address: inmaculada.zamora@ehu.es (I. Zamora).
faults were based on the direct measurement of the basic electric
parameters, such as voltage and current, analyzing their varia-
tions or their harmonic components and using different methods or
combinations of them [17]. However, these methods sometimes
mistrip due to similarity between frequency domain information
produced by HIFs and normal system switching events. Thus, it is
difcult to nd one or two critical harmonic components that can
discriminate one disturbance from another.
Therefore, the HIF detection algorithms that are only based on
the power frequency or on some current harmonics (neglecting
other high frequency components that exist in the fault current)
are not reliable algorithms. For that reason, new methods have to
be developed. Currently, there are multiple research works trying to
achieve the best solution for this problem. Thus, additional methods
used for the characterization of these faults can be based on the
injection of low frequency signal analysis [810], ANN [1114], WT
[1519] and intelligent systems [2023].
The signal processing investigation on resulted signals from
power systems, considering every power system condition, leads
to develop algorithms based on time and frequency domain,
which improve the detection of HIFs in distribution systems. In
spite of obtaining time and frequency information, the combined
information of high and low frequencies can be obtained by the
decomposition of the WT. Regarding to the methods based on using
only WT to HIF detection, they have been often criticized because
the data set of registered faults do not agree with other published

0378-7796/$ see front matter 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.epsr.2011.01.022
1326 I. Baqui et al. / Electric Power Systems Research 81 (2011) 13251333
Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of the methodology.
studies. On the other hand, the ANN algorithms have been tested by
many research groups, but the perfect discrimination of capacitor
switching and high impedance faults is still an unsolved problem.
Therefore, because of the drawbacks of using WT or ANN separately,
the combination of both WT and ANN is presented as a better solu-
tion to the problem of HIF detection in distribution power systems
[24,25].
This paper proposes a new methodology by the application
of WT and ANN to detect HIFs, LIFs and discriminate them from
normal transient switching operations. The data signals used in
the validation process are HIFs, LIFs and some normal transient
operations. These data have been obtained from simulations of a
real power distribution system, of 13.8 kV, using SimPowerSystem
Blockset of MATLAB.
2. Proposed high impedance fault detecting methodology
The proposed methodology to detect HIFs and LIFs, as well as
to discriminate them from normal transient switching operations,
comprises two stages.
In a rst stage, the current signals of the feeders, using WT, are
analyzed to obtain the relevant data signals. Afterwards, in a second
stage, the properly trained ANNs are used as a classier processing,
in order to classify the state of each feeder. The structure of the
application of WT and ANN in the proposed method is presented in
Fig. 1, by means of a schematic block diagram, which describes the
different stages of the methodology.
Although some methods that use similar approaches may be
affected by topology changes in the distribution network, this
methodology is specially designed to be applied in the rural dis-
tribution systems whose topology is almost invariable, scarcely
changeable. These kinds of distribution systems are very typical
in several countries.
2.1. Application of the wavelet transform
During the process of HIF detection, the signal data need to be
analyzed to nd adequate information that can be useful for the
fault detection, because it may not clearly appear in the original
time signal. That is why the application of WT is divided in three
main groups:
- Denoising process of the current signals.
- Signal decomposition.
- Feature extraction.
Consequently, it has been considered the use of the Wavelet
Toolbox from MATLAB [26], which provides useful functions and an
extraordinary computing environment in order to implement the
WT in an efcient way onto a computer. This implementation can be
done either by command line functions or by graphical interactive
tools.
More precisely, it has been considered the use of the DWT
instead of the continuous wavelet transform (CWT), in order to
reduce the vast amount of computational work and data the latter
would require.
2.1.1. Denoising process
The denoising process is used to eliminate the existing distortion
in the current signals, which may have been produced by several
events: switching operations, events occurred in other feeders, etc.
The main idea of this process is a DWT preprocessing, in order
to convert the three-phase current signals into one dimension hard
threshold denoising stage. For this purpose, a Daubechies order 5
(db5), level 4 wavelet decomposition is applied to the registered
currents. The threshold rule selected is a heuristic variant of the
principle of Steins Unbiased Risk Estimate.
The decomposition level and basis function have been selected
after a thorough analysis of different levels and many types of basis
functions. The objective is to nd the optimum denoising for the
signals in every simulated case of each feeder of the distribution
power system described in Section 3.
2.1.2. Signal decomposition
The information obtained from the time-domain signals regis-
tered under normal or fault situations, is usually not enough to
detect the HIFs. Therefore, the DWT is applied to transform the
denoised time signals to time-frequency domain signals, where the
different characteristics of each current signal may appear more
clearly. That is, by showing large coefcients in different frequency
bands when the disturbance appears. This process is known as
decomposition process, in which the Daubechies basis of order four
(db4), in seven decomposition levels, has been applied to produce
different frequency bands of the signal. The features from all these
frequency components are used to give good discrimination results.
When analyzing the characteristics of current signals by the use
of DWT, the following parameters must be specied:
- Sampling frequency.
- Window length.
- Levels of decomposition.
- Wavelet basis type.
Usually, a low sampling rate leads to the reduction of the wavelet
computation process. However, in some cases, such as in fault situa-
tion and switching operations, the sampling rate needs to be high so
 I. Baqui et al. / Electric Power Systems Research 81 (2011) 13251333 1327

