Transmission Operations

Fault Locating

Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories, Inc.

The built-in fault-locating methods in SEL devices allow you to quickly identify faults, dispatch crews for repairs, and restore service faster. Traveling-wave fault-locating technology calculates the locations of temporary and permanent faults by measuring the arrival times of the naturally occurring traveling waves caused by a transmission line fault. Accurately detecting these waves requires ultra-high-resolution monitoring, and locating is accurate to within one tower span (±300 m). Impedance-based fault-locating technology calculates fault locations by detecting changes in line impedance as a result of a fault. Impedance-based locating is reliable and accurate to about 2 percent of a line’s total length.