Challenges Evaluation During Power Arcing Faults Radio Measurements

According to the statistics derived from the power system protection field most of the system hazards are of single phase-to-ground fault types. Which are quite often associated with intermittent sparks discharges. Since these kinds of hazards are quite difficult to detect in the system, this paper proposes a novel approach which divorces completely with the conventional practices. In other words, this paper presents an alternative approach for the monitoring of the single phase-to-ground faults associated with the power arcing hazards with the aid of radio measurement only. Bearing in mind that although this novel proposed method tries to divorce the conventional faults’ mitigation techniques, it intends to provide a backup solution which could supplement these above-mentioned traditional fault protection schemes. However, referring to the discovery of Marconi, in addition to several physics’ theories namely Faraday’s laws and Maxwell’s differential equations, it is evident nowadays to relate the electric arcing (or sparks discharges) intermittent current path and the electromagnetic energy fields. Based on this evidence this paper introduced a novel method which relies exclusively on the arc fault sparks discharges induced electromagnetic radiated energy (EMR) to decide both the detection and the location of these electric arcs. Since under a real field measurement condition, the air-bone signals sensors such as the antennas can detect any kind of radio frequency (RF) signals, therefore the main objective of this study consists of evaluating the possible challenges which might emerge during radio measurement. These potential challenges concern the reliability and capability of the antenna’s operation and function. In other words, the fundamental objective consists of providing evidence that during the electric arc radio measurement process these wireless sensors are capturing the arc induced EMR signals waves instead of those radiated by other external sources including the energized power lines for instance. To provide evidence of the antenna potential in clarifying the detection of the power arcing faults EMR from those generated by the external sources, this paper has undergone sophisticate and significant experimental measurements. As a result, it follows that despite the existence of the external noises interference, still the radio measurement of the electric arcs is not only a distinctive, but it is also a promising tool which needs to be further scrutinized to be incorporated in the power system protection field.