Patent ID: 8022711

Claim:
An electrical fault locating system comprising: an input for receiving electrical power; a plurality of outputs for distributing the electrical power provided at the input; a plurality of solid-state switches, each connected between the input and one of the plurality of outputs, wherein each of the plurality of solid-state switches is selectively controlled to a first state that connects the input to the respective output or a second state that isolates the input from the respective output; a plurality of fault-detection circuits, each connected to monitor the electrical current provided to one of the plurality of outputs and to detect, based on the monitored current, the presence of an electrical fault condition on the respective output, wherein in response to a detected electrical fault condition, the respective fault-detection circuit places the respective solid-state switch in the second state to isolate the respective output from the input and generates an identification signal that identifies the output on which the electrical fault was detected; a fault-locating device for calculating a distance to the electrical fault by injecting a high-frequency (HF) signal at the input of the system that is provided simultaneously to each of the plurality of outputs and monitoring a reflection of the HF signal, wherein the distance to the electrical fault is determined based on the monitored reflection signal; and a controller/storage device for calculating and/or storing a fault location output based on the identification signal identifying the output on which the fault was detected and the distance calculated by the fault-locating device, wherein the fault location output describes a specific location of the detected fault.