Pick-ups Counter Methodology for Broken Conductor Fault Detection

The Power Electrical System is stricken randomly by many adversity cases. These situations, for example, are caused by weather instability, causing the electric grid to be affected by heavy rains, intense wind gusts, and lightning. In addition, traffic accidents, contact with objects on the network and irregular loads are unpredictable situations for the grid protection. Even though the robustness of the protection systems, many fault cases are still difficult to be detected. This is the case of a fault with a high contact impedance caused by a broken conductor. In this paper, it is proposed a solution to detect Broken Conductor (BC) fault considering the quantity of neutral current pick-ups during a High Impedance Fault (HIF). The methodology basically applies the SEF function monitoring in a time box window, where a pick-up counting is processed into that window. The results presented the analysis of 100 BC oscillographs cases, showing their applicability for HIF protection in the electrical power system.