A closer look at the daily lives of power system maintenance personnel reveals that they are constantly battling formidable challenges such as lightning strikes, wind damage, external damage, damaged hardware, bird strikes, ice storms, and snow accumulation—especially in the transmission and distribution sectors. Why is this the case? The root cause lies in the fact that these factors lead to faults such as line short circuits and ground fault trips, making maintenance work exceptionally arduous.
The sudden and often hidden nature of power line faults has always posed a challenge for patrol inspections. Trips caused by lightning strikes or bird strikes typically occur within milliseconds. Another key factor is that China operates the world’s largest power supply system and clean energy generation network; the total length of transmission lines at 220 kV and above alone exceeds 920,000 kilometers! Given the ever-expanding scale of the grid, it is simply unrealistic to rely solely on traditional manual patrols to determine the specific causes of line faults. For instance, during extreme weather events such as super typhoons, high winds, sandstorms, or prolonged heavy rainfall, it is difficult to reach the fault location, making it impossible to immediately identify the cause of the line failure.
It is imperative to explore more efficient and intelligent operation and maintenance models. Currently, the DX-WPS100-GZ01 distributed current fault detection device, leveraging a combination of high-frequency recording and intelligent algorithms, has been installed and deployed across major power systems. Having secured contracts with both State Grid and China Southern Power Grid, it has become a core tool for safeguarding the power grid’s vital energy infrastructure.
Automatically and rapidly identifying the specific location, phase, and cause of a line fault—these are all capabilities of our company’s distributed current fault detection device following a transmission line fault, playing a crucial role in guiding decisions regarding power restoration. Each DX-WPS100-GZ01 current-based distributed fault detection unit has a monitoring range of up to 30 kilometers and can continuously record traveling wave currents for over 1,000 μs. Installation is not required at every tower. Front-end data acquisition devices are installed on the A, B, and C phase conductors to collect traveling wave currents and fault currents. This not only enables transmission line fault location with an accuracy of within 100 meters but also achieves an accuracy rate of over 95% for lightning strike monitoring, non-lightning strike identification, and fault early warning and hidden discharge diagnosis. Even in the most challenging category of lightning strikes—distinguishing between side flashes and return flashes—the identification accuracy exceeds 90% .
Through distributed fault detection devices, we can more effectively track current flow and diagnose fault information in line sections, transforming previously vague operational risks into clear, quantifiable data metrics. This represents not only a shift from manual to intelligent diagnosis in power line fault analysis and localization, but also a significant advancement toward optimized digital and intelligent risk management and the restructuring of proactive defense systems. In the face of complex and ever-changing natural and social challenges, it builds a more robust and intelligent safety barrier!
