Automatic analysis of Pole Mounted Auto-Recloser data for fault diagnosis and prognosis

Fault diagnosis is a key part of a control and protection engineer’s role to ensure the effective and stable performance of electrical power networks. One challenge is to support the analysis and application of expert judgement to the, often, large data sets generated. To assist engineers with this task and improve network reliability, this research focuses on analysing previous fault activity in order to obtain an early-warning report to assist fault diagnosis and fault prognosis. This paper details the design of an integrated system with a fault diagnosis algorithm utilising available Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition (SCADA) alarm data and 11kV distribution network data captured from Pole Mounted Auto-Reclosers (PMARs) (provided by a leading UK network operator). The developed system will be capable of diagnosing the nature of a circuit’s previous fault activity, underlying circuit activity and evolving fault activity and the risk of future fault activity. This will provide prognostic decision support for network operators and maintenance staff