An Efficient Algorithm for Fault Location in Shipboard Power Systems

The Shipboard Power System (SPS) supply energy to sophisticated systems for navigation, communication, weapons, and operation. Due to the ship¿s critical operating condition, faults can be very detrimental. Faults in the SPS may happen because of failure of electrical components or by damages that happen during a battle. These faults may interrupt the paths for supplying energy to loads that are not damaged. To enhance survivability of naval ships, SPS requires an efficient fault location algorithm in order to locate and clear the fault as well as provide an alternative path to supply energy to the loads that are not faulty or damaged. This book introduces a method to generalize the Active Impedance Estimation (AIE) fault location method for Shipboard Power Systems (SPS.) In the proposed method short-duration high-frequency voltage sources are employed at selected buses and voltage/current measurements are taken for the purpose of fault location. The goal is to obtain the minimum number of voltage and current sources and measurements that observe all the faults of interest that occur in the SPS.