as to be able to capture the characteristic information of the signal. Table 1

Representative cases.
After testing many possibilities, among 128, 256 and 512 samples
per cycle, a sampling frequency of 512 samples per cycle (sampling Feeders Cases Train Test
rate of 2.56 kHz) has been adopted in the developed analysis. Feeder 1 8734 2612 6122
The sampling frequency, along with the Wavelet basis function Feeder 2 6121 1343 4778
selected, also inuences on the window length and on the decom- Feeder 3 5804 790 5014
position level number. In this methodology, the implementation of Feeder 4 5548 872 4676
Feeder 5 6267 964 5303
the DWT is based on the Multi Resolution Analysis (MRA) theory,
Total 32,474 6581 25,893
which requires ltering and downsampling. This decomposition
level (number of stages) is inversely related to the frequency com-
ponents of any level. Consequently, the higher decomposition level, Table 2
ANN output.
the lower frequency components are considered.
The characteristics of the Wavelet basis functions play an Feeder state Output 1 Output 2 Output 3
important role in their implementation too. Therefore, selecting Normal 1 0 0
an appropriate mother Wavelet to extract the useful information LIF 0 1 0
quickly and efciently is crucial to increase the performance of any HIF 0 0 1
particular application. The Wavelet basis selection usually depends
on the type of application or the similarity between the basis func-
tion and the signal to be analyzed. For example, Wavelets with small operation is based in three important stages that are described
number of lter coefcients or vanishing points are less localised below:
in frequency and more localised in time. Therefore, in applications
where the information needed is located at a specic instant of - ANN training
time, lower Wavelet basis with less number of coefcients are a - ANN verication
better choice than Wavelets with higher number of coefcients. - ANN operation stage
During the research developed for this methodology,
Daubechies Wavelets functions with different vanishing moments For this purpose, the Neural Network Toolbox from MATLAB [27]
have been tested, such as, db4, db6, db8. These mother functions provides different functions to design, initialize, simulate, train and
are orthogonal to any function obtained by stretching them by a show results of a neural network. This tool offers the possibility to
2j factor or shifting them right or left by the product of a constant select among many types of networks, such as perceptron, radial
to 2j. The orthogonal functions have been selected because of basis network, learning of vectorial quantization (LVQ), Elman net-
their speed in calculation. Besides, Daubechies waveforms have work, Hopeld network. It also permits the selection of several
some other useful properties to be considered, such as accurate transfer functions for each neuron, making possible different net-
detection of low amplitude of signals, short duration and fast work architectures by the combination of many units of neurons.
decay. The training parameters for different training algorithms can also
be selected.
2.1.3. Feature extraction
The main idea of making a feature extraction is to reduce the 2.2.1. Articial neural network training
amount of information, either from the original waveform or from This process is based on providing STD values of the decomposed
its transformation format. signals to the selected neural network. These values are extracted
In this work, the process of feature extraction consists on nding from the current signals of a representative number of cases, con-
the distinctive waveform parameter, with signicant information, sidering the different distribution system operations, some of them
that can represent the fundamental characteristics of the problem. used for training and the rest for testing (Table 1). As a result, the
The Standard Deviation (STD) of the coefcients, in each frequency ANN learns the problem characteristics and improves its general-
band, is chosen to be extracted and used as the input data vector to a ization property in the operation stage.
multilayer ANN. This feature has been selected after numerous tests The behavior of the selected ANN depends on numerous param-
and comparisons between the performance of neural networks eters, such as the number of hidden layers, the number of hidden
(generalization, simplicity, efciency and convergence speed) and neurons, transfer functions, initial weights and biases, training rule
other features like energy and RMS of each frequency bands (signals and training parameters. In some cases, choosing one of these
and coefcients). parameters wrongly may lead to overtting or other kind of prob-
The STD of the output signal is the square root of the data vector lems. In order to overcome this problem, a software tool called
variance, as it is shown in (1). This feature provides information SARENEUR [28] has been used. This tool is an automatic multifunc-
about the level of variation of the signal frequency distribution. tion program which allows nding, training and verifying optimal

