LOAD ANALYSIS SYSTEM FOR FAULT DETECTION

摘要

To prevent unnecessary power outages, and to remove feeder lines from service only when certain hazardous fault conditions occur, a load analysis system (10) including an apparatus and method, monitors the load level of a feeder line (12) and determines the presence of any arcing on the feeder line. In a two stage load pattern analysis, the presence of arcing and load current level changes are used to discriminate high impedance, low current conditions including a downed conductor, a broken and dangling conductor, a tree or object contact with the feeder line, overcurrent activities, and normal switching events such as recloser operation. The load analysis system (10) also provides output commands including wait, alarm, trip-ready, trip and normal, depending upon which status is diagnosed.