Patent ID: 7424400

Claim:
A method of monitoring line faults in a medium voltage network, the medium voltage network comprising an electricity generating plant supplying electricity to a plurality of customers over a network of medium voltage power lines, a control centre computer and a plurality of measurement sensors located remote from the electricity generating plant on the medium voltage power lines, each of the measurement sensors further comprising three individual measurement units, each measurement unit mounted on a different phase of the medium voltage power line with respect to the other measurement units of that measurement sensor, and each measurement sensor having means to communicate with the control centre computer, the method comprising the steps of: the control centre computer transmitting a synchronization signal to each of the measurement sensors mounted on the medium voltage power lines; the measurement units monitoring their respective medium voltage power lines and each measurement sensor determining the out of balance current, I B , for the medium voltage power line upon which it is mounted on a cycle by cycle basis; each of the measurement sensors determining whether or not there is a single cycle fault on its respective medium voltage power line; and on a measurement sensor determining that there is a single cycle fault on its respective medium voltage power line, the measurement sensor transmitting a line fault monitoring report to the control centre computer.