2
 ANN architectures. After numerous tests and modications, it has
 
1  1
n n been found that an unidirectional multi layer neural network (mul-

STD =  xi xi (1) tilayer perceptron, MLP) provides a high degree of success for the
n 1 n
i=1 i=1 research developed in this methodology.
According to the feature extraction process, the input vector of
where x is the data vector and n the number of elements in that each ANN comprises 24 elements, 8 features in each phase current
data vector. obtained by the use of the DWT (D1, D2, D3, D4, D5, D6, D7, A7).
The output layer has three neurons, each one indicating one of the
2.2. Application of articial neural network feeder situations (Normal, LIF and HIF). Apart from that, a variable
number of neurons in hidden layers have been analyzed. The tan-
The ANNs have excellent characteristics, which make them a sigmoid transfer functions have been applied for both hidden layer
very powerful tool to be applied in pattern recognition and clas- neurons, whereas the log-sigmoid function has been selected for
sication. Therefore, the ANN is used in this method to learn output layer neurons. The combination of the neurons in the output
inputoutput relationship from input feature vectors. The ANN layer classies the feeder situation according to Table 2.
1328 I. Baqui et al. / Electric Power Systems Research 81 (2011) 13251333

During the learning stage, the supervised LevenbergMarquardt

algorithm has been utilised. The network stops learning when the
Mean Squared Error performance function (MSE) or the number of
iterations reached a predetermined value.
As it has been previously stated, in case of a distribution system
with very few topology changes, which is a common situation in the
distribution networks of several countries, there would be possible
to have an ANN trained for each foreseeable change. Consequently,
the number of ANNs would be small.

2.2.2. Articial neural network verication

When the training process is nished, the optimal network con-
gurations obtained are veried with the SARENEUR software tool,
in reference to their generalization ability under untrained situa-
tions.
After the training and testing process, SARENEUR found 47 dif-
ferent valid ANNs to operate. Among them, the neural network with
24-14-6-3 architecture was selected because it had the smallest
errors, according to the comparison between the network outputs Fig. 2. Diagram of the real distribution system.
and its corresponding targets over the test dataset, by means of (2).

target output calculated output allows engineers to build electrical models in Simulink environ-
%Error = 100 (2) ment and change their operation conditions.
target output

