Power distribution network fault management

• US 8,725,305 B2
• Filed: 08/29/2011
• Issued: 05/13/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 08/29/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: GE Digital Holdings LLC (GE Aerospace)
• Original Assignee: General Electric Company
• Inventors: du Toit, Willem Hendrik, Fan, Jiyuan, Popescu, Bogdan Cristian
• Primary Examiner(s): Ali, Mohammad
• Assistant Examiner(s): Whittington, Anthony
• Application Number:
  US13/220,192
• Publication Number:
  US 20130054042A1
• Time in Patent Office: 988 Days
• Field of Search: 700/292, 361/64, 702/64
• US Class Current: 700/292
• CPC Class Codes: H02H 7/26 Sectionalised protection of cable or line systems, e.g. for disconnecting a section on which a short-circuit, earth fault, or arc discharge has occured locating faults in cables G01R31/08

Abstract

A fault interrupt device is tripped by a fault in a power distribution network. A distributed automation controller (DAC) determines a location of and isolates the fault. Power is restored upstream of the fault and downstream power requirement vs. power availability from a secondary source(s) is assessed. The secondary source(s) is connected to the downstream portion if power available is sufficient or after nodes are deactivated to bring power requirements below power available. If a second fault occurs, it is also located and isolated, such as by communication between affected partition DACs of the power distribution network.

Claims

1. A power distribution network fault management system comprising:

at least a first partition controller including at least one computing device, the first partition controller being configured to communicate with at least one intelligent electronic device (IED) configured to control conductivity in a first partition of a power distribution network, the first partition controller also being configured to store network data, including data from and the at least one IED, and to send an instruction to the at least one IED;

at least one fault interrupt device responsive to at least one IED; and

a computer program including computer-readable code that, when executed by a computing device of the first partition controller, responsive to a first fault interruption device being tripped, performs a method comprising;

determining a first fault location of a first fault;

instructing an IED controlling a node upstream of the first fault location to stop conductivity between a source side of an affected segment of the first partition and the first fault location;

instructing an IED controlling a node downstream of the first fault location to interrupt conductivity between the first fault location and a downstream portion of the affected segment;

restoring power to the source side of the affected segment, including restoring conductivity through the first fault interrupt device;

determining a power requirement of a load on the downstream portion of the affected segment, including analyzing a power requirement of the downstream portion;

determining power available to the downstream portion of the affected segment from at least one secondary source;

responsive to the power requirement exceeding power availability, interrupting conductivity to a portion of the downstream portion of the affected segment to reduce the power requirement;

connecting at least one secondary source to the downstream portion of the affected segment; and

responsive to a second fault interrupt device being tripped after connecting the at least one secondary source to the downstream portion of the affected segment;

determining a location of the second fault interrupt device;

determining a second fault location of the second fault;

isolating the second fault;

restoring power upstream of the second fault location; and

restoring power downstream of the second fault location.

2. The power distribution network fault management system of claim 1, further comprising a first tie configured to selectively enable conductivity between the first partition and a secondary source, and wherein the connecting at least one secondary source includes enabling conductivity through the first tie.

3. The power distribution network fault management system of claim 1, wherein the determining a power requirement further comprises determining a disconnectable downstream portion by using at least a predetermined prioritization rule based on at least the network data.

4. The power distribution network fault management system of claim 1, wherein the first partition includes at least one tie configured to connect the first partition to at least one secondary source.

5. The power distribution network fault management system of claim 4, wherein the secondary source includes at least the second partition, in communication with the first partition controller, at least the first and second partition controllers being configured to selectively exchange information including at least one of a respective power requirement, power availability, and fault information.

6. The power distribution network fault management system of claim 5, wherein, responsive to the second fault interrupt device being in the second partition, the restoring power to the upstream portion includes the second controller resetting the second fault interrupt device, and, responsive to the second fault location being in the first partition, the isolating the second fault includes disconnecting the second partition from the first partition and the first controller instructing at least one IED controlling a node immediately upstream and a node immediately downstream of the second fault location to interrupt conductivity to the fault location, and the restoring power downstream of the second fault location includes reconnecting the second partition to the first partition.

7. The power distribution network fault management system of claim 5, wherein, responsive to the second fault interrupt device being in the second partition, the restoring power to the upstream portion includes the second controller resetting the second fault interrupt device, and, responsive to the second fault location being in the second partition, the isolating the second fault includes the second controller instructing at least one IED controlling a node immediately upstream and a node immediately downstream of the second fault location to interrupt conductivity to the fault location, and the restoring power downstream of the second fault location includes, responsive to the first fault having been repaired, the first controller instructing at least one IED controlling a node of the first partition immediately upstream and a node of the first partition immediately downstream of the first fault location to re-enable conductivity and reconnecting the second partition to the first partition.

8. The power distribution network fault management system of claim 5, wherein, responsive to the second fault interrupt device being in the first partition, the restoring power to the upstream portion includes the first controller resetting the second fault interrupt device and, responsive to the second fault location being in the upstream portion of the first partition, the isolating the second fault includes first controller instructing at least one IED immediately upstream and at least one IED immediately downstream of the second fault location to interrupt conductivity to the fault location, and the restoring power downstream of the second fault location includes, responsive to the first fault having been repaired, the first controller instructing at least one IED controlling a node of the first partition immediately upstream and a node of the first partition immediately downstream of the first fault location to re-enable conductivity.

9. The power distribution network fault management system of claim 4, wherein the restoring power downstream of the second fault location includes:

determining a power requirement of a load downstream of the second fault location;

determining a power available for a load downstream of the second fault location; and

responsive to the power requirement exceeding the power availability, stopping conductivity to the load downstream of the second fault location to reduce the power requirement.