Distance protection method for monitoring a line section of an electrical power supply line , in which - current and voltage values (I, U) are measured and an impedance or reactance value (X) of the power supply line is determined using at least one compensation value (δ1, δ2), and - a fault signal (FS) is generated when the impedance or reactance value (X) meets a predetermined trigger criterion, wherein a back-calculated compensation value which has been determined on the basis of measurement data which have been acquired in the case of a previous fault occurring on the power supply line or a current fault occurring on the power supply line is used as the at least one compensation value (61, δ2) or as at least one of the compensation values (61, δ2), characterized in that the at least one back-calculated compensation value (δ1, δ2) or at least one of the back-calculated compensation values has been determined - by comparing a calculated fault characteristic which has been calculated for one or more auxiliary compensation values (δ1i, δ2i) with the fault characteristic actually detected in the previous or current fault occurring on the power supply line , and - by selecting the auxiliary compensation value (61i, δ2i) whose fault characteristic has the smallest deviation from the actually detected fault characteristic as the back-calculated compensation value to be used in the future. - current and voltage values (I, U) are measured and an impedance or reactance value (X) of the power supply line is determined using at least one compensation value (δ1, δ2), and - a fault signal (FS) is generated when the impedance or reactance value (X) meets a predetermined trigger criterion, wherein a back-calculated compensation value which has been determined on the basis of measurement data which have been acquired in the case of a previous fault occurring on the power supply line or a current fault occurring on the power supply line is used as the at least one compensation value (61, δ2) or as at least one of the compensation values (61, δ2), characterized in that the at least one back-calculated compensation value (δ1, δ2) or at least one of the back-calculated compensation values has been determined a back-calculated compensation value which has been determined on the basis of measurement data which have been acquired in the case of a previous fault occurring on the power supply line or a current fault occurring on the power supply line is used as the at least one compensation value (61, δ2) or as at least one of the compensation values (61, δ2), characterized in that the at least one back-calculated compensation value (δ1, δ2) or at least one of the back-calculated compensation values has been determined - by comparing a calculated fault characteristic which has been calculated for one or more auxiliary compensation values (δ1i, δ2i) with the fault characteristic actually detected in the previous or current fault occurring on the power supply line , and - by selecting the auxiliary compensation value (61i, δ2i) whose fault characteristic has the smallest deviation from the actually detected fault characteristic as the back-calculated compensation value to be used in the future. <EOS>