Taking as an example the dataset of feeder number one (Section
3), the solutions matrix obtained from (2) shows the percentage
comparison between the outputs and targets of 6122 testing cases,
using the previously mentioned ANN architecture. This matrix (3)
is organized in such a way that the rst column corresponds to
the percentage output error (three outputs) under normal situa-
tions, while the second and the third columns correspond to the
percentage output error of LIF and HIF cases, respectively.
3.1. Distribution power system modelled
The modelled system, located in the Basque Country (Spain), is
a medium voltage network that consists of a substation and ve
distribution feeders with radial conguration (Fig. 2).
The following system elements have been considered to be the
most relevant:

- A three column three-phase transformer, delta-wye connection
0.0030 0.0003 0.0003
%Error = 0.0000 0.0000 0.0001
0.0015 0.0001 0.0006
2.2.3. Articial neural network operation stage
Once the training and testing processes with SARENEUR have
been concluded, the resulting networks are ready to operate.
Due to the use of the log-sigmoid transfer function in the output
layer, the ANN outputs vary from 0 to 1. Therefore, to reach the
desired results of either 1 or 0, the outputs are processed with
a round function, in order to round the output data vector to the
nearest integer value.
Finally, the outputs of the proposed method give the state
(healthy or faulty) of a distribution feeder, when all stages of the
method are followed. If the method gives indication of LIF or HIF in
12 consecutive iterations, the outputs of the method may be used
to take an appropriate control action. Nevertheless, when a feeder
is under a normal situation, the method turns back to take a new
data window after 32 samples and then every step of this detection
methodology is repeated again.
3. Modeling and simulation
In order to verify the methodology of the proposed technique,
it is necessary to obtain the relevant data signals from the power
system, under different possible operating conditions.
It is well known that eld fault testing on real power systems is
difcult because of technical and economical reasons. In addition,
the eld test data usually suffer from certain limitations. That is why
a real electrical distribution system, under different conditions,
has been accurately modelled and simulated with SimPowerSys-
tem Blockset of MATLAB. SimPowerSystem Blockset in MATLAB is
a complete and powerful electrical engineering software tool that
with accessible neutral, voltage ratio of 30/13.8 kV and 12 MVA of
(3)
rated power.
- Five feeders composed by 35.7 km of overhead lines and 8.9 km
of underground cables. The overhead lines consist of ACSR and
copper conductors. The underground cables are composed of alu-
minum or copper conductors with EPR insulation.
- The system supplies a set of 98 loads. Because of the large number
of loads, they have been concentrated considering the type of
conductor. As it has been proved, this concentration of loads does
not affect the reliability of the results obtained in the study.
The model of this real distribution system has been validated
with two different software tools (ATP and Matlab/Simulink) and
with real data, provided by the Spanish electrical utility IBERDROLA.
As an example, the complete conguration of the model of
feeder 5 can be observed in Fig. 3.
3.2. Simulation of the power system operation
On the modelled distribution system, different operation con-
ditions have been simulated. In this section, the characteristics of
the different events considered are shown.
3.2.1. Normal situations
Usually, the arcing and nonlinear characteristics of the currents
waves due to HIFs are similar to those caused by load changes and
switching operations. Therefore, the modelled distribution system
has been loaded with both, linear (LL) and non-linear loads (NLL), to
reect a typical loading scenario with the purpose of investigating
the performance of the proposed algorithm under load switching
operations.
The NLLs are usually dened as loads in which the load current
waveform does not vary directly with the load voltage waveform.
 I. Baqui et al. / Electric Power Systems Research 81 (2011) 13251333
Fig. 3. Conguration of feeder number 5.
Fig. 4. Nonlinear load model.
These loads are the main source of harmonics that distort voltage
and current waveforms in the power system. Contrary to LLs, in
which the voltage and current waves increase or decrease propor-
tionately. Typical examples of NLLs are air-conditioning, UPS, DC
motor drives and other power electronic devices [29].
The model of the nonlinear load used in this analysis (Fig. 4) is an
AC/DC/AC converter. This model consists of a rectier and an IGBT
inverter. The inverter is pulse width modulated (PWM) to produce
a three-phase 50 Hz sinusoidal voltage to supply a 50 kW load.
Fig. 5 shows the current signal produced by the nonlinear load
applied in feeder 4.
Besides, in the study of distribution power systems protection,
