Hierarchical Fault Location Method for Active Distribution Network with High Penetration of Distributed Generation

With the increasingly integration of distributed generator (DG) in active distribution network (ADN), the fault location problem is facing more challenges. This paper proposes a hierarchical fault location model for ADN, in which the upper-layer model is to determine the area location of the fault and the lower-layer model is to get the section location of the fault. To solve the hierarchical fault location model in an efficient way, a hybrid solving strategy combing the genetic algorithm and the integer linear programming method is applied. Case studies are carried out on a modified IEEE 33-bus distribution network, in which the DGs are of high penetration. The results show that when a single or multiple fault occurs in the ADN, the hierarchical fault location method can detect the fault location more accurately than the traditional single-layer fault location method. And the results also indicate that the model and algorithm used in this paper perform significantly better than the single model and single algorithm in terms of convergence speed, accuracy, and fault tolerance.