High Impedance Arc Fault Modelling in Offshore Oil Platform Power Grid

Abstract

In offshore oil platform power grid, high impedance arc fault occurs frequently. The fault characteristics of high-impedance arc information are weak and difficult to detect, which may not cause the protection method to activate. Therefore, it is important to detect and clear the high impedance fault. In the high impedance case, usually, the arc fault occurs. In the research, the arc model was established using the typical Cassie model and the high impedance arc fault characteristics in offshore oil platform power grids were analysed. An improved arc fault detection method using the phase angle difference between zero sequence voltage and zero sequence current was proposed to extract fault characteristics. This method requires limited detection information and high accuracy to solve the problem of small current and voltage changes in high-resistance arc faults. The offshore oil platform power grid and the arc were modelled using electromagnetic transients software PSCAD/EMTDC. The simulation results show that the arc model and fault detection method work well.