it is also important to study the effect of motor operation on the
Fig. 5. Nonlinear load distorted current.
1329
feeder currents. The large starting currents of a motor may alter the
current characteristics of the feeder for a short time. Consequently,
an induction motor has been modelled using the Asynchronous
Machine block from SimPowerSystems.
Additionally, to make the distribution system stable and ef-
cient, reactive current must be supplied when and where it is
necessary. The practical and efcient way for the utility to pro-
vide this capacitive reactive current is through the installation of
capacitor banks in the distribution systems.
The transient phenomena produced by the switching of capac-
itors appear in the three phases during a short period of time
(0.53 cycles). Similar to motor starting, these transients have
high peak values with frequencies much greater than the power
system fundamental frequency. Besides, the transient phenom-
ena produced by capacitor switching may look similar to those
of HIFs in frequency domain, so it is necessary to test the reli-
ability of any HIF algorithm under this event. In the studied
distribution system, different possible instants of capacitor ener-
gisation have been taken into consideration. The importance of
transient instant application in this simulation is that the mag-
nitude and frequency of the transient current mainly depend on
the impedance of the actual circuit (system damping) and the
instant of energisation. The transients originated from the simula-
tion of this model are comparable with data previously published
[30].
Finally, in order to simulate normal load switching operation, a
three-phase time control circuit breaker has been used to connect
loads to the rest of the energised system at different instants. This
operation of connection may take several cycles to change the con-
tacts from open state to completely close state; hence, the transient
waves may last up to two or three cycles.
1330 I. Baqui et al. / Electric Power Systems Research 81 (2011) 13251333
Fig. 6. HIF model.
3.2.2. Low impedance fault situations
The low impedance fault (LIF) model is quite simple and con-
sists of one resistor connected to ground through a breaker. The
fault resistance values have been considered between 0 and 30 ,
while in the case of a high resistance fault, the corresponding val-
ues are higher than 200 . In this range of values, the overcurrent
protection devices can detect the fault.
3.2.3. High impedance fault situations
A new dynamic arc model has been considered, as a variant of
the model proposed in [4]. In this new model of HIF, a saw-tooth
wave shape with increasing and decreasing linearity has been used
(Fig. 6). This model can represent the dynamic arc characteristics
better than DC sources. It also allows the adjustment of the phase
difference between the applied voltage and fault current, by chang-
ing the frequency of saw-tooth signal.
Fig. 7. HIF current spectrum.
As an example, Fig. 7 shows a time domain representation of
the current signal and Fourier spectrum of a simulated HIF in the
feeder 4. This signal corresponds to a downed conductor to ground,
with a fault resistance of 200  and located 1.5 km away from the
substation busbar.
4. Results
In order to verify the developed methodology, a complete set
of cases have been tested. As an example, the following circuit
situations are presented in this section:
- High impedance fault: occurred in phase A of feeder 1, with a fault
resistance of 1.5 k. The fault location, arc voltage and incep-
tion time are considered to be 2 km from busbar, 4 kV and 0 s,
respectively.
- Low impedance fault: occurred in phase A of feeder 1, with a fault
resistance of 1 , located 2.7 km from the supplying busbar and
with 0 s of inception time.
- Capacitor switching: occurred in the busbar with 30 kVAr and
0.023 s of inception time.
The process starts by a de-noising process and the application of
DWT to the current signals. Then, the STD from all frequency levels
are calculated and used as the inputs to the trained ANN. Finally,
the state of a feeder is calculated according to the outputs of the
neural network.
The complete performance of the proposed technique has been
tested by its application to data under different conditions. The test
set was formed by patterns from different situations compared to
the training patterns. The test set patterns for normal events, LIFs
and HIFs are 856, 10,139 and 14,898 patterns, respectively.
4.1. High impedance fault
After the denoising process, Fig. 8 shows the behavior of the
decomposed signals of the faulty phase current under a HIF situa-
tion. The dominant Wavelet levels (high amplitude) are A7 and D7,
which represent the power frequency and sub-harmonic frequency
component. The high transient frequencies appear during the arc
period (arc re-ignition and extinction) which are clearly seen in the
Wavelet levels D1 to D5.
 I. Baqui et al. / Electric Power Systems Research 81 (2011) 13251333 1331

