Faulty phase recognition method based on phase-to-ground voltages variation for neutral ungrounded distribution networks

Abstract Faulty phase recognition under single-line-to-ground (SLG) fault condition is critical for some arc suppression methods in medium voltage (MV) distribution networks. Conventional methods tend to be invalid due to network asymmetry in high-resistance ground-fault condition and the difficulty of detecting phase-to-ground parameters in practice. In this paper, the variation of the three phase-to-ground voltages with the change of SLG fault resistance is analyzed in detail, and the magnitude and phase angle variation rules of the voltages are obtained. Then, the unique variation rules on SLG fault for each phase are separately and strictly discussed in theory and numerical analysis. Furthermore, a faulty phase recognition method is proposed based on the variation rules of three-phase voltages. Simulation results in PSIM verify the proposed variation rules and validate the effectiveness of the proposed faulty phase recognition method, which ensures accurate recognition of faulty phase in high-resistance ground fault.