Protection of Falling Conductors into Flammable Vegetation Faults
Abstract
Increasing modernization of the world has brought about a human component to natural disasters, which are exacerbated by the growing threat of climate change. The Western United States and Australia have witnessed some of the deadliest, costliest, and destructive wildfires in the recent past with downed electric power lines being a significant factor amongst the causes. The relationship between wildfires and powerlines is not a newly discovered phenomenon, however, utilities across the globe are struggling to find an optimal solution to this problem. While existing regulations allow utilities to schedule power shutdowns, they are often accompanied by massive financial losses and discomfort to consumers. Utilities also need to factor in the climatic conditions in the region of their service and the flammability of the vegetation surrounding their lines while making decisions pertaining to system planning, load shedding, and protection. This multi-faceted problem can be dealt with in multiple ways – one such technique involves detection of a falling line into sensitive vegetation before it encounters the earth. This approach essentially boils down the problem into detecting a single line open circuit fault. The open circuit is momentary and hence, speed is of the essence in such a protection scheme. In this thesis, detection of an open circuit is carried out in two different ways, viz., with and without communication support between the various elements of the system, with the latter technique being a novel proposal with the aim of achieving a secure protection scheme with minimal additional infrastructural requirements.
General Audience Abstract
The contact of a live wire with the earth is a fault. While most faults can be cleared using traditional protection techniques, there is a higher risk associated with power lines that come in contact with dry surfaces, flammable plants, and bushes, which cannot be detected that easily. These surfaces offer very high resistance to the flow of current and are hence termed high impedance faults. These high impedance faults have the potential to spark and cause a fire, which can snowball into a wildfire depending on the geography and climatic conditions of the area. For years, this has been a major problem in places like Australia and California leading to loss of lives, power, and money, but the optimal solution is evasive. While several techniques to combat this problem exist, the focus of this thesis is essentially what is known as the Open Circuit Fault. The technique revolves around the detection of the fault while the falling conductor is midair. Given the short time frame, high-speed detection is of the essence. This thesis will focus on achieving open circuit detection without the need for any communication support and is a novel contribution to this field.
Collections
- Masters Theses [19662]