Fig. 8. DWT of the faulty phase current signal of HIF.

Table 3 Table 5
Feature vector of a HIF case. Feeder state identication.

Levels Phase A Phase B Phase C Feeder ANN output Feeder state

T
D1 4.4e5 5.1e7 7.2e7 1 [0 1 0] LIF
D2 0.0003 4.1e6 7.9e6 2 [1 0 0]T Normal
D3 0.0010 2.0e5 3.7e5 3 [1 0 0]T Normal
D4 0.0050 6.2e5 9.1e5 4 [1 0 0]T Normal
D5 0.0100 0.0001 0.0002 5 [1 0 0]T Normal
D6 0.0500 0.0005 0.0007
D7 0.1000 0.0050 0.0050
A7 0.5000 0.0500 0.0500
4.2. Low impedance fault

Table 4 Following the same procedure, Fig. 9 shows the result of the
Feeder state identication. DWT decomposition applied. The peaks observed at the initial and
Feeder ANN output Feeder state nal edges in Wavelet levels, especially from D4 to D6, are caused
by discontinuities of data window, which have no effect on the
1 [0 0 1]T HIF
2 [1 0 0]T Normal developed method.
3 [1 0 0]T Normal Applying the STD in each decomposition level, the numerical
4 [1 0 0]T Normal values of patterns can be obtained from the analyzed signal. Using
5 [1 0 0]T Normal
these data as the input of the selected ANN, the result of the output
ANN simulation is shown in Table 5. It can be concluded that feeder
Applying the STD of each decomposition level, the numerical 1 is under LIF.
values of patterns can be obtained from the analyzed signal, as it is
shown in Table 3. 4.3. Normal situation
Applying these data matrix as the input to the selected ANN, the
result of the output ANN simulation is shown in Table 4. It can be Finally, Fig. 10 shows the behavior of DWT decomposition in
concluded that feeder 1 is under HIF. feeder 3 under a situation of capacitor switching (no fault).

Fig. 9. DWT of the faulty phase current signal of LIF.

