Smart Fault Prediction and Location for Distribution Grids

The electric power distribution grid plays an important role in facilitating transition towards cleaner energy. Although Denmark ranks among the best countries in Europe in terms of security of supply, faults do occur in the Danish power grid and they are costly. Faults in the distribution grid, mostly due to infrastructure aging, are the main cause for disruption in the supply of electricity. There is an urgent need for smarter and proactive maintenance strategies and better asset performance management and planning. Fault prediction and location plays a key role in addressing this need.

The current practice for fault and outage management is slow and expensive. Automatic fault and outage management systems will speed-up the fault location, reconfiguration and restoration processes. Thus, this project will develop a Diagnostics Tool for Automatic, Smart and Cost-effective Fault Prediction and Location in the Power Distribution Grids using data from smart meters. The tool will enable predictive maintenance which is more proactive and efficient than the currently used “wait until it breaks” maintenance approach in the electric power distribution grid.