This article has been accepted for inclusion in a future issue of this journal. Content is final as presented, with the exception of pagination. IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON SMART GRID 1 Sensitivity Analysis of Voltage Sag Based Fault Location With Distributed Ge

Abstract—The presence of distributed generation (DG) in dis-tribution networks may seriously affect accuracy of the voltage sag based fault location method. An approach toward quantify-ing the adverse effect of DG on the fault location calculation is described. A series of realistic scenarios is used to illus-trate how DG impacts synchrophasor measurements during disturbances. Alternative Transients Program-Electromagnetic Transients Program models are used to obtain steady-state solu-tions in the time domain, while Sobol’s approach to sensitivity analysis is used to quantify the effect of DG and imperfections of measuring instruments on fault location. Various test cases reveal that DG may adversely affect the voltage characteristic and therefore the accuracy of voltage sag based fault location. Index Terms—Distributed power generation, EMTP, fault location, power distribution faults, power system measurements, power system protection, power system simulation, search methods, sensitivity analysis, smart grids. I