1332 I. Baqui et al. / Electric Power Systems Research 81 (2011) 13251333
Fig. 10. DWT of capacitor switching signal.
Table 6
Feeder state identication.
Feeder ANN output Feeder state
1 [1 0 0]T Normal
2 [1 0 0]T Normal
3 [1 0 0]T Normal
4 [1 0 0]T Normal
5 [1 0 0]T Normal
The increasing or decreasing of the current values does not affect
the results obtained by the method developed. This is due to the fact
that the high frequency part of the signal only appears during a very
short period of time, at the instant of capacitor switching.
In this case, the proposed methodology provides the ANN output
data, shown in Table 6. It can be concluded that all feeders are under
normal operation.
5. Conclusions
In this paper, a new HIF detection methodology based on the
combination of WT and ANN is presented. This methodology is an
alternative to conventional fault detection methods and its main
objective is to distinguish features of current waveforms produced
by HIFs from those of normal switching events and LIFs.
In this method, the input parameters are the sampled feeder
phase current under various transient conditions. Then, by DWT
analysis of the current waveforms and feature extraction, the time
and frequency domain information of these events are provided
and used to categorize different faults. These data are sent to a
previously dened ANN. The problem of selecting optimum net-
work structures has been solved by using an automatic system
called SARENEUR. Since the topology changes are reduced in num-
ber where this methodology is expected to be applied, the amount
of previously trained ANNs would be minimum.
Additionally, the simulation of an accurate model for HIFs is dif-
cult due to the different real variables involved. Therefore, a new
model has been proposed in which the parameters of the HIF can be
changed to test the detection methodology under different surface
conditions (level of dryness or wetness) and types of surfaces.
To verify the performance of the methodology proposed, numer-
ous cases have been analyzed. The results obtained have proved the
correct operation (secure and reliable) of the developed method
under various transient operation conditions in electrical dis-
tribution networks. This methodology gives the exact output
corresponding to each HIF situation, and it is not confused by the
transients caused by LIFs and normal switching events.
Nowadays, in order to test this methodology under real data,
several contacts are being made with local utilities. This will be the
next stage in the developing process of this methodology.
Acknowledgement
The work developed in this paper has been partially supported
by the Basque Government (Ref. IT532-10).
References
[1] C.L. Huang, H.Y. Chu, M.T. Chen, Algorithm comparison for high impedance
fault detection based on staged fault test, IEEE Trans. Power Deliv. 3 (4) (1988)
14271435.
[2] A.A. Girgis, W. Chang, E.B. Makram, Analysis of high-impedance fault generated
signals using a Kalman ltering approach, IEEE Trans. Power Deliv. 5 (4) (1990)
17141724.
[3] B.D. Russel1, R.P. Chinchali, A digital signal processing algorithm for detecting
arcing faults on power distribution feeders, IEEE Trans. Power Deliv. 4 (1) (1989)
132140.
[4] A.E. Emanuel, E.M. Gulachenski, High impedance fault arcing on sandy soil in
15 kV distribution feeders: contribution to the evaluation of the low frequency
spectrum, IEEE Trans. Power Deliv. 5 (2) (1990) 676686.
[5] A.F. Sultan, G.W. Swift, D.J. Fediechuk, Detection arcing downed wires using
fault current icker and half cycle asymmetry, IEEE Trans. Power Deliv. 9 (1)
(1998) 461470.
[6] B.D. Russell, R.P. Chinchali, C.J. Kim, Behaviour of low frequency spectra dur-
ing arcing fault and switching events, IEEE Trans. Power Deliv. 3 (4) (1988)
14851492.
[7] B.D. Russell, K. Mehta, R.P. Chinchali, An arcing fault detection technique using
low frequency current components-performance evaluation using recorded
eld data, IEEE Trans. Power Deliv. 3 (4) (1988) 14931500.
