Abstract This paper assesses methods to reduce wildfires caused by power systems due to high impedance faults (HIFs). HIFs have been challenging researchers and utilities for years since their current magnitudes are below traditional overcurrent relay pickups. Most of HIFs include igniting arc between a conductor and a ground surface that may cause fire and human safety issues. Operating behavior of uni-grounded, ungrounded, multi-grounded, and high impedance grounded distribution systems are described and an actual uni-grounded system in Northern Nevada is considered for HIF study. Two different HIF detection methods based on non-harmonic and odd-harmonic content of fault currents that can be used in a substation-based protective relay are described and tested in a hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) platform using a real-time digital simulator (RTDS). HIFs in different ground surfaces such as wet sand, dry sod, dry grass, wet sod, wet grass, and reinforced concrete are modelled in RSCAD software. Practical merits of the two HIF detection methods embedded in a utility-based relay is evaluated. The limitations of the relay and solutions for mitigating the fire and human safety hazard are discussed.

中文翻译：

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通过高阻抗故障检测减轻配电系统中的火灾危险

摘要 本文评估了减少电力系统因高阻抗故障 (HIF) 引起的野火的方法。多年来，HIF 一直在挑战研究人员和公用事业，因为它们当前的大小低于传统的过流继电器拾音器。大多数 HIF 包括在导体和地面之间点燃电弧，这可能会导致火灾和人身安全问题。描述了单接地、不接地、多接地和高阻抗接地配电系统的操作行为，并考虑了内华达州北部的实际单接地系统进行 HIF 研究。描述了两种不同的 HIF 检测方法，基于故障电流的非谐波和奇次谐波含量，可用于基于变电站的保护继电器，并在硬件在环 (HIL) 平台中使用真实的时间数字模拟器（RTDS）。在 RSCAD 软件中对湿沙、干草皮、干草、湿草皮、湿草和钢筋混凝土等不同地表中的 HIF 进行建模。对嵌入在基于公用事业的继电器中的两种 HIF 检测方法的实际优点进行了评估。讨论了继电器的局限性以及减轻火灾和人身安全危害的解决方案。