Instantaneous incremental current-based faulted phase selection algorithm.

• A faulted phase selection method using locally measured instantaneous incremental currents. • Enhances the relay operating time and enable single-pole tripping schemes. • Does not need a communication channel or voltage transducers. • can be implemented in systems with low sampling rates and avoids the need to use transducers with high bandwidth. • Applicable to a wide range of line lengths, almost independent of fault resistance and not affected fault inception angle and require only three threshold settings. A novel, simple and fast method to identify the faulted phases using the maximum rate of change of incremental current (ROCOIC) is proposed. Six indices are calculated considering a pairwise comparison of ROCOIC. The decision-making process is based on selecting which two indices are the largest among all. The algorithm requires only three thresholds to detect fault inception and to identify the ground and three-phase faults. Simulation studies show that the method is robust and not affected by fault inception angle, fault location, and fault resistance. The proposed method only requires locally measured current signals. Since the method relies on the fundamental component of instantaneous incremental current, the proposed method can be implemented in systems with low sampling rates and avoids the need to use transducers with high bandwidth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]