[8] T. Baldwin, F. Renovich, L.F. Saunders, Directional ground-fault indicator
for high-resistance grounded system, IEEE Trans. Ind. Appl. 39 (2) (2003)
325332.
[9] I. Zamora, A.J. Mazn, K.J. Sagastabeitia, J.J. Zamora, New method for detecting
low current faults in electrical distribution systems, IEEE Trans. Power Deliv.
22 (4) (2007) 20722079.
[10] J.J. Zamora, I. Zamora, A.J. Mazon, K.J. Sagastabeitia, Optimal frequency value to
detect low current faults superposing voltage tones, IEEE Trans. Power Deliv.
23 (4) (2008) 17731779.
[11] A.F. Sultan, G.W. Swift, D.J. Fedirchuk, Detection of high impedance arcing
faults using a multi-layer perceptron, IEEE Trans. Power Deliv. 7 (4) (1992)
18711877.
[12] J.H. Ko, J.C. Shin, C.W. Ryu, C.G. Park, W.Y. Yim, Detection of high impedance
faults using neural nets and chaotic degree, Intern. Conf. Energy Manage. Power
Deliv. 2 (1998) 399404.
[13] L.A. Snider, Y.S. Yuen, The articial neural-networks-based relay algorithm for
the detection of stochastic high impedance faults, Neurocomputing 23 (1998)
243254.
[14] M. Michalik, M. Ukowicz, W. Rebizant, L. Seung-Jae, K. Sang-Hee, New ANN-
based algorithms for detecting HIFs in multigrounded MV networks, IEEE Trans.
Power Deliv. 23 (1) (2008) 5866.
[15] S.J. Huang, C.T. Hsieh, High-impedance fault detection utilizing a morlet
wavelet transform approach, IEEE Trans. Power Deliv. 14 (4) (1999) 14011410.
[16] A. Lazkano, J. Ruiz, E. Aramendi, L.A. Leturiondo, Evaluation of a new proposal
for an arcing fault detection method based on wavelet packet analysis, Eur.
Trans. Electr. Power 14 (3) (2004) 161174.
 I. Baqui et al. / Electric Power Systems Research 81 (2011) 13251333
[17] D. Chanda, N.K. Kishore, A.K. Sinha, Application of wavelet multiresolution anal-
ysis for identication and classication of faults on transmission lines, Electr.
Power Syst. Res. 73 (2005) 323333.
[18] T.M. Lai, L.A. Snider, E. Lo, D. Sutanto, High-impedance fault detection using dis-
crete wavelet transform and frequency range and RMS conversion, IEEE Trans.
Power Deliv. 20 (1) (2005) 397407.
[19] N.I. Elkalashy, M. Lehtonen, H.A. Darwish, A-M.I. Taalab, M.A. Izzularab,
DWT-based detection and transient power direction-based location of high
impedance faults due to learning trees in unearthed MV networks, IEEE Trans.
Power Deliv. 23 (1) (2008) 94101.
[20] A.-R. Sedighi, M.-R. Haghifam, O.P. Malik, Soft computing applications in high
impedance fault detection in distribution systems, Electr. Power Syst. Res. 76
(13) (2005) 136144.
[21] P.R.S. Jota, F.G. Jota, Fuzzy detection of high impedance faults in
radial distribution feeders, Electr. Power Syst. Res. 49 (3) (1999) 169
174.
[22] Y. Sheng, S.M. Rovnyak, Decision tree-based methodology for high
impedance fault detection, IEEE Trans. Power Deliv. 19 (2) (2004)
533536.
1333
[23] A.H. Etemadi, M. Sanaye-Pasand, High-impedance fault detection using multi-
resolution signal decomposition and adaptive neural fuzzy inference system,
IET Gener. Transm. Distrib. 2 (1) (2008) 110118.
[24] M. Michalik, W. Rebizant, M. Lukowicz, S.J. Lee, S.H. Kang, High-impedance fault
detection in distribution networks with use of wavelet-based algorithm, IEEE
Trans. Power Deliv. 21 (4) (2006) 17931802.
[25] P.L. Mao, R.K. Aggarwal, A novel approach to the classication of the tran-
sient phenomena in power transformer using combined wavelet transform and
neural network, IEEE Trans. Power Deliv. 16 (4) (2001) 654660.
[26] Wavelet Toolbox Users Guide for Use with MATLAB, The Mathworks Inc., 2009.
[27] Neural Network Toolbox Users Guide for Use with MATLAB, The Mathworks
Inc., 2009.
[28] A.J. Mazn, I. Zamora, K.J. Sagastabeitia, J.R. Saenz, Selecting ANN structures to
nd transmission faults, IEEE Comput. Appl. Power 14 (3) (2001) 4448.
[29] A.E. Emanuel, J. Janczak, Distribution feeders with nonlinear loads in the north-
east USA. I. Voltage distortion forecast, IEEE Trans. Power Deliv. 10 (1) (1995)
340347.
[30] D. Chan, T. Wai, X. Yibin, A novel technique for high impedance fault identi-
cation, IEEE Trans. Power Deliv. 13 (3) (1998) 738744.